The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) will provide aid to some 39,000 people displaced by war in northwestern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Following recent confusion over the potential side effects of a new malaria drug - Sulphadoxine-Pyrimethamine (SP)- the Tanzanian health ministry has reiterated its faith in the drug as the most effective method of treating the deadly disease.

The self-declared republic of Somaliland is to hold presidential elections in January, sources close to the Somaliland government told IRIN on Tuesday. An independent electoral commission will be established and about 10 candidates are expected to participate, the sources said.

The elimination of ignorance has been a standing objective of the Kenyan government since independence from Britain in 1963. Lately, however, the country's education sector has faced severe tests.

Improved education has led to a surprising jump in Mozambique's human development index (HDI), according to the latest National Human Development Report, released in Maputo on Thursday night.

The Human Development Report, an annual measurement of global poverty issued by the United Nations Development Programme, once again provides an indicator of Africa's economic woes. A total of 27 African countries are included on the list of the world's 173 least developed nations, and 52 of the countries at the bottom are African. Sierra Leone, which has been racked by war for the past decade, ranks as the worst place to live.

The World Bank President has asked his staff to prepare a human rights strategy. The Bank has previously avoided talking directly about a role for itself in supporting human rights, despite pressure to do so emanating from the United Nations bodies and NGOs. But concerns have already been raised about the extent to which the Bank will be ready to be held accountable for its performance against the full set of relevant rights.

Norway is mobilising one of its biggest aid efforts yet to rush food to 13-million people in danger of famine in southern Africa. The Norwegian military has donated more than 200 surplus all-terrain trucks, while the government granted $2,58-million (R25 8000). The Norwegian shipping concern Leif Hoegh & Co ASA is donating space aboard its automobile transport ship Haul Europe to bring about 230 trucks to Durban.

The German government has committed R550 million to South Africa as part of its development co-operation with the country.

Arts, Culture, Science and Technology Minister Ben Ngubane has allocated R1 million for the Umzimkhulu Moral Regeneration project from the minister's discretionary fund.

Aid started streaming in for the snow-hit Eastern Cape areas of Elliot and Cala on Monday. Queenstown's Woolworth’s contributed R110 000 in blankets and food on Monday. Weirs Cash & Carry donated maize meal, bread flour, cooking oil, sugar, tea, coffee, samp, soup, tinned meats and fish and baby food, valued at R100 000, and blankets, valued at R10 000, were delivered free of charge to the Queenstown commando.

President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah has vowed to fight corruption, admitting that high-level corruption still exists in his country, but denying that May elections were rigged.

I am interested in Pambazuka News as it is essential that my team keep up to date on all current affair issues pertaining to Southern Africa.

Gail Learmont,
Information Research Manager, The British Council, Cape Town, South Africa

With general elections due in the first quarter of next year, ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) factions are locked in power struggles ahead of the polls, and the political stability of Nigeria could be jeopardised if the party fails to hold the country together ahead of and during the crucial polls.

Calling for an end to rich countries' dominance of the institutions of global financial governance, the UN Development Programme says that decisions about how to manage globalisation must become more democratic.

Three white police officers have been kicked off a course at the Paarl Detective Academy in the Western Cape after being blamed for putting six black colleagues in hospital by allegedly feeding them horse laxatives. Assault charges have been laid against the three Johannesburg-based police officers, who were sent back to their unit last Friday as allegations emerged of racial conflict at the course.

By Joseph Hanlon

Paper submitted to the conference, Towards a New Political Economy of Development, Sheffield 3-4 July

“Corruption”, “elite predation”, and the “criminalisation” of the African state have become fashionable topics. “Africa remains unproductive and … the pursuit of rents or unearned fees is becoming ever more extensive,” writes Béatrice Hibou, adding that the bureaucratic apparatus, including the courts, is being privatised and criminalised; bank and company frauds burgeon; and drug trade and money laundering are becoming ubiquitous.

But World Bank researchers find that “foreign aid can induce corruption” and that there is “no evidence that donors systematically allocate aid to countries with less corruption”.

Mozambique seems to fit the pattern. From having been a paragon of integrity in the late 1970s, a study by the South African Institute of Security Studies (ISS) “clearly shows … that Mozambique is very close to becoming a criminalised state.” The legal system has collapsed and court rulings are available to the highest bidder. Money laundering is common, and Mozambique has become an important drug warehousing and transit centre, with senior figures involved. In two major bank scandals, at least $400 million was stolen, partly by senior figures in Frelimo, the ruling party. Two people who tried to investigate the bank frauds, newspaper editor Carlos Cardoso and the government’s head of banking supervision, Siba-Siba Macuacua, were both publicly assassinated and the investigations of the killings blocked at high level.

Donor support seems to grow in tandem with criminalisation. At its donor Consultative Group meeting in October 2001, just two months after the murder of Siba-Siba Macuacua, Mozambique asked for $600 mn in aid and was given $722 mn. Sergio Vieira, a former security minister, wrote that the pledge of more money than Mozambique requested shows that the international community recognises “the good performance of the government” and that this “overrides the bank scandal and the assassinations of Siba-Siba Macuacua and Carlos Cardoso”.

On the issues of both corruption and development, donors and some Mozambicans seem to see totally different countries.

“Corruption, though not non-existent, is not institutionalised and the possibility for controlling funds earmarked for Mozambique is easy and transparent,” said Guido van Hecken, Belgium’s Chief of Cabinet for the State Secretary for Development Co-operation.

“We live in a kingdom where those who lead are gangsters,” said one of the country’s foremost writers, Mia Couto, last year. On 24 May 2002, Couto added that in Mozambique an elite is using power “in order to enrich itself. They don't think of Mozambique, they think of themselves”. ISS says “there is a lack of political will to fight organised crime and corruption” and that “the relative impunity with which some of the successful [drug] traffickers operate is often a result of their close connections with individuals at the highest levels of government or the Frelimo party.”

Mozambique continues to be one of the best performing economies in Sub-Saharan Africa, according to the World Bank economist in Maputo, Dipac Jaiantilal. “Mozambique over the last decade has emerged as an example of successful reform,” notes the World Bank. “GDP has grown at an average rate of 8.4%.”

“Ordinary Mozambicans have yet to see any real changes in their daily lives, despite official World Bank figures,” according to an article published by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Integrated Regional Information Network. This is confirmed by a public opinion survey which showed people do not feel their standards of living are improving. In a survey of 13,790 households undertaken by the National Statistics Institute (INE) between October 2000 and May 2001, people were asked to compare their situation with what it had been a year earlier; 35% said they were in much the same situation as a year previously while 38% said they were worse off.

Are van Hecken and Madeira talking about the same government? Are the World Bank and UNDP talking about the same country? Yes they are, because it all depends where you look.

“It is possible to work with Mozambican authorities,” said van Hecken. That is the key point. Mozambique has become a donor playground, and the Mozambican elite has become highly skilled at giving the donors what they want. Thus management of donor money is transparent and clear. The predatory elite do not steal donors’ funds; instead they rob banks, skim public works contracts, demand shares in investments, and smuggle drugs and other goods – and they ensure that the justice system does not work so they cannot be caught.

Similarly, donors see rapid GDP growth , growing exports, increasing enclave foreign investments, growth in the areas of Maputo that they frequent, and a government which does the bidding of the international financial institutions (IFIs) and can manage donor projects. They choose not to see that poverty is worsening in rural areas.

Indeed, they reject what they are being told by Mozambicans. The donor’s annual Consultative Group (CG) meeting was held in Maputo 25-26 October 2001. After meeting with each other and the government, and heaping praise on the government for following IFI economic policies so closely, they met civil society. “Several civil society organisations (CSOs), in a consolidated statement, stated their belief that structural adjustment and high growth had not resulted in poverty reduction in Mozambique,” according to the meeting chair Darius Mans, World Bank Country Director for Mozambique. The report indicated no donor reply; they seem not to have heard.

The Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), known in Mozambique as the Plano de Acção para a Redução da Pobeza Absoluta (PARPA), (Action Plan for Reducing Absolute Poverty), show the differences of opinion starkly. In his report on the CG meeting, Mans reported that “there was widespread agreement [of the donors present] that the most significant achievement of the last 12 to 18 months has been the completion of the PARPA.” Mans went on to note, without comment, that “a number of CSOs expressed concerns about health and education spending, which they claim is projected to decline as a percentage of GDP after 2002.” Indeed, the PARPA shows that spending on “priority areas” for poverty reduction falls from 19.4% of GDP in 2001 to 17.0% of GDP in 2005. Education spending falls in cash terms as well as percentage terms, from approximately $247 mn in 2001 to $218 mn in 2002 (a savage 12% cut), rising slowly after that to $244 mn in 2004 and finally to $262 mn in 2005. Despite the admitted need for more teachers, not only to expand primary education but also to replace teachers dying of AIDS, teacher training expenditure is kept constant.

How can donors praise a “poverty reduction” paper that cuts spending on education and other areas of poverty reduction? The answer is that it satisfies other donor demands, and this is made clear in the arcane language of the international financial institutions. In his report on the CG meetings, Darius Mans cites the World Bank economist Dipac Jaiantilal noting that poverty reduction requires “creating and maintaining a sound economic environment, including low inflation.” The World Bank praised the government for including in the PARPA tight monetary policies to “slow inflation”.

Reporting on the statement of the IMF Resident Representative Arnim Schwidrowski, Mans says “Mr Schwidrowski observed that, in line with the PARPA’s fiscal targets, the framework aimed for a reduction in the domestic primary deficit, excluding bank restructuring costs, to under 5 per cent of GDP.” This sentence makes two very different points. First, to meet tight monetary policies, PARPA does indeed involve a cut in spending. Second, so long as the cap is met, the IMF will allow the government of Mozambique to plug the hole in the banking system created by high level people plundering the banks instead of increasing anti-poverty spending.

Taken together, the donors are making three points about their own priorities:
1) Writing a document, rather than any concrete action, was “the most significant achievement of the last 12 to 18 months”;
2) That the priority for “poverty reduction” is inflation reduction and a tight monetary policy, even though it requires a cut in education and other poverty related spending; and
3) That the government is free to use money to cover the costs of gross corruption, so long as it is done transparently and without breaking the spending limits.

Corruption in Mozambique – and Africa – is not a unique phenomenon. The mafia in Italy and the recent Enron scandal show how single-minded promotion of certain priorities can create a penumbra in which corruption is fostered. The donor community stresses good governance, but this paper argues that in practice it has a low priority, and that in their quest to increase aid to Mozambique and promote further “market-friendly” policy change as quickly as possible, donors are rewarding corruption and refusing to support honest Mozambicans.

The Gambian parliament passed a tough media bill on Wednesday, two months after President Yahya Jammeh refused to sign an earlier version and returned it to the legislators for amendment. The bill was passed by 53 votes to three, with members of parliament from the ruling party castigating the independent media for being "unpatriotic" and always reporting "the bad side" of the government.

Auditors at Korle-Bu, the nation's premier teaching hospital, have uncovered corruption in the hospital's procurement process that may be a cue to massive undetected embezzlement in which supplies that would last 17-years were ordered.

The multinational firms recently fingered for corrupt practices in the United States may be practicing similar operations on a larger scale in developing countries, say long-time corporate watchdogs. "Enron and WorldCom are just symptoms of the way companies are able to do business without too much accountability," said Nadia Martinez, research associate at the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies.

This popular and highly practical course is aimed at non-financial programme managers who work with and support local partner NGOs. Course content includes: conducting a financial health check; effective budgeting; keeping accounts; making use of financial reports; and safeguarding programme assets. The course takes place between 14-16 August in Lusaka.

Burundi's defence minister has accused neighbouring Tanzania of aiding anti-government rebels in their offensive. The claims came as Burundi's Tutsi-led army said it had killed 45 ethnic Hutu rebels in the south of the country this week.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has agreed to talks with the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), but stressed his government will continue to pursue the group. This comes amidst worries over the governments continued military action and security concerns from refugees in northern Uganda, reports IRIN.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan last week concluded a two-day visit to Khartoum and expressed optimism over the peace process, although concerns remain over repeated denials of humanitarian access by the Sudanese government and an escalation of the conflict in several areas of south Sudan.

Ten rare crocodiles were seized at London's Heathrow Airport on Sunday from the cargo hold of a plane en route from Nigeria to South Korea. The African dwarf crocodiles, which are an endangered species, were intercepted by customs officers on a stopover.

The Kibera Community Self Help Program (KICOSHEP) is a youth center situated in the middle of one of Nairobi's biggest slums. It caters to youngsters who are diagnosed as HIV positive as well as those who are not infected – but who, statistically, are at risk of becoming so. KICOSHEP is also one of the best examples in Africa of a homegrown, privately-funded AIDS prevention program.

Ten people have been infected with anthrax following a fresh outbreak of the disease in eastern Ethiopia, officials told IRIN last Friday.

This new on-line discussion provides an opportunity to explore with others the specific, concrete ways that reproductive health and women's economic status are interrelated, and how they are affected by gender roles and expectations.

Over 75 percent of HIV infections are transmitted through sexual relations between women and men. In countries where young people account for a high proportion of all new infections, HIV-positive young women may outnumber their male peers by as much as six times. Therefore, addressing gender roles and power dynamics between women and men, and how they impact on sexual relations and decision-making, is critical for effective prevention to ultimately halt the HIV/AIDS pandemic. This is according to a UNFPA programme brief on gender and HIV/AIDS.

Nigeria is planning a mission to Cameroon to assess the situation of an estimated 20,000 refugees who fled across its northeast border early this year following communal clashes, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said.

Working for our country programme in Zimbabwe, you will be instrumental in ensuring that the reputation we have developed for high quality vulnerability assessments and food aid projects is maintained and built upon.

Women's Solidarity is a non-governmental organisation engaged in counselling, education and research work around the issue of violence against women. The post holder will work on developing and strengthening the services provided by Women's Solidarity.

Urging young people to abstain from sex in Zambia may not appear to make sense in a country where 75 percent are sexually active, but an AIDS prevention program sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) shows young Zambians crave support for their decision to abstain and prevent HIV/AIDS.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan ended a three-nation African visit last Saturday in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, where he stressed the importance of dialogue in resolving the conflicts affecting the continent.

At least 12 people have been killed in a fresh outbreak of ethnic and religious violence in Plateau State, central Nigeria, sources from the area said.

The correctional services department plans to strengthen its internal anti-corruption unit using forensic investigators from the elite Scorpions unit.

The clampdown on corruption in the regime of former Zambian President Frederick Chiluba has increased with the arrest of the country's ambassador to the US. A spokesman for Zambia's anti-corruption commission said Atan Shansonga had been arrested on charges linked to corruption under Mr Chiluba's presidency.

The May 2002 election in Sierra Leone was the country’s first truly non-violent vote. Sierra Leone continues to make remarkable progress in ending its 11-year civil war. However the election also highlighted a potentially dangerous division between the government and the military, and demonstrated that ethnic tensions remain significant, according to a report from the International Crisis Group.

The Horn of Africa region has become a leading destination for illicit weapons, which have in turn fuelled insecurity, economic decline, and political instability, a small arms conference in Nairobi was told last Friday.

Kiswahili is now an official language of the African Unity. The Council of African Union (AU) has overwhelmingly supported a proposal presented by the Tanzanian delegation that Kiswahili becomes one of the working languages of the Union. This is indeed a landmark decision in support of African languages.

This rather amusing article takes a look at the effects of Yahoo's rather over-rigorous spelling filter for their email users.

After more than a decade of digging, researchers in Chad, Central Africa, have made the fossil discovery of a lifetime: a nearly complete skull of the oldest and most primitive member of the human family yet known. Nicknamed Touma - or "hope of life" in the local Goran language - it belongs to an entirely new genus and species of hominid, Sahelanthropus tchadensis. And at almost seven million years old, it has taken scientists several crucial steps closer to the point in time at which humans and chimpanzees diverged. Yet as is the case for most spectacular finds, this one raises as many questions, if not more, than it answers.

A new body of Internet Service Providers, the Internet Service Providers Association of Nigeria (ISPAN) has pledged to tackle all the obstacles facing the ICT industry especially as they affect Internet access in the country.

The Southern Africa Institute of Fundraising is holding a three-day Resource Mobilisation and Fund Development Course in Port Elizabeth from 26-28 August.

Unicef estimates that about eight million Nigerian children are employed in exploitative child labour and that 60 percent of children trafficked to Italy from Africa are from Nigeria. Nigeria's record will be under the spotlight when it hosts an international conference on human trafficking and child labour next month.

A vast political and financial scandal in the Central African Republic (CAR) appears far from over following the arrest of the country's finance minister this week. The scam allegedly involved senior officials who produced and recycled false treasury bonds in order to syphon-off government funds.

The head of a Commonwealth committee that suspended Zimbabwe in March, Australian Prime Minister John Howard, warned on Tuesday that Commonwealth countries may impose sanctions on Zimbabwe. His warning followed a decision by Zimbabwe to deport the Harare-based correspondent of Britain's Guardian newspaper following his acquittal on charges of publishing falsehoods under Zimbabwe's tough new media laws.

An increase in adolescent suicides that is suspected to be related to difficulties in paying school fees; pupils afflicted by skin rashes because their school has no sanitation facilities; schools situated far from the communities they serve, imposing long walks on pupils; zero attendance on some wintry days because of the lack of shelter at schools: These are some of the wide-ranging problems in many South African schools that still seriously impede the right to basic education.