PAMBAZUKA NEWS 57 * 7600 SUBSCRIBERS
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 57 * 7600 SUBSCRIBERS
The Congress of South African Trade Unions welcomes the Pretoria High Court judgement ordering the government to make Nevirapine available to HIV-positive pregnant women in state hospitals and clinics which have the capacity to administer its provision, pending the government’s appeal against the court’s ruling of December 2001.
Two years ago, as the world's population surpassed the high mark of 6 billion, scientists were sounding alarm bells over unchecked population growth, especially in the developing world. But now there is a growing consensus among demographers over a new forecast: Before the century ends, the number of humans likely will start to shrink, reckons James Chamie, director of the United Nation's population division.
This paper presents an assessment and analysis of poverty and livelihood issues pertaining to mountain people and communities. It takes account of the global context, based on available sources of information, but is also rooted in the practical experiences of working to improve the lives of people living in poor, isolated mountain communities. The dominant perspective comes out of the experience of communities struggling to improve their livelihood opportunities.
A Liberian democratic pressure group, Forum for Civic Education and Democratic Empowerment (FEDEC), based in Accra, Ghana, has called for dialogue between the Liberian government and LURD to end the hostilities in Northwestern Liberia, the restructuring of the Liberian Elections Commission, and urged Liberians both at home and in the Diaspora to intensify their struggle for good governance in Liberia.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has recommended a six-month extension of the UN peacekeeping mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE).
Incumbent Republic of Congo (ROC) President Denis Sassou-Nguesso "is assured of victory in the presidential election" held on Sunday, 10 March, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) reported on Tuesday.
A meeting to prepare for a reconciliation conference involving Liberia's political groups, civil society organisations and warring parties is due to begin on Thursday in Abuja, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) reported.
A spokesman for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) government on Tuesday proposed a leading rebel as a potential prime minister of a transitional government.
The registrars of the United Nations Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and former Yugoslavia (ICTR and ICTY) have said they are determined to make every effort possible to prevent abuses of the legal aid system for the two tribunals.
A recent survey of street children Kigali, Rwanda, has shown that just over half the boys and over three-quarters of the girls interviewed reported having had sex, while a full 35 percent of those under 10 were found to be sexually active.
A free electronic service provided by the International Planned Parenthood Federation.
Convenient access to current industry news published weekly by Africa Film & TV.
Two suspects wanted in connection with the 1994 genocide in Rwanda have been transferred to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania.
The various factions present at the inter-Congolese dialogue talks in Sun City, South Africa, began tabling their proposals for rebuilding their country on Tuesday.
The government of Uganda's declared intention to see internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Uganda go home from this month is welcome, but there are still substantial issues to be addressed in relation to their return, integration, resettlement and recovery, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the Ugandan capital, Kampala.
The United States government has expressed disappointment at what it regards as a general deterioration of human rights in Tanzania last year, despite notable government efforts to engage in dialogue with the opposition.
East Africa, human rights and women's lobby groups have achieved a measure of success in pushing for the recognition and legal protection of women's rights. Unfortunately, in practice, women still face economic, social and cultural disadvantages that continue to leave them exposed to violence and abuse, according to regional gender experts.
Eritreans around the world have been protesting against a resolution issued by the European Parliament last month accusing Eritrea of human rights violations.
Zimbabwe's labour movement is likely to call for a mass stay away in protest over alleged government rigging of the country's watershed weekend presidential election, senior union officials told IRIN on Wednesday.
Delivery delays, adverse weather, low production levels and high maize prices continue to contribute to rising hunger levels in southern Africa, say researchers and aid organisations.
Angolans waited anxiously on Monday for a promised government statement on its plan to resume peace talks with rebel movement UNITA, as the humanitarian situation in the country continued to deteriorate.
As the reported cases of political violence in Zimbabwe rose on Friday, South African President Thabo Mbeki hit out at "white supremacists" critical of the Commonwealth and African response to the deepening crisis.
Sierra Leone's macroeconomic performance is, broadly speaking, on track, making it eligible to receive an immediate disbursement of US $12 million from the International Monetary Fund, the IMF announced on Tuesday.
A three-day workshop aimed at strengthening efforts to fight child trafficking in West and Central Africa began on Wednesday in Libreville, Gabon.
A cloud of bitterness, dejection and anxiety about the future hung over Harare yesterday, but despite outbreaks of low-level violence there was no sign of any appetite for a mass uprising to unseat the re-elected President Robert Mugabe.
It was out in the countryside of Zimbabwe that Robert Mugabe stole the presidential election. Away from prying eyes, Mr Mugabe's loyal party henchmen executed a psephological sleight of hand that was as crude as it was ambitious. Ballot boxes were stuffed, opposition supporters were told to vote for Mr Mugabe on pain of death and turnouts were grossly inflated to favour the 78-year-old leader.
The South Africa Observer Mission to Zimbabwe has not delivered a pronouncement pleasing to the diplomatic and media contingents in the country. Grey-haired mission head Sam Motsuenyane sat stunned and flustered as journalists jeered and diplomats walked out after his endorsement of Zimbabwe's poll on Tuesday.
President Bush said Wednesday the United States does not recognize the result of the presidential election in Zimbabwe, won officially by incumbent President Robert Mugabe. "We do not recognize the outcome of the election because we think it's flawed," he told a White House news conference.
On International Women's Day, March 8, women worldwide celebrate their progress and reflect on the challenges ahead. OneWorld's campaign provides coverage on key issues, actions and resources from partner organizations worldwide focused on women's issues.
A UN report into allegations of corruption and fee splitting between detainees and defence lawyers at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was released on Monday [11 March] in New York.
Corruption is so entrenched at the Nakuru District Lands Office that it is now almost impossible for one to get services - they are entitled to as taxpayers - without paying a bribe. Steve Mkawale reports.
THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) has asked government to expedite and conclude long-standing corruption cases and intensify the fight against fraud in public institutions or lose donor confidence.
Leaders, declare your wealth. There is no more joking. Criminal charges will be brought against those leaders who fail to make their wealth public or falsify the declaration. For ten years, leaders have dragged their feet over the issue. The leadership code passed in 1992 required leaders at various levels to make a declaration of their assets and wealth to the Inspector General of Government. Not many complied.
They were young, exuberant and deliriously happy, rejoicing at the victory of their leader, Comrade Robert Gabriel Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe. And they made sure everybody knew it.
ZIMBABWE is the least competitive country in the world and is set to slide further due to its worsening credit rating and poor exchange and interest rate policies, according to a report released this week by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
THE rand tumbled almost 3% Wednesday on the news that President Robert Mugabe had won Zimbabwe's presidential election.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Parliamentary Forum has completed its interim assessment of the Zimbabwe 2002 elections.
Developing countries now suffering from a global economic downturn are likely to experience a rebound in growth this year. But growth rates in many poor countries still will be too low for rapid poverty reduction.
Amnesty International is gravely concerned about the high risk of violence in the aftermath of the elections held on 9, 10 and 11 March 2002, especially in light of the departure of many international election observers.
More than 6,400 Sierra Leoneans in Liberia have returned home on convoys organized by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees since mid-February, with thousands more helped with transportation from the border.
A structural change is now required to reshape the global relations around the Debt crisis. Global civil society, the African Governments and the intergovernmental institutions are called upon to demand and work towards the establishment of a Fair and Transparent Arbitration mechanism under the United Nations as part of a sustainable way of finding a solution to the Debt crisis. Various options are available at the global level to deal with the problem. In the final analysis, we suggest that an International Arbitration Court is long overdue and is feasible.
After more than a century of no known primate extinctions, scientists recently confirmed the disappearance of a subspecies of a West African monkey. The loss of this monkey, known as Miss Waldron's red colobus, may be a harbinger of future losses of our closest evolutionary relatives.
The Kenyan government has failed in its human rights obligations towards one half of its citizens and should urgently reform its laws and practices to end the impunity of those who commit violence against women," Amnesty International said in a new report on Kenya.
Being a refugee in Africa is double trouble. Or how do you explain the state in which the people who are supposed to protect them turn to be the tormentors?
Greetings from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I am working to create a webpage on disarmament with content in Spanish and Portuguese, and am interested in making contact with Portuguese-speaking African groups who work on peace building/peace education, arms reduction, curbing urban violence, or related themes, for contributions to the site.
We are trying to build a network of young people to start an exchange of information about globalisation. We are currently working together with writers and organisers in Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Ghana, Burundi and Holland. – Dominique Sindayiganza, Baobabconnections, Holland
Your newsletter sounds very resourceful. – Mrs. Nellie J. Mwandoloma, College of African Wildlife Management, Tanzania
On Monday 11 March 2002, the libel case pursued by businessman Nyimpinhe Chissano, son of Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano, against journalist Marcelo Mosse and the now defunct newssheet "Metical", was postponed. This is the fifth time that the case has been postponed.
Moses Oguti, the detained editor-in-chief of Botswana based magazine "Trans Kalahari", has been transferred to Harare Central Prison, in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare. Oguti is accused of entering Zimbabwe illegally and misrepresenting information to the police.
Senior figures at the BBC World Service have expressed concern to the domestic news division that coverage of the Zimbabwe elections has been driven by a colonial agenda, potentially causing damage to the corporation's reputation for impartiality.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame has sued a Paris-based African Journalist-author Charles Onana in a French High Court for defamation following his publication of a book entitled, "Les Secrets Du Génocide Rwandais- Enquête Sur Les Mystères D'un Président" - (The Secrets of the Rwanda Genocide- Investigation on the Mysteries of a President), which points an accusing finger at the Rwandan leader as the principle suspect Number One in the Plane Crash which led to the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
POPULAR Radio Zimbabwe presenter Brenda Moyo was struck off the station’s duty roster after playing two controversial songs.
THE governments of Sudan and Uganda are starting journalists' exchange programmes as a way of getting news with an African perspective rather than the negative portrayal by the Western media.
The prosecution in the so-called "Media Trial" today produced news articles before judges at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) to prove that genocide suspect Ferdinand Nahimana was a presidential advisor based in Gisenyi Province in July 1994.
By a vote of 1.69 million for Robert Mugabe to 1.28 million for Morgan Tsvangirai, the people of Zimbabwe re-elected the Zimbabwe African National Union (Zanu) president last weekend. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), founded in September 1999, lost by more than in the last national election, in June 2000 when a small majority of parliamentary seats were taken by the ruling Zanu.
We want to make seven points about the election and its various interpretations, meanings and implications. But to set the stage, here are the words of a young organic radical activist, Hopewell Gumbo, formerly the assistant to opposition leader Gibson Sibanda, subsequently a noted socialist activist and student anti-privatisation leader:
"What went wrong? There has been massive violence prior to the elections AND AS A RESULT THE ELECTION COULD NOT HAVE BEEN FREE AND FAIR. Mugabe survived on an anti-imperialist rhetoric and the land crisis not withstanding the violence campaign... Mugabe's rhetoric separated the urban poor from the rural poor. This is one important reality that must be interrogated. The answer to the MDC loss lies in the explanation of that massive discrepancy. But Mugabe was not genuine in his rhetoric. He announced a retreat from the IMF while he went on to privatise education and other services but manages to get the rural vote on a land ticket that results in violent farm invasions and occupations followed by a fast track resettlement program."
1) The election
Mugabe stole this one. The Zimbabwe Election Support Network--mainly progressive human rights monitors--listed the following obvious violations:
* disenfranchising voters through the voter registration process;
* registration of voters beyond 3 March 2002;
* "correcting" the voters' roll;
* control of voter education through the Electoral Supervisory Commission;
* drawing election supervisors and monitors from the Ministries of Defence, Home Affairs and Education;
* disallowing postal voting [i.e. disallowing around a million votes from Zimbabweans abroad, which would have mainly gone to the MDC];
* constituency based voting [i.e., instead of allowing anyone to vote for president no matter where they happen to be, within Zimbabwe];
* simultaneous holding of municipal and Presidential elections;
* restrictions concerning the accompanying of ballot boxes;
* printing of extra ballot papers;
* very restrictive and oppressive Public Order and Security Act;
* unequal access to the state controlled media, in particular the broadcast media, with a bias towards the ruling party;
* restrictions concerning both local and international observers;
* confiscation and destruction of identity cards by youths of the ruling party [i.e., thus preventing people from voting because an ID is required at the ballot box];
* establishment of illegal road blocks by youths of the ruling party;
* political violence, including torture and murders, largely perpetrated by ruling party supporters against members and supporters of the opposition;
* selective enforcement of the law by law enforcement agents.
Then on the days of the election, March 9 and 10, urban Zimbabweans were confronted by drastic cutbacks in polling stations, requiring many hours of queuing in the hot sun. Rural voters witnessed a systematic refusal by government to allow monitors near the booths, with opposition party electoral agents unable to reach nearly half the stations, in part because of pro-Zanu thuggery. Across Zimbabwe, the government refused to abide by an urgent court order to extend voting for another day, opened only the polling booths in greater Harare (and five hours late at that), and then chased those still in long queues away at the end of the day.
2) "Free and fair"?
Through such means, we believe, easily more than 410,000 votes were stolen. Most international election monitors--with the notable exception of ruling-party ministers from neighbouring countries, the Organisation of African Unity, and 50 official observers from South Africa--recognised this, declaring the poll unfree and unfair.
But the reports from countries of the North played into Zanu's hands. Mugabe has been quick to point to imperialist hypocrisy, the stolen election in the US, and the lack of genuine choice in most rich countries.
In contrast, the state-owned media welcomed the Southern African Development Community's ministerial task force, which claimed, "Despite reported incidents of pre election violence and some logistical shortcomings during voting... the elections were substantially free and fair, and were a true reflection of the will of the people of Zimbabwe."
The South African delegation, led by businessman Sam Motsuenyane, called Mugabe's declaration of victory "legitimate." So too did the South African Federated Chamber of Commerce, leading to instant discredit and shame in Johannesburg.
And so it would seem that the elections have been stitched up through the revival of a colonial racial antagonism. Not quite, though. There were two dissenting voices from Africa, the most important being the SADC Parliamentary Forum, a group of parliamentarians (not ministers) from the SADC region. Their conclusion was rather different: "The climate of insecurity obtaining in Zimbabwe since the 2000 parliamentary elections was such that the electoral process could not be said to adequately comply with the Norms and Standards for Elections in the SADC region." The Commonwealth observer mission said much the same.
3) Pretoria's pressure points
But all eyes subsequently turned to Thabo Mbeki, and for good reason. In 1976, Mugabe's immediate predecessor, Ian Smith, was summoned to meet John Vorster and Henry Kissinger in Pretoria. In an uncomfortable encounter, the Rhodesian was told by the South African premier and the US secretary of state that his dream of delaying black majority rule in Zimbabwe for "a thousand years" was over. Accommodation with the liberation movements would be necessary, both for the sake of the West's legitimacy in the struggle against the USSR and simply because Smith's position was untenable.
Smith resisted the inevitable with a mix of ineffectual concessions and heightened repression, but the power that South Africa held over imports and exports was decisive.
There now appears an analogous moment of truth. Again, millions of black Zimbabweans suffer the depredations of an undemocratic, exploitative ruling elite. Again, a militaristic state serves the class interests of a few tens of thousands of well connected bureaucrats, military and paramilitary leaders and briefcase businessmen, in the context of unprecedented economic crisis.
A May 2001 visit to Pretoria by US secretary of state Colin Powell was evidence of the Republican Party rulers' need to raise their own questionable international standing through at least one successful African democratisation project: Zimbabwe.
In this context of striking parallels, South African president Thabo Mbeki is taking advantage of temporary Western goodwill--aside from doubts about his genocidal HIV/AIDS policies--to offset the overall hemorrhaging of his country and continent. His New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) follows similar South African interventions in the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organisation and a host of other international forums. The fly in the ointment, inevitably, is Mugabe.
4) Pretoria's calculations
Official South African schizophrenia in relation to Zimbabwe has several crucial domestic features that outweigh this logic. Looking north, the ANC leadership must despair at the following:
* a liberation movement which won resounding electoral victories against a terribly weak opposition, but under circumstances of worsening abstentionism by, and depoliticisation of, the masses;
* that movement's undeniable failure to deliver a better life for most of the country's low income people, while material inequality soared;
* rising popular alienation from, and cynicism about, nationalist politicians, as the gulf between rulers and the ruled widened inexorably and as numerous cases of corruption and malgovernance were brought to public attention;
* growing economic misery as neoliberal policies were tried and failed; and
* the sudden rise of an opposition movement based in the trade unions, quickly backed by most of civil society, the liberal petit bourgeoisie and the independent media--potentially leading to the election of a new, post nationalist government.
The last bullet, fired in Zambia and misfired in Zimbabwe this week thanks to Mugabe's electoral theft, is not yet loaded in South Africa. But it will be.
Pretoria bureaucrats argue that there is no alternative to constructive engagement with Mugabe. The mid 1990s Nigerian lesson--"We got our fingers burned"--was chillingly instructive. After talking tough to Sani Abacha's military regime, South African officials believed that Western countries would crack down with sanctions, especially on oil. The West didn't, leaving Pretoria exposed and ineffective.
Another lesson was more current: when Zambia and Madagascar conducted profoundly flawed elections last December, leading to active civil society and party political protests, the West and Pretoria quickly accepted prevailing power relations.
For Mbeki, it would be ideal if Mugabe changes his stripes now that he's won another six-year term. A successful Nepad requires Mugabe to act more politely, begin to repay US$1+ billion arrears to the Bretton Woods Institutions, and refrain from torturing or detaining journalists and opposition party members.
But none of this is likely, especially if Mugabe's downward spiral of economic degradation and political illegitimacy continues. What, then, can Mbeki do?
5) Pretoria's next gambit
As we write (15 March), South African vice president Jacob Zuma has been meeting for many hours in Harare, trying to stitch together a bandaid solution. It appears that Zuma--briefed by Mbeki--wants Mugabe to step down soon, perhaps handing power to Emmerson Mnangagwa, the pro-Mugabe parliamentary leader who is trusted only a little within Zanu and not at all in the opposition. Mugabe is probably unwilling to accept.
The other option, which is also being pushed by elites of all strips, from Tony Blair in London to Tony Leon (South Africa's white opposition leader) in Cape Town, is a Government of National Unity.
Although some insiders suggest that Zuma wants Mugabe to make Tsvangirai a vice president, the opposition leader has publicly rejected the idea: "This is not about appointing people to certain positions without first achieving stability. Mugabe cannot buy legitimacy by forming a government of national unity with the MDC."
The political cul-de-sac that Pretoria now faces, looking north, probably compels Mbeki to vaguely endorse Mugabe's theft at some point this weekend. But a disincentive also looms: if Mbeki legitimises Mugabe, Nepad will be denounced as illegitimate.
6) Pretoria's progressive opposition
Civil society groups across Africa--e.g., the Africa Social Forum network of social movements which met in both Bamako, Mali and Porto Alegre, Brazil in January, and which includes the Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development--have already denounced Mbeki's neoliberal, "good governance" plan for Africa.
Mbeki now invites active protests against both Nepad's hypocrisy on governance, as well as its reliance upon Western markets and Washington-Consensus economic policies. Locations will include the upcoming (June) G-8 Meeting in rural Canada, the Africa Union launch in July in South Africa, and the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development in August.
How much good these protests do, depends upon how advocates of social justice in Zimbabwe read the power relations, and upon the importance they give international solidarity in the coming struggle for democracy.
7) Self-activity of the Zimbabwean masses
But at home, what will democratic activists in Zimbabwe do, in response? So far, aside from a threatened national strike by the trade unions (foiled by police disruption of their planning meeting), the gut reaction seems to be hunkering down to overcome the shock of what many term the "mugging." Activists are overcome with exhaustion, intimidation, the arrest of more than a thousand civil-society election monitors last weekend, and the sheer challenge of going up against the repressive arms of the state. Army and police are patrolling the ghettoes and the mood of fear and loathing is palpable.
At this crucial juncture, leadership appears to be lacking. The left-of-centre NGO network group called Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition has called upon the people "to register their concern in accordance with the Constitution," with no details. Tsvangirai has withdrawn into his politburo to consult, after leaving the people with a wishy-washy statement of pale defiance. Opposition lawyers convinced that, in theory, they have a watertight case to re hold the elections, are pessimistic. Given how Mugabe has stacked the judiciary, it is likely that the high court will rule in favour of Zanu.
And so there is a schism between the people of Southern Africa and their governments. The last words go to activist Hopewell Gumbo:
"On the other hand, the MDC--rising from anti-IMF working class movement--moved to the right at the alarm of most of its supporters. Tsvangirai showed inconsistencies in his programme. One was pronouncing mass action and the following day talking of the courts. Zimbabwe has had a number of alternatives to the process of dealing with the entrenched dictatorship of Mugabe. This is for now the most progressive way to look at the situation. We must bury behind our backs the loss and seek to invoke those alternatives that have so far not been utilised."
(Patrick Bond coauthored the new book *Zimbabwe's Plunge: Exhausted Nationalism, Neoliberalism and the Search for Social Justice,* and Raj Patel has been associated with the Zimbabwe Indymedia website:
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 56 * 7600 SUBSCRIBERS
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 56 * 7600 SUBSCRIBERS
The Patrick Stewart Human Rights Scholarship offers a unique opportunity for students to gain practical experience in the field of human rights. Amnesty International USA awards these scholarships to student activists for summer internships or other short-term human rights projects.
Certain conditions would have to be met before the rebel group UNITA agrees to a ceasefire called for by the Angolan president, a spokesman told IRIN on Friday.
An unspecified number of Zimbabweans are reportedly fleeing to South Africa through illegal exit points as violence mounts in Matabeleland's rural areas ahead of the presidential election.
The Bush administration on Thursday slammed the U.N. war crimes tribunals in The Hague for lapses in professionalism and management and said the tribunals should be wrapped up by 2008.
Zimbabweans are facing yet another drought and dwindling maize stocks. They throng the depots hoping that they can buy just a bag or two of maize or maize-meal. Although it was clear by early last year that the country would face a severe shortage of the staple maize, the government waited until stocks ran out before making frantic efforts to import maize.
Zimbabwe's dreaded spy agency is directing President Robert Mugabe's election campaign and is the brains behind the so-called plot implicating opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in Mugabe's alleged assassination, it was established this week.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has said the security situation in Mogadishu is still too uncertain for a long-term UN security presence in the Somali capital. In a report to the Security Council, Annan stated that Somalia remained one of the most dangerous environments in which the UN operates.
FBI experts are in the country to train local police on how to fight corruption. The four-day course is being attended by inspectors and chief inspectors from the CID [Criminal Investigation Department], anti-corruption police unit, General Service Unit and traffic department.
Despite petitions alleging illegal transfer of $186 million out and back into Nigeria , federal authorities are yet to investigate. Is this another mortal blow to President Obasanjo's transparency and accountability campaign?
President Mwanawasa has challenged Parliament to become more open to members of the public. Speaking in his inaugural speech to Parliament in Lusaka, Mr Mwanawasa said that the National Assembly should open up to the people to facilitate the exchange of ideas with them.
he Congress of South African Trade Unions welcomes the Mesebetsi Labour Force Survey Report, by Fafo, the Norwegian Institute for Applied Social Science. The survey confirms many of COSATU’s own findings about the levels of unemployment, poverty, inequality and racism in South Africa and flatly contradicts government ministers’ claims that the country’s economic fundamentals are ‘sound’.
Emma Mawdsley, Janet Townsend, Gina Porter and Peter Oakley
NGOMPS No. 14, 2002 ISBN 1-897748-63-9, £15.95
Development NGOs North and South now exist in a global web of relationships. Not only money and people but ideas, information and knowledge move more often and more quickly than ever before around this vast, diverse community. Southern NGOs have many ideas and a great deal of information and knowledge, but often have less power to influence what projects and programmes are undertaken, or even how they are done. Ideas may be drawn from the South, but the way in which they are taken up, changed and then re- disseminated is dominated by northern institutions and agendas and by global waves of development fashion. From field research in Ghana, India, Mexico and Europe, this book explores how southern NGOs can have more of a voice in determining the work they actually do, and how they can get more of their ideas on to the international development agenda. From the experiences of small and large NGOs, the book reports on their recommendations for overcoming, challenging or bypassing ‘information loops’ on funding, ideas and networks.
Rick James
OPS No. 36, 2001, 42 pages, ISBN 1-897748-64-7, £8.95
Capacity-building and monitoring and evaluation have become two of the most important priorities of the development community during the last decade. Yet they have tended to operate in relative isolation from each other. In particular capacity-building programmes have been consistently weak in monitoring the impact of their work. This publication aims to help NGOs and donors involved in capacity-building develop appropriate, cost-effective and practical systems for monitoring and evaluation. While not underestimating the complexity of this task, this publication puts forward some practical guidelines for designing monitoring and evaluation systems based on experiences with three organisations in different parts of Africa.
Peter Oakley (ed.)
NGOMPS No. 13, 2001 ISBN 1-897748-62-0, £15.95
The fourth book in a series based on International Workshops on the Evaluation of Social development and is based on the Fourth International Workshop held in Oxford in April 2000. It includes a number of commissioned papers by Anisur Rahman, Musimbi Kanyoro, Frits Wils and Peter Oakley as well as papers presented by participants. It also includes both regional presentations from Southern Africa, Asia, Central America and the Middle East as well as institutional statements by DFID, SIDA, Action Aid and Cordaid. The book concludes by drawing together participants’ perceptions in terms of the current state of the practice of the M&E of empowerment.
Water for Development is the theme for World Water Day 2002; the International Atomic Energy Agency is the coordinating UN agency this year. The currently poor and deteriorating state of water resources in many parts of the world demand integrated water resources planning and management. The impact of steady population growth on water availability is an increasing challenge. In fact, it has been observed that while the 20th Century was about oil, the 21st Century will be about water.
A report by the Centre for Public Integrity has linked UNITA's principal arms trafficker, Victor Bout, with smuggling millions of dollars worth of arms to the Taliban in Afghanistan. According to the report, Bout earned $50 million in profit from selling the weapons in the late 1990s. One intelligence source used by the Centre stated that the arms were sent "on behalf of the Pakistan government".
Conservation Legislation in South Africa is comprehensive and decrees that many activities require Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) and Integrated Environmental Management controls. Mountains are not seen as a separate category of land over which specific legislation would apply. Recently new unrelated legislation has created legislative loopholes that allow the indiscriminate construction of roads into the Cape's important mountain catchments for the use of recreational vehicles for tourism.
A sentence of amputation of the right hand was executed on Anthony James Ladou Wani, a 46 year old Christian belonging to the KaKwa tribe from Southern Sudan. Anthony was sentenced to amputation of his right hand from the wrist on 4 May 2000 and has been detained in Kober prison in Khartoum since that date.
Barnabas Samatta, Tanzanian Chief Justice, has urged the three East African Community members Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania to harmonize their administration of justice because they share a common legal heritage. The EA countries were once British colonies.
More than a year has passed since the historic United Nations Millennium Summit (September, 2000) when nearly 150 world leaders endorsed a clear set of development goals. They agreed to halve extreme poverty, reduce the maternal mortality ratio by three-quarters and achieve equal access of girls to all levels of education, all by 2015. They also committed the world to halt, and begin to reverse, the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015. Gender equality is paramount to the fulfillment of each of these goals.
As President Bush meets today with Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, Mozambique President Joaquim Alberto Chissano and Botswana President Fetus Gontebanye Mogae, AIDS activists in the Health GAP Coalition accused the U.S. president of talking about the global HIV/AIDS pandemic, but failing to take meaningful action.
According to studies done by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI),
cocoa plays a vital role in the lives of poor women farmers in West Africa, who grow much of the world's cocoa. Cocoa farming can empower women, reduce poverty, and help the environment.
This website was developed by the Johns Hopkins University Population Information Program (JHU/PIP) as a way of sharing documents, reports, articles, posters, pamphlets, videos, and more relating to violence against women. All of these resources are held at the JHU/PIP and are searchable through the website's database (click "search"). You can also join a listserv and get a bi-monthly email about the latest projects and materials developed on this subject. The website also has a daily news feed of articles from around the world on the subject of violence against women.
A summary of information received by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) from Governments, concerning their activities in the framework of the Decade for Human Rights Education (1995-2004). The information is updated as of December 2001, and is already included in related reports submitted by OHCHR to United Nations bodies (in particular, General Assembly and Commission on Human Rights). National initiatives are presented by country, under five regions (Africa; Arab countries; Asia/Pacific; Europe and North America; Latin America and the Caribbean); this information will be posted soon on OHCHR's website.
The Gender Advocacy Programme (GAP) is hosting an international conference on women's representation in government in Cape Town on 7 & 8 March 2002.
Reuben Granich's book, "HIV Health and Your Community: A Guide for Action" is available from the Hesperian Foundation. A supplement to our book, "Where There Is No Dentist" called "HIV/AIDS and Care of the Teeth and Gums," has also just been produced. Ordering details can be found on the website.
A UN summary of developments in human rights education by country in Africa.
At the hands of Jonas Savimbi, over a million Angolans have died and two generations lost. If they had known that the baby of the station master and evangelical church pastor, Loth Malheiro Savimbi, and his wife Helena Mbundu Sakato. would bring misery to Angola, the people of Munhango in Bie Province would not have celebrated the birth of Jonas Savimbi. He looked perfectly harmless, a bouncing baby boy who made everyone laugh. No one knew he would make Angola cry as he bathed his people in their own blood years later.
The briefing provides practical recommendations for a gender-sensitive approach to multidimensional PSOs within the context of implementing United Nations Resolution 1325. It is intended as a resource for policy-makers and implementing agents, and is being disseminated to both military and civilian agencies within the United Nations, European Union and civil organisations.
The Council of Government observed with regret that the said report and the ferocious campaign that accompanied it contradicted the efforts deployed by both Algeria and Morocco for strengthening trust and mutual trust for the benefit of good neighbourliness and cooperation between the two Algerian and Moroccan brotherly peoples, and the process of building the Arab Maghreb Union.
Trade union MWU-Solidarity on Tuesday welcomed three more labour unions into its ranks, a move that made it the biggest independent labour union in South Africa, MWU-Solidarity said.
As a child, his parents were poor. And at the age of five, he had already
taken to hawking to augment his family's lean resources. But today, the story is different for Owelle Rochas Okorocha, founder of the Rochas Foundation.
Women's Human Rights Net is seeking a consultant Content Manager to contribute to and co-ordinate the creation and updating of website content across a range of sections and topics on the WHRnet site.
The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), in partnership with Benin's Health Ministry, has launched a programme aimed at improving early childhood development by reducing the incidence of preventable diseases and ailments linked to poor nutrition.
Wholesale merging of tertiary institutions is far too blunt an instrument to create optimum efficiency, equity and quality in higher education. And there is rage in some quarters at recent merger proposals that leave a few privileged institutions untouched while targeting numerous others.
An attempt by BP to implement a more ethical corporate policy by publishing details of payments made to the government in oil-rich Angola has backfired. Britain's biggest company has been severely criticised by local state-owned oil group Sonangol and is desperately trying to patch up relations with ministers in the war-torn and impoverished country.
UNIFEM established a Global Advisory Committee this month comprised of African IT entrepreneurs living in the Diaspora and in Africa, as well as representatives from the private sector and the UN system. The Committee of 12 experts will work with UNIFEM on a programme to help bridge the gender digital divide in Africa by advocating for women’s access to information communication technologies (ICTs) to improve their livelihoods.
A symposium by The Gambia press union voiced concerns at the denial of access to public information, problems encountered with objective reporting and the need for better-trained journalists, the following is the text of a report by The Gambian newspaper The Independent.
Independent experts Elisabeth Rehn and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf traveled to the Mano River countries of Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia as part of a global assessment on the impact of armed conflict on women and women’s role in peace building, sponsored by UNIFEM.
Sixteen women were elected to Burundi’s Transitional Assembly last month. The elected women were candidates from 14 political parties and members of civil society. The elections come after intense years of lobbying by the women of Burundi, supported by UNIFEM and other partners, for the inclusion of women in decision-making and their participation in the Burundi peace process.
The highly publicized practice of buying the freedom of Sudanese slaves, fueled by millions of dollars donated by Westerners, is rife with corruption, according to aid workers, human rights monitors and leaders of a rebel movement whose members routinely regard slave redemption as a lucrative business.
Police Commissioner Philemon Abong'o has advised officers to adhere to the professional ethics as a weapon to fight corruption in the force. Abong'o, while addressing senior police officers when he officially opened a seminar dubbed "Police Ethics and Corruption", observed that sticking to the set ethics is the only way forward in the fight against corruption.
UNIFEM convened an interagency coordination meeting last month in New York in an effort to unify agencies in their programmes to end violence against women. Issues of sexual and reproductive rights, leadership, and gender indicators were addressed and participants included representatives from ECLAC, FLACSO, IDB/PROLEAD, PAHO/WHO, UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF and the Queen Sophia Center.
THE Delta State Government has called on Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in the country not to relent in their efforts in assisting both the state and the federal government in combating corruption, poverty and Another social vices.