Drastic changes to rules for asylum seekers, making it much more difficult for people fleeing persecution to seek refuge in Denmark, are causing alarm among members of the international human rights community. A series of reforms proposed by Denmark's new Liberal-Conservative coalition government as a means of reducing the number of foreigners, will severely curtail the rights of asylum seekers in the country, say refugee groups.

At least 5,000 Sierra Leoneans and Liberians arrived at the border town of Jendema, after fleeing fighting between Liberian government troops and dissidents, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, reported on Monday.

The prime minister of the Central African Republic (CAR), Martin Ziguele, has launched a national disarmament and arms collection programme, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) reported on Monday.

Three weeks after Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was inundated by lava flows from Mt Nyiragongo, the future of this town of some 400,000 people remains precarious.

The Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) claimed on Wednesday that Sudanese government forces had attacked its positions in the Nuba Mountains region of Southern Kordofan, south-central Sudan, violating for the second time a cease-fire agreement both parties had signed on 19 January.

A US $7.1 million conservation project in Tana River District, eastern Kenya, has stalled after the lead financier opposed the displacement of some 600 families planned under the scheme.

Ethiopia's ambassador to the UN, Abdul Mejid Hussein, has rejected the possibility of a "greater Somalia", along with other senior political leaders from Ethiopia's Somali National Regional State.

Fleeing fighting in the Angolan countryside, more than 5,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) arrived in the eastern city of Luena in January, the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its latest situation report.

The impact on children of Zimbabwe's mounting political violence was condemned on Monday by a coalition of child rights NGOs.

A major immunisation drive is planned in western Zambia and eastern Angola in response to new polio cases among young Angolan refugees, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF said in a joint statement.

No fewer than 80 million Nigerians have been declared poor with low standard of living. Dr. Mark Tomlinson, the World Bank Country Director for Nigeria made the disclosure at a national workshop on the Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy in Abuja. He said this proportion of poverty in the country had snowballed over the last two decades when the country received over $300 million from the sale of oil and gas.

Representatives of the Group of Eight industrial countries and selected African countries will meet in Cape Town on Thursday as part of a continuing effort to come up with a detailed plan of action for the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad).

IANSA is a fast growing international network of 340 organisations from 71 countries working to save lives and stop gun violence. IANSA is looking for a strategic and dynamic person to lead a Network of NGOs.

IANSA is a fast growing international network of 340 organisations from 71 countries working to save lives and stop gun violence. IANSA is looking for an experienced person, who will develop a global communications strategy for the Network.

WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) director-general Mike Moore has said that the new global trade round which was launched at Doha in November, would address the "obscenity" that while trade can offer hope to Africa's poorest nations, some richer countries have closed their markets to African exporters.

The Donald Gordon Foundation has given R100-million to Wits University in what is believed to be the largest single donation given by a private individual in South Africa. The money will fund South Africa's first private medical centre to train specialist doctors.

South Africa's fight against AIDS has be promised a lifeline after EU has approved of a R515-million in aid to be allocated to the Department of Health to strengthen primary health care and fight against AIDS.

The Democratic Alliance has sent a letter to Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel explaining why South Africa should also benefit from the $1,9-billion (about R21,8-billion) United Nations Global Fund to fight Aids, tuberculosis and malaria.

National Lottery Distribution trust Fund is considering applications from the proceeds of National Lottery. Amongst issues such as povert alleviation and Aids, the focus of the Fund will be on capacity building for organisations and communities which are involved in training, advocay and lobbying and skills development.

Addressing leaders at the World Economic Forum in New York City over the weekend, Bill Gates called on government, industry, and nonprofit organizations to substantially increase and sustain development funding for global health initiatives.

The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is launching a competition to support research on the changing balance between pub-
lic and private sector funding of research, and its implications for developing country governments and research institutions.

The Center for Economic Justice seeks interns to work in its Washington, D.C. office for Summer 2002 on the World Bank Bonds Boycott campaign.

This 2-day course will enable participants to create a basic website, maintain their organisations' websites - add content to existing pages, add new pages, adapt a site's design, and develop the content and structure of a website.

I am looking for firms that donate computers we have a premises in the slums of Nairobi Kenya and want to help the poor of the poorest to be compurer/interner literate as a community based project please assist and advice.

I like the depth and coverage of various topics. – Gregory Haambote, Programs Officer, Catholic Commission for Development, CARITAS ZAMBIA

This is an impressively broad compilation of events across a neglected continent, well-organised, accessible, and offering a content which for the most part doesn't seem to be put out by bigger, more mainstream news agencies. It's at once refreshing and appalling to find such a service as this, refreshing because of the way it fills some of the gaping holes left in mainstream coverage, and appalling because it makes you realise how big those holes are. Best of luck for the future.

About 200 organisations from around Africa, including representatives NGOs, trade unions, women's organisations, farmers and young people's groups met in Bamako, Mali, recently to prepare African inputs to the World Social Forum held at the end of January.

They resolved, among other things, that globalization is just a new and more acceptable term for imperialism, that double standards were being applied with the selective imposition of rules about trade to the detriment of Africa. They expressed concern that the "New Partnership for Africa's Development" (NEPAD) was based on accepting the neo-liberal analysis and strategies of the rich countries and was therefore not acceptable as a basis for planning Africa's future.

The importance of the African Social Forum was in presenting development in Africa as a political issue about power to decide on Africa's future. For too long development has focussed on the physical consequences of this unjust world order and has limited itself to addressing the lack of water, health, incomes, basic services etc. This has led to NGOs becoming instruments of neo-liberal globalisation that have colluded in undermining the state by providing services and using funding destined for them. (For a fuller report see below).

Sustainable development is about much more than the rise and fall of GNP. It is about creating an environment in which people can develop their full potential under conditions where there is respect for human dignity and human rights. The goal of sustainable development must be human freedom, and the measure of its success must be a measure of the extent to which citizens of a country are able to exercise that freedom. But, as Professor Amartya Sen, Nobel Prize Winner in Economics, has argued in his book 'Development as Freedom', "Freedoms are not only the primary ends of development, they are also among its principal means." Development should be seen as a process of expanding freedoms. "If freedom is what development advances, then there is a major argument for concentrating on that overarching objective, rather than on some particular means, or some chosen list of instruments". To achieve development, he argues, requires not only the removal of poverty, lack of economic opportunities, social deprivation, and neglect of public services, but also the removal of tyranny and the machinery of repression.

Such a view is in contrast to what has become the 'conventional wisdom' of development that sees economic growth as both the means and the end. Development, the story goes, is possible only if there is growth. And growth is equated with the 'right' of a minority to amass wealth. Only when this freedom is unrestricted will others in society benefit from any associated spin-offs (the trickle-down effect). All other freedoms are only achievable if such growth occurs. The purpose of 'development' is, therefore, to guarantee 'growth' so that ultimately other freedoms can, at some indeterminate time in the future, be enjoyed. Such a view has increasingly been associated with the international financial institutions (IMF and World Bank) whose influence on economic policy - especially in Africa - has been so pervasive. State expenditure, according to this view, should be directed towards creating an enabling environment for 'growth', and not be 'wasted' on the provision of public services that, in any case, can ultimately be provided 'more efficiently' by private enterprise. This is the approach that, as Professor Sen points out, makes socially useful members of society such as school-teachers and health workers feel more threatened by development policies than do army generals.

Such an approach to development has had dire consequences for the developing world in general and Sub-Saharan Africa in particular. Of the nearly 5 billion people in the developing world, more than 850 million are illiterate; 325 million boys and girls are denied schooling; 2.4 billion have no access to basic sanitation. More than 30,000 children under the age of 5 years die each day from preventable causes. And some 1.2 billion people live on less than a dollar a day. Add to that the fact that more than 36 million people were living with AIDS. Of the 36 million people living with HIV/AIDS, 70% are to be found in sub-Saharan Africa.

Only 60% of adults in Sub-Saharan Africa are literate in the region, as compared with 73% in the rest of the developing world. Life expectancy at birth is less than 49 years, and nearly half the population survives on less than $1 a day. Economic growth in the region has fallen during the last 25 years, with GDP per capita growth averaging -1%. Per capita income in 1960 was about 1/9th of that in high-income OECD countries, but by 1998 it had fallen to 1/18th.

Sub-Saharan Africa's massive external debt, estimated at more than $300 billion is perhaps the single largest obstacle to development and economic independence. The 48 countries of sub-Saharan Africa spend $13.5 billion each year repaying debts to foreign creditors. Over the last 20 years, African countries have paid out more in debt service to foreign creditors than they have received in development assistance or in new loans. Trade liberalization associated with the Structural Adjustment Programmes may have increased the importance of international trade for Africa, but the region's share of world trade has declined.

But it is not that sub-Saharan Africa is devoid of wealth. There is abundant mineral wealth in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Angola, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), in South Africa and elsewhere. Yet it is this very abundance of natural resources that has led to vicious competition for access and control, frequently supported by outside vested interests. The result has been armed conflict, mass displacement of people, torture and ill treatment, and frank impunity for the perpetrators. Unarmed civilians have frequently been the victims of such conflicts with killings, amputations, rape and other forms of sexual abuse and abductions being rife in countries such as Sierra Leone, the DRC, and Burundi. Angola, which has seen an estimated 500,000 people killed since 1989 and an estimated 3 million refugees. It is also being torn apart directly as a consequence over the competition for resources such as diamonds and offshore oil, with various factions fighting for these prizes.

But, as Mahmood Mamdani has pointed out, despite the current dogmas, "the story of independent Africa is not one of unremitting decline. The first two decades of independence were decades of moderate progress. Between 1967 and 1980 more than a dozen African countries registered a growth rate of 6% […] To be sure there was a downside. That was that the failure to transform agriculture, and thus to bring the vast majority of the population into the development process. This shortcoming in economic policy went alongside and was sustained by a political authoritarianism."

The economic policies followed by many African countries, frequently under pressure from international financial institutions, have resulted in high levels of income equality. And it is this that has created instability in the region. Development policies have, it is true, resulted in enrichment. But it has been the rich in these countries who have been getting richer, while the poor have become poorer. According the UNDP, "In 16 of the 22 Sub-Saharan countries with data for the 1990s, the poorest 10% of the population had less than 1/10 of the income of the richest 10%, and in 9 less than 1/20." Marked, and growing, inequalities have had serious consequences on the social fabric of these countries. It has resulted in massive social exclusion, the growth in organized street crime, disillusionment with the political process, and the growth in the appeal for the use of violence for political ends. Faced with growing discontentment, corruption, abuse of state power, many governments have become intolerant of legitimate protest and political opposition. The use of excessive force to deal with public and political discontent has become all too common, as vividly illustrated by the current crisis in Zimbabwe where, as a result of recent legislation, it has become illegal to criticize the president.

Time has come for there to be substantial changes to current approaches to development. Ten years ago at the "Earth Summit" in Rio de Janeiro, Governments committed themselves to a plan of action known as Agenda 21. Principle 5 of that plan stated that:

"All States and all people shall cooperate in the essential task of eradicating poverty as an indispensable requirement for sustainable development, in order to decrease the disparities in standards of living and better meet the needs of the majority of the people of the world."

"But commitments alone", as the Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Anan has put it, "have proven insufficient to the task. We have not yet fully integrated the economic, social and environmental pillars of development, nor have we made enough of a break with the unsustainable practices that have led to the current predicament."

The Jury at the International People's Tribunal on Debt, convened at the recent the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, called for the external debt to be declared "as fraudulent, illegitimate and the cause of the loss of national sovereignty and the quality of life of the majority of the population of the South". Similar proclamations are needed in the build up to the World Social Summit on Sustainable Development scheduled to be held in Johannesburg 26 August to 4 September. One hopes that the alternative view from African civil society organizations will be heard loud and clear. Southern African NGOs have already organized. We hope in forthcoming issues of Pambazuka News to provide regular coverage to statements from African civil society organizations.

Firoze Manji, Fahamu - Learning for change

http://www.johannesburgsummit.org/web_pages/prepcom_one_statement_by_sangos.pdf
South Africa to hold Rio+10 Summit: http://www.un.org/rio+10/web_pages/rio+10_summit.htm
Text of the UN General Assembly Decision: http://www.un.org/rio+10/web_pages/resolution.htm
The Rio+10 Summit Meeting: http://www.un.org/rio+10/flat/riosummitmeeting.htm
Earth Summit 2002 website: http://www.earthsummit2002.org/www.sustainabledevelopment.gov.uk/search_by/subject/wssd4.htm

Former South African state President Nelson Mandela Foundation and Rhodes Trust have formed a new foundation Mandela- Rhodes Fund geared towards human resource development in South Africa and Africa. The new foundation has R165-million rands and aim to raise about R330-million to achieve it's objective.

Denmark was harshly criticised by EU Commission for it's planned development aid cuts, according to newpaper reports. This despite the fact that Denmark still tops European countries in contributing to developing countries.

The word ‘racism’ is often used in everyday life, yet the definition of the term is surrounded by controversy. No one single concise definition of the term has been reached. People use the term colloquially to mean many different things while specialists of every field have their own meanings.

Before I went to Durban, I had read all the NGO position papers and learned about globalism's role in racism. I got the feeling that U.S. objections to the Durban conference had more to do with globalism than to the Israeli-Palestinian issue. I was aware that U.S. preparation for the conference was half-hearted. The Clinton and Bush administrations could have done more. So when I went, I really didn't expect major U.S. support for the conference.

The four radio stations of Timbuktu, Mali, received a suitcase radio from UNESCO to encourage the production of programmes using the information resources of Internet. The suitcase radio comprises a complete broadcasting unit and can also be used as a production studio. It is to be housed in the community telecentre of Timbuktu, a UNESCO-supported project, in order to enable radio staff to produce "radio browsing" programmes.

The Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (JHU/CCP) is establishing an AIDS Resource Center (ARC) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This Center will serve as the hub for AIDS information for journalists, health providers, government departments, and HIV/AIDS organisations and programmes.

The government-owned media’s overwhelming bias in favour of
the ruling party, including the flagrant omission of a crucially important High Court ruling that overturned a government decree by ordering the Registrar General’s office to prepare a common voters’ roll that would allow the electorate to cast their vote anywhere in the country in the upcoming presidential election.

Monuments and memorials are often shaped as a wall, the fundamental importance of this temporary art monument lies in the participation of the visitors. The refugees problem in Europe is a very actual and dramatic portfolio for the United Nations and individual states worldwide. Dramatic consequences of (civil) wars, repression and political corruption forces people to leave their home countries. With the emigration to safe places they start a new life. The concept of the project is that this wall is like a physical barrier dividing spaces and representing an obsacle to be passed in order to achieve a certain goal. Petchkovsky is covering the barrier with empty dossiers as a methaphor for the fact that the UN dossiers on refugees is an empty one, not able to solve the problem on a concrete and durable base.

Presidential elections scheduled for March 9-10 in Zimbabwe are highly unlikely to be free and fair, Human Rights Watch charged in a submission to the Commonwealth. Unless the Zimbabwe government immediately fulfilled a set of minimum conditions it should face the threat of suspension from the international organization at the next Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, due in March.

Hospitals in Malawi have run out of antiretroviral drugs for AIDS patients because the state treasury delayed depositing the necessary money into the state-sponsored fund designated to purchase the medications, Agence France-Presse reports. Wesley Sangala, chief technical adviser to the health ministry, did not give a reason for the glitch but said that the government is treating the "serious matter with urgency so as not to put the AIDS patients at higher risk," adding that it is "extremely crucial" to get the patients back on medication "as soon as possible."

Zimbabwe, a country where at least 2,000 people die of AIDS-related illnesses each week, will soon begin to manufacture 300 generic drugs, including AIDS drugs, Health and Child Welfare Deputy Minister David Parirenyatwa announced on Tuesday, Xinhua News Agency reports. The generic drugs -- which will include rifampin, an "essential" tuberculosis medication, and ketoconazole, a treatment for fungal infections in the lungs and esophagus -- will be made with the free technological help of Thailand and its Zimbabwe-based drug companies.

Thousands of doctors, researchers and health policy-makers in about 70 developing countries can now receive free internet access to the world's largest collections of biomedical literature. The Access to Research initiative launched by WHO and the world's six biggest medical journal publishers will help bridge the health information gap between rich and poor countries by providing universities, medical schools and research centres in developing countries access to more than 1000 biomedical journals from the six publishers.

The World Bank's clumsy attempts to censor its own researchers have resulted in stinging criticism by Bank staff. The latest edition of the World Bank Staff Association newsletter carries two editorials about Bank staff members who were disciplined after publishing separate articles in the Financial Times. Both have now left the Bank. The editorials question whether the Bank's "public image matters more than germane research findings" and complain about the Bank's internal governance mechanisms. These are important issues given the Bank's ever-expanding publication and training agenda.

Twenty-six African women from 16 English-speaking African countries graduated from the Cisco Internet Networking Academy today after 280 hours of training at the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The National Council for Research on Women and the Center for the Study of
Women and Society at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York announce a Rockefeller-funded humanities fellowship program, "Facing Global Capital, Finding Human Security: A Gendered Critique". This interdisciplinary program will explore the uses of a human security framework for identifying
non-discriminatory, sustainable policies for women and girls, drawing
into dialogue critical theories in the humanities and social sciences, and
discourses of policymakers and activists.

A 12 year-old girl has become the new face of a campaign to improve the lives of children in Ethiopia. Leah Abebe, who is in grade five at her primary school, told a conference in Addis Ababa last week that children are the future of the country.

The management and employees of the state-owned Tanzania Railways Corporation (TRC) want a 25-year government contract to manage the firm, now in the process of being privatised. The management and employees said they would contribute the money demanded by the government from their pension dues, estimated to be Tsh60 billion ($60.6 million).

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and the Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM) call on the Eastern Cape Premier to follow the example of his Kwa-Zulu Natal counterpart and provide the anti-retroviral drug, nevirapine, to HIV-positive pregnant mothers in the province. This joint call is made after careful consideration of the resources available to the Department of Health in the province.

Ten schools which were closed last year due to insecurity in the Kerio Valley will reopen next month. The Rift Valley Provincial Commissioner, Mr Peter Raburu, said security had been restored and ordered chiefs in Marakwet District to ensure that the schools are reopened.

Hamma Hammami, is the director of a banned publication, Al Badil, and has been pursued by the Tunisian authorities for 29 years because of his opinions and political activities. By order of the Interior Ministry, all his works have been withdrawn from circulation and destroyed. He has been in hiding for nearly 4 years, since the Appeal Court of Tunis sentenced him to nine years and three months in August 1999 for membership of the Parti Communiste des Ouvriers Tunisiens - PCOT (Tunisian Workers' Communist Party). On January 12th, 2002 he opposed this judgement and a new trial is due to take place in Tunis on February 2nd. OMCT is deeply concerned about Hammami's physical and psychological integrity and as to whether he will receive a fair trial.

At the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting 2002 in New York City, Canada’s Prime Minister Jean Chrétien announced that the G-8 is creating a US$ 500 million fund to help African countries committed to reform. The fund is aimed at helping African governments build a durable peace, address Africa’s health crises, strengthen democracy and open possibilities for trade and investment.

The theme for this year's World Telecommunication Day (WTD), 17 May 2002, is "ICT for all: empowering people to cross the digital divide". In keeping with this theme and the strong gender component that it implies, the TFGI would like to take this opportunity to highlight issues related to gender and the digital divide on academic as well as active local levels, via concrete case studies, best practices and ideas that fit into the theme.