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 has announced a Rockefeller-funded humanities fellowship programme.

Tuesday 5 February was a sad day. In the early hours of the morning, the new Danish government (a minority coalition between the Conservative People’s Party and the Liberal Party) secured a political majority for its 2002 budget as predicted with the support of the ultra right-wing Danish People’s Party. The budget, including its projected expenditure for the coming years, will have dire consequences for Danish development aid and for a number of poor countries around the world.

The new development aid budget is modeled on a review of Danish aid conducted by government and released on 29 January this year. Aid will be cut by DKR1.5bn (some US$180mn ) from DKR14.5bn to DKR13bn (US$1.7bn to US$1.52bn). At the same time, government has moved a number of activities, previously financed elsewhere, to the development aid budget, e.g. expenses related to refugees and Danish military contributions to international operations, such as peace-keeping missions.

Leading by example?

Danish aid levels will be reduced from a fixed 1.5 per cent of gross domestic income per annum, which has been the proud norm for many years, to 1 per cent. However, the percentage will no longer be static but politically determined every year. This means that Danish aid will not automatically increase with increases in gross domestic income as was previously the case. So, in short things may get a lot worse in years to come.

Government has stressed again and again that even with these cuts, Denmark will remain among the countries in the world giving proportionally most aid. True, the 1 per cent is still above the minimum aid level determined by the UN in 1980 (0.7 per cent). And the Danish government has declared that it will continue to put pressure on other countries to reach this level. But is that the right signal to send: we are cutting our aid but we want you to increase yours?

Putting on blinkers?

The main objective of Danish aid will remain poverty reduction, but defined more narrowly than was previously the case. Interventions, which have a direct impact on poverty reduction, such as education and health, will be prioritised, whereas activities conducive to – or one could easily argue a precondition for – effective poverty reduction, such as conflict resolution and prevention, will take a back seat.

And, as seems to be the flavour of the moment, the “fight against terrorism” will also play a central role in future development aid allocations. In its review, government’s has put “particular focus on ensuring that no Danish programme country renders direct or indirect support to international terrorism.” At the same, government will prioritise support for conflict resolution and prevention activities, which directly or indirectly contribute to “fighting terrorism”. (Review of Denmark’s Development and Environmental Co-operation with the Developing Countries, Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 29 January 2002).

Democracy, human rights and good governance will also remain objectives, although in practice it seems that a good record in this regard is seen as much as a precondition for aid as an objective. In future, as government puts it, “Danish aid will be given on merit” (ibid.)

Consequences for Africa

The cuts will affect a number of individual African countries as well as multilateral regional activities.

Denmark’s programme countries, most of them African, will be reduced from 18 to 15. Official development aid (ODA) to Eritrea, Zimbabwe and Malawi will be phased out altogether officially due to “bad governance”, while ODA to Zambia is still under scrutiny. ODA to Egypt, Burkina Faso, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia will decrease. Only ODA to Mozambique, Ghana and Benin will experience increases.

Outside the pool of programme countries, ODA to Niger remains at current levels, while ODA to South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland and Lesotho will decrease as a result of cuts in support to environmental initiatives.

Multilateral regional aid to environmental initiatives in Southern Africa has been frozen and support to other multilateral regional initiatives in Southern Africa and the Sahel region will experience significant cuts.

The cuts will also affect Danish contributions to a range of UN agencies, among them the more progressive United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Danish development NGOs, a lot of them with extensive programmes in Africa, will also see their state grants reduced by an average of 9.5 %.

“International solidarity has been cancelled”

Government’s cuts have been heavily criticised by Danish development organisations, practitioners and political parties. The two parties forming the previous government, which spearheaded the development of the Partnership 2000 strategy, have lashed out at government. In its response to the release of government’s plans on 29 January, the spokesperson for the Social Democratic Party, Pia Gjellerup, stated that the proposals were a clear indication that “international solidarity has been cancelled”. (Politiken’s netavis - Politiken On-line- 29 January 2002) The Radical People’s Party said that government’s budget cuts will be remembered as the time when “Denmark turned its back on the world” (ibid.)

Danish development NGOs are also up in arms. A large group of them has organised a petition to oppose government’s plans. Hanne Selnaes, Chairperson of Ibis, which has activities in several African countries, in a press statement called it a politically easy solution to cut down on development aid to finance improvements in domestic welfare services because “those at the receiving end don’t have the right to vote in Denmark. That’s why Danish development and environmental organizations have an obligation to draw attention to the consequences of these cuts. And we will continue to do so even though the current political situation makes it an up-hill battle. […] No matter how one attempts to defend the cuts, they send a bad signal to our partners in the developing countries. It will destroy co-operation and partnerships, which it has taken us many years to build. We are letting them down at a time where – more than ever – there is a need to bridge the enormous gap between the rich and the poor. Government’s proposals deepen this gap.” (Press statement, Ibis, 29 January 2002)

One of the most vocal international critics of the cuts has been
South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu. His arguments are in line with the criticism leveled at government from domestic sources.

“It seems as if Denmark has misunderstood the reasons for September 11 […] All terrorism has to be condemned without any reservations, but it remains a fact that there is widespread bitterness and anger in the so-called developing countries towards the inequities in the international economic system. The gap between the rich and the poor is ever widening. Denmark’s decision is strange since it will enhance inequity.” (Politiken Weekly, 16 January 2002)

Permit me a moment of nostalgia:

“Denmark will in the future continue to demonstrate its solidarity with the millions of people in the world whose daily lives are marked by poverty and living conditions that do not permit them to make use of their rights and their potential. We shall live up to our shared responsibility for creating a global development that makes it possible to improve the living conditions of the world’s poor.” (Partnership 2000, Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Danida, 2000)

Sounded really good, didn’t it? But so it seems that we bid a sad farewell to one of the most forward-thinking donor countries in the world …

Read a very brief summary in English of the Danish government’s review of Danish development aid:

The WORC aims to develop a "one-stop-shop" for gender-related training materials relevant to individuals and organisations active in the struggle for gender justice. It is intended to serve as a clearinghouse for gender-aware training materials in the area of ICT training, as well as a range of other fields for which there is an expressed need.

The international women's rights community moved forward, pressing to protect women's bodily integrity and right to sexual autonomy, to examine the ways that race or ethnicity and gender intersect to deny women human rights, and to protect women from gender-specific violations of the laws of war.

Despite the criminalisation of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Kenya in December 2001, many communities continue to carry out the traditional practice, and attitudes towards it in much of rural Kenya are changing only slowly, according to a local nongovernmental organisation.

An Islamic court in the northern Nigerian state of Sokoto acquitted on Wednesday a 17-year-old woman charged with adultery, which carries a sentence of death by stoning.

An ambitious education programme that hopes to put every child in Senegal into school by the end of the decade has been criticised by teachers. They fear that it will allow the government to abdicate its responsibilities and privatise education.

The Kenyan government has contracted six foreign companies to supply 300 million condoms to the country over next three years in its war against the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the East African Standard newspaper said on Saturday.

Corrupt United Nations staff in Nairobi extorted millions of pounds from refugees desperate for a fresh start in western countries including Britain, UN investigators have said. Three Kenyan employees of the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, are also charged with conspiring to send a death threat from Osama bin Laden to the US ambassador to Kenya.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child concluded its review of an initial report from Malawi with a Committee Expert recommending, in preliminary remarks, that the Government increase its efforts to enact further laws for the promotion of child rights and to revise the country's Constitution to bring it in line with the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions deplores the decision that, at the request of the prosecution, the trial of Swaziland opposition leader, Mario Masuku, is to be held behind closed doors. Only his immediate family, pastor and lawyers will be allowed to attend. COSATU is further concerned that the charges against Mario Masuku are two counts of “sedition”, related to remarks he made at two political meetings, which it is alleged “undermined the authority of the king”. This clearly shows that he is being charged for making political statements and exercising the right to free speech. This could only be deemed an “offence” in a country where basic human rights are denied.

The Anglican archbishop of South Africa, Njongonkulu Ndungane, on Friday called the South African government policy that prevents HIV-positive pregnant women from receiving the antiretroviral nevirapine to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission a "sin," Reuters reports.

In Africa, where knowledge about HIV transmission is low and the stigma attached to the virus is high, public health officials and AIDS experts are trying a variety of AIDS education methods that include radio programs, sporting events and even adult cinemas. Sub-Saharan Africa is home to 75% of the 40 million people infected with HIV/AIDS worldwide. Because only one in 1,440 African AIDS patients has access to antiretroviral drugs, HIV prevention efforts "may be the best hope" for the continent, Reuters Health reports.

Four Zimbabwean human rights activists are challenging their arrest, deportation and permanent banning from Malawi. The activists, representing the umbrella Zimbabwe Crisis Group, were arrested a day before the 14 January Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit and returned to Harare as the summit got under way.

The Sudanese government in 2001 took advantage of a continued state of emergency in the country to suppress opposition to the ruling National Congress party, according to a recently released report by Human Rights Watch (HRW).

The 670-page Human Rights Watch World Report 2002 includes summaries of human rights events in 2001 in 66 countries, as well as analyses of U.S. and European foreign policy, refugee issues, international justice, corporate social responsibility, and the weapons trade. Sections of the report have been posted as PDF files in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French.

Under rules of the International Criminal Court (ICC) treaty, national courts have primacy of jurisdiction -- even when the state's leaders are themselves implicated -- and the onus is on international prosecutors to prove that any fraudulent investigations and trials aren't "genuine." A long standing proponent of a permanent court to judge the worst crimes against civilians, Judge Arbour called the rule a "very, very bad idea." States with relatively developed legal systems will have a "major trump card" to evade justice and will clash with developing countries that don't, she said.

Garson's book sets out to "follow the money," tracking her investments (the publisher's advance for this book) through a small local bank and the international behemoth Chase. Both paths are fascinating and take us to places we would never visit on our own: the ForEx trading room of Chase, the planning offices of a multi-billion dollar petro-chemical refinery in Southern Thailand, and a union meeting in the living room of a sacked Sunbeam worker in Portland, Tennessee, USA. Apart from the deceptively plain writing, and the curiosity and wit that drive the story along, Garson approaches her subjects with an open-mindedness which disarms and charms everyone she meets. She finds everything interesting, she asks all the dumb questions most of us would never dare, she chats with the bosses and finds out about their lives and their kids, just as she chats with the Malaysian fisherman or the Tennessee factory worker and lets them describe their lives in the world of hyper capitalism. Amid all these earthy and amusing stories Garson explains with utter clarity how the international financial markets work, the driving force of "shareholder value" and the growing dis-articulation between workers and capital, profit and productivity. Indeed, by pulling on the threads that connect the shrimp farmer from Songkla to the New York matrons at the mutual fund shareholder meeting, she unravels many mysteries. Garson (who was once the Socialist Party's vice-presidential candidate) is firmly on the side of the people and she builds a picture, frame by frame, of how the globalised economy effects people. She puts the "real" back into the economy. It's a page-turner, extremely informative and a subtle political tract: a fine combination. What's more, it is funny and wonderfully written. Penguin, New York, 2002.

On November 21, President Bush gave the go-ahead for the resumption of the program, which had been temporarily halted in the wake of the September 11 attacks. Despite the President's order, government agencies responsible for implementing the refugee program have done little to get it back on track. As a result, thousands of refugees who fled political and religious persecution in their home countries are stuck in places where they are in danger.

Teacher unions and associations, the ministry, political parties and trade unions have all reacted strongly to a Medical Research Council (MRC) survey, detailed in a research letter published in the Lancet, a British medical journal, that found a third of all child rapes in South Africa are committed by teachers.

Mobs loyal to President Robert Mugabe have launched a new offensive to beat and intimidate hundreds of black farm workers, ending lingering hopes that the government would keep its promise to restore the rule of law. The latest officially orchestrated attacks come 10 days before a deadline for the forcible eviction of about 200 white landowners.

What is happening in Zimbabwe today is not a preparation for elections, but a violent campaign that could degenerate into civil war, Zimbabwe Professor Eliphas Mukonoweshuro told a meeting at the Royal Commonwealth Society in London on Monday night. "What the international community has witnessed is the gradual introduction of a civil-military junta.

A working group calling itself "Women at Barcelona", made up of scientists, activists, service providers, women living with HIV, and others whose focus is women/HIV/AIDs has been formed to work on a Women's Satellite Meeting and other women's events at the International AIDS Conference at Barcelona in July of 2002. To get involved or learn more, visit the website below.

The first ever Global Forum of Food Safety Regulators has opened, seeking ways to improve the safety of food worldwide at every step of the food production chain — from farmers, through processors and retailers, to consumers.

The US have blocked an agreement to increase drastically development aid to poor countries struggling to meet the United Nations' target of halving world poverty by 2015, according to the Financial Times, London.

Journalists have long been accused of wielding power without responsibility. But a group of more than 200 UK-based editors, writers, producers and reporters have spent the last year acting on the Primo Levi principle: "If not us, who? If not now, when?" Together they have produced a book, "Reporting the World," a guide to "ethical reporting" in times of conflict.

Oyo state governor, Alhaji Lamidi Adesina at the weekend inaugurated a N3.2 million Library and Media Resource Centre built by the state chapter of the NUJ with a plea to journalists to refrain from reports that could break the country.

Mario Masuku, a Swazi political leader, Adams Oshiomhole, leader of ICFTU an affiliate in Nigeria and Taye Wolde Semayat, President of an Ethiopian teacher union: three little known names imprisoned for struggling for basic freedoms in their own countries. January 24, 2002 will see these men in court and on trial, testing the democratic credentials of three very different Africa states. The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU)will be closely monitoring the results.

Britain has promised a sustained effort to help Africa break free of conflict and corruption. The pledge came after foreign ministers from the UK and France struggled to make a swift breakthrough in their diplomatic mission to bring an end to war in central Africa. Britain wants to follow up on its contribution to the war against terrorism in Afghanistan with concerted work to tackle conflict and corruption in Africa.

The European Union (EU), the United States (US) and Japan have been accused of enhancing the poverty of manufacturers and farmers in poorer nations of the world.

Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, Minister of Finance, has said Ghana might reach the decision point on the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative by the end of the first quarter of this year. "I cannot speak for them, but signals from benefactors indicate that decision point may be reached by the end of March," he said in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra.

The WTO's Doha Ministerial has launched a new round of international trade negotiations, due to begin with the first meeting of the Trade Negotiations Committee on 28 January 2002 and scheduled to end by 1 January 2005. At the conclusion of the Uruguay Round in 1994, calculations by the UNDP and OECD showed that within six years global income would grow by US$200-500 billion as a result of the round. However, it was acknowledged that all these gains would go to the industrialised countries of the OECD and to the richer middle-income developing countries. Even before implementation had started, LDCs were predicted to lose US$600 million a year and Sub-Saharan Africa US$1.2 billion a year from the Uruguay Round. If the Doha Round is to have a genuine 'development agenda', this situation must not be allowed to repeat itself.

It is used in everything from mobile phones to the Sony Playstation - and many other electronic devices on the market today. It's called coltan - a rare mineral that has become synonymous with conflict in Central Africa. A Gemini News Service correspondent looks at the international efforts to curtail the mineral's wartime role.

Amnesty International and press watchdogs are calling on Sudan's government to stop jailing and harassing staff of the nation's only English-language newspaper, the Khartoum Monitor, which specializes in coverage of the southern part of the country, home to most of Sudan's African population and the main battleground of a brutal, 18-year-old civil war.

Amendments to Zimbabwe's controversial new media bill are only "cosmetic" changes, independent media groups and journalists told IRIN on Wednesday.

Eight Egyptian men arrested for the "practice of debauchery" are likely to remain in jail for some time and could be subjected to torture, a local underground human-rights group has warned.

If the peace process in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is to have any chance of success, it must confront the issue of natural resource extraction in a serious and explicit manner, says the international aid charity, Oxfam, in a briefing document issued on Tuesday.

The rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) reported ongoing fighting between its forces and those of the Sudanese government in the disputed oil-rich regions of western and central Upper Nile, in south-central Sudan.

The Transitional National Government (TNG) has issued a directive banning the carrying of weapons on the streets of the capital Mogadishu, a senior TNG official told IRIN on Monday.

They are the forgotten victims of the HIV/AIDS virus that is devastating Africa. Amid the terrible social and economic destruction, all too often it is the elderly who are left to pick up the pieces.

Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa's political woes appeared to deepen on Monday as a disgruntled opposition boycotted bridge-building talks he called to resolve an impasse that crippled the National Assembly last week.

Insecurity in the southeastern province of Moxico has sent thousands of people fleeing into the capital, Luena, and aid workers expect more people to flock to the town for humanitarian aid in coming weeks.

Thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) fled a temporary site some 100 km north of the Liberian capital, Monrovia, on Sunday following exchanges of gunfire near the area, humanitarian sources said on Monday.

Heads of customs administrations have been reminded that they are charged with a responsibility to promote integrity and must at all times display leadership in preventing and rooting out corruption.

Why did people in different parts of the world end up with different skin colour? The answer lies in vitamins, according to a recent study.

Aid and poverty alleviation agencies are racially biased and are reluctant to fund black-owned development organisations. That was the word from Masakhane Development Trust co-ordinator Vusi Kobese.

An astonishing development is changing one of Africa's most remarkable land marks beyond recognition. The ice cap on Mt Kilimanjaro, one of the few places in the world where ice and snow can be seen on the Equator, is expected to disappear in the next 12 years. Staff writer Mildred Ngesa and photographer Blasto Ogindo recently visited the mountain on a fact finding mission.