The third high level forum (HLF3) on aid effectiveness will be held between the 2nd and 4th of September in Accra to discuss the implementation of the Paris Declaration on aid effectiveness since 2005. Prior to the HLF3, civil society representatives expressed concern that the 'HLF could represent a step backwards in efforts to improve aid effectiveness'. Meanwhile, African, Caribbean and Pacific countries and their counterparts in Central and Latin America to ‘put an end to the long drawn so called banana war'. ‘After failing to strike a deal at the last WTO negotiations in Geneva, ACP countries want to reiterate their position on the decision of the European Union, the major consumers of Latin American banana to gradually reduce the EU’s tariff of 176 Euros per tonne to 116 Euros by 2015’. Also in trade-related news, the United States and the East African Community (EAC) signed a new trade agreement that will see the deepening of relations and bilateral trade, valued at about $1.2 billion last year. While, analysis of the growing involvement of Russia in Africa has come under the US radar of concern given ‘Africa’s increasingly recognised geopolitical significance as well as the strategic importance of its natural resources to the security of the United States’.

Also, this week, there remains uncertainty about whether Uganda will join the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) customs union, that is soon to make the regional bloc a free trade area and guarantee preferential rates to members’ exports. Uganda’s reticence to embrace the free trade area stems from national protectionists and the manufacturing lobby who regard the union as a threat to its nascent industry. Similarly, during the second round of negotiations on the protocol for a common market for the EAC, Tanzania expressed concern with respect to provisions on the free movement of persons and labour.

Following the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) is investigating the appropriate steps towards full integration into the AU architecture. Also this week, a committee of experts on gender held a two-day meeting in preparation for the session of African ministers in charge of gender and women's affairs due to discuss and adopt the AU’s gender policy. In South Africa, the ten permanent committees of the Pan African Parliament held new round of sittings from 25 to 29 August in preparation of the forthcoming ordinary session of the Parliament to be convened between 27 October and 7 November this year.

In peace and security related news, the AU commission chairman, Jean Ping, visited Mauritania to talk with the junta that seized power on 6 August, along with other political stakeholders and civil society in an effort to find a solution to the constitutional crisis ensuing from the military coup. Though the AU has strongly condemned the putsch, a majority in the Mauritanian parliament has pledged loyalty to the new military regime. In other news, the AU commission chairman has welcomed the signing of the agreement between Somalia's Transitional Federal Government and the opposition Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia and added that his institution would do all that is necessary for the effective implementation of the deal. Ping also announced that the AU would work closely with the United Nations to ensure the early deployment of a UN peacekeeping operation in Somalia and called on the international community to provide the necessary support to sustain the current political momentum in Somalia. However, the AU and chief negotiator in the Zimbabwe conflict, President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, were unsuccessful in reaching a deal between the two main rivals at the recently concluded Heads of State and Government summit of Southern African Development Community (SADC). In their final communiqué, SADC leaders 'reaffirmed their commitment to work with the people of Zimbabwe in order to overcome the challenges that they are facing'. Activists, trade unionists and other human rights organisations strongly condemned SADC leaders for failing to include in their communiqué the global demands to have the ban on humanitarian food aid in Zimbabwe lifted accusing them of not being geared to handle the crises in Zimbabwe. Though some analysts decry the ‘nauseating power sharing gimmick in which the ‘paradox of Africa’s fledgling democracies is just a starting point for negotiations’. Also regarding southern Africa, AU commission chairperson Jean Ping sent his condolences to the family and the people of Zambia following the passing of President Levy Patrick Mwanawasa, which has spurred speculation about political unrest in Zambia.

In other news, Ms Maria Netto, United Nations Development Programme's climate change policy advisor noted that developing countries may not achieve their Millennium Development Goals targets by 2015 unless they addressed climate change concerns. Further, the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation will organise, in October, a six-day seminar in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, to analyse the implications of global climate change for sustainable agricultural production in African, Caribbean and Pacific countries.