The Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) and the Open Society Justice Initiative (the Justice Initiative) are pleased to invite applications for the Human Rights Fellows Program for the 2006-2008 session.

This program was launched in 2003 by the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) and the Open Society Justice Initiative, in collaboration with Conectas Human Rights, the Open Society Foundation (South Africa) and South African, Mozambican and Angolan Civic organizations.

The Fellows Program is 20 months in duration and involves both academic study and practical experience in human rights/public interest advocacy. Up to six human rights lawyers and activists from Angola and Mozambique will be selected to participate. Candidates must be nominated by human rights NGOs based in Angola or Mozambique.

For further information, please visit http://www.conectasur.org/pt/noticia.php?cod=890 or write to [email protected]

Every day, thousands of Africans living abroad line up in money-transfer offices to wire home the odd dollar they are able to save. From the US, Saudi Arabia, Germany and Belgium - the top sources of remittances to developing countries - the total of money sent is more than foreign development aid. Yet most of the money sent home by migrants is unrecorded, and therefore does not enter many countries' national statistics. Development planners increasingly stress the importance of tracking this money. That could help governments try to increase remittances as a source of development finance and better channel them into productive sectors.

Since the 1980s, the African continent has been involved in major political, economic and social change processes (e.g. democratisation, withdrawal and decentralisation of the State, rise of civil society, etc.). At regional and sub-regional level, integration processes are taking place while the creation of the African Union (AU) reflects the determination to move forward in constructing an African citizenship and defining a new partnership with the rest of the world (amongst others through NEPAD). On the whole, populations aspire to more democracy, transparency, justice and room to develop their own initiatives. The Forum aims at constructing a Pan African alliance for change Both the African Union Commission and the Alliance for changing governance in Africa recognise that strategies aimed at transforming the way in which societies and public affairs are managed, will require a long-term perspective. This meeting of minds led to the decision to co-organise this Forum.

The CSI is an international action-research initiative, which provides civil society stakeholders with a diagnostic tool for assessing the current state of civil society on a country level and creating a basis for dialogue, joint reflection and action. CIVICUS is recruiting a successor to the current CSI Project Manager, to take the lead in the evaluation, redesign and subsequent implementation of the CSI in 2006 and beyond. The position is based at the CIVICUS head office in Johannesburg, South Africa.