One of the major weaknesses of contemporary social research in and about Africa is its lack of careful attention to epistemological and methodological issues. This weakness has made itself manifest at a time when the increasing complexities of the social dynamics that shape livelihood on the continent and the wider global context call for a greater investment of effort in the refinement of the procedures and instruments of investigation and analyses with a view to achieving a more accurate and holistic assessment of rapidly changing realities.

The RHC will 1) facilitate the acquisition of emergency preparedness, mitigation, and response 2) perform the designated activities under the direct supervision and in consultation with the Regional Director as the designated “Humanitarian Lead,” activating Humanitarian Response Department support, coordinating with the regional office, activating the Oxfam International and partner’s network, and otherwise implementing contingency plans 3) The RHC will also support integration of conflict transformation skills.

The four African countries that originally proposed the Cotton Initiative will produce a proposal on cutting domestic support in the “coming days”, Benin told the Cotton Sub-Committee on 31 January 2006 in its first meeting since the 13-18 December 2005 Hong Kong Ministerial Conference. The Cotton Four (Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali), sub-committee chairperson Crawford Falconer, and some other countries said work on domestic support will be urgently needed if members are to meet the 30 April deadline for “modalities” that was agreed in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration says cuts in trade-distorting domestic support on cotton will be deeper and quicker than those agreed for agriculture as a whole, but does not spell out how much deeper or faster, according to the Millenium Development Goals Campaign.

AFRODAD, in collaboration with the SADC Parliamentary Forum, convened a second Dialogue between SADC Parliamentarians and representatives of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in Windhoek, Namibia on 15 and 16 February, 2006 to discuss the question of Loan Contraction and Debt Management in the region. The workshop, which brought together about 12 Parliamentarians and 20 CSO representatives, was held under the theme 'Dialogue on the Loan Contraction Process and Debt Management in SADC' and was a continuation of an earlier Dialogue between Parliamentarians and representatives of CSOs that was held from 23 - 24 August 2004, in Harare, Zimbabwe. At the end of the meeting, Communique was issued, which is available through the link below.