The revised draft of the Children's Bill did not adequately address the huge impact the HIV/AIDS crisis was having on the social welfare system for children, civic society organisations said this week.

What are the links between HIV, poverty, education and gender inequality? How have structural adjustment and cost-sharing affected vulnerable children in Tanzania? Are policy-makers able to address the serious inequalities and vulnerabilities faced by the growing number of children working the country's streets?

UNICEF and World Health Organisation representatives in Uganda have asked the government and rebel groups to observe an eight-day ceasefire, beginning Tuesday, to allow more than 50,000 vaccinators to immunize children against measles. "No cause and no conflict can be greater or more urgent than the cause of protecting all the children of Uganda from this deadly disease," the representatives said in a statement.

This report includes a comprehensive review of existing research, both published and unpublished, on the old in South Africa. The reports looks at the extent of poverty, saying South Africa has one of the most rapidly ageing populations in Africa, with a particular increase in the 64-73 year age category, from 25.8% of the total population of older people in 1996 to 26.5% in 1999.