Some 40 coffee farmers in Mubende have benefited from a government donation of sh50m. This is in pursuit of the strategic policy of planting better quality clonal coffee which is more resistant to disease than the traditional varieties. He added that the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) had distributed about 40,000 seedlings to the farmers as they wait for more seeds later this month. He also added that private nursery operators had been approached to supplement seeds from UCDA.

While Nigeria signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1991, it is yet to establish a law making the convention's provisions enforceable in its courts. A bill prepared in 1993 could not be signed into law by the then military government due to objections raised by religious groups and traditionalists. A special committee was subsequently set up to harmonise the draft with Nigerian religious and customary beliefs.

A Japanese business delegation has committed about R60 million towards upgrading two clinics in Tsolo in the Eastern Cape province. The delegation, led by Total Engineering Corporation general manager Yoji Ishikawa, made the announcement during a two-day visit to the province.

The United Nations held a two-day conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, last week to discuss the relationship between Africa's severe food shortages and the HIV/AIDS pandemic, Xinhua News Agency reports. More than 50 people, including U.N. delegates and representatives from local and international non-governmental agencies, were scheduled to meet at the conference.