Zambia: The community call box

Contributor
Oct 10, 2008

A pilot project to introduce payphones, connected to satellite networks, is providing telephone services to remote communities and helping to develop the telecoms market in Zambia. The unprecedented success of mobile phones across Africa is well documented and clear for anyone to see. But leave the cities and main roads, and the mobile phone is quickly transformed from an economic success-making tool into an interesting but essentially useless accessory.

Zambia

DRC: Rural poor to benefit from grant

Contributor
Oct 10, 2008

An $8.6 million grant to enhance agricultural production and provide food security for poor people in rural areas of the Republic of Congo was announced today by the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). The initiative is part of a larger $18.7 million project in the Likouala, Pool and Sangha Departments, which aims to reach 250 villages and some 20,000 households, according to a news release issued by the Rome-based UN agency.

Democratic Republic of Congo

Africa: African language locales: Call for Volunteers

Contributor
Oct 10, 2008

ANLoc, the African Network for Localization, has started an initiative to build locales for over 100 African languages. The project is now ready to line up volunteers. We are NOT quite ready to begin the technical work for the specific languages, but we ARE in the process of finding volunteers to help out for each language.

South Africa: Post-docoral fellowships

Contributor
Oct 10, 2008

The Centre for Sociological Research seeks applications for up to four post-doctoral fellowships. The PDFs are tenable for two years and successful applicants will be paid R160,000 in the first year. The CSR's PDFs will be expected to publish a book and/or a series of articles based on their doctoral research; begin a new research project; and participate in the intellectual life of the centre.

South Africa

Africa: Civil Society engagement ahead of EAC/COMESA/SADC summit

Contributor
Oct 10, 2008

On 20th October 2008 Heads of State from three sub-regional economic organizations COMESA, EAC and SADC will come together in a first historic tripartite summit in Kampala to “decide on matters related to enhancing cooperation among EAC, COMESA and SADC, including deepening trade, investments, and infrastructure, linking transport corridors, promoting joint projects to boost of industrialization agriculture and food security as well as enabling free movement of people between the three RECs”.

Somalia: Migrants 'feared dead' off Yemen

Contributor
Oct 10, 2008

About 100 migrants are feared to have drowned after being thrown overboard by smugglers in the Gulf of Aden, the UN refugee agency says. The migrants were attempting to flee to Yemen from war-torn Somalia but were forced off the boat about 5km (3 miles) from the coast, a UN official said.

Somalia

East Africa: Rwanda opts for English teaching

Contributor
Oct 10, 2008

Rwanda's parliament has decided that all education will be taught in English instead of French. Officially the Rwandan decision is a result of joining the English-speaking East African Community. But relations between Rwanda and France have been frosty following the 1994 genocide, when France was accused of supporting Hutu militias.

Rwanda

ICASO Board of Directors: Call for Applications

Contributor
Oct 10, 2008

The ICASO network of networks operates globally, regionally and locally, and supports community advocates in over 100 countries. ICASO operates from its International Secretariat in Canada and through Regional Secretariats based on five continents. Recently, the ICASO Board created two new Board positions specifically dedicated to representatives of people living with HIV. By doing this, ICASO aims to ensure that the voices of people living with HIV are an integral part of ICASO’s strategic d...read more

Sierra Leone: Ghost schools, phantom progress on education

Contributor
Oct 03, 2008

Magnus Kamara is a school inspector with a difference. He has been hired to find schools that don't exist."It has been a shocking experience. In some of the towns and villages we visited, there were neither school structures nor genuine teachers, but the government was always paying salaries and subsidies to them, on monthly basis."

Sierra Leone

Nigeria: Jobless eke living from garbage heaps

Contributor
Oct 03, 2008

As a rickety garbage truck rattled to a halt and discharged its contents, Francis Adigwe, an unemployed textile engineer turned scavenger, rushed over and emerged with his find of the day, a piece of metal he estimated will bring in more than $2. Adigwe is haunted by two concerns, the toll that the job he has done since he was laid off five years ago is taking on his health and his ever-dwindling chances of finding a wife.

Nigeria

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