KABISSA-FAHAMU-SANGONET NEWSLETTER 36 * 7862 SUBSCRIBERS
KABISSA-FAHAMU-SANGONET NEWSLETTER 36 * 7862 SUBSCRIBERS
ENAWA - European and North American WomenAction has a dossier devoted to messages by women's organizations and feminists, developing a culture of peace. Women's organizations are invited to send their messages, statements and petitions to the IIAV for posting on the ENAWA site.
The entire educational infrastructure for secondary education in Zimbabwe is in dismal shape - teachers are scarce, buildings are deteriorating and crucial educational materials are becoming a luxury. An ever-growing number of families are forced to make the choice as to which of their children should attend school. And boys are the favourites. Camfed, an organisation that works for disadvantaged girls in sub-Saharan Africa, is trying to change that.
Most former British colonies are characterised by glaring land inequalities. Such sad status was part of the agenda during the recent UN conference against racism and related intolerances.
Agencies involved in the ongoing battle against HIV/AIDS must target young men or risk devastating effects in the long-term, warns a new joint report from the Panos Institute and Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).
With a projected growth rate of just over 3 per cent for the next decade, Africa's fortunes are unlikely to improve. This figure, marginally above population growth, is only half the target set by the United Nations 10 years ago to tackle the economic and social challenges of the continent. A new report from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development says that two decades of sub-standard growth have hit the poorest fifth the hardest, their incomes dropping by 2 per cent a year.
The fourth and last debate in DebtChannel's debt forum has begun. The subject? "How to ensure that debt relief is translated into poverty reduction?" One basic and key element in this respect that doesn't just apply to debt relief but to public expenditure more widely, says the topic introduction, is to ensure that the money allocated to specific programmes actually gets to the beneficiaries. Join in with your views and arguments, or to take issue with those posted there.
The first ever edition of the Global Corruption Report, the new definitive annual overview of the state of corruption around the globe from Transparency International, will be released on October 15. It features analyses of party funding, money laundering and corruption in the diamond trade, and in-depth regional reports from across the globe, all supplemented by a data and research section. Regional reports also focus on trends in corruption and anti-corruption activities.
China, Egypt, Iran and Pakistan are calling for a U.N.-sponsored coalition against terrorism. The move offers the world body a chance to reassert itself but Washington has some reservations.
The United Nations health chief has urged countries around the world to set up defences against biological and chemical attacks.
Two people have died and 2,350 others have been affected by floods in Mali that have destroyed 1,817 houses and washed away 870 ha of farmland, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on Tuesday.
Six private FM radio stations were licensed on Tuesday by Burkina Faso's communication commission, which regulates broadcasting in the West African country, PANA reported.
We know that more than 80% of the population in Uganda depends on agriculture production. For the rural population - more than the 85% of the total population - agriculture is the main way of making a living either as pure subsistence farmers or with a little semi-commercial farming. The Plan for Modernisation of Agriculture (PMA) - a central element of Uganda's poverty eradication strategy - is key to enabling the rural population to improve their livelihood and ensure food security through changing subsistence agriculture to doing farming as a business.
The purpose of the Women's Human Rights Resources Web Site is to provide reliable and diverse information on international women' human rights via the Internet. The site is developed by the Bora Laskin Law Library of University of Toronto, Canada.
With less than two months left before the fourth ministerial conference of the World Trade Organisation, in Doha, Qatar, the multilateral trading body finds itself in a fragile state. No consensus seems to have emerged between North and South regarding issues to be on the agenda for the November meeting.
Friends of the Earth International today criticised the Governments of Europe and North America for putting trade priorities above people and the planet in their plans for next year's Earth Summit.
Trade ministers from the world's poorest countries are demanding that Western countries fulfill their promises and open up their markets to goods from poor countries. But even if the richer members of the World Trade Organization agree to this (and it is far from certain), reports Gemini News Service, a question remains: will they get fair prices for their goods?
Can you believe that email is 30 years old? This article explores the history of the first email message. It also discusses how email has become an application most of us can't live without. Well – most of us with an Internet connection, that is.
More harm than good? That is the question that is sought to be answered by OneWorld, the world's leading online network for human rights and sustainable development. We have launched a campaign website on trade in the lead up to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial Meeting in Doha, Qatar set for 9-13 November 2001. Keep up with the news, actions, background information and possible solutions by reading what OneWorld and its partners have to say.
This new study examines the current state of gender and IT, in terms of the opportunities and obstacles women encounter. It also makes important recommendations for planners, policymakers, and educators. You can download a pdf copy of the executive summary or the full publication for free.
"We know that indiscriminate violence and terrorism by state and non-state actors are a global phenomenon. We are particularly aware of the human cost of terrorism and war frequently perpetrated in the name of religion or belief systems. However we regard all of these as assaults on the principle of respect for civilian life."
Countries could get more fish from the oceans if they allow overfished stocks to recuperate, reduce wastage and manage fisheries resources better, said FAO Director-General, Dr. Jacques Diouf, in Reykjavik (Iceland) today.
The West knows about Africa's leaders - Mandela, Mugabe, Moi, Obasanjo - and
their failures and achievements. But rarely does it think about the tribulations of the oppressed African woman. This is probably because women never seem to own enough, fight or kill enough to make headlines in most African countries. The setting up of the first ever women's Internet newspaper, Africanwoman, might change all this. A group of 36 women from Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Ghana have originated the project. The paper will largely constitute news and features that seek to paint the true picture of Africa through the eyes of women.
The Institute of Race Relations is set to publish a wide-ranging report exposing racism in British government policy, institutions and popular culture. The report, entitled 'The three faces of British racism', shows how racism has worsened under a government which claims to be leading the fight against it. The report focuses on asylum policy and reform of the criminal justice system as the main areas in which the promise held out by the Macpherson Report has been squandered.
The suspension of John Carr by the department of Minerals and Energy is the most damning indictment of government and the Coega Development Corporation's handling of the Coega project to date, say the Southern African Public Service Accountability Monitor.
Please join us next week on a live radio webcast discussion with women activists and leaders from around the world concerning their reactions in the aftermath of the recent terrorist attacks in the U.S. See details on our website about how you can join in.
The goal of this publication is to make international human rights treaties more known and particularly those that consider teaching and education as effective means to shape international human rights standards into reality.
Although "measures of prevention, education, and protection aimed at the eradication of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance" had been declared a central theme of the World Conference Against Racism (WCAR), this observer found disappointingly little examination of education of any kind, especially human rights education, as a tool to prevent and combat racism.
Privacy advocates are urging U.S. citizens who are concerned about maintaining our constitutionally protected civil liberties to sign the "In Defense of Freedom" statement before Congress votes on proposals to expand electronic surveillance and include all hacking offenses in the anti-terrorism bill drafted in response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Please read, copy to new e-mail, sign and forward to friends - the petition is going to the UN.
Effective Capacity Building in Nonprofit Organizations, published in August 2001 by Venture Philanthropy Partners, brings some common language to the discussion of capacity building and offers insights and examples of how nonprofits have pursued building up their organizational muscle. The report contributes to the growing national conversation about how to help nonprofits become stronger, more sustainable and better able to serve their communities. McKinsey & Company prepared the study at the request of VPP. McKinsey also developed a practical assessment tool for this report that nonprofits can use to measure their own organizational capacity. We hope that nonprofits and funders alike find value in this report.
Nonprofit organizations working for peace are showing a growing vitality in the wake of the 9-11 attacks.
If, like many nonprofits, you're using Microsoft IIS on your servers, the Gartner Group says it's time to reevaluate. The constant procession of worms and viruses is driving costs up dramatically. (from http://news.gilbert.org/)
The University of Central Florida's College of Education, in conjunction with the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) and Indiana University, will host the 46th annual meeting of CIES in Orlando, Florida on March 6-9, 2002. The theme of the conference is "The social construction of marginality: Globalization's impact on the disenfranchised". Panels, papers, and symposia proposals are due by November 1, 2001.
Encouraging to see the growing awareness of the advantages of conservation tillage on our continent. Spurred on by, for example, the draft problems of the south (as highlighted in John Asburner's visit to Swaziland and Lesotho) and the brief planting 'window' of the Sudan, farmers throughout Africa are turning to conservation tillage and, although there remain many unsolved constraints, the linking of commercial and subsistence initiatives (as in the Simdlangetshwa Field Day) and the international exchange of ideas and channeling of research resources facilitated by ACT, is lending momentum to the 'agrarian revolution'.
The National Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS is a non-governmental organization (NGO) of people living with HIV or AIDS. Its major purpose is to mobilise people living with HIV/AIDS, supporting PLWHA programs, represent, at all levels, their concerns and issues and running educational and leadership development workshops, seminars and campaigns.
Save the Children, an international relief and development agency,
seeks a Senior Research Specialist to oversee global research activi-
ties for The Saving Newborn Lives Initiative (SNL).
The South African Medical Research Council (MRC) and the South African AIDS Vaccine Initiative (SAAVI) invite applications for one-year travelling research fellowships in health research, with preference given to proposals which address the MRC's research priorities (see below) and particularly to those addressing HIV/AIDS research. While applications for shorter periods of three to twelve months may be considered, applications for the full twelve-month period are encouraged. The purpose of the fellowship is to build research capacity and strengthen research collaboration within Africa and between African
scientists. The fellowship may be held in South Africa for non-South African applicants, or in any other African country for South African applicants. The award will commence no earlier than May 2002, and will cover the fellow's return travel from home to host country, the fellow's salary (calculated on South African scales, in US$) in the host country, and reasonable research costs in the host country. Five such fellowships may be awarded.
South Africa’s ground-breaking Constitution outlaws discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. But despite this, particularly in the poorer communities, many gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people across the country face discrimination and prejudice. Aside from a couple of glossy publications catering for the more advantaged, this community has very little access to media through which to express their views, tell their stories, or receive positive messages about themselves. The programme, In the Pink, on Bush Radio, is the first and only radio programme dedicated to gays and lesbians, but it is a lonely voice. Idasa’s Democracy Radio Project, the Triangle Project, and Idasa’s Chapter 2 Network, are getting together to host a day-long workshop for radio producers in Cape Town and surrounding areas, focusing on the gay and lesbian community.
Ten years ago, Kenyan leaders wrote a new chapter to its history. In a series of well-publicised meeting, senior government leaders, including the Vice President, declared war on Kenyans supporting democratic reforms. Immediately thereafter, on October 29, 1991, the first houses were torched and the first drops of blood shed in the Rift Valley Province of Kenya. It was the beginning of a campaign of violence that the Kenya Government even to this day - seeks to explain away as ethnic violence.
By 1994, over 1,500 Kenyans were dead and hundreds of thousands homeless. Since then the ghost of violence has regularly visited Kenya. In 1997, this caravan of death set up camp at the coastal region leaving up to a hundred people dead and hundreds of thousands of others homeless. Evidence implicated the complicity of senior politicians and government officials.
The Kenya Human Rights Commission estimates that in the last decade state-sponsored violence has left over 4,000 people dead and nearly 6,000 forced to flee their homes. Another recent survey put the figure of those not yet resettled at 228,744.
Ten years on, the perpetrators of these crimes still freely walk the breadth of the country. Many retain their places of honour in the cabinet. Those senior civil servants who failed to stop the violence have never been disciplined. Security officials who failed defend those attacked still remain at their posts. None sleeps uneasy for fear that the arm of justice may yet catch up with them.
Neither has any of them resigned for their shameful failure. None has yet been called to account. Their victims are either dead or in no position to bring them to justice. Justice is still doled out on their terms. And because they preside over the government, they have defined the limits on who gets punished and who does not.
Impunity has become the by-word for governance in Kenya. From the looting of government corporations to the daylight execution of suspects by the police, the hydra of impunity has been reproducing itself. It now the single most serious threat to what remains of the justice system in Kenya.
This is why the independent Kenya Human Rights Commission has started a campaign to stem this tide of impunity. The Commission's campaign seeks to ensure, among other things, resettlement of victims of state-sponsored terror and individual accountability for human rights violations. The campaign against impunity in Kenya is not isolated from the tide of world events shaping our reality. Few can ignore the impact that the Pinochet case has had on the fight against impunity. That case has set a precedent for what other dictators could face. Pinochet is now a milestone on that road that justice may yet be done even when it takes years. And there are several others. Several countries now have laws facilitating the prosecution of foreigners for international crimes committed abroad.
The world over, boltholes for violators of human rights violators are getting sealed. There are several, well known torturers within the Kenyan police force. Those who bankrolled the orgies of political violence in the Rift Valley and the Coast provinces in Kenya are well known. They have names. They have faces. Their names are on every victim's lips. Naming these violators is one way of blowing off their veil of comfort. Their victims have been named. Just as those who have survived atrocities have had to wear their identities as sufferers so should the perpetrators too wear the identities of shame.
It might be argued that the mere naming of underwriters of death is too feeble a response; a meaningless endeavour. However, history counsels that naming names of violators is a powerful first step in the road to justice. Even governments with the most brazen records of human rights violation will deny their guilt. Impunity only thrives best under the cloaks of anonymity. It is a badge of arrogance only won in the security of the collective.
Yet, it will never be possible in Kenya to bring to justice all the violators of human rights. It has never been possible anywhere in the world. Decades after its nightmare of disappearances, Argentina is yet to bring to account the bulk of its military that authored the terror. Having relived its pain of apartheid, through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, South Africa hopes it has drawn the line on its past. None of the architects of apartheid has been booked for appointment with justice. Zimbabwe has its own chamber of horrors. The Matabeleland massacres of the Mugabe government have remained shielded from public scrutiny. Mugabe did not begin his orgy of violence with the commercial farmers. Up to 20,000 Zimbabweans are believed to have been killed in the 1980s violence, largely executed by Mugabe's 5 Brigade.
The Kenyan campaign is anchored on the belief that peace and reconciliation can only be anchored by justice. Individual perpetrators must bear personal responsibility for certain rights violations. It is individuals who torture and kill and burn houses. There is now universal jurisdiction for certain violations that constitute international crimes. In deed we are, but a few steps from an international criminal court.
The struggle against impunity in Kenya, as elsewhere, will require a combination of strategies. From court action to sustained political pressure. To be effective it will not be just a campaign restricted to Kenya but one that takes advantage of developments at the international level. That is why it involves an alliance of actors. There are no illusions that it will be easy. The Kenya Government still leans its weight on all institutions of justice. Part of the battle will be institutional reform. Even at the international level there are real difficulties to be overcome. Many of the powerful governments have abetted in the perpetuation of impunity. Trade and national interests all too often have been allowed to trump human rights. We only need to look at the diplomatic dance being played out over Sudan since it started drilling oil.
The fight against impunity will be not bear quick results. But then, no such struggles have been easy.
* Mutuma Ruteere is with the Kenya Human Rights Commission.
Freeplay Energy Group and Motorola will co-brand and distribute a wireless phone power source. The wind-up accessory is expected to provide three to six minutes of talk time and several hours of standby time for each 45-second hand-cranking session.
(via Balancing-Act's News Update 79)
Leaders of opposition parties in Guinea-Bissau agreed on Tuesday to press for the holding of an extraordinary session of the National Assembly to discuss the situation in the West African country, a diplomatic source in the capital, Bissau, told IRIN.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday urged all countries of the world to join the international fight against terrorism, warning that without united, global action the effort would fail.
South Africa's national census which starts next week, will not include questions on HIV/AIDS, as the topic was "too sensitive", Motale Phirwa, National Census Manager of Statistic South Africa, told IRIN on Tuesday.
Nelson Mandela, the chief mediator of the Burundi peace talks, said on Monday that leaders of the Great Lakes countries had agreed to "a number of issues" that had been hindering implementation of the Burundi peace agreement, Radio Tanzania reported.
Serious floods are likely to occur between October and November this year in southern Somalia.
A senior adviser to Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir has said the IGAD-sponsored peace process is a crucial part of efforts to end Sudan's 18-year civil war, AFP reported on Monday.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Tuesday called on the Ugandan Parliament to reject a proposed law which it claimed would threaten the legitimate activities of civil society.
The US said on Friday that it would continue to impose restrictions on Sudan despite the UN Security Council's decision on Friday to lift its five year-old sanctions, news agencies reported.
A report released on Monday by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on economic aid to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) says that transparency and liberalisation advocated by Kinshasa at the political and economic levels, and with respect to human rights, offers a "real opportunity to end the crisis".
Fighting in northern Angola has sent a new wave of refugees into the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported on Tuesday.
The World Health Organisation regional office for Africa begins its return to Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, on Tuesday after a four-year absence caused by civil war, the UN agency reported.
For most international IT companies Africa is often their smallest market. As it sits at the bottom of the pile, it does not usually merit much attention. Since late last year Hewlett Packard has been operating two divisions in Africa: one for South Africa and another for the rest of the continent. With its recent merger with Compaq and its e-Inclusion programme these things might have a wider significance than the usual shifts in sales channel arrangements. Russell Southwood looks at how Hewlett Packard would like this change to affect its work.
The government of Eritrea has asked Antonio Bandini, the Italian ambassador in Asmara, to leave the country following European Union (EU) protests over alleged human rights violations in Eritrea in the last two weeks.
Liberia's President, Charles Taylor, on Friday announced the reopening of its borders with neighbouring Sierra Leone and Guinea, the pro-government Radio Liberia International (RLI) reported.
US intelligence officials believe that Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organisation may be moving its operations base out of Afghanistan to Somalia. Bin Laden may also be planning to follow.
The revamped Zimbabwean supreme court delivered a temporary ruling yesterday which upheld President Robert Mugabe's "fast track" seizures of white-owned land.
The latest editorial from NUA Internet Surveys provides interesting data, disaggregated by region, about Internet access around the world. It's full of interesting pieces of information such as this one: "If we take a whirlwind tour around the world's regions, we can see that Internet penetration remains low in most developing countries. In Africa, for example, almost all countries have a penetration rate of less than 2 percent."
There is further data about people with Internet access in Africa. Included is a link to the actual data tables themselves and the research methodology. An easy, informative read.
The editor of Swaziland's state-owned newspaper was shot dead on Monday morning, apparently in an attempted carjacking, agencies reported.
The war has left an estimated 2 million persons dead in southern and central Sudan since 1983. At the beginning of 2001, approximately 4 million Sudanese were internally displaced, and 420,000 Sudanese were refugees in neighboring countries. Despite the war, some 360,000 refugees from other countries resided in Sudan.
Within the near future, as many as 160,000 Eritrean refugees who fled to Sudan during Eritrea’s 30-year war for independence expect to repatriate with the assistance of UNHCR. Based on a USCR site visit to Eritrea in February 2001, this report assesses this refugee reintegration into Eritrea after a decade-long stay in Sudan.
A must-read for policy makers, government leaders, journalists, educators, relief workers, and humanitarians alike: the World Refugee Survey 2001 provides exclusive insight and expert analysis of the most up-to-date issues facing refugees and internally displaced persons worldwide.
The USAID officer, committed and caring fellow, said to me: "Richard, computers in schools? Uganda is still a bookless society. They need books, not computers!" I had to think about this before replying: "In a bookless society, why start with books?"—a digital variant of Wayne Gretzky's injunction to "skate to where the puck is gonna be!"
A comprehensive new web site containing more than 5,000 items from over 400 organizations is now available for professionals working around the globe to end violence against women. The site allows the user to access policy documentation, articles and publications on the latest research, training materials and curricula, and communication materials such as videos, brochures and posters.
On 1 August 2001, Mama Cash launched a new program: Economic Empowerment for women. This means that the program is now ready to give out grants to small, innovative or starting women's groups. Overall, Mama Cash aims to broaden the economic basis of the women's movement itself, to assist groups working for economic justice worldwide, and to contribute to gathering, consolidating and mobilising the knowledge of women to engender economic changes.
The third World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance (WCAR), held in Durban from August 31 to September 8, has received largely negative press. But for those of us present in Durban, this was not the whole picture. The voices of thousands of victims of racism and xenophobia were heard and the achievements in many areas were far-reaching. Not least amongst these, were gains made in the defence of refugee and migrants' rights for which NGOs, in particular, should be especially proud.
Transparency International, an anti-corruption coalition that strives to counter the impact of corruption on international and nation business transactions, is preparing to monitor the forthcoming election in The Gambia.
Thanks a lot for your objectives analysies you made concerning the Us attacks. I have learnt a lot about the "why" of the issue which was hidden in the international mass media. Keep it up.
Is the world so far gone into madness that the US can get away with what it pleases? Because what the US does the rest of the world follows. It is like the popular child in the playground that everyone wants to be friendly with, even to the detriment of the school.The US is the home of the drug trade, pornography, irreligion and every other ungodly practise in the world. Their dominance of negative enegy on the internet testifies to this. I am a South African who lived through a greater terror than hijacked planes landing on skyscrapers. The smell of teargas and the pain of rubber bullets I know firsthand. I was lucky. I survived and bear no animosity to those who created a system whose aim was white supremacy. Today we Africans have the vote, but are economically worse off. White supremacy has succeded. If the terrorist aim is to ensure that America loses faith in the rule of law, then they have succeded. The last superpower should champion the oppressed instead of oppressing our champions. I believe America has a role to play in world peace. The first act they should perform is to demilitarise their country. This is something that ordinary taxpaying Americans should do, as its their hard earned money. It sickens me to realise that when I support American firms (McDonalds, Nike, Microsoft etc) I am promoting their war-machine.
The appearance of a pro-Hitler pamphlet at the World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) held in Durban was one of many ironies attesting to the continuing strength of raw anti-Semitism. It was published by the Durban-based Islamic Propagation Centre International, now revealed to have received at least US $3 million (about R27 million) from Osama bin Laden.
A new wave of student unrest hit the country yesterday.
A senior official of the African National Congress has been arrested in South Africa on charges that he profited from a controversial multi-billion dollar arms deal in 1999.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has described the current state of poverty in Africa as "a scar on our consciences". And he said that if the world as a community focused on it, it could be healed but if not "it will become deeper and angrier".
KABISSA-FAHAMU-SANGONET NEWSLETTER 35 * 7835 SUBSCRIBERS
KABISSA-FAHAMU-SANGONET NEWSLETTER 35 * 7835 SUBSCRIBERS
"Never again shall South Africa be the fountainhead of conflict in the region and further afield. Never again shall our country be the source of armaments used to suppress our neighbours. Never again shall we spend our people's resources to develop weapons of mass destruction." - Nelson Mandela, March 1995 The Ceasefire Campaign joins the world in condemning the devastating unleashed through attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, USA.
Regional leaders have ordered Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe to address the land crisis in his country within a month or face isolation. Mugabe is said to be angered by the insistence that he consult Zimbabwe’s civil society before proceeding with land reform.
Two Zimbabwean sculptors, Clifford Guwu and Tanyanyiwa Chipfunde, believe imparting their knowledge to youngsters is the only way they can help build a vibrant arts industry in their country.
The Zimbabwean government has raised the stakes in the impending do-or-die presidential election. It plans to plough about ZIM$6,5-billion into social services and housing projects, including funding so-called self-help projects in rural areas.
While inflation in Zimbabawe sky-rockets, traders face an impossible situation as the money they raise from sales does not cover the cost of replenishing stocks. Analysts predict spiralling poverty may prove President Robert Mugabe's biggest headache in the forthcoming elections.
In the wake of the Zimbabwe International Book Fair, Chris Kabwato asks how one can speak of book publishing in an environment where a crumbling regime is beating up the opposition and creating a situation where only the banking and financial sectors can thrive.
Zimbabwe's Minister of Health has predicted that a full census next year will confirm the government's suspicions that the population is not growing. Whether or not this is the case, a decline in the population's growth rate will have a profound effect on the nations' finances and on sectors such as education and employment.
The first edition of Angola's national theatre festival will take place in October in the far-northern city of Cabinda. The aim of the festival is to promote cultural exchange and a knowledge of the cultural potentials and diversities of Angola.
Environmentalists have warned that many African states are failing to manage their environmental resources properly. Nigeria`s environment is costing Africa`s most populous country over US$5-billion a year in ruined land and lost forests, much of the damage from oil and gas extraction in the Niger Delta region.
The acts of terrorism perpetrated in Angola by Jonas Savimbi`s UNITA movement deserve the same condemnation by the international community as that levelled against the perpetrators of the World Trade Centre attacks, says the UN.
Of a 12-million pula regional integration grant signed by USAID in the Botswana's capital Gaborone last week, 6-million pula will help strengthen regional economies through non-governmental organisations.
Botswana's first lady, Barbara Mogae, is discouraging the indiscriminate cutting of trees as part of a clean up campaign. She says she wants to encourage a spirit of volunteerism and environmental responsibility.
Botswana's Vice President Seretse Khama Ian Khama has been awarded the “Statesmanship Award of the Endangered Wildlife Trust”. The award is presented to “a statesperson who has made an exceptional contribution to conservation”.
A food security evaluation mission that worked throughout August in six central and southern provinces in Mozambique has recommended the urgent drafting of an integrated plan of action to mitigate the effects of food shortages in parts of the country.
The Mozambiquan Health Ministry estimates that 12,2% of the population aged between 15 and 49 are infected with HIV.
A confidential South African health ministry document has warned that President Thabo Mbeki's much-criticised Aids policies are "increasingly politically dangerous" and "unacceptable from a human rights perspective".
Hundreds of teachers face being kicked out of the civil service if they refuse to be redeployed to formerly disadvantaged schools as the Namibian government moves to bridge the teacher-pupil ratio.
An allegation by President Bush that some non-governmental organisations are operating as terrorist fronts caused unease in humanitarian aid groups last night.
Disagreement has broken out within the ranks of NGOs on how best to handle the Qatar summit, as Patrick McCurry reports.
Education will be the key in promoting sustainable development. Jon Snow launches a competition in which a teacher and pupils could be heading to next year's World Summit in South Africa.
Villagers in Namibia's Omauni area are to farm guinea fowl for commercial purposes, according to the Okongo Community Forest Project.
The fourth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation is still scheduled to be held in Doha, Qatar on November 9-13. This backgrounder helpfully summarises the positions different blocs hold on issues like trade and environment, trade ad labour standards, and indeed the need for a new round.
The southern Sudanese rebel leader, Dr John Garang, is said by sources close to him to be 'nervous' about the southern Sudanese leadership summit which is to be held here soon under the auspices of Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Journalists attending a Media Institute of Southern Africa Annual General Meeting in Lusaka have condemned the brutal attack on three journalists and a driver from the Daily News in Zimbabwe last week.
Almost 3,500 children who as recently as five months ago were acting as soldiers in Sudan's civil war have returned to their communities and families in southern Sudan with high hopes for a fresh start in life. The move home - completed over the last few days - marked the end of a five-month transition period in which the children were cared for by UNICEF and a coalition of aid groups.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT)'s Media Lab brings b l o g d e x to the Web. This project is all about a growing trend towards individual filtering and editing of commercial media. Imagine putting your online resources/bookmarks - plus commentary - on a web site. It provides resources for searching, accessing, creating, publishing and navigating weblogs. Read on: and use/start a blog!