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US REJECTS GLOBAL STRATEGY ON REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH http://www.planetwire.org/details/4801? PHPSESSID=bed573989599048df3bd15fd605166ea While the United States “dissociated” itself from the consensus, the World Health Organisation's first strategy on reproductive health was adopted by the 57th World Health Assembly (WHA). Reproductive and sexual ill-health accounts for 20% of the global burden of ill-health for women and 14% for men. "Once again, the Bush Administration has shown their true colors by calling for a reproductive health policy that is more about ideology than reality,” said Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA). “We have a moral responsibility to ensure the health and well-being of women and men around the world."

LACK OF VITAMINS AND MINERALS IMPAIRS A THIRD OF WORLD POPULATION http://www.unicef.org/media/media_19965.html As many as a third of the world's people do not meet their physical and intellectual potential because of vitamin and mineral deficiencies, according to a report released in New York by UNICEF and The Micronutrient Initiative. The report is accompanied by individual Damage Assessment Reports that present the most comprehensive picture to date of the toll being taken by vitamin and mineral deficiency in 80 developing countries.

NAMIBIA/UGANDA/ZAMBIA: THE IMPACT OF HIV/AIDS ON AGRICULTURE ftp://ftp.fao.org/sd/SDW/SDWW/ip_summary_2003-webversion.pdf How can countries support increasing numbers of vulnerable households? What can be done to reverse the trend towards increasing destitution? This report by the Food and Agricultural Organisation looks at three case studies (in northern Namibia, southern Zambia and around Lake Victoria in Uganda) which explored the relationships among HIV/AIDS, gender, agricultural production, food security and rural livelihoods. The case studies demonstrate that the HIV/AIDS pandemic has serious implications for rural agricultural production and household food security, gender concerns and the policy environment.

AFRICA/GLOBAL: "SCANDAL OF MALNUTRITION" PLAGUES WORLD, U.N. OFFICIAL SAYS http://www.unwire.org/News/328_426_14275.asp Outlining what she called the "scandal of malnutrition" in the world, U.N. Undersecretary General for Management Catherine Bertini said this week that while the global gross domestic product has increased 100 percent over the last 20 years, "the number of underweight preschoolers has only decreased by 20 percent." "As the world grows richer, we do not keep up in the areas of improvement of nutrition," said Bertini, who was director of the World Food Program before she took her current post.

TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN AND CHILDREN http://www.unicef-icdc.org/presscentre/ The struggle against trafficking of human beings has gathered considerable momentum over recent years. This research focuses on the situation of Africa, drawing a preliminary mapping of trafficking patterns on the continent and providing an indication of emerging good practices in the area of policy responses and legislative framework. The research took place against a background of lack of reliable estimates and a dearth of trafficking research and methodology tools. The report and findings are anchored in the commitment by Heads of State at the EU-Africa Summit to identify democracy, human rights and good governance as being among an agreed set of eight priority areas for political action.

OIL FIRMS SECRETLY FINANCE CROOKED REGIMES http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1176299,00.html Major oil companies are still making secret payments to repressive regimes, one year after Tony Blair put his personal authority behind a British-led voluntary disclosure code for the industry, according to a new report from London-based lobby group Global Witness. Corruption is flourishing in desperately poor countries such as Congo Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea and Angola as the dividends from oil continue to be appropriated by rich and powerful elites.

DIRTY WATER AND POOR SANITATION KILLS OVER 5000 CHILDREN EVERY DAY http://www.unicef.org/media/media_19974.html Diarrhoeal diseases claim the lives of around two million children each year- 5,000 per day, and cause countless more to fall ill. Children already suffering from poor diets and the ravages of other diseases are the first to get sick and die from water and sanitation-related diseases such as diarrhoea, cholera and typhoid, UNICEF says. Diarrhoea spreads most readily in environments of poor sanitation where safe water is unavailable – often areas that have been hit by human made or natural disasters. Water-borne diseases are one of the major cases of under-five mortality, along with pneumonia, malaria, and measles.

HOW LIKELY IS CONFLICT OVER THE NILE WATERS? http://www.monitor.upeace.org/innerpg.cfm?id_article=154 Will Egypt negotiate or face up to conflict in the current dispute over the use of Nile River water? Recently, the Egyptian Water Minister, Mahmoud Abu-Zeid, described Kenya’s intention to withdraw from the agreement as an ‘act of war’. Boutros-Ghali, the former Secretary General of the UN and an Egyptian by birth, has predicted that the next war in the region will be over water. In the latest edition of the Peace and Conflict Monitor, Ferdinand Katendeko examines the historical context and present day realities with regards to the use of the Nile waters.

CENTRAL AFRICA: BUSHMEAT TRADE SPREADS NEW VIRUS http://www.scidev.net/News/index.cfm? fuseaction=readNews&itemid=1285&language=1 The practice of hunting and eating bushmeat in Central Africa is infecting people with a new virus. While it has not caused illness, it has spread - and scientists are watching carefully. A primate virus is thought to have triggered today's HIV pandemic.

AFRICA: GUNS BUT NO BREAD - HOW ARMS EXPORTERS ARE FAILING DEVELOPING COUNTRIES http://www.id21.org/insights/insights50/insights-iss50-art04.html It is a commonly held belief that developing countries rely primarily on small arms - which, being relatively cheap, should not be a huge financial burden to the country. But in fact, the countries of Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East own 51% of the world's heavy weapons and in 2002 they imported two thirds of all arms deliveries worldwide, at a value of nearly US$17 billion.

UN POPULATION FUND SAYS PROBLEM OF CHILD MARRIAGE IS IGNORED http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=10959&Cr=UNFPA&Cr1=women More than 100 million girls over the next decade will marry before their 18th birthday, including many aged as young as eight or nine, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) warned at an international meeting in Washington. Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Executive Director of UNFPA said: "Married adolescents have been largely ignored in the development and health agenda because of the perception that their married status ensures them a safe passage to adulthood," adding "nothing could be further from the truth."

AFRICA/UK:WORKING VISA RESTRICTIONS LABELLED RACIST http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=529021 Black and anti-racist groups have reacted furiously to the revelation that thousands of people from Africa and Asian countries are to be barred from entering Britain. Quotas are to be introduced on the numbers of visitors under the working holiday scheme from countries such as Nigeria, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Kenya after Home Office officials detected abuse of the system.

AFRICA ACTION DISMISSES "MISDIRECTED" G-8 ANNOUNCEMENTS ON AFRICA As leaders of the "Group of Eight" met with leaders from six African countries on the final day of the G-8 summit in Sea Island, Georgia, Africa Action dismissed announcements of new initiatives on debt relief and HIV/AIDS as "wholly inadequate and off-target." It also condemned the failure of the G-8 to call for immediate intervention to stop the unfolding genocide in Darfur, western Sudan, and address the urgent humanitarian crisis, where more than one million people are now at risk as a result of an ongoing government-sponsored campaign of ethnic cleansing. Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=22525

DEBT RELIEF BREAD FOR IRAQ, CRUMBS FOR AFRICA http://www.odiousdebts.org/odiousdebts/index.cfm? DSP=content&ContentID=10598 International development agency, Oxfam New Zealand has welcomed the proposal by the G8 to cancel $NZ145 billion of Iraq’s foreign debt. But Oxfam NZ Executive Director Barry Coates pointed out the deep inconsistency in the G8’s approach. African countries have waited for more than two decades for debt cancellation. Now they are being offered a pittance as a sweetener to persuade other countries to back the US proposal on Iraq debt.

OBESITY RISING AMONG WOMEN IN POOR COUNTRIES, STUDY SAYS http://www.unwire.org/UNWire/20040603/449_24503.asp A new study shows obesity rates are rising in poor and developing countries, particularly among women, marking a major departure from historical trends and long-held beliefs, Reuters reports. The joint U.S.-Brazilian study included data from 37 countries including Brazil, China and India. "In many poorer nations, obesity has become more prevalent than malnutrition," said Barry Popkin, a researcher at the University of North Carolina. "Worldwide, the burden of obesity increasingly rests on the poor and less educated, even in many developing nations we never thought of as having an obesity problem."

WHY WE MUST NEVER FORGET THE RWANDAN GENOCIDE Gerald Caplan

TEN LESSONS TO PREVENT GENOCIDE In the ten years since the Rwandan genocide leaders of national governments and international institutions have acknowledged the shame of having failed to stop the slaughter of the Tutsi population. At the 2004 Stockholm International Forum, "Preventing Genocide: Threats and Responsibilities," many renewed their commitment to halting any future genocide. Honouring that pledge will require not just greater political will than seen in the past but also developing a strategy built on the lessons of 1994. ALISON DES FORGES provides ten lessons for preventing genocide. http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=21173

Conflict diamonds and the African "resource curse" George Lwanda DATE: 5/17/2004 SOURCE: Conflict Trends 4/2003 SUMMARY & COMMENT: This paper explores Africa's 'resource curse' from the perspective of blood and conflict diamonds. The author examines the case of Botswana in comparison to Angola, Liberia, Sierra Leone and the DRC, where the gem has aided in the countries' devastation. An interesting link is made in the article between the end of East/West financing of war during the cold war years and the subsequent rise of resource-funded wars.

Putting the Southern Africa region into clearer perspective, Moyiga Nduru, Lusaka - DATE: 5/3/2004 SOURCE: Inter Press Service SOURCE WEBSITE: www.ipsnews.net - SUMMARY & COMMENT: Compared with other parts of the continent, southern Africa can seem relatively wealthy and peaceful - the political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe, and ongoing conflict in certain areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo notwithstanding. Reporters attending the second 'SADC-EU (Southern African Development Community-European Union) Media Practitioners Workshop'in Lusaka Apr. 29-30 identified a host of problems in the area.

AIDS EPIDEMIC THREATENS WORLD PEACE, UN SAYS - http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml? The spread of the deadly HIV virus is a threat to world peace, the chief the United Nations AIDS agency said Monday. "It's as big of a threat as terrorism," UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot told Reuters on the sidelines of a speech in Oslo, referring to massive poverty as a result of AIDS, sparking political unrest which could even lead to cross-border conflicts, as well as a weakening of defense forces in heavily infected countries.

Beijing Platform for Action -FROM BEIJING TO AFRICA - IMPLEMENTING THE BEIJING PLATFORM FOR ACTION, Barbara Lopi. The year 2005 marks the 10th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women, which was held in Beijing, China, in 1995, and processes to review the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) are gaining momentum. Recently, a southern African intergovernmental Sub-Regional Meeting for the decade review of the BPFA was held in Lusaka, Zambia, from 26 to 28 April 2004 under the auspices of the southern Africa Office of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in collaboration with the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

THE WORLD BANK AND IMF AT SIXTY: ANY CHANGES? - http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/article.shtml?cmd[126]=i-126 - -25f9adfa903c609ddbc10cfee95c1c6aSixty years after their founding, the World Bank and IMF remain the dominant institutions in development but face determined opposition to their role in shaping globalisation. Bank president James Wolfensohn says that critics should stop "going back to things that were addressed five years ago". The Bank says it has moved on from the Washington consensus to the Post-Washington consensus. Of the ten elements which made up the original 'Washington Consensus', three have been both most aggressively pursued and most strongly opposed. Have the Bank and Fund changed their attitudes to liberalisation, privatisation and fiscal austerity?

EDUCATION, WORK OR MARRIAGE? - http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php@URL_ID=19982&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html Children’s right to education is being seriously undermined in dozens of countries by contradictory laws that allow them to work, be married or held criminally responsible at an age when they are legally bound to be in school, concludes a new report. “In the same country,” concludes Angela Melchiorre, children’s rights expert and the author of ‘At what age…are children employed, married and taken to court?’, “it is not rare to find that children are legally obliged to go to school until they are 14 or 15 years old but that a different law allows them to work at an earlier age or to be married at the age of 12 or to be criminally responsible from the age of seven.” The report, launched on the occasion of Education for All Week (April 19-25), found that there is no compulsory education in at least 25 States, of which ten are in sub-Saharan Africa.

EDUCATING RURAL PEOPLE: A LOW PRIORITY - http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php- Access to quality education in rural areas has been consistently neglected. Many governments either lack the political will or the capacity to meet the educational needs of the huge numbers of rural people who remain outside the mainstream education system. Today in many parts of the world, growing up in a rural region often means growing up without a decent education. School attendance is generally low and drop-out high, with girls, mountain populations and ethnic minorities losing out most. This is not surprising, considering the distance many children have to walk daily, only to find a school in poor condition, without furniture, learning materials, drinking water or toilets, and sometimes even without a teacher.

AFRICA/UK: A LESSON IN RACISM- http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/story.jsp?story=522155 Few academics can expect to reach the professional heights scaled by the women's rights expert Fareda Banda. Educated in racially segregated schools in Zimbabwe, Dr Banda, 37, became the first black African woman from her country to be awarded a doctorate in law from Oxford University in 1993. But last year, she made an alarming discovery. After a casual enquiry about her pay, she uncovered evidence that, for the six years she had been employed by SOAS, she had been paid up to £10,000 less than her white colleagues. It was a shocking moment in Dr Banda's career and one she says she will never forget.

GAMBIA: SEX TOURISTS IN GAMBIA ABUSE CHILD REFUGEES, SAYS UN - http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/108392127130.htm Impoverished child refugees in Gambia are turning to prostitution with European visitors, compounding the West African country's sex-tourism problem, according to a U.N. children's fund report issued on Wednesday. Experts from UNICEF, which issued the report on sex abuse in Gambia, said they were concerned the country is increasingly a destination for sex tourists as countries in south-east Asia take steps to shake off their image as havens for paedophiles.

POOR PAYING FOR WAR ON TERROR - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3696683.stm Some of the world's poorest people are suffering as a result of the war on terror, a leading UK charity has said. Christian Aid says the UK Government must reverse a "dangerous drift" towards linking aid to the fight against terror. A report cites Iraq, Afghanistan and Uganda as places where funds have been "wrongly diverted".

SOUTH AFRICA: SHOCKING NEW DATA ON SA WOMEN- http://www.sarpn.org.za/newsflash.php#1437 About 77 percent of young South Africans infected with HIV are women and 62 percent of them had believed they had a small or no chance of contracting the virus. The new figure tallies with a growing worldwide trend showing a far higher incidence of HIV infection among women than men. The figures were the highest authoritative results that local researchers have seen.

AIDS GROUPS BLAST BUSH PLAN- http://www.oneworld.net/article/view/86262/1/ If U.S. President George W. Bush is expecting bouquets from AIDS activists for his proposal to expedite approvals for life-saving anti-retroviral drugs by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), he is in for a disappointment. Africa and AIDS activists are assailing the proposal not only as a new attempt to delay the delivery of desperately needed, low-cost generic drugs to needy AIDS victims in Africa and the Caribbean, but also as an effort to undermine the World Health Organisation's (WHO) own expedited approval process which has already authorized the use of generics by the World Bank, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF, and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

DO ‘WATER WARS’ STILL LOOM IN AFRICA? http://ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=23759 When water affairs ministers from countries along the Nile met recently to discuss the fate of the river, Boutros Boutros-Ghali was not in the room with them. But the lingering memory of his comment that future wars would be fought over water probably was. The former United Nations Secretary-General first made the remark in the 1980s. The notion of potential ‘water wars’ has also been explored in a book of the same title and in numerous reports. In addition, the phrase crops up repeatedly in articles that deal with water scarcity in Africa, and the possibility of conflict amongst communities desperate to ensure access to water.

NIGERIA FINDS 'SAFE' POLIO JAB - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3721119.stm The northern Nigerian state of Kano says it has obtained a "safe" polio vaccine from Indonesia. But Kano government spokesman Sule Yau Sule told BBC News Online the vaccine would be tested further before it is given to children. Kano opted out of an immunisation campaign last year, when some Islamic leaders said it was part of a western plot to render Muslim women infertile.

COMING OUT IN AFRICA http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentaries/commentary_text.php4? id=1515&lang=1&m=series The lead story in a recent issue of the Daily Graphic, Ghana's most influential newspaper, was designed to shock: "Four Gay Men Jailed." Homosexual acts are crimes in Ghana - and across much of sub-Saharan Africa. Uganda's leader, Yoweri Museveni, is vehemently opposed to homosexuality. So is Zimbabwe's embattled Robert Mugabe. Namibia's President Sam Nujoma complains that the West wants to impose its decadent sexual values on Africa through the guise of gay tolerance. Indeed, the global movement to fight discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS - which first surfaced as a "gay disease" in the United States - has elicited little sympathy for homosexuals in sub-Saharan Africa. Only in South Africa have gays and lesbians won significant legal protections.

WAR PROFITEERS, IN AFRICA, AS WELL AS IRAQ
http://www.nu.ac.za/ccs/default.asp?2,40,5,256
As Bush creates a corporate protectorate in Iraq, many companies who stand to benefit from reconstruction and oil exploration there are familiar to Africans. Shell, Bechtel and Fluor Corporation are all associated with massacres and crimes against humanity in Africa. Oil giant Shell Corporation had a hand in the death of Ken Saro Wiwa and the massacre of hundreds of Ogoni in the Niger Delta of Nigeria. Bechtel has profited from and exacerbated the ongoing war in the DRC. And Flour Corporation had tight relationships with the Apartheid regime of South Africa.

DRCongo: Do Canadian public media hear when we cry? There are allegations of large scale massacres in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Surprisingly Canadian public media remained silent on these killings. The author shares his impressions on the silence of Canadian media.

The Role of Men and Boys in Gender Equality - At the 48th session of the Commission for the Status of Women in New York a key topic of discussion was indeed the role of men and boys in gender equality.

AGRICULTURE IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY http://www.bread.org/institute/hunger_report/2003-pdf.htm This report from Bread for the World argues that if developing countries are to build their economic potential in agriculture, industrialized countries like the United States and European Union nations should live up to their free-trade rhetoric and work together to eliminate trade-distorting subsidies and tariffs. New research released in the report indicates that the elimination of subsidies and protection in industrialized countries would allow developing countries to triple their annual net agricultural trade.

SIERRA LEONE: WAR RELATED SEXUAL VIOLENCE - A POPULATION BASED ASSESSMENT http://www.phrusa.org/research/sierra_leone/report.html This report documents that internally displaced women and girls in Sierra Leone have suffered an extraordinary level of rape, sexual violence and other gross human rights violations during their country's civil war, with half of those who said they came into contact with RUF (Revolutionary United Front) forces reporting sexual violence.

RICH NATIONS CONTINUE TO WIELD POWER IN GLOBAL BODIES http://www.ipsnews.org/interna.asp?idnews=18012 From the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the United Nations, to Interpol and the World Health Organisation (WHO), dozens of international agencies now work to regulate world trade, telecommunications, transportation, labour, business, health and the environment, among other issues. In almost all of those bodies, poor and powerless nations, like Somalia and Afghanistan, are under-represented while the rich and powerful, like Britain and the United States, operate with almost unchecked authority and overwhelming power. Some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are impatient to see real change.

COMPUTERS TO AFRICA SCHEME CRITICISED http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2989567.stm The practice of supplying second-hand computers to Africa can prove to be an expensive mistake, according to a UK report. The UK Centre of International Education has said that Western organisations trying to bridge the "digital divide" are having some unfortunate consequences for teaching.

SOUTH AFRICA: S AFRICA GRAPPLES WITH NEW RACISM
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1932930.stm
Scratch the surface of post-apartheid South Africa, and deep-rooted racism lurks underneath. Almost every week, newspapers carry reports of another racist attack, or a racially motivated murder. "People's attitudes haven't changed," says Dr Zonke Majodina, a commissioner at the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC).

AFRICA/GLOBAL: EDUCATION FOR ALL: FAST TRACK OR SLOW TRICKLE? http://www.oxfam.org/eng/pdfs/pp030408_educ_efa_wbimf.pdf This paper from Oxfam highlights the impressive steps being taken to address the overwhelming popular demand for basic education by governments in a number of developing countries since the Education For All Fast Track initiative was launched in 2002. However, the authors argue that such steps are not being matched by funding from the G7.

AFRICA/GLOBAL: THE RISE OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL REFUGEE: NIGHTMARE IN THE MAKING?
http://www.id21.org/society/S10csc1g1.html Is environmental degradation set to create new waves of displaced people seeking asylum in the north? Will refugee camps and shantytowns foster civil disorder, pandemics and political extremism to threaten the interests of the developed world? Or is the concept of ‘environmental refugee’ a dangerous distraction from central issues of development and conflict resolution?

ETHIOPIA: JUDICIARY "FAILING TO STOP HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES" http://irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33930
Ethiopia's judiciary is failing to prevent widespread human rights abuses, a landmark conference on federalism, conflict and peace
building heard on Wednesday.

SARS IN AFRICA WOULD BE 'DEVASTATING' http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?a=37&o=19640 The impact of the deadly Sars virus in Africa would be devastating and the continent cannot afford to see the disease spread there, warns a World Health Organisation (Who) spokesperson. Christine McNab told journalists that one of the UN agency's long-running fears was that Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) might take a grip in developing countries where health systems were severely deficient or precarious.

GLOBAL WARMING THREATENS FOOD SECURITY OF POOR NATIONS
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=655&ncid=655&e=1&u=/ oneworld/20030512/wl_oneworld/118151052755453 Global warming could lead to a 10 percent drop in the production of maize in developing countries over the next 50 years, according to a new report published Monday by two key international research centres in the journal Global Environmental Change.

AFRICA:UNDERSTANDING ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY PROCESSES http://www.earthscan.co.uk/asp/bookdetails.asp?key=3928&field=new "Understanding Environmental Policy Processes" answers the following questions: How are environmental policies created and once put to effect, why are they so difficult to change despite sometimes becoming detrimental to the environment they are set up to protect? African environmental policy is largely controlled by Northern concepts of how the environment should be handled - are these Northern ideals best for Africa itself? What can be done to make policy making more participatory?

AFRICA: AIDS ORPHAN CRISIS POINT APPROACHES http://www.africapulse.org.za/ index.php?action=viewarticle&articleid=1232
This document presents an overview of the situation of increasing numbers of orphans and children affected by HIV/Aids worldwide. It states that both communities and governments are reaching crisis point in trying to cope with these children.

SOUTHERN AFRICA: ACTIVISTS CONDEMN "STATE-SPONSORED" HOMOPHOBIA http://irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34098
Human Rights and gay activists have accused some southern African leaders of singling out gays and lesbians as "scapegoats" for their countries' problems. Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) on Wednesday released a 298-page report documenting harassment and violence against sexual minorities in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

AFRICA: SECONDARY SCHOOLS: SECOND-CLASS SCHOOLING? REFORMING EDUCATION FOR RURAL GIRLS
http://www.id21.org/education/e2na1g1.html Does secondary education meet the needs of girls in rural Africa? What is being done to make curricula more relevant to girls and to reduce the excessive focus on examinations? Why have official statements on the shortcomings of curricula and examinations not been translated into policy changes?

FOOD AID SENT TO IRAQ DWARFS RESPONSE FOR AFRICA http://www.gvnews.net/html/DailyNews/alert4393.html
Iraq received the $270 million in food pledges it needed within five days of a UN appeal. At least $1 billion is needed to feed around 40 million people in need of emergency food aid across East and Southern Africa and in Cote D'Ivoire until the end of the year, international aid agencies say. While international donors have belatedly pledged $800 million in emergency food assistance over the past month, there are increasing indications that sub Saharan Africa will get nowhere near what it needs to provide basic food rations for millions of people.

AFRICA/GLOBAL: THE CURSE OF BLACK GOLD http://www.christian-aid.org.uk/indepth/0305cawreport/fuellingpoverty.htm
New research from Christian Aid - along with important studies from some of the world's leading development specialists, and research by both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund - indicates that poor countries dependent on oil revenues have a higher incidence of four great and interconnected ills. Oil, in these conditions, becomes the key ingredient in a 'lethal cocktail' of greater poverty for the vast majority of the population, increased corruption, a greater likelihood of war or civil strife, and dictatorial or unrepresentative government.

AFRICA: AFRICAN MINING CODES QUESTIONED http://twnafrica.org/news_detail.asp?twnID=292 Ten years ago, in an attempt to improve its understanding of investment decisions in developing countries, the World Bank undertook a survey of 80 mining companies. The survey revealed that the main investment criteria, after mineral potential and existing infrastructure, was a satisfactory legal and fiscal framework. This message was enthusiastically embraced across Africa, and legal reform of the mining sector contributed to a more favourable environment for foreign investment. However, a recent study by Groupe de Recherche sur les Activités Minières en Afrique (GRAMA) at the Faculté de Science Politique et de Droit, Université du Québec à Montréal, concludes that these measures have entailed a redefinition of the role of the state that is so profound that it has no historical precedent. The study warns that the various reforms have the potential effect of driving down standards in areas of critical importance for social and economic development, as well as in protection of the environment in the countries concerned.

AFRICA AND THE G8: CIVIL SOCIETY PLANNING a report of the "Africa and the G8 Civil Society Planning Conference", which was held in Ottawa on October 21-22, 2001. The report is made up of the following parts:
File 1: conference report
File 2: three presentations from the conference
File 3: an analysis of the New African Initiative document
File 4: the New Partnership for Africa's Development document
File 5: participants list
We are pleased with the outcome of the conference. It has helped raise the profile of the New African Initiative (now called the New Partnership for Africa's Development) in Canada and we hope that in the months to come many organizations and individuals across Canada will participate in discussions on Africa during the lead up to the G8 Summit in June 2002.

AFRICA AND THE G8: CIVIL SOCIETY PLANNING a response by Hon. Prince S. B. Jide Ademosu-Amperiola, Group National Chairman (FNPB, UNAN, UNP, IAHL)

War and peace in The United States: The aftermath of September 11 - an African witness point of view

ANTI TERROR LEGISLATION AND DEMOCRACY IN AFRICA By Rotimi Sankore - No matter how unpopular it may seem, the point must be made that it will be a serious mistake to sacrifice democracy in Africa on the altar of "eradicating Bin Laden and Al Queda". The 'rise' of the likes of Saddam and Bin Laden also shows clearly that short 'termism' in foreign policy is to put it crudely "a ticking bomb." The only way to defeat and keep terrorism and its sympathisers out of Africa and by doing so reducing their potential bases, is to ensure more, not less democracy. Africans must make it clear, that while they condemn terrorism, the fight against it cannot be used as an excuse to create more Mobutu's on the continent. The tragedy of these latest development s, is that by introducing legislation in their countries which before September 11 would have been unthinkable, the governments of the US, UK other Western countries may have robbed themselves of the moral right to speak up when similar laws are introduced
and used to undermine democracy in Africa and strengthen governments which may in the long run turn out to be eventual enemies of "civilised values." *The link above is an excerpt from an article on "The Anti-Terrorism Campaign Democracy and Human Rights" For full article click on the link below. Rotimi Sankore is a Human Rights Campaigner and Journalist with a keen
interest in Freedom of Expression and Associated Rights. Further details: http://www.kabissa.org/kfn/newsletter.php?id=4520

CAN THE AFRICAN UNION HEAL THIS FESTERING SORE OF UNITY By Hon. Prince S. B. Jide Ademosu -Amperiola

A New Vision for Africa? By Dena Montague - analysis of Secretary of State Colin Powell's recent trip to Africa, June 2001

Through The Looking Glass: Oil and Diamond are Africa's bane?

Globalization or Global Capitalism: The Myth That Rules and Ruins our Lives by Dr. M O Arigbede

The Struggle Towards Human Rights in Africa: Success or Failure? By Darnace Torou - An Overview of Progress of Human Rights in Africa

Impact of Angels - Sharp critique of NGO function and role in Africa

Part 1 - The Roots of African Conflicts By Abiodun Onadipe and David Lord
Part 2 - A Continent in Crisis By Abiodun Onadipe and David Lord
Part 3 - Characteristics of Violent Conflict By Abiodun Onadipe and David Lord
Part 4 - African Responses to Conflict By Abiodun Onadipe and David Lord
Part 5 - Conflict Resolution By Abiodun Onadipe and David Lord