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Subject: [WASAN] FW: PAMBAZUKA NEWS 62 - DECLARATION ON AFRICA'S
    DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES



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Date: Fri, 03 May 2002 09:32:29 -0500 (CDT)
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Subject: PAMBAZUKA NEWS 62 - DECLARATION ON AFRICA'S DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES

PAMBAZUKA NEWS 62
A weekly electronic newsletter for social justice in Africa

CONTENTS: 1. Editorial, 2. Conflict, Emergencies, and Crises, 3. Rights and
Democracy, 4. Corruption, 5. Health, 6. Education and Social Welfare, 7.
Women and Gender, 8. Refugees and Forced Migration, 9. Racism and
Xenophobia, 10. Environment, 11. Media, 12. Development, 13. Internet and
Technology, 14. eNewsletters and Mailing Lists, 15. Fundraising, 16.
Courses, Seminars, and Workshops, 17. Advocacy Resources, 18. Jobs, 19.
Books and Arts, 20. Letters and Comments

If you have e-mail access, you can get web resources listed in this
Newsletter by sending a message to [log in to unmask] with the web address
(usually starting with http://) in the body of your message.

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1.EDITORIAL

DECLARATION ON AFRICA'S DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES
CODESRIA- TWN-AFRICA Conference On Africa's Development Challenges In The
Millennium, Accra 23-26 April, 2002
1. From the 23 to 26 April, 2002, we, African scholars and activist
intellectuals working in academic institutions, civil society organisations
and policy institutions from 20 countries in Africa, as well as colleagues
and friends from Asia, Europe, North America and South America met at a
conference jointly organised by the Council for Development and Social
Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) and the Third World Network-Africa
(TWN-Africa) to deliberate on Africa's developmental challenges in the new
millennium.

2. Our deliberations covered such issues as Africa's initiatives for
addressing development; Africa and the world trading system; mobilising
financing for development in Africa; citizenship, democracy and development;
education, health social services and development, and gender equity and
equality in development.

Challenges to the space of Africa's own thinking on development
3. In our deliberations, we recalled the series of initiatives by Africans
themselves aimed at addressing the developmental challenges of Africa, in
particular the Lagos Plan of Action and the companion African Alternative
Framework for Structural Adjustment. Each time, these initiatives were
counteracted and ultimately undermined by policy frameworks developed from
outside the continent and imposed on African countries. Over the past
decades, a false consensus has been generated around the neo-liberal
paradigm promoted through the Bretton Woods Institutions and the World Trade
Organisation. This stands to crowd out the rich tradition of Africa's own
alternative thinking on development. It is in this context that the
proclaimed African initiative, the New Partnership for Africa's Development
(NEPAD), which was developed in the same period as the United Nations
Economic Commission for Africa's Compact for African Recovery, as well as
the World Bank's Can Africa Claim the 21st Century?, were discussed.

4. The meeting noted the uneven progress of democratisation and in
particular of the expansion of space for citizen expression and
participation. It also acknowledged the contribution of citizen's struggles
and activism to this expansion of the political space, and for putting
critical issues of development on the public agenda External and internal
obstacles to Africa's economic development

5. The meeting noted that the challenges confronting Africa's development
come from two inter-related sources: (a) constraints imposed by the hostile
international economic and political order within which our economies
operate; and (b) domestic weaknesses deriving from socio-economic and
political structures and neo-liberal structural adjustment policies.

6. The main elements of the hostile global order include, first, the fact
that African economies are integrated into the global economy as exporters
of primary commodities and importers of manufactured products, leading to
terms of trade losses. Reinforcing this, secondly, have been the policies of
liberalisation, privatisation and deregulation as well as an unsound package
of macro-economic policies imposed through structural adjustment
conditionality by the World Bank and the IMF. These have now been
institutionalised within the WTO through rules, agreements and procedures,
which are biased against our countries. Finally, the just mentioned external
and internal policies and structures have combined to generate unsustainable
and unjustifiable debt burden which has crippled Africa's economies and
undermined the capacity of Africa's ownership of strategies for development
.

7. The external difficulties have exacerbated the internal structural
imbalances of our economies, and, together with neo-liberal structural
adjustment policies, inequitable socio-economic and political structures,
have led the to disintegration of our economies and increased social and
gender inequity. In particular, our manufacturing industries have been
destroyed; agricultural production (for food and other domestic needs is in
crisis; public services have been severely weakened; and the capacity of
states and governments in Africa to make and implement policies in support
of balanced and equitable national development emasculated. The costs
associated with these have fallen disproportionately on marginalized and
subordinated groups of our societies, including workers, peasants, small
producers. The impact has been excessively severe on women and children.

8. Indeed, the developments noted above have reversed policies and
programmes and have dismantled institutions in place since independence to
create and expand integrated production across and between our economies in
agriculture, industry, commerce, finance, and social services. These were
programmes and institutions which have, in spite of their limitations,
sought to address the problems of weak internal markets and fragmented
production structures as well as economic imbalances and social inequities
within and between nations inherited from colonialism, and to redress the
inappropriate integration of our economies in the global order. The
associated social and economic gains, generated over this period have been
destroyed.

9. The above informed our reflections on the NEPAD. We concluded that, while
many of its stated goals may be well-intentioned, the development vision and
economic measures that it canvases for the realisation of these goals are
flawed. As a result, NEPAD will not contribute to addressing the
developmental problems mentioned above. On the contrary, it will reinforce
the hostile external environment and the internal weaknesses that constitute
the major obstacles to Africa's development. Indeed, in certain areas like
debt, NEPAD steps back from international goals that have been won through
global mobilisation and struggle.

10. The most fundamental flaws of NEPAD, which reproduce the central
elements of the World Bank's Can Africa Claim the 21st Century and the ECA's
Compact for African Recovery, include:

(a) the neo-liberal economic policy framework at the heart of the plan, and
which repeats the structural adjustment policy packages of the preceding two
decades and over-looks the disastrous effects of those policies; (b) the
fact that in spite of its proclaimed recognition of the central role of the
African people to the plan, the African people have not played any part in
the conception, design and formulation of the NEPAD; (c) notwithstanding its
stated concerns for social and gender equity, it adopts the social and
economic measures that have contributed to the marginalisation of women (d)
that in spite of claims of African origins, its main targets are foreign
donors, particularly in the G8 (e) its vision of democracy is defined by the
needs of creating a functional market; (f) it under-emphasises the external
conditions fundamental to Africa's developmental crisis, and thereby does
not promote any meaningful measure to manage and restrict the effects of
this environment on Africa development efforts. On the contrary, the
engagement that is seeks with institutions and processes like the World
Bank, the IMF, the WTO, the United States Africa Growth and Opportunity Act,
the Cotonou Agreement, will further lock Africa's economies
disadvantageously into this environment; (g) the means for mobilisation of
resources will further the disintegration of African economies that we have
witnessed at the hands of structural adjustment and WTO rules; Call for
Action

11. To address the developmental problems and challenges identified above,
we call for action at the national, continental and international levels to
implement the measures described below.

12. In relation to the external environment, action must be taken towards
stabilisation of commodity prices; reform of the international financial
system (to prevent debt, exchange rate instability and capital flow
volatility) as well as of the World Bank and the IMF; an end to IMF/World
Bank structural adjustment programmes; and fundamental changes to the
existing agreements of the WTO regime, as well as stop the attempts to
expand the scope to this regime to new areas including investment,
competition and government procurement. Most pressing of all, Africa's debt
must be cancelled.

13. At the local, national and regional levels, development policy must
promote agriculture, industry, services including health and public
education, and must be protected and supported through appropriate trade,
investment and macro-economic policy measures. A strategy for financing must
seek to mobilise and build on internal and intra-African resources through
imaginative savings measures; reallocation of expenditure away from wasteful
items including excessive military expenditure, corruption and
mismanagement; creative use of remittances of Africans living abroad;
corporate taxation; retention and re-investment of foreign profits; and the
prevention of capital flight, and the leakage of resources through practices
of tax evasion practised by foreign investors and local elites. Foreign
investment while necessary, must be carefully balanced and selected to suit
national objectives.

14. Above all, these measures require the reconstitution of the
developmental state: a state for which social equity, social inclusion,
national unity and respect for human rights form the basis of economic
policy; a state which actively promotes, and nurtures the productive sectors
of the economy; actively engages appropriately in the equitable and balanced
allocation and distribution of resources among sectors and people; and most
importantly a state that is democratic and which integrates people's control
over decision making at all levels in the management, equitable use and
distribution of social resources.

The Challenge for African scholars and activist intellectuals
15. Recognising that, by raising anew the question of Africa's development
as an Africa-wide concern, NEPAD has brought to the fore the question of
Africa's autonomous initiatives for development, we will engage with the
issues raised in NEPAD as part of our efforts to contribute to the debate
and discussions on African development.

16. In support of our broader commitment to contribute to addressing
Africa's development challenges, we undertake to work both collectively and
individually, in line with our capacities, skills and institutional
location, to promote a renewed continent-wide engagement on Africa's own
development initiatives. To this end, we shall deploy our research, training
and advocacy skills and capacities to contribute to the generation and
dissemination of knowledge of the issues at stake; engage with and
participate in the mobilisation of social groups around their interests and
appropriate strategies of development; and engage with governments and
policy institutions at local, national, regional and continental levels. We
shall continue our collaboration with our colleagues in the global movement.

17. Furthermore, we call, (a) for the reassertion of the primacy of the
question and paradigm of national and regional development on the agenda of
social discourse and intellectual engagement and advocacy;; (b) on Africa's
scholars and activist intellectuals within African and in the Diaspora, to
join forces with social groups whose interests and needs are central to the
development of Africa; (c) African scholars and activist intellectuals and
organisations to direct their research and advocacy to some of the pressing
questions that confront African policy and decision making at international
levels (in particular negotiations in the WTO and under the Cotonou
agreement), and domestically and regionally; (d) upon our colleagues in the
global movement, to strengthen our common struggles, in solidarity. We ask
our colleagues in the North to intervene with their governments on behalf of
our struggles, and our colleagues in the South to strengthen South-South
co-operation.

18. We pledge ourselves to carry forward the positions and conclusions of
this conference. And we encourage CODESRIA and TWN-Africa to explore,
together with other interested parties, mechanisms and processes for
follow-up to the deliberations and conclusions of this conference.

Accra, April 26, 2002.

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2.CONFLICT, EMERGENCIES, AND CRISES

ANGOLA: ENORMOUS HUMANITARIAN NEEDS
'A Dying Population'
http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/UNID/A234E0EAA2B7AA6E85256BA50068D4A7?Ope
nDocument
MSF has finally gained access to the "grey areas" in Angola where, for
years, people have been living without any international aid. Malnutrition
is far above emergency thresholds with 30% of the children examined in a
state of severe malnutrition.

ANGOLA: LAND REFORM NEEDED
The need for land reform is among the new hurdles facing Angola as the
country moves to a post-conflict phase of reconstruction and development in
the wake of this month's ceasefire agreement.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=7194

CONGO'S SITUATION IS AS GRAVE AS PALESTINE'S
http://allafrica.com/stories/200204300499.html
Professor Georges Nzongola Ntalaja is an academic from war-torn Democratic
Republic of Congo. Until recently he was the UNDP Senior Special Adviser for
Governance in Abuja. The articulate professor, in this interview with Musa
Aliyu and Jibril Abubakar, spoke his mind on the peace initiatives in Congo,
the roles played by former President Laurent Kabila in concert with Rwanda
and Uganda in creating the crisis, Nigeria's leadership role, the UN's show
of less attention and more.

DR CONGO SETTLED WITH UNSETTLING SETTLEMENT
http://www.africanconflict.org/article.php?sid=393&mode=&order=0
The New York Times has published a wrap-up of the meeting in Sun City, South
Africa, that was held to create a peace accord that would create peace in
the largely chaotic atmosphere that is the DR Congo. While the conference in
Sun City ended, there seems to be a tad bit of nervousness about the failure
of any of the sides to come to agreement, and about what a potentially new
government will now look like in Kinshasa.

DRC: ALLIANCE FORMED BETWEEN REBELS AND OPPOSITION
he Rwandan-backed rebel Rassemblement congolais
pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) has formed an alliance with five other
political parties in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to fight
attempts by President Joseph Kabila and the Mouvement pour la liberation du
Congo (MLC) to form a new government, following an agreement made between
them at the end of the inter-Congolese dialogue (ICD) last week.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=7197

DRC: ONE-SIDED DEAL IS ALL YOU GET
http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=4212
The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Monday ruled out
an extension of peace talks designed to end a four-year civil war, saying a
deal it had reached with one rebel group was final. "The Inter-Congolese
Dialogue has run its term and is consequently finished," Foreign Minister
Leonard She Okitundu told private television channel Antenne A. "The
facilitators should now acknowledge the agreement that was signed in Sun
City," he said.

EASTERN AFRICA: 11 MILLION STILL VULNERABLE TO FOOD INSECURITY
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27557
Despite improved cereal harvests in 2001/02 in most parts of the region, the
effects of recent drought and past or continuing conflicts continue to
undermine the food security of an estimated 11 million people in eastern
Africa, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) reported on
Tuesday.

ETHIOPIA-SUDAN: ''NEW ERA'' IN TIES
Sudan announced a "new era" in relations with Ethiopia on Thursday and said
it wanted to improve ties with all its neighbours. Speaking at the end of a
four-day official visit to Ethiopia, Sudanese First Vice President Ali
Uthman Muhammad Taha said that closer relations would be "conducive" to all
countries in the Horn of Africa. He said both countries had reached a
"common understanding" on many issues.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=7190

FOR ANGOLA, NOW THE HARD PART
http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0429/p06s04-woaf.html
Perhaps the most visible sign that peace has come to Angola are the trucks
that have again begun winding between the country's far-flung towns and
cities, along roads rarely passable during 27 years of civil war. As Angola
begins the slow process of rebuilding, one crucial test of the new peace
will be whether the government is able to control these remote spaces, home
to the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), the
rebel group that has been fighting for control of Angola since 1975. The
price of failure, diplomats, and analysts say, is that Angola could become a
"failed state," like Somalia, where trucks can no longer pass, and the rule
of law exists only in theory.

LIBERIA: RIGHTS BODY RECOMMENDS ACTION TO END INSTABILITY
The International Crisis Group (ICG), a leading
conflict prevention body, has reported that Liberia is the main cause of
instability among the Mano River Union countries of West Africa; and
recommended that France, Nigeria, the United Kingdom, the United States, the
United Nations, international donors and civil society take corrective
action.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=7183

MOROCCO: SECURITY COUNCIL TO VOTE ON US PROPOSED PEACE PLAN
http://www.oneworld.org/ips2/apr02/06_29_002.htm
The United Nations Security Council will Tuesday vote on a new United States
sponsored autonomy plan for the Western Sahara. The proposal is seen by
observers in the Moroccan capital city of Rabat as a ''victory'' for
Morocco, while the Polisario Front - who are fighting for the independence
of the Sahara - believe it will plunge the North African region back into
war.

MOZAMBIQUE: ARMY HOPES TO DESTROY STOCKPILES BY NEXT YEAR
The Mozambican army hopes to destroy the more than 30,000 landmines it still
has in stock by next year, the National Institute for Demining (IND) said on
Friday. A batch of 2,500 of the killer devices was destroyed on 19 April and
immediate plans are to destroy another 10,000 in the central and southern
regions, IND national director Artur Verissimo said.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=7196

SOUTH AFRICA: DISASTER LOOMING
http://www.rnw.nl/hotspots/html/afr020426.html
Millions of southern Africans will starve unless emergency relief efforts
are stepped up, according to the United Nations World Food Programme. The
WFP, which is already feeding 2.6 million people in the area, says a
combination of natural and economic disasters is threatening millions more,
and has asked for 69 million dollars to avert tragedy.

SUDAN: UN CALLS FOR FULL HUMANITARIAN ACCESS
Senior United Nations humanitarian officials
have called on both parties to the conflict in Sudan to lift all flight bans
and to grant full access to people in desperate need of humanitarian
assistance.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=7184

WEST AFRICA: RISK OF CONFLICT STILL HIGH
The risk of conflict developing or escalating in
the West African countries of The Gambia, Guinea, Liberia, Senegal and
Sierra Leone exists, but in varying levels, according to an April 2002
assessment by the Country Indicators for Foreign Policy (CIFP) project.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=7215

WESTERN SAHARA:
REPORT OF THE UN SECRETARY-GENERAL
Reaffirming its previous resolutions on the question of Western Sahara and
its commitment to assist the parties to achieve a just, lasting and mutually
acceptable solution, the Security Council decided to consider actively the
options contained in my report of 19 February 2002 (S/2002/178). The present
report covers developments since that date.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=7217

ZIMBABWE HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS SAY VIOLENCE WORSENS
http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=4208
Political violence in Zimbabwe has worsened since President Robert Mugabe's
election victory last month, compounding the plight of people grappling with
food shortages, a rights group said on Monday. "It is almost two months
since the elections took place in Zimbabwe and there is a worsening
situation of intimidation, forced displacement, violence and systematic
torture," the Amani Trust said in a statement.

ZIMBABWE-TANZANIA: GROWING DONOR CONCERN OVER DAR-HARARE LINKS
http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=4211
The latest edition of the London-based newsletter Africa Confidential says
there are "growing business ties between Tanzania's and Zimbabwe's elites,
particularly over the supply of arms, military logistics and the smuggling
of Congolese diamonds and other precious stones.

ZIMBABWE: PRESIDENT DECLARES DISASTER
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27542
President Robert Mugabe has declared a state of disaster throughout Zimbabwe
in the face of a government report that estimates that about 7.8 million
people - over five million of them children - will need humanitarian help
for the next 18 months.

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3.RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC LAUNCHES SWEEPING GOVERNANCE REFORMS
http://www.undp.org/dpa/frontpagearchive/2002/april/29apr02/index.html
The Central African Republic is launching sweeping reforms to promote good
governance, an important step towards reducing poverty and promoting
sustainable development. The reforms include improving public services;
promoting decentralization and local governance; enhancing economic
policies; and setting up an effective, transparent judicial system that
respects human rights. The other areas are: creating an enabling environment
for private sector development, promoting civil society participation in
public affairs, and strengthening operations of the National Assembly.

LIBERIA: ARMY AND REBELS ARE COMMITTING WAR CRIMES, HRW SAYS
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27563
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on the United Nations Security Council
to extend its arms embargo against Liberia, saying the army has committed
war crimes. These atrocities, HRW said, included the execution of scores of
civilians, widespread rape of women and girls, some as young as 12, and
systematic burning of villages.

LIBERIA: LEADING RIGHTS LAWYER TORTURED BY POLICE
One of Liberia’s most prominent human rights lawyers, Tiawan Gongloe, has
been brutalized in police custody and is hospitalized as a result, Human
Rights Watch has said. Police guards remain near his hospital bed, and the
police director has announced that Mr. Gongloe remains in police custody
without charge pending an investigation.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=7206

MADAGASCAR: HIGH COURT GIVES RAVALOMANANA THE PRESIDENCY
http://www.gvnews.net/html/DailyNews/alert894.html
Madagascar's High Constitutional Court has ruled that challenger Marc
Ravalomanana won the presidency in December's election. The court said
Monday that its recount showed Ravalomanana's KMMR party gained 51.46% of
total ballots cast against 35.9% for Ratsiraka's Arema party. Four other
candidates shared the remainder of the votes.

MALI PREPARES FOR PRESIDENTIAL VOTE
http://www.transparency.org/cgi-bin/dcn-read.pl?citID=35094
Camels helped carry the ballot box to Sahara Desert nomads in Timbuktu and
beyond Sunday as a democracy singled out by the West as a model for Africa
held a wide-open presidential race. Twenty-four candidates were competing in
Mali, West Africa's largest nation and one of the world's poorest. There
will be a May 12 runoff if no candidate wins an outright majority.

NIGERIA: LOCAL ELECTIONS POSTPONED TO 10 AUGUST
A controversy over local elections in Nigeria,
originally scheduled for 18 May, was resolved on Wednesday with all
stakeholders agreeing on a postponement to 10 August. The decision to defer
the polls - so as to accommodate a revision of the
voters' register and new political parties - was made at a meeting chaired
by President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=7181

RWANDA: UN, BELGIUM TARGETED IN FRESH CALLS FOR JUSTICE
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=655&ncid=655&e=1&u=/oneworld
/20020429/wl_oneworld/1032_1020090732
Members of the United Nations and the Belgian government should be held to
account for the events that led to the massacre of thousands of unarmed
civilians in one of the worst atrocities of the Rwandan genocide in the
first half of the 1990s, according to a prominent rights group which
campaigns on behalf of abuse victims in Africa.

US REGAINS SEAT ON UN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION
http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?e37167683&e=6392
The United States has regained the seat it lost last year on the 53-member
U.N. Human Rights Commission. The United States won one of four seats
earmarked for western nations on the Human Rights Commission. Its victory
was virtually assured after Italy and Spain pulled out of the race in March.

ZIMBABWE: FARM INVASIONS REPORT - APRIL 25 2002
http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=4193
Horseshoe - "War vets" and settlers on Nyamsewe and Rungudzi, have taken
possession of the owner's tractors, lorries and other equipment and are
using them as they please. Matabeleland, Mashonaland East and Masvingo
report numerous incidents throughout the region, indicating an escalation of
activity.

ZIMBABWE: MUGABE-OPPOSITION PARTY TALKS UNDER THREAT
http://www.gvnews.net/html/DailyNews/alert904.html
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has urged President Robert Mugabe to
quickly end what he said was state-sponsored violence targeting his MDC
supporters, warning that failure to do so will derail landmark inter-party
talks aimed at resolving Zimbabwe’s deepening political and economic crisis.

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4.CORRUPTION

GHANA: "RETURN THE LOOT" - AKOTO AMPAW
http://allafrica.com/stories/200204290430.html
A legal practitioner, Mr. Akoto Ampaw has demanded the return of stolen
wealth of Africa stashed away in foreign banks by some corrupt and
unaccountable African rulers and public officials as part of the move to
stem the tide of corruption in the continent.

KENYA: DONORS NOT SINCERE, SAYS MOI
http://allafrica.com/stories/200204290917.html
President Moi once again censured the key donor agencies, accusing them of
insincerity over aid. He said the World Bank and the International Monetary
Fund kept "shifting the goal posts" on the conditions they have set for
funding. The President lamented that the bank and the IMF were still adamant
in not releasing aid despite Kenya efforts to meet conditions set in the
past decade.

MOZAMBIQUE, NORWAY: NORWAY TO ASSIST IN FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION IN
MOZAMBIQUE
http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=020429006504&query
=corruption
Mozambique has invited Norwegian businessmen to invest in the country,
especially in the energy sector. In Maputo the energy sector is considered a
strategic instrument in the fight against poverty and corruption.

SIERRA LEONE: RETAILERS COMPLAIN ABOUT CORRUPTION IN PETROLEUM TRADE
http://allafrica.com/stories/200204260430.html
The Petroleum Retailers Association of Sierra Leone has expressed concern
about the filth that is associated with fuel distribution at the Kissy
Terminal. The present system is very much prone to corruption and abuse by
officials of the Kissy Terminal, involving drivers, transporters and the
police, as well as representatives of oil marketing companies that the
situation requires urgent Government attention.

UGANDA: NEW LEADERSHIP CODE IS GOOD BUT...
http://allafrica.com/stories/200204290387.html
Following the passing of the Leadership Code by Parliament last week ethics
and Integrity Minister Miria Matembe should be (or is it must be?) the
happiest woman in the World. Given that members of Parliament have featured
among those prominent in the violation of certain provisions of the existing
Leadership Code, getting through Parliament a new law that seeks to
facilitate effective implementation of the very provisions they chose to
ignore, and did ignore with impunity, is by no means an envious task.

UGANDA: PURCHASING COMPANY BOSS DECRIES CORRUPTION
http://allafrica.com/stories/200204250201.html
Central Purchasing Company (CPC) Managing Director, Anthony Okwenye has
decried corruption in the procurement process. "Corruption starts right from
the tendering process through the contract administration up to the end of
the procurement," he said.

ZAMBIA: 26 MPS FACE PROSECUTION
http://www.oneworld.org/afronet/monitor/224news01.htm
Twenty-six Members of Parliament (MPs) who have not yet declared their
interests, assets and liabilities now risk being prosecuted under the
Parliamentary and Ministerial Code of Conduct Act.

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5.HEALTH

AFRICA: O'NEILL, BONO TO TOUR FOUR NATIONS NEXT MONTH
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=10805
U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and Irish rock star Bono will tour four
African nations next month to assess a "variety of development projects,"
including some aimed at HIV/AIDS, Reuters reports (Reuters, 4/23). According
to a Treasury Department statement, the trip, which begins on May 20, will
"highlight efforts to enhance the effectiveness of development assistance,
the importance of increasing productivity through investment in human
capital and the role of the private sector as an engine for economic
growth."

GLOBAL FUND GRANT DECISIONS - FIND YOUR COUNTRY
1. Decisions made by GF Board re. fifty-eight of the proposals submitted
as part of the first round application process.
2. Countries NOT receiving grants (or fast-track responses) in this round,
but where CCMs were understood (by BTS) to be preparing proposals.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=7216

NIGERIA: NEW POLIO CASES ON THE DECLINE , SAYS UNICEF
The spread of the polio virus has declined sharply in Nigeria, the UN
Children's Fund reported this week. It said 57 cases of poliomyelitis were
recorded in 2001 as against 2,000 in the previous year. Nine cases have been
recorded this year from a surveillance of 12 of
Nigeria's 36 states, UNICEF added in a statement made available to IRIN on
Thursday.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=7176

NIGERIA: TENS OF THOUSANDS INFECTED BY RIVER BLINDNESS
Tens of thousands of people in over 700 villages
in Kano State, northern Nigeria, may be infected by onchocerciasis (river
blindness), The Guardian newspaper reported the state governor, Rabiu Musa
Kwankwaso, as saying at the weekend.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=7182

SOUTH AFRICA: ARMY'S BAN ON HIV POSITIVE RECRUITS TO BE TESTED IN COURT
http://allafrica.com/stories/200204250382.html
Changing the South African army's contentious ban on recruiting HIV positive
combat soldiers could be seriously costly and compromise the army's
effectiveness as a force, warned deputy director of the centre for military
studies Lindy Heinecken on Wednesday.

SOUTH AFRICA: MANDELA PRAISES SOUTH AFRICAN GOVERNMENT'S PLANS FOR NATIONAL
NEVIRAPINE PROGRAM
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=10755
Former South African President Nelson Mandela has said that he was
"relieved" that the South African government may implement a national
nevirapine program to prevent vertical HIV transmission by year's end,
Agence France-Presse reports. "These are responsible people who could not
allow babies to continue to die," Mandela said. But Mandela "dismissed"
reports that the government changed its stance on antiretroviral drugs
because "he entered the fray".

SOUTH AFRICA: MBEKI ACKNOWLEDGES COMMUNICATION PROBLEMS ON HIV/AIDS
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=10779
South African President Thabo Mbeki has acknowledged that the government has
not communicated its message on HIV/AIDS successfully and urged all South
Africans to "take responsibility for [their] health," the South African
Press Association reports.

UN COMMISSION RESOLUTION ON THE RIGHT TO HEALTH
A resolution on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest
attainable standard of physical and mental health (E/CN.4/2002/L.47),
sponsored by the Brazilian Delegation, was adopted by consensus on 22 April
2002 at the Fifty-Eighth Session of the Commission on Human Rights. The
Resolution urges States to take steps, individually and through
international assistance and co-operation, to achieve progressively the full
realization of the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest
attainable standard of physical and mental health; calls upon the
international community to assist, without discrimination, the developing
countries to this end; and appoints, for a period of three years, a Special
Rapporteur on the right to health.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=7173

UN: WE CAN BEAT AIDS, TB AND MALARIA
http://www.unaids.org/whatsnew/press/eng/pressarc02/Coordinates2002_220402.h
tml
Coordinates 2002, a joint publication from WHO, UNAIDA and UNICEF is the
first evidence-based, consolidated review of the three different but often
interacting diseases spreading through the world. This report on the AIDS,
TB and malaria epidemics summarizes the burdens of these diseases, assesses
the tools used to fight them, and discusses the barriers to progress. These
diseases share several features. They all disproportionately affect the
poor. They all further impoverish their victims and they will all require
significant resources and political will to reverse their impacts.

WHO RELEASES GUIDELINES FOR USE OF ANTIRETROVIRAL DRUGS TO TREAT HIV
INFECTION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=10756
The World Health Organization has issued guidelines for the treatment of HIV
in developing nations and included 12 antiretroviral drugs for that
indication on its Essential Medicines List, a move that suggests "the debate
over whether the world's poorest AIDS patients are ready for triple [drug]
therapy has moved from rhetoric to practical planning".

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6.EDUCATION AND SOCIAL WELFARE

ABORTION REMAINS AN ISSUE FOR UN CHILD SUMMIT
http://www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=6487
The United Nations will hold its Child Summit May 8-10 in New York, but
already the Bush Administration is plotting to change language in the Summit
declaration that would exclude support for abortion counseling and services.
The Bush Administration had already made clear its view that the phrase
“reproductive health services” in the document was an endorsement of
abortion last August before the Summit was postponed until May because of
the September 11 attacks. In adopting its position, the Bush Administration
has effectively allied itself with conservative Muslim nations and the
Vatican in an attempt to remove abortion-related language from the final
document.

AFRICA’S ‘VIRTUAL UNIVERSITY’ SETS UP SHOP IN NAIROBI
http://www.scidev.net/gateways/newsSSA.asp?t=N&gw=SSA&gwname=Sub-Saharan%20A
frica#
The African Virtual University, a project established by the World Bank in
1997 to bridge the digital divide and knowledge gap between Africa and the
rest of the world, has moved its operations from Washington DC to Kenya.
AVU’s newly appointed chief executive officer, Cheick Modibo Diarra, was an
adjunct professor of the school of engineering at Howard University in
Washington, and the first Africa-born Unesco ‘goodwill ambassador’ for
science and technology and enterprise. He says that the organisation’s goal
is to provide quality and cost-effective education in sub-Saharan Africa.

CHILDREN'S NEEDS FOR SEX EDUCATION LARGELY UNMET
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=655&ncid=655&e=1&u=/oneworld
/20020426/wl_oneworld/1032_1019832617
Young people's needs for information about sexual and reproductive health
are not being met in most countries around the world, despite a rapid
increase in sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among those aged between
15 and 24, according to a new report.

ETHIOPIA: MORE AND MORE CHILDREN FORCED ONTO THE STREETS
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27538&SelectRegion=Horn_of_Afric
a&SelectCountry=ETHIOPIA
Record numbers of children are ending up on the streets of Ethiopia, the
ministry of labour and social affairs revealed on Tuesday. Tens of thousands
of youngsters – some as young as four – are being forced to eke out a
squalid and often dangerous existence on the streets. According to the
ministry, numbers in Ethiopia have reached alarming proportions, with an
estimated 100,000 to 200,000 street children.

ETHIOPIA: TWO TEENAGERS TO PROMOTE CHILD CONCERNS AT UN SESSION
Zerihun Mamo and Weinshet Asfaw, who are both 15 and have never travelled
outside Ethiopia before, are to act as special ambassadors for every child
in their country. They will fly to the UN headquarters in New York in May
and urge member states to help end the suffering of children in their
country.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=7247

GLOBAL EDUCATION FOR ALL WEEK
More than 90 countries mobilized for global EFA week(22-26 April). The week
celebrates the second anniversary of the World Education Forum (Dakar, April
2000) and is an annual opportunity to renew the momentum generated in Dakar
and to provoke public debate on Education for All.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=7248

PLANS SET FOR NEW AFRICAN SCIENCE INITIATIVE
http://www.scidev.net/#
The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), a multinational
programme to promote economic and social development, is setting up a
Commission on Science and Technology to explore ways of stimulating activity
in both fields across the African continent. In particular, the new
commission will follow a two-prong strategy of identifying centres of
research excellence in different African countries, and establishing an
African Science Fund to fund them.

SOUTH AFRICA: PUPILS IN STRIFE-TORN VILLAGE WILL HAVE TO MAKE UP FOR LOST
TIME
http://allafrica.com/stories/200204300429.html
Two Limpopo schools are still closed after mayhem broke out in Tshivhase
village two weeks ago. Pupils at a primary and high school in the sprawling
village's Mukula section will be urged to attend afternoon and weekend
classes to catch up on their work.

UN: THE SPECIAL SESSION ON CHILDREN
http://www.unicef.org/specialsession/about/end-decade-results.htm
The Special Session on Children, to be held 8-10 May 2002, is an
unprecedented meeting of the UN General Assembly dedicated to the children
and adolescents of the world. It will bring together government leaders and
Heads of State, NGOs, children's advocates and young people themselves at
the United Nations in New York in 2002. The gathering will present a great
opportunity to change the way the world views and treats children.

ZIMBABWE: NO SCHOOL FEE HIKES WITHOUT GOVERNMENT SANCTION
http://allafrica.com/stories/200204210181.html
The education minister says schools should not arbitrarily increase fee to
unaffordable levels. He wants schools to take written permission from the
government before any fee hike is considered.

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7.WOMEN AND GENDER

HORN OF AFRICA: REGIONAL CONFERENCE ON WOMEN AND ICTS
June 3 - 7, 2002
http://www.wougnet.org/projectnews.html
The Horn of Africa Regional Conference on Women and Information and
Communication Technologies (ICTs) is to raise awareness on ICT amongst women
in the Horn of Africa region and to explore opportunities for harnessing the
technology to work as a tool for their development. The conference will
provide an opportunity for participants to hear what is happening on the
ground for the purposes of learning and replication. The conference is
organised by the African Centre for Women, Information & Communications
Technology (ACWICT), a non-governmental organisation in Kenya committed to
promoting the use of ICTs amongst women in the African Region.
Contact: [log in to unmask]

INSTRAW CALL FOR PAPERS: GENDER AND ICTS
Women worldwide lag overwhelmingly behind men in the access to and use of
ICTs. This newly developing gender gap is being argued to be a major source
of gender inequality and one of the major obstacles to mainstreaming a
gender perspective in development. To address the need for sharing of
knowledge and learning about gender aspects of ICTs, INSTRAW is initiating a
collaborative research programme and inviting the submission of Papers to be
used as background information for the Virtual Workshops that will be held
online through INSTRAWís Gender Awareness Information and Networking System
(GAINS).
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=7246

KENYA: RIGHTS ACTIVISTS DECRY MUNGIKI CIRCUMCISION THREAT
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27467
Women's human rights activists in Kenya have urged the government to take
action against recent threats by a controversial sect to forcibly circumcise
women in central Kenya. On Wednesday, Kenyan newspapers reported that some
members of the Mungiki sect, had issued an ultimatum to women aged between
13 and 65 in the Kiambaa and Kikuyu divisions, both in central Kenya, who
had not undergone the ethnic Kikuyu traditional operation to submit to it.

KENYA: THE V-DAY SPEAKS FOR OPPRESSED WOMEN
http://allafrica.com/stories/200204240040.html
The V-Day is global movement set to raise funds and awareness to stop sexual
violence that is being perpetrated against women and girls the world over.
It is a concerted efforts to fight against the rape of women and girls,
against incest, battery, female circumcision and sexual slavery.

ONLINE CONFERENCE: INFORMATION ACCESS FOR RURAL WOMEN
June 3 - 21, 2002
http://www.wougnet.org/projectnews.html
Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) invites you to participate in an online
conference on "Information Access for Rural Women". Information,
communication and entertainment are as critical for rural living as they are
for urban living, and indeed there is increasing demand for information and
communication equipment and services in rural areas. However, major
challenges exist in terms of available means of information access and
dissemination as well as how to operate the audio-visual systems used in
rural areas.
Conference and registration information is available in English and French.
Contact: [log in to unmask]

SOUTH AFRICA: PARLIAMENTARY HEARINGS - GENDER BASED VIOLENCE
http://www2.womensnet.org.za/events/show.cfm?id=409
The National Portfolio Committee on Health in Parliament, and the South
African Gender-based Violence and Health Initiative, will jointly hold
hearings in Parliament on Gender-Based Violence and the Health Sector on
June 4 to 5, 2002.

SOUTH AFRICA: WOMEN BUY 52% OF PRINTING COMPANY
http://allafrica.com/stories/200204250367.html
A Cape Town-based black empowerment group has bought a majority stake in one
of the biggest printing companies on the African continent. Arise
Communications, a black-and women-owned empowerment group, recently bought a
52% stake in Associated Printing valued at R80 million.

SOUTHERN AFRICA: TRAINING PACKS ON HIV/AIDS OFFERED TO AFRICAN HEALTH
REPORTERS
http://www.comminit.com/pdskdv32002/sld-4342.html
Southern African journalists now have access to a single authoritative
database on HIV/AIDS with the launch of the SAfAIDS's media information pack
in both English and Portuguese.

UGANDA: ENTREPRENEURSHIP TRAINING PROGRAMME FOR WOMEN
June 10 - 28, 2002
http://www.wougnet.org/projectnews.html
With the support of Global Fund For Women (GFW), NVIWODA Centre for
Entrepreneurship and Career Develoment has since 1998 to-date, been able to
train 377 women entrepreneurs, who are now engaged in various enterprises.
0ur 12th programme is scheduled for 10th June - 28th June and 25
participants are expected to benefit from the programme.
Contact: [log in to unmask]

WORLD BANK SHOULD END 'GENDER-BLIND' APPROACH, SAYS RESEARCH
http://www.ccjp.org.zm/sap-women.htm
The latest version of a World Bank programme aimed at fostering economic
growth and cutting poverty in developing countries is doomed unless efforts
are made to end the Bank's "gender-blind" approach and instead look
decisively at the needs of women, according to research from a British
university.

ZAMBIA: ADULTERY BY OLDER WOMEN CAN'T BE CONDONED
http://allafrica.com/stories/200204291044.html
Adultery, especially when committed by an 'older' woman cannot be condoned,
said presiding Lusaka Boma local court justice Sainet Chitambo as he
dismissed a 31-year-old woman's claim for compensation for prostitution
remarks.

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8.REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRATION

CAMEROON: REFUGEES LONGING FOR UNHCR'S RETURN LOOK SET TO GET THEIR WISH
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27561
Doungou Alima Achille Arsene arrived in Cameroon in July 2001, after fleeing
upheavals in his country, Central African Republic. However, life in the
Cameroonian capital, Yaounde, is anything but easy for the 26-year-old
tiler.

CENTRAL AFRICA: DRC STILL "PRECARIOUS" AS FOOD OUTLOOK IMPROVES ELSEWHERE
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27564
The food and nutritional situation of over two million internally displaced
people (IDPs), particularly in northeastern parts of the Democratic Republic
of the Congo (DRC), and of over 330,000 refugees from neighbouring
countries, "is cause for serious concern", according to the latest report
from the Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and Agriculture
(GIEWS).

GENDER AND CROSS-BORDER MIGRATION IN SOUTHERN AFRICA
WORKSHOP JULY 2002
http://www.queensu.ca/samp/Gender.htm
South African Migration Project will convene an international workshop in
Southern Africa in July 2002 on the subject of gender and migration. The
aims of the workshop are: to assess the current knowledge base on gender and
migration in Southern Africa; to set out a research agenda for future
research into gender and migration in the region
to discuss and develop appropriate theoretical and methodological tools for
a gender analysis of cross-border migration; to establish contacts and build
networks for knowledge sharing and collaborative research; to raise the
profile of gender in the debates on national and regional migration
policies.

GLOBAL: NGO ADVOCATES MORE EFFECTIVE RESPONSE TO IDPS
The international community must give greater
attention and support to internally displaced persons (IDPs) around the
world, according to the nongovernmental refugee advocacy organisation
Refugees International (RI). In a statement issued on Thursday, the group
stated that its recent assessment missions "suggest that the international
community continues to struggle to provide protection and assistance to
IDPs".
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=7198

ZIMBABWE: CITIZENS FLEE TO NEIGHBOURING STATES
http://allafrica.com/stories/200205010186.html
Hundreds of Zimbabweans, including a 45-year-old blind man, have sought
refuge in neighbouring countries after torture and death threats by war
veterans and Zanu PF youths. The victims have fled to refugee camps in
Botswana, South Africa, Zambia, Malawi and Namibia.

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9.RACISM AND XENOPHOBIA

UNHCR CONCERNED OVER RISE OF RACISM IN EUROPE
http://www.icare.to/news.html#FAR%20RIGHTISTS%20GAIN%20SUPPORT%20ACROSS%20MU
CH%20OF%20EUROPE
The far right's strong showing in the first round of France's presidential
elections is the latest example of the general turn to the right across
Europe in the last few years. Center-left governments and coalitions have
lost office in Italy, Norway, Denmark and Portugal, and strong challenges
have been mounted by conservative candidates in the campaigns for coming
elections in Germany and the Netherlands. But this mirrors the traditional
pendulum swings of European politics. More alarming, in the view of many
analysts, is the recent shift of far rightist parties from the periphery to
the center of political debate. While specific circumstances vary from
country to country, extreme rightists appear to have benefited from voters'
anger that mainstream parties have ignored the perceived link between rising
crime and immigration. Some far-right parties, like Jean-Marie Le Pen's
National Front, have campaigned aggressively against political elites and
exploited disillusion with the European Union.

US ANTI-TERROR, FRENCH POLL 'CREATE EXPLOSIVE RACISM'
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=655&ncid=655&e=2&u=/oneworld
/20020424/wl_oneworld/1032_1019681586
The shock success of far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen in the first round
of French presidential elections this week confirms the findings of a new
report that reaction to the post-September 11 attacks on New York and
Washington have created a climate of "explosive racism" across Europe, the
report's author said Wednesday.

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10.ENVIRONMENT

AFRICA: AIDS THREATENS TRADITIONAL FARMING KNOWLEDGE
http://www.scidev.net/gateways/newsSSA.asp?t=F&gw=SSA&gwname=Sub-Saharan%20A
frica#
The impact of HIV/AIDS is usually considered in terms of health costs and
losses of skilled labour. But its impact on the agricultural sector,
particularly in Africa, is having a devastating effect on food security —
partly because many people in rural areas are too ill to work, and also
because, as generations die off prematurely, they cannot pass on what they
know about crops and wild plants.

ANIMAL CONSERVATION ‘MUST PUT PEOPLE FIRST’
http://www.scidev.net/gateways/newsSSA.asp?t=N&gw=SSA&gwname=Sub-Saharan%20A
frica#
Efforts to save animals from extinction will fail unless human poverty is
tackled as a part of conservation strategies, one of Britain’s leading
environmental scientists has said. “Effective conservation of the earth’s
biological riches will not happen without sustainable development and
greater equity in the distribution of wealth and resources across all
nations,” John Lawton, head of the UK National Environment Research Council
told a group of industrialists and environmentalists at the Gerald Durrell
Lecture 2002 in London.

KENYA: COURT BLOCKS FOREST EXCISIONS
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27444
Environmental activists in Kenya have welcomed a court order temporarily
blocking the Kenyan government's plans to excise some 70,000 hectares
(170,000 acres) of the country's remaining forests, pending the hearing of a
suit they have filed challenging the move.

LEGAL, ECONOMIC, AND COMPENSATION MECHANISMS IN SUPPORT OF SUSTAINABLE
MOUNTAIN DEVELOPMENT
Draft Background Paper B1, For Review By The Mountain Forum
http://www.mtnforum.org/resources/library/kochx02a.htm
Mountain forests still stretch over 9 million square kilometres with almost
4 million km2 above 1000 metres, and represent 28 % of the world's closed
forest area.1 The observable global trend towards environmental degradation
in mountain areas is partly caused by the extreme fragility of mountain
ecosystems, which is due to its high geomorphic energy, steepness,
isolation, and low temperatures, which cause vegetation growth and soil
formation to occur very slowly. Another characteristic of mountain
environments is that soils are usually thin, young, and highly erodible.
These conditions set mountain ecosystems apart from all other global
ecosystems and foster the quick emergence of scenarios of environmental
imbalance and non-sustainable use. Mountain communities are often very poor,
isolated and uneducated about sustainable forestry and agricultural
practices, while population growth forces them into even higher, more
fragile areas. Furthermore, one always has to keep in mind that ecosystems
in mountain areas may need hundreds of years to recover.

SWAZILAND: ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION VERSUS DEVELOPMENT
What can a small impoverished nation do to
preserve its environment when faced with a destructive population growth
rate and an imperative to lure industrial investment to create jobs? While
Swaziland, a landlocked kingdom of less than one million people,
struggles with these questions, conservationists are heartened by the first
major victory of an environmental monitoring body whose success is by no
means assured.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=7180

THE CLEAN REVOLUTION:
Technologies From The Leading Edge
http://www.cleanedge.com/reports-gbn.php
Is "clean technology" an oxymoron . . . or the future of our planet? Does it
represent one of the great business opportunities of the new millennium . .
. or will it rise and fall like so many over-hyped technologies of the past?
Will it engender a revolutionary shift in how we live, work, and play. . .
or a more evolutionary shift largely transparent to the masses?

TRACKING WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE
http://enn.com/news/enn-stories/2002/04/04262002/s_46973.asp
"Bushmen are some of the best ecological scientists on the planet," Jon
Young told a packed crowd at the Riekes Center in Silicon Valley. "We
thought they were backwards because they're illiterate and don't dress like
us. Now our scientists are asking them for information."

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11.MEDIA

AFRICA IN THE WESTERN MEDIA
Cycle Of Contra-Positives And Selective Perceptions
http://www.theperspective.org/africa_westernmedia.html
The persistent phenomenon of how the Western Media have continued to treat
Africa negatively is as topical today as it was nearly two decades ago when
many Africans and other aggrieved proponents campaigned for the adoption of
a new world information order as the best corrective approach. I suggest,
not in any new way or fresh revelations, that the problem about Western
media reporting on Africa goes beyond professional inadequacies and
structural bias. Socio-cultural factors have continued to account
significantly for the stereotyping archetype, which has remained a hallmark
of Western collection and dissemination of information about Africa.

AFRICA MEDIA ON LE PEN'S SUCCESS
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_1952000/1952717.stm
Newspapers throughout Africa have reacted angrily to the success of
Jean-Marie Le Pen in the first round of the French presidential election.
None more so than in the North and West African nations where many French
have their origins.

GAMBIA: MEDIA BILL SERIOUSLY THREATENS PRESS FREEDOM
http://www.rsf.fr/article.php3?id_article=1810
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on 30th April called on the speaker of the
Gambian parliament, Sheriff Mustapha Dibba, to do everything he could to
block passage of a new press bill that it said would seriously endanger
press freedom.

GAMBIA: MEDIA COMMISSION BILL TO BE DEBATED
http://www.qanet.gm/Observer/observer.html
The controversial Media Commission Bill whose presentation was postponed a
couple of times before, is expected to be finally tabled for debate before
week ending May 3rd by honourable members at the National Assembly.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS FREEDOM DAY
http://www.rsf.fr/article.php3?id_article=1130
Because 120 journalists are still in prison around the world and because 31
journalists were murdered last year, Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
continues to denounce those everywhere who attack the right to inform
people. On 3 May, RSF will be celebrating the 12th International Press
Freedom Day so as to alert public opinion to the need to stand up for press
freedom and challenge public officials, international organisations and the
media about their contribution to it.

KENYA: ATTORNEY GENERAL PROPOSES RESTRICTIVE MEDIA BILL
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is alarmed that Kenyan attorney
general Amos Wako has reintroduced a repressive media bill in Parliament.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=7208

KENYA: WHY 'MEDIA BILL' IS A DANGER TO SOCIETY
Can't Sell Won't Sell
http://www.nationaudio.com/News/DailyNation/28042002/Comment/Sp_Report29.htm
l
Under the proposed media law, a vendor (in, say, Nyamira District) will have
to establish (heaven knows how) that the publisher in Nairobi has, on that
morning, posted two copies of the newspaper to the registrar before selling
the newspaper or risk breaking the law and getting jailed or fined.

LIBERIA: POLICE CLOSE ANALYST NEWSPAPER, DIRECTOR SAYS IT MAY "NOT" APPEAR
http://allafrica.com/stories/200204260577.html
Less than 24 hours following the arrest and detention of human rights lawyer
Tiawon S. Gongloe, the independent Analyst Newspaper was on 25th April
closed down by the police.

NAMIBIA: MEDIA URGED TO PUSH GOVT CASE ON EPUPA
http://www.namibian.com.na/
PRIME Minister Hage Geingob wants the Namibian media to help resurrect the
N$3,3 billion Epupa hydropower plant plan, which he says has been
"stalemated" due to opposition from environmentalists and the international
media. Geingob made the appeal after visiting the Maguga Dam, a joint South
African-Swaziland hydropower plant at Piggs Peak in northern Swaziland,
during his three-day official visit to Swaziland.

NIGERIA: BROADCASTERS RESOLVE TO DEFEND COUNTRY AND DEMOCRACY
http://allafrica.com/stories/200205010345.html
THE 31st General Assembly of the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON)
ended in Warri, Delta State, last weekend with broadcasters showing great
concerns for the coming elections.

SENEGAL: PUBLICATION DIRECTOR IMPRISONED FOR DEFAMATION
In a letter to Justice Minister Basile Senghor, RSF expressed concern
following the sentencing of Mamadou Oumar Ndiaye, publication director of
the Dakar-based weekly "Le Témoin". "While not wishing to comment on the
facts of the case, RSF recalls that a prison sentence with no parole for
'defamation' is viewed by international human rights bodies as
'disproportionate' to the harm suffered by the victim," stated Robert
Ménard, the organisation's secretary-general.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=7207

ZIMBABWE COURT FREES JOURNALISTS
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_1965000/1965015.stm
Three journalists charged with violating Zimbabwe's new media law by
reporting false information have been released by a court in Harare.

ZIMBABWE: JOY TV RUFFLES GOVERNMENT FEATHERS
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/standard/2002/April/April28/450.html
CONTROVERSY surrounds the impending closure of Joy TV, with some industry
sources describing it as a paranoid move by ZBC aimed at silencing
potentially dissenting views.

ZIMBABWE: ZANU PF MILITIA STRIPS JOURNALIST, PREGNANT WIFE NAKED
http://allafrica.com/stories/200204260140.html
ZANU PF militia based at Bulawayo's Nketa 8 Secondary School recently
stripped a freelance journalist, Rodrick Mukumbira, and his pregnant wife
naked. Mukumbira was accompanying his wife to a local ante-natal clinic for
a routine check-up.

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12.DEVELOPMENT

AN ECONOMIST FROM A DIFFERENT ERA
http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/glotax/currtax/2002/0410era.htm
"An intellectual disinclined to be a leader, but who was pervasively
influential all the same." This is how, some years ago, Federico Caffè
summed up the figure of James Tobin, underlining the noteworthy contrast
between the American economist's shy and soft character and his
extraordinary, trailblazing influence on the development of economic
research. This contrast has been greatly accentuated in recent times with
the rise to prominence of the Tobin tax on the international political
scene. With his good manners and sense of balance, Tobin has tended to treat
the fame that this has brought him with self-deprecating irony. This
gracious humility is of a different era to that of today¹s brimming
narcissism, but it never went so far as to affect his civic passion and
political commitment.

DEBT RELIEF PROGRAMME FACES POST-CONFLICT TEST
http://www.oneworld.org/ips2/apr02/23_40_066.htm
A high-profile debt relief programme for the world's poorest countries is
mired in implementation problems and faces tougher times ahead as it moves
to deal with conflict-riddled countries, say World Bank officials. "We have
difficult cases ahead of us," Jacob Kolster, Programme Manager for the
Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, said Thursday. "Progress
is going to be very slow and very difficult as we move forward to bring more
countries on board." The next stage of the initiative will cover Burundi,
Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Sudan, Somalia, and other countries
still subject to intense political and communal tension and, on occasion,
violence.

FINANCING THE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
An Analysis Of Tanzania, Cameroon, Malawi, Uganda And Philippines
http://www.undp.org/ffd/MDGfinal.pdf
This report tries to advance one of the most important tasks before the
International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD)in March 2002 by
attempting to answer a single critical question: What will it take, in
resource terms, to meet the universal human development goals of the
Millennium Declaration – the Millennium Development Goals? Prepared
specially for the Conference, the report takes one step further the work
that UNDP — as chief “scorekeeper” for the goals — has undertaken in
conjunction with other agencies of the UN system to prepare progress reports
on the MDGs in every country.

GUINEA: TAINTED OIL FROM 'AFRICA'S SWITZERLAND'
http://www.gvnews.net/html/DailyNews/alert892.html
Since the oil boom that started in 1997, Equatorial Guinea has not only been
a target of pressure to improve its disastrous human rights situation, it
has also been able to spend its new riches on pressuring other countries not
to intervene in its affairs. Now an "African Switzerland," repression of the
political opposition is stronger than ever but outside pressure remarkably
low.

KENYA: NAIROBI NOT YET READY FOR AID, SAY IMF, WORLD BANK
http://allafrica.com/stories/200204290179.html
The International Monetary Fund and World Bank say there is no money for
Kenya yet because it has not met all the conditions they set for it. Kenya
must fulfil donor conditionalities before it can expect the release of
funds, the Bretton Woods institutions insist.

MALAWI: FOCUS ON THE FIGHT AGAINST POVERTY
Weighed down by a critical food shortage,
limited access to land, unemployment and poor education and health services,
Malawi is one of the world's poorest countries. In a bid to win
international financial backing to reverse its dismal record, the government
this week launched a Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) - a first step
to gain unqualified relief on its US $2.5 billion foreign debt under the
controversial Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=7195

NEPAD LEADERS TO CONVENE IN ROME NEXT JUNE
http://www.fao.org/english/newsroom/news/2002/4320-en.html
At the invitation of Dr. Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the UN Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO), African Heads of State and Government of the
NEPAD Implementation Committee will seize the opportunity of their presence
in Rome at the World Food Summit: five years later (10-13 June 2002) to
prepare the Kananaskis meeting from 26 to 28 June in Canada, which will
focus on partnership between the G8 and Africa.

NIGERIA: YOUTHS FREE HOSTAGES, LEAVE OIL RIG
Militants in southern Nigeria have freed 43 oil
workers after holding them hostage for four days on an offshore oil rig,
ChevronTexaco, the US transnational for which the hostages worked, said on
Friday. "The youths left the rig on Wednesday night and the hostages were
freed unharmed," a senior company official told IRIN.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=7214

SOUTH AFRICA: GOVERNMENT WOOS LABOUR OVER NEPAD
http://allafrica.com/stories/200204250546.html
The ANC is keen to prevent possible protests at Johannesburg's World Summit.
Senior government leaders briefed the Congress of South African Trade Unions
(Cosatu) on the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) this week,
in what is seen as a move to head off possible protests at the World Summit
on Sustainable Development later this year.

THE BANANAS FOR BANKING AGENDA
http://www.globalpolicy.org/globaliz/econ/2002/0417bananas.htm
Ever since 140 countries launched a new round of global trade talks in Doha
last November, the backroom boys at the EU have been busy running a
fine-tooth comb over their trading partners' economies. Just how busy they
have been was revealed recently, when the extent of the concessions the EU
is demanding from some of its trading partners was leaked to the Guardian.

THE IMF'S ROLE & POLICY CONDITIONALITY:
A CRITIQUE
http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/geseries4.htm
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is facing a crisis of legitimacy.
There is a crisis of legitimacy of the IMF with the public; problems of the
IMF's credibility (including regarding appropriateness of its policies) in
relation to many recipient countries; erosion of confidence in the IMF
within the establishment (policy making, academic, media) of major
shareholder countries; and also debate on IMF policy and strategy within the
IMF staff themselves.

US: FOREIGN AID RETURNS TO FAVOR
http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/ffd/2002/0417bushaid.htm
President George W. Bush has proposed a huge increase in U.S. foreign aid,
potentially reversing years of declining aid budgets. His new push for aid
has only two parallels in modern U.S. history: John Kennedy's Alliance for
Progress and Harry Truman's Marshall Plan. In those cases, the fear that
poverty would breed communism, in the developing world in the 1960s or in
Western Europe in the late 1940s, was the motivating factor. Today Americans
have found a new reason to take poverty abroad seriously: It will breed
terrorists who will strike them at home. Developmentalists, who have long
pushed for greater foreign aid on various moral and practical grounds, are
not entirely comfortable with the anti-terrorist rationale. But after years
of losing arguments about the importance of foreign aid, proponents of aid
are not about to look this gift horse too closely in the mouth.

WORLD BANK CHIEF, NGOS WRANGLE OVER ACCESS
http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=9212
The World Bank's president has denied his institution was failing to
adequately consult civil society groups and blamed governments for any
shortfall in the Bank's efforts to meet grassroots demand for participation
in decision-making.

ZIMBABWE: ECONOMISTS SAY RESOURCE GAP RETARDING GROWTH
http://allafrica.com/stories/200204290252.html
WITHOUT international financial support, Zimbabwe faces a "resource gap"
which will prevent the country from achieving meaningful economic
development, economists told a meeting of top executives of the Institute of
Chartered Secretaries and Administrators in Zimbabwe. Dr Phineas Kadenge, an
economist at the University of Zimbabwe, said that by embarking on an
economic development programme in which the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) and the World Bank and their member countries have stopped providing
financial support, Zimbabwe was unlikely to achieve economic growth and
development.

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13.INTERNET AND TECHNOLOGY

KABISSA WINS ICT STORIES COMPETITION
http://www.kabissa.org/members/bb/viewtopic.php?p=26
The four winners of the 2002 ICT Stories Competition have been selected, and
Kabissa was among them. The ICT Stories Competition is run by infoDev and
the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD).
Comments of the Jury: "What I liked in Kabissa is the extraordinary
collaboration the project got all over Africa. It should be a real lesson
for most organizations working in this continent, most of them working in a
fragmented way, spoiling resources instead of joining efforts to get better
results!"

Kabissa is a non-profit organization that seeks to use technology to
strengthen organizations working to improve the lives of people in Africa.
We have three main objectives: to enable organizations to use the Internet
and related technologies to their fullest potential, to promote the exchange
of ideas and information between African organizations, and to ensure that
African organizations have access to the resources they need to be more
effective.

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14.eNEWSLETTERS AND MAILING LISTS

AFRICA POLICY LIST
http://www.africaaction.org
Africa Policy Electronic Distribution List: an information service provided
by AFRICA ACTION (incorporating the Africa Policy Information Center, The
Africa Fund, and the American Committee on Africa).

NIGERIA MEDIA MONITOR
http://www.derechos.net/ijc/monitor/
Media Monitor reports on the situation of freedom of the press and the media
in Nigeria. It is published weekly and circulated by the Independent
Journalism Centre (IJC). It is a dialogical project. We expect that its
contents will elicit reactions from its readers. You are encouraged to share
your feelings with one another on its pages.

THE AFRICAN CONFLICT JOURNAL
http://www.africanconflict.org/index.php
is a clearinghouse of information, events, peer reviews, online resources
and discussion concerning the topic of African conflict. The African
Conflict Journal (ACJ) is an independent project that utilizes the latest
online technology for community building, resource sharing and online
information services.

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15.FUNDRAISING

ETHIOPIA: $7 MILLION AWARDED TO TACKLE KILLER DISEASES
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27531
Ethiopia has been awarded more than US $7 million as part of the Global Fund
to tackle diseases, backed by computer billionaire Bill Gates. The award is
part of a multi-million dollar package announced in New York recently, and
which gives a large proportion of the money to African countries.

MACARTHUR FOUNDATION AWARDS $1.8 MILLION FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE AND
SECURITY EFFORTS
http://www.macfdn.org/announce/press_releases/4_26_2002_1.htm
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has announced grants
totaling more than $1.8 million to advance work it supports in three aspects
of international peace and security: the development of cooperative security
methods; efforts to limit the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction;
and assisting in the development of science, technology, and security
specialists.

SOUTH AFRICA: NEEDY GROUPS RECEIVE R200-THOUSAND FROM CHEST FUNDS
http://www.dispatch.co.za/2002/05/02/easterncape/EFUNDS.HTM
The value of the Border Community Chest in helping so many deserving
organisations throughout its region was illustrated again on Tuesday when
the distribution committee decided to make annual grants for 2002-3 of just
under R200 000. It was agreed to allot R135 000 to organisations and R60 000
to feeding funds.

SOUTH AFRICA: SOUTH AFRICA RECEIVES GRANT TO FIGHT AIDS
http://www.bday.co.za/bday/content/direct/1,3523,1072268-6078-0,00.html
The Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria on Thursday awarded
its first batch of grants - worth $378 million - to fight the world's
deadliest diseases in 31 countries.

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16.COURSES, SEMINARS, AND WORKSHOPS

AFRICAN REGIONAL CONFERENCE, BAMAKO, 25-30 MAY 2002
Africa Prepares For The World Summit On The Information Society
Since Africans have a stake in the Information Society, it is important that
they be involved in the preparations of the World Summit on the Information
Society (Geneva, 10-12 December 2003) right from the beginning of the
process. All African stakeholders and their partners in development are
therefore invited to attend the African Regional Conference in Bamako.
Please note that important pre-conference events start on Saturday, May 25.
The conference itself begins on Monday, May 28. Deadline for registration is
May 20.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=7219

SOUTH AFRICA: DEMOCRACY SEMINAR SERIES
The Electoral Institute of Southern Africa is holding a seminar series
entitled The Role of Observer Missions in the SADC Region.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=7283
Contact: [log in to unmask]

SOUTH AFRICA: ASHOKA WORKSHOPS
Learn How to develop and implement strategies in areas such as fund raising,
income generation, volunteer recruitment, financial management, cross sector
partnerships and media engagement.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=7293

SOUTH AFRICA: CDRA COURSES
The Community Development Resource Association (CDRA) is offering several
five-day courses for organisational, programme and project leaders or
managers of development organisations.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=7298
Contact: [log in to unmask]

SOUTH AFRICA: ENABLING ENVIRONMENTS
Following the highly successful International Conference on 'TAX AND THE
NON-PROFIT SECTOR' in March 2001, the Non Profit Partnership will hold a
national conference on the enabling environment in March 2003.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=7294
Contact: [log in to unmask]

SOUTH AFRICA: GLOBALISATION & ENVIRONMENT EXECUTIVE COURSE
Ready for the WSSD? Enroll in P&DM's Globalisation & Environment Executive
Course.
The University of the Witwatersrand's Graduate School of Public and
Development offers short courses for government and non-government
officials, to provide cutting-edge information about public and development
issues.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=7295
Contact: [log in to unmask]

SOUTH AFRICA: MASTER'S CERTIFICATE IN ADVANCED SOCIAL RESEARCH
RAU University offers a two week intensive study and completion of
assignments leading to a certificate, recorded at SAQA, worth a quarter of
an MA.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=7296

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17.ADVOCACY RESOURCES

DROP THE MALARIA TAX CAMPAIGN
http://www.massiveeffort.org/
Two years ago - on 25 April 2000 - African leaders met in Abuja, Nigeria and
promised to help fight malaria by dropping taxes on treated mosquito nets.

Yet, two years later, 26 African countries have not kept this promise.

Remind African leaders of the promise they made to DROP THE MALARIA TAX. No
more taxes on treated mosquito nets that can protect the lives of Africa's
women and children!!!!

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18.JOBS

SOUTH AFRICA: CRIME PREVENTION
NICRO, a leading social service organization working in the field of crime
prevention and restorative justice through development, is looking for a
Programme MAnager and a Victim Support Worker.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=7292
Contact: [log in to unmask]

SOUTH AFRICA: FINANCIAL SERVICES CONSULTANT
Umhlaba Development Services is a development consultancy company providing
a range of support services to NGOs, donors, and government departments. It
is looking for a Financial Services Consultant.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=7281

SOUTH AFRICA: PROJECT OFFICER
The Foundation for Human Rights is looking for a Project Officer, to be
based in Pretoria.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=7297
Contact: [log in to unmask]

SOUTH AFRICA: REGIONAL CO-ORDINATOR
Gun Free South Africa is looking for a person who has a passion for peace
and against violence; who does not own a gun and is committed to remaining
gun free at home and at work.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=7299
Contact: [log in to unmask]

SOUTH AFRICA: SHORT-TERM GENDER VIOLENCE CONSULTANCY
The Australian Agency for International Development (Pretoria) is seeking a
short-term gender consultant to assist with the selection process for the
2002 round of the Addressing Gender Violence Fund (AGVF), a program that
provides grants to South African civil society organisations engaged with
combating gender violence.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=7285

SOUTH AFRICA: TRAINING CO-ORDINATOR
JEP believes that young people have the inherent right to contribute to and
be nurtured by South African society, which recognises and responds to the
full range of needs and gifts of young women and men. The JEP is seeking a
Training Co-ordinator.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=7300
Contact: [log in to unmask]

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19.BOOKS AND ARTS

AFRICA'S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 20TH CENTURY
http://www.africanbookscollective.com/
ABC titles and authors feature on the list recently announced by the
16-person Jury to select Africa's 100 Best Books of the 20th Century. Sosu's
Call by Meshack Asare features in the top twelve books; and included in the
100 is History of the Yorubas by Samuel Johnson and Kiswahili. Past, Present
and Future Horizons by Rocha Chimerah . ABC also stocks a new translation of
Song of Lawino by Okot p'Bitek entitled The Defence of Lawino by Taban lo
Liyong. The original is in the top 100. Other ABC authors feature on the
list: Ama Ata Aidoo, Amina Mama, Charles Mungoshi, Wole Soyinka, Amos
Tutuola, Yvonne Vera and Ngugi wa Thiongo. The initiative was inspired by
the noted scholar, Ali Mazrui, as a way of directing the spotlight of the
world on the achievements of African writers published in the 20th century.
The Jury said it was time to celebrate a century of superb achievement in
African creative writing, scholarship and children's literature.

THE REAL EVE PREMIERES
http://allafrica.com/stories/200204190697.html
You and your neighbor are more closely related than you think. Despite
physical, psychological and cultural differences, every living person has at
least one thing in common - we are all related to one woman who lived in
east Africa more than 150,000 years ago. The Discovery Channel presents a
startling two-hour special, THE REAL EVE, debuting worldwide on Sunday,
April 21. Narrated by actor Danny Glover, THE REAL EVE reveals that
humankind's shared genetic heritage links every living person on earth. The
program also traces the expansion of modern humans throughout the world,
from our fragile beginnings in Africa to our exodus through South Asia, down
to Australia, up into Europe and finally into the Americas. Unfolding like a
scientific detective story, THE REAL EVE enlists top scientists and
cutting-edge research to prove that everyone on the planet today can trace
one part of his or her genetic heritage back to one woman who lived in
Africa, more than 150,000 years ago, through a unique part of our DNA.

WITCHCRAFT, POWER AND POLITICS. EXPLORING THE OCCULT IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN
LOWVELD
I. Niehaus
http://www.uni-ulm.de/~rturrell/sarobnewhtml/niehaus.html
Mystery there certainly is, but not of the Harry Potter kind. Most South
Africans believe in witches but they fear the misery they inflict. It is not
simply a matter of a curse and suffering seven years of bad sex, unpleasant
as that certainly is, but of the way a belief in witches ensures social
control and conformity, and requires exile and even death as the ultimate
form of elimination. Sakkie Niehaus' Witchcraft, Power and Politics is the
most important book yet published on witchcraft. It does not lend itself to
simple summaries and bullet-proof conclusions. And so I choose to address
two themes that seem to me to bring out the best in the book. The first has
to do with witchcraft as a cultural script and the second with witchcraft as
a weapon of the weak. Pluto, London and David Philip, Cape Town, 2001.

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20.LETTERS AND COMMENTS

EDWINA SPICER
Zimbabwe
Why is the world ignoring the sadc parliamentary forum's report on the
Zimbabwe Presidential election? The forum is the body tasked by the sadc
secretariat to set norms and standards. It sent a 54 person delegation to
Zimbabwe, stayed for 4 weeks and roundly condemned both the process and the
result. The sadc Ministerial Task-force was here for a shorter time,
"observed" from their hotels and their main focus was presumably to pick up
tips on how to stay in power.

RICHARD FOWLER
African Conservation Tillage Network
Duly humbled and amazed by your continued breadth and depth of coverage of
African affairs, I would once again congratulate you on a most interesting
and worthwhile publication.

WITH FRIENDS LIKE IAN TAYLOR, WHO NEEDS ENEMIES?
David Ng’ang’a
I am appalled by the editorial in your current newsletter by one Ian Taylor.
It makes for depressing reading and is reminiscent of the Western media
which is always out to bash and discredit Africa.

For one Mr Taylor seems to have a very strong opinion regarding Zimbabwe
elections and concomitant reaction around which African issues in his eyes
orbit. Quoting one ‘respected professor’, he starts by prophesying ‘fallout’
as a result of the ‘election debacle’. He goes ahead to discredit respected
African elected leaders as ‘elites’. This amounts to rubbishing the African
electorate. The low esteem Taylor holds Africans in is further depicted in
his shabby treatment of Africa observer teams. What makes him believe what
the other observer teams said, or was he an observer himself; in which case
he should tell us about his experiences for comparison purposes? And anyway,
what morality does the West have of observing elections in Africa? Do
Africans interfere in the elections of the West, say of the US or France?

Zim elections were in no way a test case for NEPAD. The latter is already a
winner in that it is already a recognition by Africans that their destiny
lies in their hands, not in the hands of the increasingly repugnant and
retrogressive Washington-based World Bank and IMF. Yes, let Africa
Renaissance (for the record this is a vision of former South African
President Nelson Mandela, not of President Thabo Mbeki as the author claims)
and NEPAD be declarations and talking shops; these are but the first steps
to a long and treacherous liberation of Africa by Africans, led by their
elites. Yes, elites, not only because they are the ones at the forefront –
exposed and entrusted with the running of African countries – but the
‘person on the street’ mostly does not have the insights or capabilities to
envision the big picture. In fact it would be a blessing in disguise for the
North to ignore NEPAD ‘as an irrelevancy’ because we have had enough of
their unworkable meddling. British and Canadian Prime Ministers Tony Blair
and Jean Chretien may be interested in Africa, but only towards their
selfish ends. How else would one explain Blair’s whirlwind visit to
strategic African countries just before the Commonwealth meeting, and
concomitant ‘pushing and shoving and cajoling and pleading’? The overdrive
by Jean Chretien for a successful G8 agenda is not missed by many, as the
earlier one of John Howard for the Commonwealth hosting.

If the Zim elections drove a wedge and led to a sobering up of relations
between the elites of the North vis-à-vis of Africa, then that in itself is
a success of the elections. It is high time Africa stopped being deluded by
the sweet blah blah of the North, and saw the wolves in the sheep-skins for
what they are. We do not need to ‘save positions’ on anyone’s agenda but our
own. To Africa, the recent meeting of the Africa heads of state in Senegal
is more important than the G8 meeting if only because there is commitment,
and the issues at hand are not viewed or tossed about according to other
parties’ whims.

Suffice it to say Mbeki’s and President Olusegun Obasanjo’s treatment of the
‘tripartite’ final announcement inspires Africans’ confidence in them as
leaders with the times. Their contempt captures our feeling to being muscled
about by others because of their being wealthy. No more should we agree to
strings being pulled to make us puppets to the ‘globalisers’.

Democracy, human rights, good governance et al are all very good.
Unfortunately, these cannot be viewed in isolation. Zimbabwe’s land issue
and US after September 11 have something in common, and that is there are
more basic and pertinent issues to democracy and human rights. For Africa,
President Daniel arap Moi correctly refers to the issues surrounding
implementation of these ideals as ‘African democracy’. If NEPAD is to go
slow for total emancipation of Zimbabwe so be it. Indeed if NEPAD is to go
slow rather than receive conditional aid (‘we’ll behave’ – the cheek) the
better, as the latter amounts to neo-colonialism.

For now Africa Renaissance and NEPAD may be media buzzwords, but they are
slowly getting into us Africans’ subconscious. It may take twenty, fifty or
even a hundred years, but Africa will finally live these dreams, maybe as an
African civilisation akin the Egyptian civilisation. It is gratifying that
our friend Taylor notes that ‘Africa is indeed willing and able to police
itself’; he should only appreciate that our leaders are a mirror of that
willingness and ability.

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THIS NEWSLETTER IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY FAHAMU, KABISSA, AND SANGONET
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Next WASAN meeting is Wednesday, May 29, 2002. Location: Douglas Truth Library, 2300 E Yesler Way, Seattle
7:00 PM WASAN business meeting
7:30 PM PROGRAM: Good Read.  A free event.

We usually meet the fourth Wednesday of the month. For a calendar of local Africa events see http://www.ibike.org/africamatters/calendar.htm .  To post a message: [log in to unmask]  To subscribe send a message to [log in to unmask]  To unsubscribe send a message to [log in to unmask] . All past postings are archived at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wa-afr-network

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