Saudi Arabia's strategy to outsource food production will be at the top of the agenda when several heads of state and high-level delegations from African countries arrive in Riyadh for an investor conference on 4 December 2010. In some of these countries, Saudi investors are already acquiring farmland and starting to put the Kingdom's policies into operation. One of their main targets is West Africa's rice lands.

The Commission for Gender Equality has issued an invite for people to attend a two-day public hearing on gender transformation in the workplace.

Uncleared minefields in northern Uganda’s Lamwo district have prevented thousands of people displaced during the Lord’s Resistance Army insurgency from returning home, officials said. 'These people can’t go to their villages [in Agoro sub-county] unless the place is cleared and declared free of the landmines,' local government official Mathew Ocen Akiya told IRIN. He said some 10,000 people were unable to go home because of the mines.

Migrants who have crossed borders in search of work and a better life could exceed 400 million, or nearly 7 per cent of the present global population, by 2050, said a report issued on Monday. The report, by the Geneva-based International Organisation for Migration (IOM), said movement within countries is also climbing as people move into cities, and has taken the global migrant total to one billion this year.

Uganda Health and Science Press Association (UHSPA-Uganda), a network of groups and individuals working to mainstream minority rights in Uganda’s public health policies and laws is concerned about the omission/exclusion of sexual minorities from accessing vital health services in the soon to be launched Health Sector Strategic Plan III.

Ministers and heads of African states refused to pass a draft declaration on climate change at the Africa-EU summit, it is said. Participating ministers refused to pass the draft Joint Africa- EU Declaration on Climate Change because it only showed the EU position rather than the African countries’ stance, Ahmed Abul Gheit said after a ministerial meeting in the Libyan capital of Tripoli last Sunday.

Government officials, representatives of United Nations agencies and members of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines will be meeting from 29 November through 3 December to discuss their efforts and plans to implement the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. They are talking about national victim-assistance plans, including how landmine survivors are involved in designing, carrying out and monitoring such work. They are talking about issues that affect women like me.

Tasha Ncube* has no kind words for the police. Early last month, the 31-year-old mother of two was beaten several times by her husband over what she says were small arguments. 'I reported him to the police.' But Ncube did not get the response she expected. 'They said I should go back home and ask relatives to mediate as they were getting many reports from women who withdrew charges after the husband apologised. I was so angry I did not know what to say…' Like many other women, she returned home to continue life with her abusive husband.

Villagers in Uzumba-Maramba-Pfungwe area in Mashonaland East province have expressed concern over mining activities by a Chinese company, which they accuse of endangering their lives and that of animals along the Mazowe river. The villagers in Zambu under headman Mushambi in Chief Chinhanga’s area complained of water pollution and siltation being caused by disposal of waste by a Mingehang Sino Africa Mining Investment gold milling plant, which is a few metres from the river.

With the 2011 referendum rapidly approaching, there are expectations of a return to Juba of the 1.5 million Southerners still residing in Khartoum or in the diaspora, says this policy brief from the Overseas Development Institute. Extreme vulnerabilities facing many of Juba’s residents and chronic high levels of violence will have to be addressed. The paper argues that a gender perspective is of particular importance in such a process, because it will better inform an understanding of the causes of insecurity and violence and help inform more strategic peacebuilding programmes

Crops are failing in Somalia because of poor rains, a unit of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation said, raising the prospect of drought and increased hunger in a country where millions already depend on humanitarian aid. Below average rainfall in Bay, Shabelle, Gedo, Bakool and Hiran regions in southern Somalia has already led to early crop failure with planted seeds not germinating in some areas,' said the Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU), managed by the FAO, in a statement.

'After years of being told about the millions of illegal foreigners in the country who are responsible for the high crime rate and who deprive South Africans of jobs and housing, the government has suddenly managed to lose a million Zimbabweans. Where did they go?' asks this article on the Lawyers for Human Rights website. 'With the deadline for the issuing of special permits for Zimbabweans rapidly approaching, and with doubts surrounding government's ability to process all those seeking permits to avoid facing deportation, the government has adopted a new purpose - and a new set of numbers to suit this purpose.'

Trade ministers from the East African Community (EAC) economic bloc plan to continue trade talks with the European Union despite missing a November deadline, a top Kenyan official said. David Nalo, permanent secretary to Kenya’s East African Community Affairs ministry, told Reuters he expected the negotiations to last another year. 'Ministers of Trade in Arusha have agreed to engage with (the European Commission) and complete the negotiations that will lead to the signing of a full EPA,' Nalo said by telephone.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres has pledged a renewed commitment to address the continuing problems faced by refugee women and girls around the world. 'Clearly, many challenges remain,' Guterres said in a special message to staff to mark the start of the annual 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, an international campaign originating from the first Women's Global Leadership Institute in 1991.

A thousand babies are infected with HIV every day - in pregnancy, during birth and through breastfeeding. Close to 400,000 African children are infected with HIV every year. The situation points back to the high HIV prevalence amongst women of reproductive age, especially in Southern Africa. Zambia is one of the countries recognised for making progress in addressing the problem.?? Seventy thousand Zambian women between the ages of 15 and 40 have HIV; the health ministry says 85 thousand children are living with the virus.

Two Congolese student leaders in Harare were last week allegedly abducted by suspected state security agents, and grilled about their relationship with Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) opposition leader Sapard Tshimanginda Kalala. The students claim they were held for over 24 hours. Kalala, a renowned academic who heads the National People’s Patriotic Party of the Congo will be challenging DRC President Joseph Kabila, who has very close ties with President Robert Mugabe, in next year’s elections.

At least 1,500 south Sudanese civilians have fled areas along the north–south border fearing aerial attack on Bahr al-Ghazal by the Sudan Armed Forces, the UN and southern officials said. Northern government officials were unavailable for comment on the reports. The SPLA says northern forces are still flying fighter planes along the border to scare southern villagers.

Clinical officer Silverius Kesanta uses his mobile phone to take pictures and notes of patients in remote areas of Tanzania and shares this information online with specialists from Dar es Salaam and abroad. Specialists view the information and provide advice so Kesanta can treat these patients himself. By using his mobile phone for distance diagnosis, Silverius Kesanta was able to treat a cheek infection of a young boy in the isolated Iringa region. Kesanta works at the Ilembula Lutheran Hospital and frequently visits people on location in the isolated Iringa region. As a clinical officer he treats patients, but for complex medical cases he needs specialist advice.

Gender Based Violence (GBV) is a distressing reality effecting millions of women and girls in almost all societies around the world. The continuous violation of women’s basic human rights through GBV hinders not only their development, but also the progress of the communities and countries they live in. In Africa and in most parts of the world, the root cause of GBV is the unequal power relations that exist between females and males and the low status of women. FEMNET’s involvement in the Men to Men Project started with a men to men consultation held in December 2001. The consultation brought together men from Kenya, Malawi, Namibia and South Africa, representing community organisations, human rights and legal groups, religious organisations, universities and the police. Visit their site to find out more.

The International Federation of Human Rights has compiled a Q&A about the trial of Jean-Pierre Bemba, the leader of the Mouvement de Libération du Congo (MLC), which is taking place before the International Criminal Court. 'This case is very important because, for the first time, the ICC focuses primarily on the prosecution of crimes of sexual violence, thus acknowledging that such crimes were widespread and systematic,' one of the answers says.