Gay rights groups and human rights activists will hold a public meeting at J Dumani Community Hall in Vosloorus on 9 October 2010 to develop a plan of action to deal with the 'growing homophobia at the hands of the police', following the arrest and verbal harassment of 12 people at a house party attended by gay people in Vooslorus after the Joburg Gay Pride event on 4 October 2010.

Following the International Forum on Food Sovereignty held in Mali in February 2007, the social movements that brought this initiative to life have decided to create a tool for communication and exchange in order to continue the fight for food sovereignty and to defend the interests of disadvantaged groups such as small - scale farmers, fisherfolk, indigenous peoples and those living from pastoralism. The situation of these groups continues to deteriorate due to the ongoing assaults of an increasingly inhuman capitalism. A new wave of landgrabbing can now be added to the problems of our times, a reality which the World Bank seeks to legitimize in its latest report. It is therefore urgent and critical for social movements to regroup and to strengthen our alliances in order to deal with the offensive of neoliberalism, unprecedented in the history of mankind. This newsletter aims to bring a small stone to the edifice of resistance that will be built to counteract transnational corporations, the World Bank and their allies. We urge all organisations and all movements committed to the struggle for food sovereignty to embark with us on this journey. The newsletter will be published every two months on the website. The next edition is on climate change. Send your contributions by the 10 October. For any further information, please contact [email]info@nyeleni.org

For the first edition, visit: http://nyeleni.org/DOWNLOADS/newsletters/nyeleni-newsletter-en.pdf

In this week's emerging powers news, a call for applications to attend a Fahamu study tour to India, emerging economies outpace Japan in the battle for trade with Africa, China extends Africa push with loans and a deal in Ghana, an Africa-China partnership in combating HIV/AIDS and India to train police forces of African countries.

We are seeking a dynamic professional for a key specialist position in Dakar, Senegal. As the Senior Program Specialist, you will collaborate in managing research activities that support broader Program challenges around promoting inclusive growth, including labour market issues, institutional frameworks for investment, competition and entrepreneurial activity, and the role of social protection policies. Reporting to the Program Leader and the Regional Director, you will develop, manage and monitor a portfolio of research projects in West and Central Africa. As part of a global team and a corporate Program Area, you may have selected responsibilities for projects in other regions as well as working in collaboration with the Think Tank Initiative. You will also interact with experts in the field and represent IDRC in a variety of fora, draw attention to new developments in economic policies and research, and play a key role in the progress of strategic thinking in this area.

A new film and book, launched in London on 5 October, show how community participation in development projects has led to successful agricultural change and environmental recovery in Burkina Faso and Kenya. They show that despite a growing population, tree cover and food production have
both improved because of the tactics local people have adopted to manage their environment.

The World Bank and IMF will hold their 2010 Annual General Meetings (AGM) and the accompanying Civil Society Policy Forum in Washington, DC, between 6 -10 October. Civil society will be sponsoring and participating in several events on issues ranging from access to information at the World Bank and the importance of contract transparency in extractive projects, to the dual imperative of tackling energy poverty and climate change concerns.

WHO, UNICEF and UNAIDS have launched the report 'Towards universal access', the fourth report tracking progress made towards achieving universal access to HIV prevention, treatment and care by the end of 2010. Despite accomplishments, the report shows that the universal access target will not be met. Two-thirds of those needing access to treatment are still not receiving it, and women are the most impacted by this burden.

This paper describes the potential role innovative agricultural practices and technologies can play in climate change mitigation and adaptation and aims to address the question: what policy and institutional changes are needed to encourage the innovation and diffusion of these practices and technologies to developing countries? The authors focus on developing countries in general with some specific references to Africa.

Five million barrels of oil reportedly spilled into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. For both environmentalists and people whose livelihood depends on the fishing and tourism potential of the Gulf, this was a grim disaster. But if Americans with all the sophisticated necessary gadgets could not contain the oil spill, what is the fate of developing economies of Africa, especially the Gulf of Guinea where oil discoveries are mostly offshore? Indeed, recent discoveries in Sierra Leone, Ghana and Angola are all offshore, writes Edem Torkornoo for TWN Africa.

Socio-economic problems are the major cause of xenophobia in South Africa, the United Nations refugee agency said in Johannesburg on Wednesday. 'No society is xenophobic by nature, these attacks were caused by lack of development,' UN High Commissioner for Refugees deputy regional representative Sergio Calle Norena told the Congress of South Africa Trade Unions' summit on xenophobia.

Under one per cent of poetry books published in the UK are by black or Asian poets. 'This is, quite simply, not fair,' says Bernardine Evaristo, one of the editors of Ten, a poetry anthology published by Bloodaxe Books. A week before the launch of Ten, Jeremy Hunt, the secretary of state for culture, Olympics, media and sport told delegates at the Media Festival Arts that he is firmly in favour of 'broadening participation' in the arts and is 'very ashamed' that we still live in a country 'where many, many people don't get a chance to access the arts'. Unfortunately, writes Lara Pawson in the London Guardian, what he said next was not as hopeful: 'The debate has got to move on from the kind of box-ticking targets approach that says that in return for your grant from the Arts Council, you will get so many people from particular ethnic or social backgrounds.'

WE THE UNDERSIGNED petition you to speak out against the death penalty for Mumia Abu-Jamal, and all the men, women and children facing execution around the world.

The United Nations initiative to boost the number of female police officers deployed in peacekeeping missions around the globe has made real progress since it was launched a year ago, according to the world body’s top police official. The so-called Global Effort was launched in August 2009 with the aim of more than doubling the proportion of women comprising UN Police (UNPOL) to 20 per cent by 2014.

It has been 18 months at the helm of one of South Africa’s toughest cabinet portfolios and already Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has endured a disgruntled doctors’ strike, a crippling public sector work stoppage, the untimely death of his deputy minister and complex debates on a National Health Insurance initiative, which is really the critical transformation of the health system. However, Motsoaledi is proving to be a survivor and a tactician who is determined to turn the health sector around.

Malaria, and other common African infections, may make women more susceptible to HIV/AIDS than they are in the developed world, according to a study that may help solve the mystery of the vastly different infection rates around the globe. Researchers who compared immune cells in the genital tracts of women in Kenya and the United States, found that Kenyan women had more 'activated' cells, which are more vulnerable to attack by HIV. Cells can become activated as a reaction to infection.

The widening levels of inequality and poverty globally, coupled with sharp increases in the prices of agricultural products have aggravated the challenges of food security. Moreover, the diversion of land for the production of fuels (bio-fuel) in the face of environmental degradation as a result of climate change has aggravated the food crisis The recent debilitating economic slowdown has adversely impacted the situation on the African continent that is faced with a largely unsuccessful approach to agricultural production and food security and thus heavily reliant on imports and aid to meet its food requirements.

The December 31 amnesty deadline for Zimbabweans living in South Africa illegally must be extended, People Against Suffering, Suppression, Oppression and Poverty (Passop) said on Wednesday. The home affairs department recently appealed to Zimbabweans living in South Africa to take up the government's offer to get their documentation in order to 'regularise' their stay in South Africa, beginning last Monday.

Fahamu’s Refugee Programme is pleased to announce the [pdf], a monthly publication that aims to provide a forum for providers of refugee legal aid. With a focus on the global South, it aims to serve the needs of legal aid providers as well as raise awareness of refugee concerns among the wider readership of Pambazuka News.

Research carried out in Gasabo district of the central province of Rwanda with a focus on the lived experience of lesbians living in Kigali has concluded that there is a need for more sensitisation, lobbying and advocacy to better the livelihood and well-being of the LGBTI community. The research was an initiative to recognise the problems faced by lesbians after several attacks and arrests.

Health and Human rights activists have demanded that the next court date set for the trial of Zoliswa Nkonyana’s alleged killers be the last one. According to the activists, including the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), Free Gender and the Social Justice Coalition, the trial has been delayed more than 27 times since Nkonyana’s murder four years ago. Nknonyana, who lived in Khayelitsha, was attacked and stabbed to death because she was a lesbian.