The rural poor across Cameroon are set to receive a cash injection of close to $14 million from the United Nations in an effort to reduce poverty, increase income and improve livelihoods. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) will support the Rural Microfinance Development project in the West African country with a $13.5 million loan and $200,000 grant.

The Zimbabwe Women’s Resource Centre and Network (ZWRCN) is seeking a competent, experienced, motivated and dynamic individual for the position of Executive Director. ZWRCN is an information-based organization with a focus on research, collection, analysis, processing and dissemination of information on gender and development. The organization’s strategic interventions aim to empower women, strengthen inter-organizational networking of gender and development agencies and promote the women’s movement in Zimbabwe.

The much anticipated lawsuit against the British government for the atrocities committed against freedom fighters in Kenya during the colonial period will be filed next month. The Kenya Human Rights Commission has instructed London-based solicitors, Leigh Day & Co to commence the process. If successful, it would lead to the compensation of the surviving freedom fighters.

EASSI is a member of Solidarity of African Women’s Rights (SOAWR), an organisation made up of 26 members bent on advocating for the ratification of the AU Protocol of Women’s Rights. Beverley Nambozo met with Faiza Mohammed, the African Regional Director of Equality Now, who shared how the Protocol is being used as a practical advocacy tool for women’s and girls’ rights. Faiza shares that as of December 2008, Guinea Bissau was the last to ratify the Protocol bringing the total number of countries to 26. She congratulates all members of SOAWR upon this achievement.

The need for to build alliances, and

Despite the international regulations to prevent electronic waste from being dumped in developing countries, mountains of western e-waste are rising higher in Africa. Especially Ghana and Nigeria have emerged as new target countries for our used electronics. The implications of this waste industry are shocking for both environment and human health.

In 2008, Tanzania, along with the rest of the world, celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948. During this celebration, Tanzania had the opportunity to consider the improvements and failures in its efforts to achieve the goal of realizing justice, liberty and human rights for all. While Tanzania is committed to upholding the rights contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948, this commitment does not always seem to translate into reality.

Signs are emerging of a far reaching crisis not just in the financial systems of the developed world but also food security in a number of Asian countries, either on account of having vast desert lands or small sizes on which farming becomes a problem. There is also the threat from biofuel needs that pushed up prices of grain, and scarcity of water makes large scale farming of grain in many Asian states unfeasible or uneconomic, thus compelling them to seek land elsewhere. Africa is the choice continent, but it is brittle.

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is pleased to invite all visitors to the 8th Nigeria International Book fair (NIBF) to the book exhibition that it is organizing during the NIBF. The 8th Nigeria International Book Fair (NIBF 2009) is scheduled to hold from May 11th - 16th, 2009 at the Multi-purpose Halls of the University of Lagos.

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is pleased to announce the second edition of its annual conference on critical themes in the history of Africa. The conference is part of CODESRIA’s initiative aimed at achieving the triple objective of promoting the study of the history of Africa, mobilising support for the discipline of history in African higher education, and networking African historians both for these purposes and also as a worthy cause in its own right.

In the past two years, various non-African countries - China, India, South Korea, Britain and the Arab Gulf states lead the pack - have been taking over huge tracts of farmland in Africa by lease or purchase, to produce food or biofuels for their own use. Critics call them "neo-colonialists", but they will not be as successful as the old ones.

It is reported that there has been a major spill of toxic sludge from Barrick's Mara mining operation into River Thigithe that flows into the Mara River. This happened Monday the 11th of May and nearby residents have reported that there are dead fish and all kinds of other dead water life along the river.

South Africa’s new president Jacob Zuma did his best to follow the footsteps of his nemesis Thabo Mbeki when he announced a cabinet edging towards gender parity on 10 May. But gender advocates note with concern the lack of parity in top structures of government; the declining proportion of women deputy ministers; questionable credentials of some women ministers and the establishment of a women’s ministry.

This latest report from the International Crisis Group, analyses the situation on the ground in the wake of the five-week joint military operation between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda against Rwandan Hutu rebels, the Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Rwanda (FDLR), in the Kivus. That effort did not produce significant results and highlights the need for a new tack. The report presents a five-point strategy to drive a renewed process forward.

Zanzibar nurses have said they were facing serious challenges in carrying out their duties, as the ratio of a nurse to patients stands at 1:50. In their message during the occasion to mark World’s Nurses Day, they expressed the need for the government to consider employing more nurses in health facilities for them, to be able to provide standard services.

Fahamu is looking for qualified candidates for the post of Programme officer, Education for Social Justice. Successful candidates would have a responsibility for developing curriculums and training our diverse audiences in human rights and social justice topics as well as online tutoring. The candidate is also expected to have experience in community training and organizing for a pan-African audience.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned the arrest of Evariste A. Ramanantoanina, a journalist working with Radio Mada, which occurred on Tuesday 5 May at his residence located in the district of Andrononobe Analamahitsy. “We are concerned by the lack of security for journalists in Madagascar.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has urged the Governor of the Democratic Republic of Congo's eastern province of North Kivu to ensure the safety of journalists. The committee also expressed concern about the safety of journalist Tuver Wundi Muhindo following an armed attack on his home.

Eritrea has avoided international attention in recent years in ways that may have protected the Red Sea country's rulers from proper scrutiny but benefit no one else. Even those who recall that the continent's youngest state gained its unlikely independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after a bloody thirty-year struggle may be shocked to hear that the optimistic nationalism of the 1990s has been dissolved under President Isaias Afewerki into a despairing void, causing thousands of Eritreans to flee the country that they fought so hard to establish.

Zimbabwe’s unity government is stuttering in its attempt at restoring press freedom in a country which had once branded independent journalists as ‘enemies of the state’. The Media Alliance of Zimbabwe (MAZ) has boycotted a state-initiated national media summit which kicked off on May 6 in the resort town of Kariba. They are protesting the re-arrest and detention on May 5 of 18 human rights activists, including Zimbabwe Peace Project director, Jestina Mukoko, and freelance journalist, Andrisson Manyere, on charges including treason, terrorism and banditry.