"The policies designed to 'integrate' Africa into the global economy have thus far failed because they have completely sidestepped the developmental needs of the continent and the strategic questions on the form of integration appropriate to addressing these needs. They consequently have, thus far, not led to higher rates of growth and, their labelling notwithstanding, have not induced structural transformation. Indeed, the combined effect of internal political disarray, the weakening of domestic capacities, deflationary policies and slow world economic growth have placed African economies on a 'low equilibrium growth path' from which the anaemic GDP growth rates of 3-4 per cent appear as 'successful' performance." This is the focus of a paper presented at the conference 'The Agrarian Constraint and Poverty Reduction: Macroeconomic Lessons for Africa', in Addis Ababa on 17-18 December, 2004 and available from the website of the Southern African Regional Poverty Network.

UNIFEM and the Southern African Media NGO, Gender Links, are collaborating to run a series of cyberdialogues, in order to: 1) allow people not able to be in New York for B+10 to be kept abreast of issues and to give their comments; 2) use ICT as a medium to reach women around the world and engage them in the B+10 process; 3) reach out to a younger IT-savvy audience globally. Seven real time online chats will be conducted, facilitated out of UNIFEM HQ in NY, beginning on 2 March 2005. Experts will be called on to speak briefly on specific topics and their comments woven into the chats. UNIFEM regional offices, such as the Nairobi office, are deeply involved, providing access to women's organisations and members of the public through cybercafes, the UN complex and other NGO venues. The Regional Programme Director has also succeeded in getting the participation of the World Bank who will also provide a substantial number of access points - they have contacted their global offices with the information and are urging people to log on. For more information about the cyberdialogues, contact Kubi Rama at: kubi@genderlinks.org.za or kubi@mweb.co.za. You can download the report of the Secretary-General on the review and appraisal of the progress made in national level implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and the outcome documents of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly in 2000, by loading the page http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/csw49/documents.html
* For a background briefing on Beijing +10 and related links, visit the following web page:
http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/1665.html

As International Development Ministers prepare to meet in Paris to try to improve the quality of their aid, a joint report from ActionAid and Oxfam [ Millstone or Milestone? What rich countries must do in Paris to make aid work for poor people ]says just one fifth of aid actually goes to the very poorest countries. And only half of this is spent on basic services such as education and health where aid can make a decisive difference in ending poverty. Amongst other things, the agencies accuse rich countries of using aid to reward strategic allies and pet projects at the expense of the neediest countries and tying aid so developing countries are forced to spend it on overpriced goods and services from the donor country, reducing its value for money.

The number of asylum seekers arriving in industrialized countries fell sharply for the third year in a row in 2004, reaching its lowest level for 16 years, according to annual figures released by the UN refugee agency. The total number of asylum seekers arriving last year in the 38 industrialized countries for which comparable historical statistics are available was the lowest since 1988, at 368,000.

The "digital divide" between rich and poor nations is narrowing fast, according to a World Bank report. The World Bank questioned a United Nation's campaign to increase usage and access to technology in poorer nations."People in the developing world are getting more access at an incredible rate - far faster than... in the past," said the report.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour has told the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination that it was uniquely qualified to clarify governing principles and offer guidance to States on all measures necessary to ensure the elimination of racial discrimination in the administration of justice. Mrs. Arbour said that racial discrimination persisted in the functioning of the penal system and in the application of the law in some States, as well as in the actions and attitudes of institutions and individuals responsible for law enforcement.

This Social Science Research Network paper outlines many of the specifics of the Ugandan Domestic Relations Bill (DRB). The Bill addresses women's property rights in marriage and women's right to negotiate sex on the grounds of health, sets the minimum age of marriage at eighteen, prohibits FGM and criminalises widow inheritance. The authors uses a thorough explication of the particulars of the bill to exhort the Ugandan government to take responsibility for the discrimination and violence that many of its female citizens routinely suffer.

‘Double aid to halve poverty’ looks likely to be the catchphrase of 2005. We will hear it from Tony Blair’s Africa Commission, from the UN Millennium Project in New York, and from Gordon Brown and other advocates of an International Financing Facility. But can more aid be spent? More precisely, can more aid be spent successfully? Many think not.

The sceptics make five main points.

First, aid has diminishing returns. This is partly as a consequence of other points below. All countries are therefore bound to reach an ‘aid saturation point’ beyond which additional aid has less impact. The evidence is that this point could be reached around 25-30% of GDP, depending on estimates. At the moment, aid already represents 22% of national income in Ethiopia, and 47% in Sierra Leone.

Second, aid flows can cause macroeconomic imbalances. ‘Dutch disease’ is the main risk, where increased foreign exchange flows cause an appreciation of the exchange rate and harm the export sector. Aid can also cause interest and inflation rates to rise, which could have negative effects on private investment. Nigeria suffered from exactly these problems when its long oil boom began, with severe long-term consequences for the agricultural sector.

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A matter that has raised much debate recently is whether civil society organisations should engage with local, national and global intergovernmental institutions such as the World Bank or the United Nations, writes Civicus's Kumi Naidoo. "What really is engagement? Engagement can take various forms. These can include: submitting petitions, letters of appeal or correspondence which puts forward a case that runs counter to the policies and actions of such institutions; participating in meetings with these institutions when they seek to ‘consult’ with civil society organisations; participating at the micro level in a joint venture around project delivery; participating in policy shaping processes such as the Extractive Industries Review undertaken last year by the World Bank; or simply participating in events of governing institutions whether it be the annual meetings of the World Bank and the IMF or a conference of a department or ministry of a national government."

The environmental impacts of the mining industry have been devastating to some areas of the Witwatersrand, the country's most densely populated region. Some of the gold deposits located here have been mined for more than a century. According to South African geographer Malcolm Lupton and South African urban planning expert Tony Wolfson, mine shafts - the deepest is 3,793 meters - have made hillsides and ridges less stable. Pumping water from subterranean aquifers has caused the natural water table to subside, and the resulting cavities within the dolomite rock formations that overlie many gold deposits sometimes collapse, causing sinkholes. Moreover, these impacts of the mining industry could worsen over time.

In a new report, Refugees International announced that 11 million individuals worldwide have no citizenship or effective nationality and called on the United Nations and individual countries to take measures to reduce the problem. “Stateless people are international orphans who have fallen through the cracks of the United Nations,” said Maureen Lynch, Refugees International’s Director of Research and the author of the report. “Unlike other populations of this size, the international community has largely ignored the problems facing the 11 million people who have no citizenship or effective nationality. This is especially true for those who are not classified as refugees.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says it is "outraged" at the closure of the private station Radio Lumière, as well as attempts by Togolese authorities to intimidate private broadcasters that have protested the military's appointment of the late President Gnassingbé Eyadema's son as leader. Earlier in the week, officials cut FM transmissions of Radio France Internationale (RFI), which resumed this morning. However, a France-based RFI reporter remains in neighboring Benin after being denied a visa to enter Togo, according to local sources.

An international seminar was held in London on 31 January and 1 February 2005, bringing together African, British and Canadian policy-makers, researchers and research users to discuss how to collaborate more effectively in building science and technology capacity in Africa. News reports, transcripts and other materials are all available through the website provided.

Public-private partnerships in Africa over the past 15 years have generally failed to provide much-needed water and electricity, a new study shows. According to a study by the South African Institute of International Affairs, about 600-million people in sub-Saharan Africa lack access to electricity, about 300-million have no access to safe water, and there were just eight telephones per 100 inhabitants. The report acknowledged successes achieved by public-private partnerships in sectors such as telecommunications, transport, ports and eco-tourism, but said that much still needed to be done to hone an effective partnership model in water and electricity provision.

The Fund for Global Human Rights serves as an intermediary to facilitate the support of human rights organizations in places where there is great need and access to funding is minimal. Its primary goals are to: 1. Identify, assess and provide funding to local, national, and regional human rights organizations addressing critical issues; and 2. Encourage the creation of for a and networks for exchange of ideas, strategies and mutual support among otherwise isolated human rights organizations.

"The World Social Forum (WSF) is coming to Africa in 2007. This is great news. But how exactly will the coming of the WSF to Africa in 2007 advance the struggle against neo-liberalism and capitalist domination? This is an important question for people who want to stop the centuries-long pain and suffering of the masses in Africa and other parts of the world. Having attended all the world social forums, I think that they continue to be an important rallying point for all struggles against neo-liberalism in the world. But there are certain tendencies developing in the WSF which have me very worried. My wish is that when the WSF comes to Africa we should be able to build on its strengths and eradicate its weaknesses," writes activist Trevor Ngwane.

Four countries with long records of press repression - China, Cuba, Eritrea, and Burma - account for more than three-quarters of the journalists imprisoned around the world, a new analysis by the Committee to Protect Journalists has found. "These four countries operate outside the international mainstream," CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper said. "The widespread jailing of journalists is pursued only by those few nations that distrust their own citizens and care little about the opinion of the rest of the world."

UNICEF has reiterated its call on governments to move swiftly to stop the harmful practice of female genital mutilation and cutting. "Female genital mutilation and cutting is a violation of the basic rights of women and girls," UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said Friday, speaking on the eve of the International Day of Zero Tolerance of Female Genital Mutilation. "More than 130 million women and girls have undergone female genital mutilation and cutting (FGM/C), a practice that occurs in countries ranging from Senegal and Mali to Yemen and Oman."

Susan Mina, a Kenyan who has never stepped foot out of Africa, speaks English like the haughtiest of Britons. She can also put on a fair imitation of an American accent by swallowing all her words. Still, every once in a while, some Swahili slips out of her, and that is not at all helpful as she tries to enhance Africa's role in the global explosion of outsourcing. South Africa is far ahead of the rest of the continent, with an estimated 500 call centers employing about 31,000 people.

Britain will warn the United States this weekend that the fight against terror will be hampered by poverty in Africa as the government launches a concerted diplomatic effort to secure George Bush's support for more generous debt relief and a doubling of aid. "If the US wants to separate the extremists from those that they are trying to influence, it makes good sense to show how industrial nations can implement a Marshall Plan for developing countries," the chancellor Gordon Brown said. "US interests point to the wisdom of the international finance facility and debt relief that will show that rich countries believe that globalisation should be about social justice on a global scale."