The World Health Organization released its "3 by 5" progress report on January 26, 2005, at the Davos World Economic Forum congratulating itself on progress made in the drive to fight the HIV pandemic. But only 700,000 or 12% of the nearly six million people in need of antiretroviral treatment in developing countries have access to it today. Looking at these figures Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), who provides ARV treatment to more than 25,000 patients in 27 countries, comes to the exact opposite conclusion. Instead of celebrating, WHO, UNAIDS, the Global Fund, the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and other institutions should be sounding the alarm.

This year could be a turning point for Africa, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said on Sunday, urging continent-wide co-operation to resolve conflicts on the world's poorest continent at a summit of 53 African leaders. "Africa has an indispensable contribution to make in ensuring that 2005 becomes a turning point for the continent, the United Nations and the world," the Ghana-born secretary-general told the gathering of some 40 heads of state. "One key to success will be to forge an even closer relationship between the United Nations and the African Union."

As African leaders met in Abuja, Nigeria, for the 4th African Union (AU) Assembly Ordinary Session, Amnesty International called on the AU Assembly and the AU Executive Council to reaffirm and strengthen their commitments to establish an effective African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Human Rights Court). During its 2nd Ordinary Session in July 2003 in Maputo, the AU Assembly decided that the African Human Rights Court "shall remain a separate and distinct institution from the Court of Justice of the African Union." However, the Assembly at its 3rd Ordinary Session in July 2004 in Addis Ababa reversed this decision, when it decided that "the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Court of Justice should be integrated into one Court". This decision has now resulted in a Draft Protocol merging the two courts.

Globalization - or the ability of many people, ideas and technology to move from country to country - is not new. In Africa, it was initiated by the slave trade and given impetus by colonialism and Christian missionaries.

The early missionaries saw African culture and religion as a deadly adversary and as an evil that had to be eliminated. In 1876, a 27-year-old missionary named Mary Slessor emigrated from Scotland to spend the rest of her life in Nigeria.

For her efforts in trying to covert the people of Nigeria, Mary Slessor’s photograph appears on Scotland’s ten pound note, and her name can be found on schools, hospitals and roads in Nigeria.

The introduction to Mary Slessor’s biography titled: “White Queen of the Cannibals” is revealing:

“On the west coast of Africa is the country of Nigeria. The chief city is Calabar,” said Mother Slessor. “It is a dark country because the light of the Gospel is not shining brightly there. Black people live there. Many of these are cannibals who eat other people.”

“They're bad people, aren't they, Mother?” asked little Susan.

“Yes, they are bad, because no one has told them about Jesus, the Saviour from sin, or showed them what is right and what is wrong.”

These opening words clearly show that Mary Slessor came to Africa on a mission to indoctrinate us with Christian theology. She told us we worshipped an inferior god and that we belonged to an inferior race. She worked to expel what she described as “savagism” from our culture and heritage and to encourage European “civilization” to take root in Africa.

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UNICEF and the Graduate Program in International Affairs (GPIA) plan to hold an international conference April 25 through 27, 2005 on poverty in the global context and its effects on girls and boys. The conference in April 2005 will present analytical and policy papers that explore issues and trends related to children living in poverty by examining the concepts and measurements of poverty, as well as the actions needed to secure a protective, harmonious and stimulating environment for family upbringing.

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is pleased to announce its 2005 Advanced Research Fellowship Programme and to invite interested scholars to submit applications for consideration for an award.

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is pleased to announce the 2005 edition of its prize for the best three doctoral theses produced annually in Africa. This programme has been introduced with a view to promoting the research work of African doctoral students and to celebrate the performance of those among them who produce outstanding studies that are worthy of being given greater visibility than would otherwise be possible in the absence of a special initiative designed to bring them to the attention of a critical international audience.

It is well recognized that because internally displaced persons remain within their country, they should, in accordance with established principles of international law, enjoy the protection and assistance of their own governments. Indeed, governments regularly insist that they have the primary responsibility for ensuring the security and welfare of their uprooted populations. Too often, however, they prove unable or unwilling to do so. Far greater effort therefore is needed by the international community to hold governments accountable and assist them in fulfilling their responsibilities towards IDPs.

The Transparency and Accountability Network (Tr-Ac-Net) is a not for profit tax exempt organization organized in the USA that aims to make excellence in transparency and accountability (Tr-Ac) the norm rather than the exception. The network is made up of individual professionals and organizations around the world committed to excellence in transparency and accountability and management information for relief and development. Tr-Ac-Net is a volunteer member network with country teams in South Asia, Africa, Latin America, North America and Europe. It is coordinated from New York USA and Chennai India. Tr-Ac-Net data can be accessed anywhere at any time through the use of an Internet enabled database. Tr-Ac-Net has a small budget for coordination and the maintenance of its information infrastructure.

The desperate act by Guinea Bissau students holding their country’s ambassador hostage in Moscow speaks volume about the terrible conditions of African students studying abroad. The Bissau students had become so impoverished due to allowance arrears, that some of them have resorted to eating from waste bins and stealing to survive. Worse, those of them lucky enough to finish their studies under such terrible conditions are stranded and cannot go home. In Cuba, Bissau students who finished their studies five years ago, were still waiting for their return tickets back home last November.

As globalization proceeds apace international law, and the scope and powers of international institutions - the United Nations, the Bretton Woods institutions, the World Trade Organization - continue to grow. If democratic values are still an aspiration of the 21st century, then their deficit at international level must be addressed. Patomaki and Teiveinen survey the range of proposals now on the table. Ruling nothing out, they emphasise feasibility. While democratic advances do not come without political mobilization, there is little point mobilizing people for the utopian and unrealizable.

In the most comprehensive strategy ever put forward for combating global poverty, hunger and disease, a blue-ribbon team of 265 of the world's leading development experts have proposed a package of scores of specific cost-effective measures that together could cut extreme poverty in half and radically improve the lives of at least one billion people in poor developing countries by 2015. The recommendations of the UN Millennium Project, an independent advisory body to the UN Secretary-General, are laid out in the report 'Investing in Development: A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals'. The report was presented to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Secretary-General Annan has said the fight against extreme poverty should be the top priority of the world community and the UN system in 2005.

Deadline: 15 March 2005

Digital Vision Fellows are social entrepreneurs dedicated to using information technology solutions. The Reuters Digital Vision Fellowship Program at Stanford University is accepting applications for 2005-06 (September-June).

UK Chancellor Gordon Brown began a week-long tour of Africa on January 12 with his aid project in serious jeopardy because of a failure to win American support. The Chancellor arrived in Nairobi at the beginning of a four-nation tour to promote his ambitious package of debt relief, aid and trade reform. His failure so far to win the backing of the United States threatens his goal of doubling global aid to $100 billion (£53 billion) under his International Finance Facility (IFF). Each of Mr Brown's visits has been carefully chosen to illustrate the benefits of his "Marshall plan", for example in Tanzania he will contrast the success of primary education, which has received a massive boost from debt relief, with healthcare, which is still in a parlous state.

The Irish Centre for Human Rights, NUI Galway, in conjunction with the Bank of Ireland is proud to announce a one-year fellowship in Human Rights Law for a scholar of note from a developing country. Applications for this fellowship are invited from academics from any developing country whose research output and teaching focus on the area of human rights.

Shock waves from Asia's tsunami could reverberate across Africa for a long time to come as aid workers fear the crisis will soak up donor funds and leave less help available for the poorest continent. With the tsunami death toll more than 145,000, the crisis is undoubtedly severe. Africa's woes are more long-term. Aid agencies say 6,500 Africans die of preventable diseases daily. And while all eyes turn east, attention is deflected from Africa's own crises, such as Darfur in Sudan. It wasn't meant to be like this -- 2005 was Africa's year. "We're not saying scale down aid for the tsunami, but scale up aid for Africa."

How can we address the issue of the information and knowledge society without first dealing with the fact that almost a sixth of the world's population remains illiterate, and thus excluded from the possibility of effectively participating in a knowledge-driven society? What good are the advantages afforded by the new ICTs for the more than 860 million who cannot read and write? asks this feature on the website of Choike, a portal on civil society.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank recently celebrated their 60th Anniversaries. To the two institutions, writes Douglas Ngwenya in this commentary on the Afrodad website, this was a sign that they are maturing, but to the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC), it was a sign that the Bretton Woods Institutions are growing too "old, devious and irrelevant". "Their mandate to provide a mechanism for the transfer of financial resources from the rich nations to the poor nations and to promote reconstruction and development is visibly vanishing into thin air. The ageing of these institutions has been at increasing misery for the world’s poorest nations." Read the full commentary by visiting Afrodad's website.

The World Bank, after nearly two decades of developing mining sector specific mineral codes, revising and ‘re-revising’ them to make competing mineral-endowed African countries gain ‘the most conforming country’ status, is still not satisfied. Having provided the necessary fiscal incentives, absolute security of tenure of mineral rights and fenced off the state from direct participation in mining activities, the Bank now thinks the only way mineral-rich African countries can remain more competitive is by de-emphasising environmental protection. The result is that most countries have no barriers to where and where not to mine. Forest reserves, protected sites, heritage sites, and ecologically sensitive zones are no longer barriers to mining.

The committee that monitors the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW or the Women's Convention), has two new feminist experts from the international women's movement, Shanti Dariam and Silvia Pimentel. For women of the world this historic success will positively impact the committee's work and the advancement of women's human rights. This article analyzes the committee's work, its political impact, the implications and challenges of the process and the results of the recent elections, especially in relation to the roles played by governments and the international women's movement.