The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria faces a "critical year" in 2005 because of funding shortfalls, and it might not be able to award new grants, Executive Director Richard Feachem said in an interview last Thursday while attending an international pharmaceutical industry meeting in Spain, Reuters reports. In order to carry out its work for 2005, the Global Fund needs at least $2.5 billion in funding, but it has secured only $1.6 billion from donors, according to Reuters.

"Progress For Children addresses the child survival Millennium Development Goal, graphically depicting the world's advances in the lead up to 2015. It states that despite global gains in child survival since 1990, significant discrepancies remain within and across countries and regions and 11 million children still die needlessly each year. By ensuring access to basic services and continued use of simple, cost-effective interventions, these deaths can be averted and the goal of a two-thirds reduction in under-five mortality from 1990 to 2015 achieved."

The World Bank and International Monetary Fund's annual meeting in Washington earlier this month witnessed the members' rejection of two big ideas - debt cancellation and institutional democratisation. No surprise. However, important financial developments are now unfolding, reflective of Washington's geopolitical imperatives in Iraq. Bank and IMF activity there was relegitimised at the annual meeting, but in a contradictory and untenable manner...Hypocrisy on debt relief - Iraq gets waves, Africa only trickles - worries not only excellent groups like Jubilee South and the 50 Years is Enough network, who insist on 100% cancellation. In early October even Malawi's neoliberal finance minister Goodal Gondwe complained of double standards during the IMF/Bank meetings: 'What I am afraid of is that putting Nigeria together with Iraq we may emphasize for sentimental reasons that are currently in the air politically, that talking about Iraq could be at the expense of Nigeria.'
Patrick Bond

Thirty Ministers of Education and of International Co-operation, heads of development agencies and civil society representatives will attend the fourth meeting of the High-Level Group on Education for All from 8-10 November. They will debate on gender parity, teachers’ working conditions, progress towards Education for All and aid to education. The High-Level Group serves as a lever for political commitment. Its role is to deliberate on policy responses to accelerate progress towards EFA, strengthen partnerships, identify priorities and highlight the resources to be mobilized.

Eye to Eye is a conference bringing people together from all over the world who are concerned with cultural relations. It is the first event of its kind and will begin to seed a global constituency of people who see an understanding of cultures –the way they work, interact and communicate – as vital to all our futures. Eye to Eye will help you travel from your world and into a new, worldwide network, formed of people who, like you, see cultural relations as a key to the future.

Children who live and work on the streets are vulnerable to human rights violations in the juvenile justice system and are less likely to be able to defend themselves from abuse once they are within the system, says a report from the Consortium for Street Children. The publication aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the causes and consequences of street children's involvement in criminal justice systems in a wide range of countries. The document includes descriptions of the treatment children receive at different stages of the criminal justice system. It also provides a framework of overarching concepts and recommended approaches to reform, an introduction to international human rights standards and guidelines on how to use them, and practical examples of projects and approaches from around the world.

New York, 18 October, 1004. The Secretary-General notes with concern that key deadlines of the Accra III Agreement, for the adoption of legislative reforms, the revision of Article 35 of the Constitution on eligibility to the Presidency and the commencement of the disarmament process, have not been met. He has taken note of President Laurent Gbagbo's address to the nation on 12 October 2004, and shares his views that the political crisis should be resolved without further delay. To this end, the Secretary-General urges the political forces in Côte d'Ivoire to ensure the full and unconditional implementation of the Linas-Marcoussis and Accra III Agreements, including constitutional reform and disarmament. The Secretary-General recalls that the Accra III Agreement envisaged the timely adoption of all legal reforms, including the revision of Article 35 of the Constitution on eligibility to the Presidency. In this context, he urges adoption of all legislative reforms without delay, and also appeals to all armed elements, including militias, to commence disarmament at the earliest. The Secretary-General welcomes the President's condemnation of all acts of violence against the United Nations Operation in Cote d'Ivoire (UNOCI) and the French forces, which should be unconditionally enforced by all authorities concerned.

Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria - which has some 17.5 million Anglicans - angrily blasted a report, saying that it was "patronising" and said the world communion could split. The report was ordered by the church's leaders after the ordination by a US church of a gay bishop. It said that both sides of the debate should seek reconciliation and that the US diocese should apologise for making Gene Robinson a bishop. But Archbishop Akinola said this did not go far enough and wanted those who are "promoting sexual sins" to be rebuked.

France and Spain called for a rethink on Monday on radical German-Italian plans to set up a European Union transit camp in North Africa for refugees from Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Their objections came at the end of a two-day summit in Florence held by interior ministers from the big five EU countries. Britain first raised the idea of an EU-funded transit camp where asylum-seekers could be processed before they reached the border of the EU in order to try to combat illegal trafficking that has seen thousands drown in the Mediterranean.

Better late - then never. A couple days after our official start at UPEACE (University for Peace), we noticed another colorful shirt and a new face of a tall strong man. As for many other African students the trip to UPEACE, was anything but easy. Sam's journey included five stopovers, two countries in Africa, two in Europe and one in Venezuela before finally arriving in Costa Rica. Yes, many of us take the one-day trip and many other things for granted. Nevertheless, Sam luckily made it.

Civil society organisations have historically played a crucial role in tackling issues of transparency, legitimacy and accountability within governments and businesses, with many positive results says Kumi Naidoo, CEO of CIVICUS. Some government leaders have suggested that, since they have been elected, only they should be able to develop and implement public policy. They argue that civil society organizations can never have the legitimacy of democratically elected representatives. Most governments and intergovernmental bodies embrace the role of citizen groups who seek to provide support, services and direct programmes of relief and assistance to communities and individuals in need.

Recent years have witnessed a dramatically growing spiral in child sexual abuse and exploitation in almost all African nations south of the Sahara, to such a degree that at the July 2003 African Union Summit held in Maputo, Mozambique, 17 Southern African Campaign Against Child Abuse and Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation (SACO) member organisations, together with their international partners, tabled an urgent appeal to all African Heads of States and Governments urging them to address the plight of African children without delay.

SACO members' concerns are common to the whole of Africa. This sex industry is a new form of slavery and tied up to the world's unbalanced globalization. It is part of the US$7billion a year human trafficking trade, which, according to the US Department of State's 2004 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, already involves 143 (74.4%) of the world's 192 nations. Global intra-country trafficking in persons is estimated at between two to four million, and 600,000 to 800,000 people are estimated to be trafficked across borders each year.

Although to-date there is no concrete research to establish the exact level and extent of the problem of trafficking in children and young women for exploitation purposes in Africa, UNICEF has estimated that as many as 200,000 to 300,000 children are trafficked out of, and between West African countries every year. And although Africa continues to go on as if nothing is happening to its children and young women, the US Office to Monitor Human Trafficking has already indicated that 45 of its 54 nations (representing 83.3%) are involved in the trafficking of children and young people, especially girls and young women for commercial sexual exploitation and labour.

Research by The Movement for the Prevention and Protection Against Poverty, Destitution, Diseases and Exploitation (Mapode), a community-based, youth-at-risk focused Non Governmental Organization (NGO) which has implemented youth risky behaviour prevention and protection programs in Uganda and Zambia since 1997, indicates that Africa's receiving nations are mainly the Western Industrialized nations.

Mapode conducted two research projects, the first on trauma among prostituted women in 1998, and the other one on street girls in 2001. It has also just concluded its SACO supported study on 'Children and Young Women in Prostitution and Trafficking for Commercial Sexual Exploitation, Labour and Crime in Zambia'.

The findings of this research serve to confirm both SACO and UNICEF concerns and pose a serious challenge to child protection and the promotion of women's rights, not only in Zambia where the research was undertaken, but in Africa as a whole.

The research found that prostitution and trafficking of children and young women showed a dramatic increase. A total of 36.5% of respondents indicated that they had been trafficked, with 15% having been trafficked out, against 21.5% who said they had been trafficked in. Forty nine percent were aged between 11-18-years, 47% 19-26-years, and 3% from 27years and above.

Prostitution was found to be highly poverty driven. Sixty four percent gave their reasons for entering prostitution as poverty. Educational status was another factor: Nearly half (49.7%) had dropped out of school due to lack of funds. Interestingly, the period that 42.1% of Grades 8-9 girls dropped out of school corresponded with the decade 1990-2000, renowned for the implementation of the World Bank's Structural Adjustment Programs (SAP) in Africa that resulted in Zambia's mass closures of its mining industry and huge state-owned parastatal companies that left thousands of Zambia's urban families almost destitute.

Preference for child sex was often talked about. As an 18-year-old prostitute, who operates with her 13-year old sister, said: "The men prefer the baby; she is a goldmine." Preference for unprotected sex was exceedingly high at 78%. Given the high prevalence of HIV infection in Zambia - estimated at 19.8% - each sexual encounter carries an extremely high risk. Sex charges ranged from the equivalent of US$1 to US$50 in hotels, with a preference indicated for European tourists and business executives who are believed to pay more and to be safer.

On the other hand, heath issues such as Sexually Transmitted Infections and HIV/AIDS were not priority concerns. As expressed by one prostitute: "You are telling me about AIDS. I know about it. We were 37 in our group. I am the only one remaining now! But no money no life! AIDS might come tomorrow or next year. I don't know. But hunger and rent are now - they cannot wait."

Sadly, as the Mapode research clearly demonstrates, this human trade is also gender biased. The majority of its victims are females, particularly female children.

The reason for targeting children and young women are many and varied. The 2002 ILO Global Report points out that children's childhood is their vulnerability, and that although children are generally less productive than adults, their child state makes them less assertive, and easier to abuse. They can be made to work longer hours in services such as domestic, factory, agriculture, and sex work, with little food, poor accommodation, and little or no benefits.

Legal Protections at local, sub regional and regional levels are for now non existent. For instance, whereas Zambia has ratified the two African Human Rights Charters and most UN Conventions, it has not domesticated them in its laws, and has not ratified the UN Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children. Although Article 18 of the African Charter on Human and People's Rights prohibits discrimination against women in the context of the family, it does not include explicit provisions guaranteeing the right of consent and equality in marriage, a situation that leaves room for exploitation and injustice to women and their children.

Urgent action is needed to end this 'second slavery' and the following conclusions and recommendations offer a starting point:
- Prostituting and trafficking of a person for exploitation degrades and erodes a person's humanity physically, morally, mentally, psychologically, and spiritually.
- Public awareness, interventions and legal protections are either limited or non-existent at local, sub regional and regional levels since protective regional and international laws have not been incorporated into domestic law. Only three SADC countries of Botswana, Namibia and South Africa have ratified the UN Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of Child (CRC) to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children.
- Combating trafficking will be very difficult unless all SADC and AU nations form a united front. Africa must unite to declare this modern slavery a crime against humanity.

* Merab Kambamu Kiremire (Mrs,), a Development Worker with over 30 years working experience in community-related programs and projects is the Initiator and Director of MAPODE which operates in Zambia and Uganda. She was a FAWE Laureate 1997, and Africa Gender Institute (AGI) Rockefeller Associate 2004, University of Cape Town (UCT). She coordinated MAPODE research on Children and Young Women in Prostitution and Trafficking for Commercial Sexual Exploitation, Labour and Crime in Zambia in 2002, with financial assistance from Terre des Hommes of Germany.

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New evidence has emerged linking Jeffrey Archer to the alleged conspirators behind the attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea. A lawyer for the Equatorial Guinea government said in London Tuesday that telephone records showed four calls between the homes of one of the alleged financiers behind the plot, London-based Lebanese businessman Ely Calil, and Lord Archer in the run-up to the coup attempt in March. Another alleged plotter, businessman Greg Wales, also made five calls to Sir Mark Thatcher in the days after the failed coup.

Dr Milica Bisic from Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), who took on entrenched interests to stamp out tax evasion in Republika Srpska, BiH, and whistleblowers who brought to light the Goldenberg scandal in Kenya, were the winners of the TI Integrity Awards. David Munyakei, a clerk at the Central Bank of Kenya, provided MPs with documents revealing illegal transactions with Goldenberg International. Constable Naftali Lagat refused to obey Kenya's Director of Criminal Investigations' demand that he release to a director of Goldenberg International smuggled gold he had intercepted at Kenya's Wilson Airport.

Zimbabwe's request for funding from the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria has again been rejected. Last week Zimbabwe appealed the Fund's earlier rejection of its HIV/AIDS and TB grant proposals and was also rejected. However, Mary Sandasi, the director of a local HIV/AIDS group, Women and AIDS Support Network, said she believed the Global Fund was "mixing issues" and had "a hidden agenda".

A new guide has been launched which is liberally interspersed with examples of searches, and search strategies, relating to Africa or African studies topics. A pilot edition of this guide is now freely accessible at http://www.hanszell.co.uk/google/. It is published as an adjunct to the new third edition of The African Studies Companion: A Guide to Information Sources (online at http://www.africanstudiescompanion.com/) although it can also be used on its own.

"...Progress For Children addresses the child survival Millennium Development Goal, graphically depicting the world's advances in the lead up to 2015. It states that despite global gains in child survival since 1990, significant discrepancies remain within and across countries and regions and 11 million children still die needlessly each year. By ensuring access to basic services and continued use of simple, cost-effective interventions, these deaths can be averted and the goal of a two-thirds reduction in under-five mortality from 1990 to 2015 achieved [...]"

Four of the world's foremost environmental and development campaigners are to address a press conference on Friday 15th October in London, at the opening day of the European Social Forum (ESF). All are addressing major platforms at the European Social Forum, being held from 15 to 17 October in London. They will talk about their work and explain why they consider social forums and the London ESF a crucial part of the fight against corporate globalisation and environmental destruction.

The "War on Terror" must not be used to justify reversing progress on the abolition of the death penalty, Amnesty International's Irene Khan said as more than 90 countries prepared to mark the World Day against the Death Penalty this Sunday. "Human rights are for the best of us and the worst of us. Human rights are for the guilty as much as the innocent. That is why the death penalty must be abolished world-wide," said Irene Khan. For a copy of Irene Khan's speech to the Second World Congress against the Death Penalty http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engact500172004

A new research report from the Humanitarian Policy Group (HPG) examines how the international development aid system is becoming increasingly engaged in situations which, for many years, have been seen as largely the preserve of the humanitarian community. It reviews the changing relationship between the ideas, instruments and financing of the humanitarian system and of mainstream development cooperation in situations of protracted crisis. Two briefing papers synthesize the key findings and conclusions: http://www.odi.org.uk/hpg/hpgbrief16.pdf AND http://www.odi.org.uk/hpg/hpgbrief17.pdf