Union International Network

"The persistence of extreme poverty and the failure to meet many development goals are usually linked to lack of employment, poor wages and working conditions, and violations of workers' rights. In their most fundamental functions, trade unions work to combat these causes of poverty. Furthermore, in their campaigns trade unions often play a major role in the forefront of working towards results that have become part of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), such as achieving universal primary education or combating the spread of HIV/AIDS. All too frequently however, policy advice and loan conditions counteract trade unions' efforts to contribute to achievement of the MDGs, particularly the attainment of MDG 1 for eradicating extreme poverty."

This article, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), focuses on health as central to the achievement of all the millennium development goals (MDGs). Key challenges for health improvement include reversing the global HIV/AIDS epidemic and reducing child and maternal mortality. The authors acknowledge the need for more aid but argue that this is only part of the picture. To effectively absorb increases in aid, poor countries need strong, equitable health systems and institutions. They also need the capacity to deliver services, which includes having enough skilled staff.

The Nigerian Minister of Science and Technology, Professor Turner Isoun, has stated that it would benefit Nigeria tremendously if it joined the Global University System (GUS). According to the GUS, the system "helps higher educational institutions in remote and rural areas of developing countries to deploy broadband internet...and act as the knowledge centre of their community".

After declining in the post-Cold War era of the early 1990s, global military spending is on the rise again - threatening to break the US$1 trillion barrier this year, according to a group of United Nations-appointed military experts. The 16-member group estimates that military spending will rise to nearly $950 billion by the end of 2004, up from $900 billion in 2003. By contrast, rich nations spend $50 billion to $60 billion on development aid each year.

Corruption charges against the former intelligence chief Xavier Chungu and Attan Shansonga, the former Zambian ambassador to the United States, were dismissed last week when it was ruled that they were beyond the jurisdiction of Zambian courts after they jumped bail and fled abroad. Chungu faces more than 100 charges of corruption and theft of public funds but his current whereabouts are unknown. Shansonga is in Britain where he is a citizen through marriage.

Police in Sierra Leone have arrested the head of a local aid agency suspected of helping to smuggle 29 children out of the country for adoption in the United States, a senior police official said on Monday. Roland Kargbo, director of Help a Needy Child International (HANCI), was arrested with three co-workers following a report by Interpol into child trafficking to Western Europe and the United States, Inspector General Acha Kamara told reporters.

The UN's cultural organisation, Unesco, set 23 August as International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition.The UN General Assembly has also proclaimed 2004 as International Year to Commemorate the Struggle against Slavery and its Abolition. Koichiro Matsuura, head of Unesco, said, "Although abolished and penalised in international instruments, [slavery] is still practised in new forms that today affect millions of men, women and children across the world."

A new tool, known as TxtMob, is being used to help protestors in America. Launched at the Democratic Convention, TextMob enables an individual to send an SMS message to the mobile phones of hundreds of other subscribers in an instant. If the technology proves successful, "it could prove to be a crucial tool for anyone trying to organise groups of people amid rapidly evolving circumstances", says Emily Turrettini, author of textually.org

Ambassador Randall Tobias, head of the State Department's Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator said he will extend a deadline for other countries to contribute to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to ensure that the United States can supply the maximum amount authorized by Congress for the fund. Congress authorized $547 million for the fund for fiscal year 2004. However, the bill authorizing the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief stipulates that the total U.S. contribution to the fund cannot exceed 33% of total contributions to the fund.

Toby Shelley has talked to Moroccan, Western Saharan Polisario and other diplomats, as well as contacts in the oil industry. He has visited the territory and had access to both the Moroccan administration and the underground opposition. What emerges is that there is now a real prospect of a definitive resolution to this long-running, often bloody, conflict between Morocco and the Sahraoui people.

The Zambian government's crusade against corruption has suffered a major setback with the collapse of a court case against two key suspects, former intelligence chief Xavier Chungu and his co-accused Attan Shansonga, the former Zambian ambassador to the United States. Charges against Chungu and Shansonga were dismissed last week when it was ruled that they were beyond the jurisdiction of Zambian courts after they jumped bail and fled abroad.

The elimination of tariffs in the 20-nation Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) will not occur in December 2004 as planned, according to a top official. "It has been deferred to next year," said Chungu Mwila, director of investment at the regional organisation. He told a three-day workshop in South Africa this week on 'Trade and Poverty in Southern Africa' that some members had requested more time to prepare.

The recently concluded WTO's General Council's meeting in July is a serious setback for Africa. In putting “ back on track” the Doha Round (a Round that most developing countries were forced to accept under duress soon after the events surrounding September 11), the July outcome now cements and defines the next phase of the negotiations in which developed countries will now enjoy a huge margin of advantage. If Cancun provided some breathing space for the South, the relief has been short-lived as issues of priority for the North, namely safeguarding the iniquitous regime of agriculture subsidies, prying open markets of the South for agricultural exports and for manufactured goods, have been defined in the July framework in a way that assures an outcome at the end of the Doha Round that may be as unjust and unbalanced as the Uruguay Round. What exactly went wrong?

Insufficient funds, poor infrastructure and widespread landmines continue to blight efforts to resettle tens of thousands of Angolans who fled their homes during the civil conflict. Last week the World Food Programme (WFP) warned that unless new donations were received in September no cereals would be distributed to resettled returnees or those scheduled to be repatriated from neighbouring countries. The UN agency has already slashed cereal rations by 50 percent due to the lack of funds.

Zimbabwean activism for access to life-saving HIV-treatment has been thrown into a quandary following the rejection of the country's proposal in the fourth round of funding by the Global Fund on AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Treatment activism efforts have been flustered after the decision, which was made at the eighth meeting of the GFTAM board, held in Geneva late last June. Zimbabwe had requested US$218million from the GFTAM in order to combat HIV/AIDS over a five-year period. The country is among the worst-hit by the AIDS pandemic, with an estimated 25 percent of its adult population living with HIV, which causes AIDS. Estimates of weekly AIDS-related deaths range from 1 800 to 3 000, depending on the source of statistics, which is high regardless of the figures one chooses to use.

Say the word “mining” in the context of Sierra Leone, and thoughts instantly turn to the country's ruinous trade in conflict diamonds. However, the mining of another mineral - rutile - is also the source of some controversy in this West African state. Recently, the rutile sector received a boost when the European Union allocated almost 31 million dollars to fund the resumption of mining in southern Sierra Leone by the Sierra Rutile company. But, while the government is eager to have the rutile mines back in operation, certain environmental activists don't share its enthusiasm.

Youth unemployment has skyrocketed worldwide over the past decade to some 88 million, according to a new study by the International Labour Office (ILO), reaching an all time high with young people aged 15 to 24 now representing nearly half the world's jobless. "Global Employment Trends for Youth 2004", a new analysis prepared by the ILO's Employment Strategy Department, found that while youth represent 25 per cent of the working age population between the ages of 15 and 64, they made up as much as 47 per cent of the total 186 million people out of work worldwide in 2003.

Wednesday marks the 100th anniversary of Germany's brutal crushing of an ethnic uprising in Namibia. The German government has refused to consider any compensation claims, pointing to its role as development aid provider in Namibia, as proof of its commitment to mend fences. But the descendents of the Herero insist on compensation as well as a public apology from Berlin, just as other countries did for the crimes of the Nazi era.

Some Africans in the Diaspora said on Friday that the myth surrounding the Atlantic Slave Trade had been broken and things made clear to them, when they toured slave trade sites in Salaga in the East Gonja District. The tour which formed part of activities marking this year's Emancipation Day took them to a slave bathing place (Wankanbayi) along a stream in the North-eastern part of Salaga where the slaves dug more than one hundred wells from which they drew water for bathing before they were sent to slave markets.

The World Bank and IMF have produced a paper entitled "Enhanced HIPC Initiative - Possible Options Regarding the Sunset Clause". The paper provides a brief background to the sunset clause and discusses the implications of its expiry at the end of the year before going on to discuss four possible policy options and concluding remarks. Eurodad, the European Network on Debt and Development, comments that any extension would: "...embarrassingly for the WB and IMF, represent the fourth extension to the initiative. We argue that this demonstrates the severe technical shortcomings (and therefore credibility) of the initiative."