The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) and the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), in partnership with the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) and South Africa's National Research Foundation (NRF) is pleased to announce the 2003-4 program for research and training on Understanding Exclusion, Creating Value: African Youth in a Global Age. Funding for the program is provided by the Education for Democracy and Development Initiative of the U.S. Agency for International Development, CODESRIA, the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA), and the NRF.

The State Street Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Boston-based financial services company State Street Corporation, has announced 269 grants totaling more than $3.2 million through its Global Philanthropy Program during the fourth quarter of 2002. The grants bring the foundation's total giving in 2002 to $10.4 million.

The Department of Social Development and the Public Service Monitor (PSAM) have expressed delight over the arrest by the Joint Anti-Corruption Unit of 19 people in Umtata, East London and Port Elizabeth. The department this morning called for "stiff" sentences for officials or former officials convicted of fraud and corruption.

Human rights groups around the world now have access to a forum for the exchange of practical information in many languages to support their social justice work. The Digital Freedom Network, Forefront and the Centre for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University have partnered to coordinate Human Rights Connection (HRC) at http://www.hrconnection.org, a web-based community resource centre that provides human rights activists with a place to read and post "how to" information, articles and case studies on a wide range of issues, such as working with the media, planning an advocacy campaign, establishing an organisation, and using technology.

The Commission on Human Rights began on March 24 its annual discussion of racism and racial discrimination, hearing a number of requests from national delegations for more vigorous efforts to implement the Declaration and Programme of Action of the Durban World Conference against Racism and Racial Discrimination.

The Global Civil Society Portfolio of the Ford Foundation has set aside $US1 million to promote civic engagement in global governance and to encourage global civil society actors to address the democracy deficits apparent within global governance. With this call for proposals the Ford Foundation is seeking civil society organisations that have a strategic plan to strengthen or promote accountability mechanisms between global governors and global citizens.

Clustered around radios, thousands of hungry Liberians in a refugee camp devour war news from Iraq, many hoping the world will turn its attention to their plight. A civil war in this West African nation with historic ties to the United States has killed thousands and uprooted nearly a third of the country's 3 million people with no end in sight.

The International Monetary Fund sounded more like its critics on Monday when it admitted there is little evidence globalization is helping poor countries. The IMF, which has often been the target of violent anti-globalization protests, in a new study found economic integration may actually increase the risk of financial crisis in the developing world.

World Resources 2002-2004 focuses on the importance of good environmental governance and explores how citizens, government managers and business owners can foster better environmental decisions. The report argues that better environmental governance is one of the most direct routes to fairer and more sustainable use of natural resources. Decisions made with greater participation and greater knowledge of natural systems decisions for the Earth can help to reverse the loss of forests, the decline of soil fertility, and the pollution of air and water that reflect our past failures.

Why do people with a cough delay seeking tuberculosis (TB) care? Research involving the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the UNZA-School of Medicine found that poor perception of health services in Lusaka, Zambia, is a more important cause of delay than people's understanding of TB.

There is a dangerous and persistent interplay between tuberculosis (TB) and poverty. TB infection is transmitted more readily in the environmental conditions of poverty: overcrowding, inadequate ventilation and malnutrition. Having TB makes poor people, their relatives and communities poorer still by preventing gainful employment and worsening their social relationships. Yet it is the poor who use proportionally more of their income in accessing treatment for TB than the less poor. This year's World TB Day theme is therefore welcome in emphasising the needs of TB patients, especially poor TB patients, in balance to the needs of TB services and their targets.

Between six and nine million people in developing countries currently urgently need anti-retroviral treatment while in reality only between 230 000 and 300 000 have access to these drugs, according to a report by HealthGAP, a US-based human rights group.

Racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance are still extremely serious problems, said UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which was observed on 21 March. "Indeed, discrimination is deeply embedded in the economic, social and political structures of many societies, and has been among the root causes of a number of violent conflicts. Members of particular racial or ethnic groups continue to be more likely to be poor and to have less access to adequate health services and education than dominant groups. The persistence of old patterns of racism condemns many people to a life of marginalization and humiliation. And in the last decade, new manifestations of hatred have emerged," said Annan.

All individuals and institutions have a mutual responsibility to act as Trustees of Earth, seeking the choices in ecology, economics and ethics that will eliminate pollution, poverty and violence, foster peaceful progress, awaken the wonder of life, and realize the best potential for the future of the human adventure.

On 14 March 2003, Reporters sans frontières (RSF), expressed concern over the recent closure of two privately-owned television stations, RTA and Canal 2, which has threatened the development of diverse and independent broadcast media in Cameroon.

The East Africa Regional Coordinator is responsible for the management and oversight of all G.E.P.’s activities in our two Africa divisions (Kenya and Tanzania). Our mission is to provide low-income youth with access to the educational resources needed to become self-sufficient. Current programs focus on entrepreneurship training and micro-finance for young people (mid teens to late 20s), many of who are dropouts or unemployed secondary school graduates. For more information, please see

Improved management of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) can reduce the rate of new HIV cases by up to 40 per cent. AMREF (African Medical and Research Foundation) provided training in STI treatment for the six hundred licensed private providers (doctors, nurses and clinical officers) in Nyanza province in western Kenya. But what happens when people use untrained providers or self-medicate?

The New Tactics in Human Rights Project invites you to visit its new web site, www.newtactics.org. All over the world, people are addressing human rights issues in new and innovative ways. The New Tactics project gathers these innovations and disseminates them - using the web, print publications and cross-training workshops - while building global and regional networks of human rights practitioners.

The key to restoring climate stability is shifting from a fossil fuel based energy economy to one based on renewable sources of energy and hydrogen. Advancing technologies in the design of wind turbines that have dramatically lowered the cost of wind generated electricity to the point where it can be used to produce hydrogen from water, along with the evolution of fuel cell engines, have set the stage for a dramatic restructuring of the world energy economy. The good news is that this shift is under way. The bad news is that it is not happening nearly fast enough to avoid a climate disrupting buildup in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, writes Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute.

Free the Fishing Boys - A US-funded programme, which aims to assist and return to their families more than 1,200 children trafficked for forced labour in the Central and Volta regions of Ghana is making good progress.