Entrepreneurship is thriving in Africa. Throughout the continent poor people start up and run tiny businesses – micro-enterprises - in the unregulated informal sector. Why are aid agencies, governments and financial institutions not improving their access to credit? Why isn’t more being done to give small and medium enterprises (SMEs) increased access to credit facilities?

Location : Berlin, Germany
Closing Date : 30 Nov 2001
Posted on : 2 Nov 2001

HomeBeats is a multimedia journey through time, from Africa, the Caribbean and Asia, to the making of modern Britain. The first cd-rom on racism and the black presence in Britain, it fuses music, graphics, video, text and animation into a stunning voyage of personal and historical discovery for every user. Through a series of fully interlinked sections - Memories, Places, People, Visions, Images - HomeBeats makes the links between past and present accessible to young people in a way possible in no other medium. It covers the history of the struggle for racial justice, tracing the connections between slavery, the colonial experience and modern day racism.

The New York Times profiles how the debate over the patents on AIDS drugs will be "a major bone of contention" at the World Trade Organization meeting in Doha, Qatar, this week.

A new study for the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs by the UK-based Institute of Development Studies contains case studies on financing mechanisms for biodiversity conservation, climate change abatement, peace and security, HIV/AIDS research and financial stability.

The hope that that US President George W. Bush might announce more debt relief and aid for Africa, especially for the fight against Aids, has evaporated.

The time is ripe for the ICC. It will be formally established-with or without the US - after 60 nations have ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The number count is up to 43. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan anticipates the ICC will be established in the next year.

"The world is undergoing a global struggle between diversity and uniformity, cultural liberalism and fundamentalism, democracy and totalitarianism. A struggle about which aspects of each culture can and should be saved, and what aspects may be abandoned to make room for something new and enriching. The articles in this anthology approach these questions from different angles. This book is an edited selection of the dialogue that took place during Images of the World - a festival held in Copenhagen, Arhus, Odense, Aalborg and a number of small towns in Denmark during the months of August and September 2000.

In a 2 November 2001 letter to President Yahya A.J.J. Jammeh, The International Press Institute condemned the recent arrest of Baboucar Gaye and the closure of his radio station, Citizen FM.

Special Report -- Do your data measure up? - Kenya puts its immunization records under the auditors' microscope (DQA). News -- Yellow fever vaccine stocks still low as fears of new outbreaks grow. Grassroots -- Training vaccinators in a time of change: preparing to cope with new vaccines and new equipment. Briefing -- Why the fridge loses its cool: finding solutions to the problems of maintaining the cold chain.

Released on October 15, this new annual report from Transparency
International (TI, see the September 7, 2000 Scout Report for Business &
Economics) reviews the "state of corruption" worldwide, July 2000-June
2001. After the introduction and prefatory material, the report is divided into three main sections: Regional reports, Global issues (such as money laundering and an update from OECD on implementing the Anti-Bribery Convention), and Data and research, which summarizes a wide variety of research projects from governments, private organizations, scholars, international organizations, and more. The About the GCR link on the front page of the report gives a summary of authors contributing to the different report sections and an overview of the report as a whole. The report is designed for a wide audience and should appeal both to policymakers and interested members of the general public.
Source: From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2001: http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/

One of Rwanda's main dilemmas is the belief that the country is no longer in need of humanitarian aid when "many people" still suffer from food insecurity caused by drought or, paradoxically, heavy rains in March and April, OCHA reported on 30 September.

The US and EU, as well as the WTO Secretariat, are showing desperation in their attempts to ram through a new round of trade negotiations with a host of new issues by the WTO Ministerial on 9 November even though more than half of the members remain totally opposed to new issues being brought in.

Citing corruption and poor governance, Belgium has omitted Kenya from countries to benefit from its aid, its ambassador has said.

The Unocal Foundation seeks proposals from nonprofit organizations interested in joining with UF to create special global partnerships (2-4) to address critical issues facing children and youth; the environment; or business-civil society collaboration on difficult issues.

Ministers of Trade of Ghana, Uganda and representatives of Mauritania, Cote d'Ivoire and Nigeria have agreed on the need for Africa to present a common front on issues during and after the Fourth World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial Conference at Doha, Qatar.

Human Rights Watch have cautioned against a global backlash against migrants and refugees in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the United States.

World Trade Organisation agreements in agriculture and services are working against consumers, particularly in developing countries, a new report shows.

DRC Minister of Communications and Press Kikaya bin Karubi has decided to lift the measure that placed the RTKM and Canal Kin stations under the direct supervision of the Ministry of Communications and Press.

While corruption remains endemic around the world, there are signs that efforts to combat it are starting to bear fruit, The Global Corruption Report has said.