The International Monetary Fund said although Mozambique had generally achieved success in reducing poverty, progress was uneven across the country. In its latest assessment of the government's performance, the Fund urged authorities to decentralise responsibilities and fulfill earlier promises of allowing greater budgetary autonomy for municipalities.

We are all well aware of the problems besetting Zimbabwe and more importantly their root cause – the later is only spoken about, by all of us, in hushed tones with trusted friends. In preference to discussing solutions to the problem, business leaders spend their time managing around these problems. Little quality thinking has been directed to how people in business can facilitate the departure of Mugabe’s evil regime and the restoration of democracy in Zimbabwe. Contrary to popular belief, this change does not rest solely in the hands of politicians and activists, but the responsibility also lies squarely at the feet of every Zimbabwean. This letter serves to introduce you to the concept of achieving change, without perpetrating violence, within an oppressive environment.

The case for linking human rights and environmental protection is receiving increased recognition as a prevailing legal norm, says a nonprofit environmental law organisation based in the United States. The International Program of Earthjustice submitted its annual issue paper, "Human Rights and the Environment" on Thursday at the 59th Session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva.

We write as a group of doctors working at primary health care clinics in the public sector. We want to state that we have reached the point where we are asking ourselves daily how we can possibly continue working with integrity in the context of our many terminally ill HIV-positive patients not having access to life-saving medications.

The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition is stunned by the capacity of thirteen capable governments to be so completely hoodwinked by one country's President. It urges the governments of SADC and concerned citizens across the region to go beyond the propaganda put forth by the ruling party in Zimbabwe, and develop their own understanding of the severity of the Zimbabwe situation by listening to and engaging with voices from all corners of Zimbabwe.

The New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) peer review mechanism (PRM) is a voluntary process and nine countries have already signed up for the review, Professor Wiseman Nkuhlu, the chairman of the Nepad Steering Committee, said on Wednesday. "Ghana is likely to be the first candidate of the peer review mechanism. We should appoint the independent panel of experts in the next two months and the process should start shortly thereafter," Nkuhlu said.

Mr. Michael Carmichael of the Oxford Centre for Public Affairs criticizes Pambazuka News (Issue 104), the western media and Amnesty International for failing to highlight as an example of political persecution the ongoing treason trial of MDC opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

Amnesty International is concerned at the apparently politically motivated charges against Mr. Tsvangirai that have been roundly condemned by the international community, including Canada, and with insuring that he receives a fair trial. The lead work of the International Secretariat of Amnesty International in London is complemented by the campaigning activities of its various country sections worldwide. The Canadian Section (English Speaking) of Amnesty International has established a Zimbabwe Webpage (http://www.amnesty.ca/zimbabwe)containing press releases, reports and actions on Zimbabwe and has twinned a number of Canadian Members of Parliament with at-risk Zimbabwean Members of Parliament in a joint campaign with Oxfam Canada.

Mr. Bill Casey, one of the twinned Canadian Members of Parliament, called on the government of Canada to insure that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police provide Mr. Tsvangirai's lawyers with any information obtained in its investigation of Ari Ben Menashe, the lead prosecution witness against Mr. Tsvangirai who secretly recorded their meeting in Montreal, Canada in which Mr. Tsvangirai allegedly sought assistance in eliminating Mr. Mugabe. In reply, the Minister of Foreign Affairs assured Mr. Casey that all available information would be forwarded to Mr. Tsvangirai's lawyers via the Canadian High Commission ("Canada comes to MDC defence", Daily News, 5 March 2003).

The Secretary General of AI Canada testified before a Parliamentary Sub-Committee on March 26 and called on the Canadian government to step up its monitoring and condemnation of human rights violations in Zimbabwe, including by way of observation of the trials of Tsvangirai and other MDC leaders. The Canadian High Commissioner to Zimbabwe indicated that he has been observing the Tsvangirai trial.

The Canadian Section (English Speaking) is but one of hundreds of Amnesty International country sections around the world campaigning to address human rights violations wherever they occur. Mr. Carmichael may rest assured that Amnesty International is doing its best to address the plight of Morgan Tsvangirai and ordinary Zimbabweans who face political violence in seeking to exercise their democratic rights.

The over 120 observers who attended a 3-day Forum on the Electoral Process in Africa have suggested the establishment of a common elections development bank into which all African countries will contribute material and financial resources to promote the independent financing of elections on the continent. They suggested that this will "help reduce over dependence on foreign aid for elections which, in some cases, goes a long way to compromise 'the sovereignty of African nations."

When Nigeria, proud holder of the title of the most populous nation in Africa, goes to the polls this weekend it will be watched keenly from across a troubled continent, analysts say. "For the outside world, including Africa, a successful election in Nigeria suggests that we are heading in the right direction," says John Adeleke, head of the World Trade Centre Association's Nigeria office.

Following the Monterrey conference on Financing for Development, a number of official discussions are underway about changing the governance regime of international institutions. Civil society organisations and others have long pointed out that the World Bank and IMF - whose 2003 Spring meetings are taking place in Washington DC on 12-13 April- wield enormous power over developing country governments, yet have severe shortcomings in their legitimacy and effectiveness.

A 50-man team of election observers from 11 countries in Africa, Europe and North America has arrived in Nigeria for the forthcoming state and federal elections beginning this weekend, the National Democratic Institute announced.

Allegations of misuse of debt-relief funds have emerged in Zambia, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) told IRIN on Tuesday. Zambia is one of the least developed countries which qualify for the Highly-Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) debt-relief programme of the IMF and World Bank.

The Kubatana Project manages Kubatana.net, a website portal that provides Zimbabwean Civil Society organisations with an online presence and a platform to voice their concerns about human rights abuses in their country.

An upsurge of politically motivated violence is threatening the legitimacy of impending elections in Nigeria, Human Rights Watch has charged in a 39-page report, “Testing Democracy: Political Violence in Nigeria,” which documents numerous cases of political violence across Nigeria and discusses the weak response by government and police to date. Starting with local government primaries for the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in 2002, Nigeria has seen an increase in violent clashes between political factions led by politicians and their supporters at all levels of government.

The Sager Fellowship for the Master of Arts degree in Sustainable International Development forges professional partnerships between ethnic communities to help identify and solve problems of underdevelopment. The SID Program is pleased to announce the 2003 Sager Fellowship competition for a young professional with a demonstrated commitment to conflict resolution and sustainable development in Rwanda. The Sager Fellow will concentrate on theory and analytical skills during the year in residence at Brandeis University, and then spend the second year in a supervised internship or field project.

The New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) will fail if transparency and accountability do not form part of the process. This was the warning from Daryl Balia, the Chairperson of Transparency International South Africa. He was speaking to delegates at the African Investment Forum in Johannesburg.

The disarmament and peace process in Sierra Leone is getting new impetus from a pilot programme in four chiefdoms that encourages communities to turn in small arms in return for support for local development projects. The initiative will also strengthen national weapons control measures. It builds on progress in disarmament since the 1999 Lome peace accords and the Abuja ceasefire agreement the following year that ended a devastating civil war.

Lets inform Africa through the dissemination of vital information in order to make Africa great.

With the very high expectations of meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, one of the creditor-designed debt relief initiatives, The Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) initiative, launched in 1996 by the IMF and World Bank, has failed to achieve the promised objective of a “robust exit from the burden of unsustainable debts” for developing countries. As a potential source of development finance, the debt relief through HIPC is not sufficient to guarantee poverty reduction in these countries let alone meet some of the goals of the MDGs. An analysis of key debt indicators shows that external debt and debt-servicing problems and poverty have become most severe and persistent in the heavily indebted poor countries, the so-called HIPCs, says Afrodad, a research, lobby and advocacy organisation, in a recent report.

With a population of over 120 million and many expatriate communities across the globe, the largest economy in West Africa, and great political importance in the region, the African continent, and the global stage, events which affect the stability and future of Nigeria affect the entire world. Elections, interrupted as they have been by periods of military dictatorship, have always contained potential for civil unrest, and so the good conduct of the forthcoming polls is a matter not only of international concern but also of symbolic importance for the citizens of Nigeria. This is according to a briefing on the upcoming 2003 Nigerian elections from the Centre for Democracy and Development, which provides a history of the politics in the country and examines other issues that include health, human rights and the environment.