This year, for the first time, the World Bank dedicated its 2012 annual flagship World Development Report to women as indispensable players in the global economy and launched a media campaign to 'think equal'. But while bold statements and glossy reports paint the picture of benevolent financial institutions throwing money behind the gender justice struggle, the paper trail of IFI investments leads elsewhere - down into mines and barren fields, where big business is reaping private profit at the expense of women's safety, equality and dignity.

ARTICLE 19 says it has analysed the provisions of the Draft Penal Code for Rwanda (Draft Penal Code) that engage the rights to freedom of expression and information, to assess their compatibility with international standards. 'With this focus, ARTICLE 19 finds the reviewed provisions to be fundamentally flawed and incompatible with Rwanda’s obligations under international law. The bill represents a significant regression in protections for the right to freedom of expression and information in Rwanda.'

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has asked the authorities in the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia to end the campaign of intimidation and harassment of leaders of the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), an IFJ affiliate. The Federation was reacting to news that NUSOJ organising Secretary in Mogadishu was summoned by police for questioning over the union's activities in the country.

Technical experts from global lenders the International Monetary Fund arrived in Malawi recently for a mission to offer technical assistance that seeks to revive a stalled programme meant to cushion foreign exchange shortages. Ruby Randall, an IMF resident representative told reporters the team, co-led by Etibar Jafarow and Nadia Rendak, comprises monetary capital markets and legal experts whose findings will be 'expected to help authorities implement key extended credit facility (ECF) programme commitments'.

The name Solomon Abera will forever be etched in the collective memory of Eritrea's press corps. On 18 September 2001, as the world focused its attention on the terrorist attacks on the United States, the government of Eritrea borrowed Abera's voice to sound the death knell, on state-controlled airwaves, of the Red Sea nation's independent press. Shortly after Abera read the announcement, the government rounded up leading independent newspaper editors and a dozen ruling-party dissidents calling for democratic reform - all of whom have disappeared in custody. On 2 December, the Committee to Protect Journalists said they learned that Solomon Abera, who lived in exile in Germany after fleeing government censorship and intimidation in 2005, was no more.

'Just think of these figures: The third quarter profits for Morgan Stanley $2.2 billion; for Wells Fargo $4.1 billion; for J.P. Morgan Chase $4.6 billion; Bank of America $6.2 billion...these were the banking outfits that helped to fashion the near-depression. Remember all these figures are this year, well after the fiscal calamity of three years ago. Or take the oil companies in the third quarter of 2011: BP, despite paying out billions in compensation for the oil spill, made $5.1 billion; Shell made $7 billion; Mobil Exxon came in at $10.3 billion. And we can’t find money for the Global Fund? Is there any better definition of the 1%? And I haven’t even enumerated the restoration of corporate bonuses. Do you see what’s at work here? In the reckless haste to coddle the multinationals, global public health has taken a merciless hit. And here’s something else to think about. Not a one of these companies has given a direct nickel to the coffers of the Global Fund, despite endless requests that they do so. And BP, Shell and Exxon Mobil are all members of the Global Business Coalition Health (GBCHealth), successor to the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS.'

Some European banks are now refusing to lend to firms trading with Africa, threatening growth in the world's poorest continent, a senior official of the African Development Bank (AfDB) said on Tuesday. The reluctance of some banks to make Africa-related loans as Europe's own debt crisis turns them increasingly risk-averse is an ominous sign as it repeats one aspect of the 2008 credit crisis.

Civil society in Mozambique has been actively engaging among themselves, with the state, and with investors to improve large scale land transfer governance. The initiatives underway range from: a land forum that brings together the various stakeholders to discuss land governance issues; community land delimitation initiatives by the Rural Mutual Support Organisation (ORAM); more extreme actions where communities have uprooted investors’ eucalyptus plantations and successfully renegotiated the return of their subsistence production land from an investor.

Poor countries have depended on rich nations to supplement their sector budget without which millions of people would have continued to live in abject poverty. Have the years of funding made these countries any less dependent? Sector budget is aid that is allocated to developing a country’s particular development priorities, which could be in the areas of health, education or even sanitation and housing.

AIDC has organised a series of activities at the UN Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa, between 1-6 December.

Civil society organisations from around the world released a report at the Durban climate talks that highlights the contradictions inherent in the World Bank Group’s presence at the talks. While the Bank seeks a leading role in climate finance, it has been unable to finalize an energy strategy and continues to finance dirty energy projects. The report titled, 'Unclear on the Concept: How Can the World Bank Group Lead on Climate Finance without an Energy Strategy?' finds that 'in spite of its climate-friendly rhetoric, the WBG continues to disproportionately fund dirty energy projects. In fact, nearly half of energy lending - more than US$15 billion - went to fossil fuels over the past four years.'

Sudan has ordered the expulsion of the Kenyan ambassador after a Kenyan judge issued an arrest warrant for Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, Sudan's foreign ministry has said. The Kenyan ambassador to Sudan now has 72 hours to leave that country and subsequently the Sudanese ambassador in Kenya has also been ordered to return to Khartoum.

Officially recorded remittance flows to developing countries are estimated to have reached $351 billion in 2011, up 8 per cent over 2010. For the first time since the global financial crisis, remittance flows to all six developing regions rose in 2011. Growth of remittances in 2011 exceeded our earlier expectations in four regions, especially in Europe and Central Asia (due to higher outward flows from Russia that benefited from high oil prices) and Sub-Saharan Africa (due to strong south-south flows and weaker currencies in some countries that attracted larger remittances).

The STARS Foundation has selected three African organisations working with children for this year’s 2011 Africa & Middle East STARS Impact Awards and one organisation for the Rising Star Award. The STARS Foundation supports frontline, impactful initiatives improving children’s health, education and protection needs across the continent.

The latest edition of the Mozambique Political Process Bulletin has articles on corruption in Mozambique, the inability of coal mines to reduce poverty, the need for more jobs in Mozambique and much more. Visit the web address provided to subscribe to the Mozambique Political Process Bulletin and Joseph Hanlon's Mozambique News Reports and Clippings.

Moustapha Kassé
African youth are determined to press ahead for democratic change and have become a new force on the political scene. They form the bulk of the various protest movements and often are the organisers. They are a force to reckon with, notes Moustapha Kasse, but while they reject the political establishment as lacking credibility, they do not have an alternative proposal for the future. Kasse suggests a possible framework of demands they could use to further their aspirations and demands.

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Senegal : In the Republic of illusions, the master has lost his magic
Amy Niang
There is a deep sense of betrayal in Senegal – writes Amy Niang – where an erstwhile liberator has turned executioner and is trying to snuff out the peoples’ desire for liberty. The people feel profoundly let down by Abdoulaye Wade in whom they had placed so much hope and who, at the tail end of his rule, is destroying what little hope remains of leaving a positive legacy.

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Operation Exodus: Europeans are drooling over Africa and the diaspora?
Jean Paul Pougala
While Europe sinks deeper in crisis, Africa is increasingly looking like a top investment destination with so much of its wealth and resources as yet unexploited. The double-digit growth rate in some countries is an indicator that Africa is on the eve of its economic take-off. This is the time, says Jean Paul Pougala, for the diaspora to return and participate in the construction of the future.

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Cameroon: a devious kind of violence in education
Aîssa Ngatansou Doumara
In Cameroon’s extreme north, fathers prevent their daughters from going to school. Aissa Ngatansou Doumara describes the daily struggle to change mindsets that make tyrants out of protectors and prevent young girls from realising their potential.

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The challenge of three billion people in Africa
Maurice Oudet
On October 31 2011, world population hit the seven billion mark according to the UN. Africa, which has the highest birth rate in the world, already has more than a billion people. This demographic evolution is a huge challenge for the world and for Africa writes Maurice Oudet.

A leading US environmental group is opposing the planned purchase of 325,000 hectares of land in Tanzania by an American company. Tanzania’s parliament is debating the government’s willingness to lease the land in the Rukwa and Kigoma regions to Agrisol Energy Tanzania Ltd, which is backed by a consortium of US investors. Opponents charge that the deal amounts to a 'land grab' that would result in the displacement of 160,000 refugees from Burundi, some of whom have lived on the land for 40 years.

The arrival of seven and a half tons of tear gas to Egypt’s Suez port created conflict after the responsible officials at the port refused to sign and accept it for fear it would be used to crackdown on Egyptian protesters. Local news sites published documents regarding the shipment showing that the cargo that arrived in 479 barrels from the United States was scheduled to be delivered to the ministry of interior.

Muammar Qaddafi's daughter has urged Libyans to overthrow their new rulers, possibly violating the terms of her exile in Algeria. In an audio message broadcast on Syria's al-Rai television station, Aisha Qaddafi called for a revolt against the men who overthrew her father, the government she said 'arrived with the planes of NATO'.

Swaziland spends 4.7 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on paying, equipping and barracking the 3,000 soldiers in its army, and now parliament has passed a US$8 million supplementary budget for the force, provoking a rare public reaction in questioning the role or even the need for an army in view of the deepening economic crisis.