Biofuels are failing Africa, in contrast to the many promises that fuelled their growth, a new report from Ethiopia claims. Launched at the UN conference on Climate Change in Cancun, the report ‘Biofuels - a Failure for Africa’ from the African Biodiversity Network, Ethiopian Society for Consumer Protection and The Gaia Foundation, highlights the risks of relying on biofuels to bring climate and development benefits to Africa.

There was a large presence of female thugs who terrorized both women and men in the recently held Egyptian elections, says a new report, 'The Gender Perspective in the 2010 Parliamentary Elections'. The report said female candidates were guilty of the same violations as male candidates. The majority of women supported male candidates, but the majority of those who supported female candidates were Muslim Brotherhood members.

The South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) has become a 'talkshop' that is failing to lead the country’s fight against AIDS because it is poorly resourced, lacks leadership and there is confusion over its role. This is according to civil society groups and several sources working within the body, which was set up in 2000 to co-ordinate the country’s response to HIV.

At first glance Zimbabwe's public health system has undergone a renaissance since the dire days two years ago when shortages of drugs, staff and equipment were the norm. But this was not the norm, said John Mushangi, 42, an insurance broker who rushed his 15-year-old son to the facility after he was hit by a car and suffered head injuries. 'We waited for more than three hours before being attended and during that time my son was bleeding heavily. There was no reason for the hospital staff to take so long because there were few patients in front of us [in the queue],' he told IRIN.

Kenya is likely to witness worsening food security, significant disease outbreaks, and further pockets of conflict in 2011, as well as a continuing flow of refugees from Somalia, say aid officials. 'There is a fear of La Niña compromising the [food security] gains made,' said Aeneas Chuma, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator at the 30 November launch of Kenya’s 2011 Emergency Humanitarian Response Plan (EHRP) appeal. Most of the US$525 million funding requested is expected to meet food security and refugee needs.

A group of Ugandan organisations and individuals have made an urgent appeal to civil society to support the inclusion of sexual minorities in national health policy.

Diagne Roland Fodé

Four non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from Africa have been selected to receive a prestigious award by UK-based charity, the STARS Foundation. Bungoma-based NGO, ACE Africa Kenya, Nairobi-based NGO, Childline Kenya, Hargeisa-based Africa Educational Trust and Cape Town-based, Home from Home Trust, will each receive a STARS Impact Award, consisting of $100,000 in unrestricted funding and tailored consultancy support. They will be presented to the charities’ Directors on 2nd December at a ceremony in London.

Israel’s most recent measure in ongoing efforts to deport the country’s growing migrant worker and refugee community is the government’s approval of a detention facility in the Negev desert for migrants and refugees. Israel considers only a small number of the 35,000 Africans, who have entered Israel over the past few years, as refugees. The rest are viewed as illegal economic migrants.

Firoze Manji e Molly Kane

Kathy Jo Wetter

Anne Maina

Khadija Sharife

Pat Mooney

Andréia Lisboa de Souza

Albano Pedro

Isis-WICCE will be actively participating in the 16 Days of Activism by hosting a cyber dialogue on its newly revamped website. As an organisation, we have had the privilege of working with women’s activists globally. Therefore, we would like to call upon our networks to create a forum where members can share their thoughts, opinions, and statements on the theme of ‘militarism and violence against women’.

Participants will be invited to contribute in the cyber dialogue which they can also share within their networks. The dialogue will commence on the first day of activism and continue for 16 days with every other day providing a new engaging question.

The theme of the 16 Days of Activism is pertinent to the work of Isis-WICCE. We have seen how conflict and post-conflict situations create atmospheres and situations where militarism increases violence against women, especially taking into consideration the role the military plays as either perpetrators of violence or as their mandated role in protecting them. Thus, it is important to open up a discussion on the structures of violence that do exist and navigate a way forward.

This is a call for all parties who are interested to visit the Isis-WICCE Blog beginning on 25 November 2010 to participate in the dialogue.

Saudi Arabia's strategy to outsource food production will be at the top of the agenda when several heads of state and high-level delegations from African countries arrive in Riyadh for an investor conference on 4 December 2010. In some of these countries, Saudi investors are already acquiring farmland and starting to put the Kingdom's policies into operation. One of their main targets is West Africa's rice lands.

The Commission for Gender Equality has issued an invite for people to attend a two-day public hearing on gender transformation in the workplace.

Uncleared minefields in northern Uganda’s Lamwo district have prevented thousands of people displaced during the Lord’s Resistance Army insurgency from returning home, officials said. 'These people can’t go to their villages [in Agoro sub-county] unless the place is cleared and declared free of the landmines,' local government official Mathew Ocen Akiya told IRIN. He said some 10,000 people were unable to go home because of the mines.

Writer Chuma Nwokolo recently launched a creative venture that mixes the power of blogging with story-telling. He published a brand new story on his blog, but the story was told in six letters, each of which he published daily throughout this week, with the final letter published on Saturday. The catch was that if the six parts got a hundred comments between them, he'd promise his readers to start a brand-new serial on the following Monday. 'So if you want a new tale next week - or if you simply want to put me through the torture of writing one under pressure - get commenting and send this link around your friends too!' he wrote on his blog. Visit the blog to find out how the story went.

In the midst of a global economical crisis as well as a climate crisis, South Africa needs an employment plan, rather than a traditional ‘growth path’. Employment should take place where it is needed, not where private for-profit interests deem it ‘possible’. The shortcomings of the New Growth Plan (NGP) show that organised labour and popular movements must continue to engage in the debate and forge an alternative economic policy to neo-liberalism.

Last year, the world spent $1.53 trillion dollars on the military. We can’t afford this price tag. We have too many other priorities that require our money: poverty, climate change, job creation. It’s time for people all over the world to come together and say no to the generals and the military contractors. Visit the website to find out more.

The vast inequalities of wealth on either side of the invisible boundary between the Arab world’s richest and poorest countries - Yemen and Saudi Arabia - have come to define the small town of Haradh in northwestern Yemen, where aid agencies are scrambling to help an increasing number of stranded and ill-treated African migrants. In addition to drugs and arms smuggling, Haradh is becoming increasingly infamous for its role in the trafficking of African migrants in search of work in Saudi Arabia.

Advocacy and investment on behalf of children affected by AIDS have had an impact, and the goal of eliminating mother-to-child transmission of HIV appears within reach. But for every problem solved or advance made, new challenges and constraints have arisen. This Children and AIDS: Fifth Stocktaking Report examines current data, trends and the progress that’s been made - pointing out disparities in access, coverage and outcomes - and calls for concrete actions to benefit the millions of children, women and families worldwide who bear the burden of the epidemic.

In this week's edition of the Emerging Powers News Round-Up, read a comprehensive list of news stories and opinion pieces related to China, India and other emerging powers.