Scarcity of jobs is worsening gender inequalities in sub-Saharan Africa, locking more women out of formal government and private sector appointments, a new World Bank survey shows. The report shows that women in employment is at under 40 per cent in Kenya, behind countries like Burkina Faso, Burundi, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea and Sierra Leone where women engagement is over 80 per cent. Experts said the widening gender gap at the workplace in Kenya put policy makers in a dilemma as it threatens to shutter economic gains made over the past few years as women are locked out of income generating activities.

There are many myths around the abuse of social grants. In his article 'Social grants: Going beyond basic needs' David Neves from the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies shows how social grants not only provide a safety net, but also act as a spring board for all sorts of other unseen opportunities, including small-scale entrepeneurship. Grants are often invested in the future, in ways that meet the needs and constraints of the poor - often either in building or upgrading housing or in their children and grandchildren's education and nutrition.

Results from a referendum in Niger show more than 90 per cent of voters backed a new constitution designed to return the country to civilian rule. The constitution was put forward by the junta leaders who came to power in a coup which ousted ex-President Mamadou Tandja in February.

In its quest to improve its image, Egypt's government recently hired the major UK public relations firm Bell Pottinger to better deliver its message to an international audience. The decision to seek PR help is due to the government's discontent over the way Egypt's regime is portrayed in Western media. According to Heba Morayef, a Human Rights Watch researcher on Egypt and Libya, there has been an increase in the number of arrests of dissidents, crackdown on peaceful demonstrations, and an increase in the number of arrests due to religious beliefs.

Dr Boubacar D. Badiane

Dani W. Nabudere

Claude Ribbe

While it should never be the case that a high percentage of the Haitian population remains living in refugee camps ten months after the earthquake, camp residents have managed to create in a few of those camps a small-scale model of the type of future society that many would like to see. Their camps have achieved democratic participation by community members, autonomy from foreign authority, a focus on meeting the needs of all, dignified living conditions, respect for rights, creativity, and a commitment to gender equity.

Freelance journalists Andrison Manyere and Nkosana Dhlamini were arrested and detained overnight at Waterfalls police station in Harare on 30 October 2010 while covering a constitutional information gathering meeting, reports the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA). Manyere and Dhlamini were arrested together with Diana Nyikadzino, Phineas Natarika and Eric Murayi during the meeting held at St John Retreat in Harare South. The five were arrested in the melee of scuffle that ensued after Dhlamini tried to interview some of the participants at the meeting.

Delays in resettling hundreds of people evicted from the Mau Forest Complex in Kenya’s Rift Valley region have forced the displaced to endure harsh camp conditions without proper health and sanitation facilities, sources said. 'I used to comfortably live in a three-bedroom house before I was evicted; now I share a small tent with my large family. I worked hard on my 2ha piece of land and made sure my family was well-fed and clothed,' Joseph Tuwei told IRIN at Keringet camp in Molo District.

The European Union has set up a fund to promote partnerships between public water supply systems in Europe and corresponding utilities in subsaharan Africa. Seasoned observers disagree over whether or not this represents a definitive break with the old strategy of privatisation. Up to 10 years ago, our governments and economic elites were pushing the idea that drinking water supplies could not be expanded without private sector participation. Water privatisation was stubbornly opposed.

The Moroccan government has suspended all operations by the pan-Arab television network Al-Jazeera in the country for allegedly failing to follow the 'rules of serious and responsible journalism'. The Qatar-based network condemned the decision and said its editorial guidelines would not be affected by the closure of its bureau in Rabat and the withdrawal of accreditation for its local staff.

A new round of talks on the Western Sahara will aim to break an impasse over the future of the disputed North African territory, the UN says. The meeting of Western Sahara's independent movement Polisario Front and Moroccan officials has been scheduled for next week in New York.

In her recent book on the history of Columbia’s death squads, Jasmin Hristov has argued that neoliberalism needs the squads, and the resulting inequality would have been impossible to maintain without them. Hristov notes that death squad violence 'is purposefully directed towards sectors of society that stand in the way of the ruling class’s efforts to maintain economic dominance and acquire more resources to make even more profit. The upper classes so fear political organising among the poor, who could mount a formidable opposition to the status quo if allowed to organise unrestrained by state repression.' In the wake of political assassinations in South African provinces, Jane Duncan, the Highway Africa Chair of Media and Information Society at Rhodes University, looks at how serious the problem is.

Luíz Araújo

Rafael Marques de Moraes

Chief Sumani Amidu of Kpachaa village in northern Ghana, has sat by as over half of his 100 villagers abandon him to seek new jobs and sources of food for their families. Three years ago the chief sold the village land for GH¢100 for a promise that never came. Now forced to farm himself to keep the children of the village alive, each morning on his 40-minute walk to the village’s last farm ing plot, he passes his old farmland now owned by a Norwegian biofuel company.

Indian buyers who visited the country last week to seal diamond deals have pledged to lobby their government to endorse Zimbabwe's gems ahead of the Kimberley Process meeting scheduled for Israel early next month. Surat Rough Diamond Sourcing India Limited said it would put its weight behind Zimbabwe as the KP meets in Jerusalem, Israel next Monday to determine whether Zimbabwe should be allowed sell its diamonds from Marange.

KwaZulu-Natal Province remains the epicentre of South Africa’s HIV epidemic but new research reveals that nearly a third of hospitals surveyed had not started a single HIV-positive infant on antiretroviral treatment in several years. The research, presented at this week’s Orphaned and Vulnerable Children (OVC) in Africa Conference in Johannesburg, was conducted by the University of the Witwatersrand’s Maternal, Adolescent and Child Health (MatCH) Unit, with the government.

The African Union (AU) Tuesday called Sunday's presidential election in Cote d'Ivoire a historical breakthrough, and urged the country's leading politicians to stay calm and accept the poll results without resorting to violence. 'This is certainly a historic vote, which marks a crucial step in the process for a way out of the crisis in Cote d'Ivoire,' said Commission Chairperson, Jean Ping. Nearly six million Ivorians went to the polls for the first time in several years to elect a president to run their country.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has sentenced a Rwandan businessman to 30 years in jail for his part in the bulldozing of a church which killed around 2,000 ethnic Tutsis during the 1994 genocide. The tribunal, backed by the United Nations, found Gaspard Kanyarukiga guilty of genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity.

US$5,000 has been awarded from the Take Back the Tech! Fund to four outstanding South African Women’s organisations that are set to make an impact on the high levels of violence against women in the country. The four different projects will work with young black women in townships, black lesbians, rural para-legals and survivors of violence to increase awareness, reporting of incidents, and help survivors of violence on their healing journey.

Reporting to the Head of International Grants and managing a small team, you’ll lead on the delivery of our trade and climate change programme strategies, and the development of our social investment strategy as well as playing a critical role in strengthening corporate and other relationships that will enable us to fulfill our mission.