The mission of Fahamu's Tuliwaza Program is to generate and share knowledge towards a liberated Africa based on the needs and input of African social movements using progressive, feminist and people-centred approaches and methods.

MENA WATCH has been put together to provide people with broad coverage of up-dates and events from nonviolent actions and people’s movements in the Middle East and North Africa. Each day MENA WATCH will collect articles, reports, analysis and links to blogs and video blogs. Visit

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...

As the uprising in Libya enters its second week, Al Jazeera's live blog is indispensable for keeping up with the fast-moving events in that country.

Kenyan mercenaries are among foreign soldiers helping the besieged Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi fight off an uprising, the Daily Nation reports. This was confirmed by Col Gaddafi’s former Chief of Protocol Nouri Al Misrahi in an interview with the Al Jazeera broadcasting network. Mr Misrahi was detailing how Gaddafi had resorted to using mercenaries against his own people after losing control of the Libyan armed forces.

This guide will show you how social media offer researchers an opportunity to improve the way they work. One of the most important things that researchers do is to find, use and disseminate information, and social media offer a range of tools which can facilitate these activities.

The UN refugee agency has said it welcomes the positive indications it has received over the past two days from Tunisia and Egypt that they will maintain open borders for people fleeing the continuing violence in Libya. 'Given the continued reports of violence and human rights abuses inside Libya, it is imperative that people fleeing the country are able to reach safety,' the refugee agency added in a press release. Several hundred people have been killed in the violence that followed anti-government protests last week.

This research report from the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) describes and analyses 12 programmes and interventions from around the world that have sought to alter the sexual attitudes and behaviours of men. It is intended for use by programme managers, service providers, and researchers who are part of IPPF Member Associations and other organisations seeking to develop more effective ways of engaging men and boys and addressing their health needs. In all areas - sexuality and sexual and reproductive health, violence and healthy relationships - the interventions led to behaviour change.

South Africa’s poor ‘are steadily getting angrier and they are preparing for something.' They have little to lose, except the hope that drives their movements, informed by desire for justice for those 'systematically dehumanised in our country today', writes Pedro Alexis Tabensky.

If only silencing social media was as easy as putting political opponents in prison!

Global food prices continue to rise, though not uniformly for all grains. The World Bank’s food price index rose by 15 per cent between October 2010 and January 2011, is 29 per cent above its level a year earlier, and only 3 per cent below its June 2008 peak. A breakdown of the index shows that the grain price index remains 16 per cent below its peak mainly due to relatively stable rice prices, which are significantly lower than in 2008. The increase over the last quarter is driven largely by increases in the price of sugar (20 per cent), fats and oils (22 per cent), wheat (20 per cent), and maize (12 per cent).

Imagine a green wall - 15 kilometres wide, and up to 8,000 kilometres long. Imagine it just south of the Sahara, from Djibouti in the Horn of Africa in the east, all the way across the continent to Dakar, Senegal, in the west. The building of this pan-African Great Green African Wall (GGW) was just approved by an international summit taking place this week in the former German capital Bonn.

Join New Tactics and the International Fellowship of Reconciliation's Women Peacemakers Program (IFOR/WPP) for an online dialogue on the topic 'Joining Forces: Engaging men as allies in gender-sensitive peacebuilding' from 30 March to 5 April 2011. For more information on the dialogue and how to participate, click on the URL provided.

Gaddafi's efforts to seek a host outside of Libya prove fruitless.

Activists gathered at the World Social Forum's Assembly on the Right to Communication issued the following declaration on 11 February.

Almost 10 years after the end of the civil war, Sierra Leone continues to face major challenges of weak governance, widespread poverty and systemic corruption, which undermine sustainable development and long term reconstruction efforts, says the Anti Corruption Resource Centre. Corruption continues to permeate almost every sectors of Sierra Leone’s public life, compromising citizens’ access to basic public services and institutions such as health, education and the police.

Tunisia's interim government on January 22nd lifted licensing restrictions on the importation of books, publications and films, opening the floodgates to foreign media. The constraints were imposed by the Ben Ali regime to control the flow of information. 'Lifting restrictions on importing books is a key demand that has been called on by voices of enlightenment, modernity and the democracy of culture and knowledge in Tunisia,' said Moktar Kalfaoui, a writer for the website Alawan.

Reporters Without Borders says it is deeply concerned about the continuing deterioration in the climate for the media in Côte d’Ivoire. Harassed, threatened and exposed to physical violence, journalists are now finding it virtually impossible to work freely. The press freedom organisation has urged civil society and the two rival camps led by Laurent Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara to respect freedom of expression and the right to news and information.

Tidiane Kassé

Yaya Dia

This International Land Coalition report analyses the illegal/irregular acquisition of land by Kenya’s elites to ascertain the types of land affected, the processes used to acquire land, and the profiles of the perpetrators, as well as to identify the victims and the impacts of land grabbing.