Graca Machel, president of the Foundation for Community Development of South Africa has said the most important revolution that African women have to get involved in is the economic one. Machel also said women have to be agents and builders of peace in their respective countries.

Issue one of the 2011 Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Southern Africa newsletter is now available. Visit their page to read the newsletter and to sign up for forthcoming editions.

Wesley Kipkoech*, 21, may be illiterate and speak only his native Ndorobo tongue, but he understands all too well that if he does not have regular access to his HIV medication, he is likely to die. Kipkoech is one of hundreds of internally displaced people living on the edges of the Mau Forest Complex in Kenya's Rift Valley Province after the government began evicting them in 2009, in a bid to rehabilitate the forest after decades of farming, charcoal burning and other harmful activities.

Unconfirmed reports from sources in Libya - where reliable information is notoriously difficult to come by - suggested more than 60 people died in violence in the capital on 21 February. Network Al-Jazeera also claimed at least one government building had been torched in Tripoli, a report that also could not be independently verified. Unconfirmed reports from sources in Libya suggested more than 60 people died in violence in the capital on 21 February. Network Al-Jazeera also claimed at least one government building had been torched in Tripoli, a report that also could not be independently verified.

The London Guardian has established an interactive map that syncs with Twitter feeds relevant to protests currently prevalent in the region. The page makes it possible to click on a region, following which the relevant Tweets for that country show up.

Multiple pre-dawn explosions rocked opposition offices in oil-rich southern Nigeria, the latest in a wave of attacks ahead of April elections, police and the party said Monday (21 February). The explosions went off at the Labour Party campaign offices in Bayelsa, President Goodluck Jonathan’s home state.

Recently released global data by UNAids points to enormous progress in preventing and treating HIV. More people than ever before now live with HIV as a chronic disease, rather than dying from it, because they are getting antiretroviral treatment. Kenya is a good example. Over the past year, the number of people taking the drugs has risen by 25 per cent. But a central issue has been absent from the debate. The optimistic ?gures gloss over the enormous pain su?ered by millions of HIV patients - needless su?ering that can be prevented.

Despite opposition from Ethiopia's president and environmental authorities, a rainforest area providing livelihood to an indigenous people has been leased out to make tea plantations. In a rare move, the Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia (SMNE) has been able to acquire government documents describing the struggle of the Mazenger and other indigenous people to protect their ancient forest-covered lands along tributaries to the White Nile.

Women writers are coming into their own in African contemporary literature, dominating the shortlist - with nine out of 12 - for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2011 for best book and best first book from Africa. According to South Africa-based editor and writer Helen Moffet, a new generation of African women writers is dabbling in a gamut of subjects like chick lit for the educated working women, thrillers, crime, humour, women's issues and social realities.

Murdered gay rights activist David Kato was mocked at a UN-backed debate on Uganda's anti-homosexuality bill, according to a US diplomat in Kampala in a leaked American embassy cable. The diplomat said Kato, who was bludgeoned to death near his home in the capital, Kampala, last month, delivered a well-written speech against the bill, but his words were almost inaudible due to 'his evident nervousness'. Throughout his talk a member of the Ugandan Human Rights Commission 'openly joked and snickered' with supporters of the bill, the diplomat claimed in the cable.

'We the undersigned condemn in the strongest possible terms the murder of Mr David Kato, the Ugandan gay rights campaigner. We wish to state emphatically that homosexuality is neither a sin nor a social or cultural construct. It is a biological given. Homosexuals are human beings like everybody else. Scientific research has been helpful in clearing the fog of ignorance entrenched by some religious texts in regards to homosexuality. Our opinions of homosexuality must change for the better, just as our opinion of slavery has changed, even though it was endorsed by those same religious texts. All violence against gays and people deemed to be gay in Africa must cease forthwith.'

President Barack Obama’s proposed budget for fiscal 2012 includes sizable increases in funding for development, health, military and anti-narcotics initiatives in East Africa, reports The East African. The contrast between overall austerity and proposed funding increases for Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda highlights the priority the White House assigns to a sub-region deemed of strategic importance to the United States. All the East African countries are in line for significant increases in health programmes that include anti-Aids efforts.

African Union (AU) election observers say Uganda's presidential poll suffered from several shortcomings, while two losing candidates are calling for Egypt-style protests. Two of the losing presidential candidates on Monday threatened to mobilise mass protests against the government. Museveni said last week he would jail anyone who tried to spark Egypt-style unrest.

This page shows an infographic that maps out Twitter accounts active during the Egyptian revolution. 'Someday in the near future, the chart you see below might be looked at as a hero's roll call - the same way that war heroes are listed at the sites of famous battles. Or, it might simply be useful to social scientists, hoping to understand the role Twitter played in bringing about the end of Hosni Mubarak's 30-year dictatorship. Either way, it's an astounding document of a once-in-a-lifetime event,' says the article posted with the page.

Egypt could soon be looking for a new economic model – one that will be different from the traditional system that has been promoted for years by international financial institutions such as the World Bank, the IMF, and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), under the reign of ousted president Hosni Mubarak. Since the mid 1980’s, the World Bank, the IMF, and USAID have sought to encourage policies that limit the role of government in the economy, cut budget deficits, and give more influence to the private sector and corporations.

There is growing interest in the role that restorative justice can play in addressing mass atrocities. This UNICEF paper describes the associated principles and practices within juvenile justice systems and in societies emerging from mass violence. It also examines the meaning, opportunities and limitations of restorative justice in transitional societies, particularly in relation to the needs of young victims and offenders.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, one of Africa's longest serving leaders, won election to a fourth term in office by a huge margin on Sunday but the opposition rejected the outcome. Electoral commission results handed Museveni 68 per cent of the vote against challenger Kizza Besigye's 26 per cent.

IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) travelling to Southern Sudan before and after the recent referendum on independence have faced difficulties during and after their journey. Between November 2010 and January 2011, around 200,000 Southern Sudanese IDPs living in the north returned to the south. There have been various reports of convoys of returning southerners being attacked in the disputed region of Abyei during and in the weeks following the January referendum, according to some reports by Misseriya tribal militias loyal to the government in Khartoum.

Environmental activists are hopeful that negotiations at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to curb fisheries subsidies, especially those on fuel, can produce a deal that will help end overfishing. Agreement would not only help reverse the alarming depletion of global fish stocks and contribute to a broader trade deal in the WTO’s long-running Doha round, but would provide a template for tackling global problems such as climate change that have a trade dimension.

Twenty four per cent of adults living in urban centres are now using the internet, according to the latest Zimbabwe All Media Products and Services Survey (ZAMPS). The figure represents a two per cent increase in the last three months alone.