A recent government directive forbidding unqualified teachers - estimated to comprise as much as 60 percent of the staff complement at rural schools - is causing severe disruptions to education. "It is surprising that the government has chosen to stop temporary teachers from resuming duty this [third] term, when it is well known that they form the bulk of teaching staff in rural areas," said Janet Chikawa, a teacher at a secondary school in Seke district, about 50 km south of the capital, Harare.

Just days before the UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG) summit, Andrew Mitchell, the UK’s International Development Secretary, announced a change in direction, putting women and children at the centre of its aid policy. This shift will double the number of female and newborn lives saved by 2015, Mitchell will tell the assembled heads of state in New York on 20-22 September.

The Government of Uganda is violating the Article 12 (5) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples rights, by resorting on mass expulsions of non-nationals (Rwandan Refugees) on the basis of nationality and ethnicity. In addition of refoulement; it is very substantial to note that the ultimatums, verbal abuse, deadlines, anti-Rwandan refugee rhetoric, destruction of crops and huts, restriction of access to humanitarian assistance, bars on granting of refugee status, and starvation are some of tactics that are currently used by the Government of Uganda (GoU) to induce and force us to return to Rwanda.

In absence of evidence, Government Minister of Disaster Preparedness, Relief and Refugees, Prof. Tarsis KABWEGYERE, continues to unfoundedly accuse Rwandan Refugees to be criminals (Reuters, Uganda Defends Deportation of Rwandan Refugees,July 20, 2010). Rwandan refugees are always treated as criminals who are running away from justice. This has resulted into perpetuated ethnic stereotypes and it is gradually becoming an excuse for Ugandan authorities to violate our rights. In the other hand, it has been a pretense always advanced by Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) to genocidal massacre Hutu refugees.

Southern African countries have some of the world's worst income distribution, but can often afford social transfers, which have proved an efficient means of reducing the number of poor, regional experts said at a two-day meeting in Pretoria, South Africa. "Money can always be found – where there is political will there is always a way," said Nicholas Freeland, director of the Johannesburg-based Regional Hunger and Vulnerability Programme (RHVP) funded by the UK and Australian governments, and one of the co-hosts of the meeting.

The Islamist insurgency in Somalia has had a spillover effect on security in the northeast of neighbouring Kenya, affecting livelihoods and the delivery of services, say residents and officials. The worst crimes reported in the region recently include killings, carjackings and abductions – including, in 2009, of aid workers and, in 2008, of two nuns. Insecurity in the borderlands has led thousands of livestock herders to abandon their traditional grazing land, say locals.

It is mid-morning and the workday is underway. People are moving in all directions, going about their daily chores. But it is mostly women who move the fastest, many of them carrying water through the impoverished and overcrowded streets. In Mgona, on the outskirts of Lilongwe, most men have ignored the many problems faced by the community, chief amongst them issues of waterborne disease.

The third African meeting on Solidarity with Cuba was held in Luanda, Angola, 11-12 September, to consolidate the friendship between the African and Cuban people and contribute to strengthening African solidarity towards the Caribbean island nation. The general secretary of the Association of Angola/Cuba Friendship, Fernando Jaime, told the Angolan News Agency (ANGOP) that the event aimed to consider the difficult financial situation in Cuba due to the economic blockage imposed over the past 50 years by the US.

The Tipping Point Film Fund launches its very own Film Club at The Lexi Cinema in Kensal Rise on Monday 20 September with a screening of Stephanie Black’s award-winning ‘Life and Debt‘. The film, which starts at 7.15pm, will be followed by a panel discussion and includes guest speaker, broadcaster and academic, Dr Robert Beckford.

Experts worry that African governments are failing to take the threat of HIV seriously enough by not dedicating enough of their resources to prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) efforts. For Graça Machel, Chair of the Campaign to End Pediatric AIDS (CEPA) Council, the struggle to stop the spread of the disease is a matter of inequality.

East African countries will face more devastating food crises in future unless governments take action now, international aid agency Oxfam warned Thursday in a new report aimed at tackling world hunger within the next five years.

The heads of the UN International Labour Organization (ILO) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have called for a broad global commitment to policies that focus on creating jobs to reverse the economic downturn be devilling the world. The call was made at a conference in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, hosted by the country's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, and co-sponsored by the IMF and the ILO.

The head of the United Nations agency entrusted with defending press freedom has urged Ugandan authorities to launch a full investigation into this week’s murder of a radio news presenter, the second journalist

Ahead of the United Nations Summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on 20-22 September 2010, UNAIDS today released data on progress towards MDG 6 and called for leveraging the AIDS response to support all MDGs. The data shows that countries with the largest epidemics in Africa—Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe—are leading the drop in new HIV infections. Between 2001 and 2009, 22 countries in sub-Saharan Africa have seen a decline of more than 25% in new HIV infections. The number of new HIV infections is steadily falling or stabilising in most parts of the world.

In this week's emerging powers new roundup, Fahamu Emerging Powers in Africa Programme launches its newsletter, AfDB to consider more funding for South Africa's Eskom, is land-grabbing, a new form of sharecropping?, China makes inroads into Zim bank sector, and India ups training slots for Africans.

"Even if globally the poverty rate is reduced by half by 2015, as the latest United Nations progress report on the MDGs [Millennium Development Goals] suggests, about one billion people will still be mired in extreme poverty by 2015. ... The report argues that current approaches to poverty often ignore its root causes, and consequently do not follow through the causal sequence. Rather, they focus on measuring things that people lack to the detriment of understanding why they lack them." - UNRISD Report on Combating Poverty and Inequality, September 2010

Reporters Without Borders condemns the jamming of some of the programmes of Short Wave Radio Africa (SWRA), a London-based radio station staffed by Zimbabwean exile journalists that broadcasts to Zimbabwe. Various sources said they thought Zimbabwe’s Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) was responsible for the interference, which began on 1 September.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned the murder of Prime Radio anchorman, Dickson Ssentongo, who was severely beaten by unknown assailants and abandoned to die in a cassava plantation in Mukono District some 35km from the capital Kampala on Monday, 13 September 2010. 'The killing of Dickson Ssentongo signals a serious deterioration of the security of journalists and the Ugandan Government must reassure journalists and the public in general that the perpetrators of this heinous crime will be apprehended and brought to justice very quickly.'

Andrew Adam is 12 years old, and a fisherman by trade. In Malawi’s southern district of Zomba, Lake Chilwa is the lifeblood of its villagers. Since Adam left school more than a year ago, he has been working as a bila boy – a worker who dives underwater and pulls the nets in.

Poets from around South Africa, Africa and the world will descend on Durban for an exhilarating rollercoaster of words, rhythms and ideas at the 14th Poetry Africa international poetry festival, which takes place from 4 to 9 October. Organised by the Centre for Creative Arts (University of KwaZulu-Natal), and with principal support from the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund, Poetry Africa’s exciting week-long programme is preceded by a three-stop Poetry Africa tour to Cape Town, Zimbabwe and Malawi.

The IIE Scholar Rescue Fund (SRF) is pleased to announce a call for applications for threatened academics whose lives and work are in danger in their home countries. Fellowships support temporary academic positions at safe universities and colleges anywhere in the world. Professors, researchers, and lecturers from any country or field may apply. Please refer eligible candidates and forward this announcement to any academic colleagues who may be interested.