The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has appealed for increased local and international support for children in strife-torn Somalia, where basic services such as education, health, nutrition and clean water are limited as a result of two decades of conflict. “Somali communities, families, parents, local administrations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), donors and international organizations should have a collective responsibility to put the best interests of the child first,” said UNICEF’s representative in Somalia, Rozanne Chorlton.

The Southern Africa Resource Watch organized a five day training workshop for SADC journalists at Fatmols Executive Lodge in Ndola, Zambia, from 9-14 May 2010. The training focused on reporting extractive industries and tackled a wide range of issues relating to this subject: policy and regulatory issues on SADC’s mining industry, SADC’s economic development debates, media and development in SADC, understanding corporate social responsibility in SADC mining, issues and debates on African forestry, reporting and writing stories on extractive industries, and promoting purpose-driven journalism in African media.

Kenyan Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta presented the national budget for the 2010-2011 financial year to parliament on 10 June. The budget sees a near doubling of past allocations for HIV treatment, earmarking Ksh. 900 million (US$ 11.25 million) for antiretroviral treatment. Earlier this year UNAIDS Executive Director, Michel Sidibé jointly launched the country’s National AIDS Strategic Plan (2010- 2013) with the Prime Minister, Right Honorable Raila Odinga.

The year is 2010 and the destination is Johannesburg in South Africa. A group of women monopolise the backseat of a commuter transborder omnibus covering themselves with thick blankets despite the warm weather and at every police checkpoint, they pile more blankets, jackets and jerseys over their legs. Two hours later with Polokwane in sight, their thighs part to reveal the peeping faces of three young children smothered beneath the layers of wool, blankets and nylon – they last resurfaced five hours before for a toilet break along the Masvingo highway, long before the Beitbridge border.

The top United Nations envoy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has paid tribute to a group of Senegalese blue helmets who are the first batch of peacekeepers to leave the country in line with the recent decision by the Security Council to alter the UN mission there.The Council last month agreed to transform the UN peacekeeping mission in DRC (MONUC) into a stabilization mission in the coming weeks, authorizing the withdrawal of up to 2,000 UN military personnel – from an existing strength of 19,815 – by 30 June from areas where security has improved enough to allow their removal.

A circle of women dance to the beat of drums in the morning sun, a crowd of adults and children watching from under tall, leafy trees. After a lengthy roll of beats, the dancing stops and the circle opens to welcome visitors – a group of water-and-sanitation experts.

What’s the best way of investing in the developing world? One organization is empowering families by investing in mothers. Hands to Hearts International (HHI) is a non-profit organization that seeks to provide simple and cost-effective programs with tools for women, caregivers, and organizations to improve the early development of children surviving in orphanages, refugee camps, and severely impoverished or conflict-ridden communities.

In Africa’s Sahel region, even in years of adequate rainfall food insecurity is usually high. Now, as the region enters the precarious “lean season” (the period between harvests that lasts from May to August), the problem is expected to get worse. In recent months, rains have been erratic and scarce, in turn significantly diminishing the crops produced by farmers. Entire communities are without sufficient food reserves to survive until the next harvests in September.

Following a violent attack on Emmanuel Lubala Mugisho, President of leading Congolese human rights organisation Heritiers de la Justice, Christian Aid is appealing to the international community for increased protection for human rights activists and greater support to the Congolese authorities to bring perpetrators to justice and end the cycle of violence.

At long last, soccer fans, the moment is here. On Friday, South Africa took the field against Mexico, the World Cup was officially underway. Nothing attracts the global gaze quite like it. Nothing creates such an undeniably electric atmosphere with enough energy to put British Petroleum, Exxon/Mobil and Chevron out of business for good. And finally, after 80 years, the World Cup has come to Africa.

An estimated 10,000 peasants gathered for a massive march in Central Haiti on June 4, 2010, to protest what has been described as “the next earthquake for Haiti” – a donation of 475 tons of hybrid corn seeds and vegetable seeds by the US-based agribusiness giant Monsanto, in partnership with USAID. While this move comes at a time of dire need in Haiti, many feel it will undermine rather than bolster the country’s food security.

FIAN’s Annual Report highlights both the far reaching and localized advances in the field of economic, social and cultural rights that FIAN, and its Sections and Co-ordinations, have helped make possible. This year’s report gives an overview of the main activities for each of FIAN’s target areas in 2009: access to land and natural resources, the right to water, extraterritorial States’ obligations, justiciability of the right to food, monitoring States’ right to food policies, and the gender perspective related to the right to food. Also included is a summation of FIAN’s highly successful European campaign for the right to food, and the high points of each of FIAN’s worldwide Sections and Co-ordinations.

From May 24 to May 28, JINN traveled to Houston for a week of events anchored by Chevron's Annual General Meeting and filled with activities with the True Cost of Chevron coalition. In an act symbolic of the way Chevron treats local communities, Chevron illegally barred JINN’s three-person delegation from entering the the company's Annual General meeting in Houston. At this time, we are exploring our legal options and will keep you updated on actions to ensure that community voices can be heard by the Board and shareholders in the future.

Security stewards angered over low pay expanded their strike Tuesday to five of the World Cup's 10 stadiums, forcing police to assume their duties in a bitter counterpoint to the generally festive tournament. South African Police Services said it deployed about 1,000 extra officers in and around Johannesburg's Ellis Park to guarantee security for the night match between Brazil, one of tournament favorites, and North Korea.

The recent arrest of an American lawyer by the heavy-handed Rwandan government has human rights implications for the resource war in neighboring eastern Congo. Eve Ensler, who wrote "The Vagina Monologues" and is now a major advocate for Congolese women suffering sexual violence, says the Rwandan government is part of the problem when it comes to ending the violence against women.

The participants of the an international conference on “Women’s Leadership Conference” held in Lusaka at the Inter-Continental Hotel, 7-9 June 2010, have expressed dismay and anger at the unprofessional and unacceptable behaviour of the Second in Command of the Zambian Police for Lusaka Province (Mr. Chushi) for harassing and embarrassing a co-participant, Ms Jean Kapata, in the dining room at lunch hour on 8 June, on the pretext that she was allegedly holding an ‘illegal meeting’ of the Patriotic Front (PF) at the same hotel.

Asian workers who stitch nearly all the world's soccer balls have seen little improvement in lives dominated by poverty, a report said days before the start of the World Cup tonight. Thirteen years ago companies such as adidas and Nike joined labour and development organisations to end the use of an estimated 7000 children to stitch soccer balls. However, ''child labour continues to exist'' in the three main ball-making countries - Pakistan, China and India - the report by the International Labour Rights Forum said.

The Prize Committee met to discuss the award of the 2010 Mo Ibrahim Prize. Following its deliberations, the Prize Committee informed the Board of the Foundation that it had not selected a winner. Last year the Prize Committee announced that it had considered some credible candidates, but after in depth review could not select a winner. This year the Prize Committee told the Board that there had been no new candidates or new developments and that therefore no selection of a winner had been made.

The result of the recent elections in Ethiopia might have come as a shock to many. What lies behind the near total defeat of opposition parties in the recent elections is the combination of reduced trust in and decimated opposition at the political landscape. It is a logical extension of political developments since 2005

The impact HIV/AIDS has on the lives of the victims and the society as a whole brings in to question the significant factors responsible for the transmission of the epidemic, writes Nyiko Maluleke. The increased spread of HIV/AIDS has been identified to be due to a variety of physical, economic and socio-cultural factors. While the impact of these factors has been widely studied, the impact conflict has on the transmission of HIV/AIDS has not been given much attention; therefore the brief seeks to highlight the plight of HIV transmission through sexual violence during conflict time.