Pensioner Makena Makanga slowly savours a piece of manketti fruit unaware that the tree it came from will soon be chopped down and mulched along with the rest of her forest to make way for a massive agribusiness project.

The mining and port city of Nouadhibou, 465 kilometres from Nouakchott, on Saturday afternoon was to host rallies planned by both the ruling party and the opposition. The Coordination of Democratic Opposition (COD), an umbrella of a dozen political parties, announced it would hold a big rally on Saturday in Nouadhibou, the economic capital of Mauritania.

FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf has called for urgent attention to be directed at Africa’s present food security situation. “In sub-Saharan Africa, since 2009, over 265 million people are malnourished and 30 percent of the population suffers from hunger,” Diouf said in his opening statement for the Ministerial Segment of the 26th session of FAO’s Regional Conference for Africa in Luanda, Angola.

In the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, many families have been battered by war, rape, poverty and a lack of education. However, a humanitarian group says there’s a way to help families not only deal with the issues, but rise above them. The eastern DRC has become synonymous with war and rape. In recent years, various rebel groups have attacked and looted villages, driving civilians into the bush to escape. Attempts by government forces and U.N. troops to defeat them have often made matters worse for civilians, as militias launch retaliatory strikes against villagers.

The number of reported rapes and sexual assaults of Zimbabwean migrants to South Africa is increasing, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has said. "From March 1 to May the number of cases treated was 71," MSF nurse Mashudu Nelufule said from Musina in Limpopo. Of these victims, 45 were female and 26 were male. Fifteen were children. "This is just the tip of the iceberg," said Nelufule. Many victims who were attacked had not sought treatment to prevent the contraction of HIV.

Co-organized and hosted by the Future Agricultures Consortium Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex, Brighton, UK, 6-8 April 2011. The Journal of Peasant Studies, in collaboration with the Land Deal Politics Initiative (LDPI) is organizing an international academic workshop on ‘Global Land Grabbing’ to be held on 6-8 April 2011 at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.

Protesting dock workers in Mauritania Thursday clashed with the riot police in Nouakchott, the nation's capital, leaving many workers injured. The Police used teargas and batons to disperse the workers, who in turn retaliated by throwing sticks and stones.

The month of May started with a great number of activities in support of the Cuban 5. On May 1st hundreds of thousands of Cubans marched on International Workers Day in Havana and other cities. They were joined by hundreds of internationalists in defense of the achievements Cuba has made in the last 52 years and to demand the freedom of the Cuban 5 imprisoned in the United States for 12 years.

Trade unionists are furious after "the suspicious death" and alleged "killing" in custody of Sipho Jele, an activist of the Swaziland Agriculture and Plantation Workers' Union (SAPWU). Unions are the core of opposition in Swaziland. According to South Africa's powerful trade union COSATU, Swazi unionist Sipho Stephen Jele has died in prison in Mbabane under "suspicious" conditions.

“Everything we owned got smashed. We lost everything.”... Getro Nelio was not referring to the devastating earthquake of January 12. The unemployed, 24-year-old Haitian was speaking about losing his home a second time in three months, on this occasion due to the government. Since late March, armed Haitian police have been closing camps and destroying the shelters that quake victims created out of whatever supplies they could scavenge, from cardboard to small strips of tin. U.N. troops sometimes aid in the evictions.

The reputation of South African mining companies operating in southern Africa is no better than that of western or Asian multinationals in the region, many of which have long been accused of unbridled exploitation, says a new report by the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (Osisa). The report — the latest to question South African companies’ social responsibility obligations — says concrete strategies and training are needed to counter negative perceptions of South African miners with regional operations.

UN agency Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has unveiled a major online petition calling on people to get angry at the fact that around a billion people suffer from hunger. ''The 1billionhungry project" uses strong images to illustrate hunger at its worst. Bold language and typography grab attention saying that enough is enough. A yellow whistle works as an icon encouraging people to blow t he whistle against hunger, FAO said in a statement.

US lawmakers called on President Barack Obama Thursday to quickly sign legislation mandating his administration develop a strategy for battling Uganda's rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). "Congress is committed to ending the LRA's reign of terror," said Democratic Senator Russell Feingold, a key author of the measure, which cleared the House of Representatives late Wednesday.

President Jacob Zuma continues to express optimism about the negotiation process in Zimbabwe, telling Parliament this week that ''some achievements have been registered''. Zuma, the Southern African Development Community's chief mediator on Zimbabwe, said that country's political rivals had agreed to establish a human rights commission, an electoral commission and a media commission, and that the commissioners - who were respected by most Zimbabweans - had been sworn in.

Preparations are already underway for the next Common Agricultural Policy set to coincide with the EU’s long term budget in 2014. Calls for a greener approach will likely encounter strong support given the 2004 reform of the payment scheme that put strict limits on the amount of harmful fertilisers that can be used in certain areas.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for “effective collaboration" globally to fight the menace of AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, as well as other diseases saying, "We either win this fight or we lose it". Ban made the call in his message in a new video spotlighting the progress made by the United Nations-backed Global Fund in combating AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.

Adolphe E. Rakotomanga

Alex Free

Martí Olivella

Amady Aly Dieng

Alliance magazine is pleased to announce the launch of its new , which has been specifically created for its coverage of the European Foundation Centre's upcoming conference. blog.

Alliance has assembled an international team of contributors who will be blogging throughout the week, posting regular updates and responses to sessions, as well as providing video interviews and end-of-day summaries. The team includes:

- Akwasi Aidoo (TrustAfrica)
- Gina Anderson (Philanthropy Australia)
- Daniel Ben-Horin and Rebecca Masisak - (Sabanci Foundation)
- Steve Gunderson (Council on Foundations)
- Terry Odendahl and Chet Tchozewski (Global Greengrants Fund)
- Fernando Rossetti (GIFE)

Visit the Alliance blog to find out more about Foundation Week and all the different ways you can follow the coverage.

Not only do women experience a higher rate of unemployment compared to men, but women also make up about two of every three discouraged work seekers. The recent economic crisis has also disproportionately affected women, with the number of females who are no longer economically active rising sharply between 2008 and 2009.

The current global food crisis is a silent tsunami, with billions of people going hungry. Hunger is indeed coming in waves, but not everyone will suffer. The recurrent food crises are making a handful of corporations very rich – even as they put the rest of the planet at risk.