cc As climate change forces economies around the world to cap carbon emissions, investors are pouring cash into the development of biofuels, as a replacement for fossil fuels. Seif Madoffe writes that this has led to ‘climate colonialism’ – ‘a massive land-grabbing scramble in Africa’, as European companies – some with foreign aid money support – rapidly establish enormous carbon monoculture fields in tropical countries. With reference to the Saadani National Park in Tanzania, Madoffe asks whether it is ethical for rich countries in the North to make ‘renewable’ carbon in places where it has serious negative impacts on poor people and tropical forests that will be cut down to create space for ‘carbon fields’ in monoculture plantations.

OI are looking for a consultant to work a total of 30 days over a three – four month period to undertake project work relevant to the OI digital presence. We are preferably looking for someone who can work two days per week. The successful candidate will need to be a highly experienced digital communications professional who is able to come into the post and take over on both digital campaigns work and web managerial tasks with confidence. We particularly need support from a web specialist to help us move forward on some areas of site development.

Sanusha Naidu compiles a list of the top stories on Sino-African relations.

Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative would be will be organising a side event in collaboration with Eastern Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders project and African Policing Civilian Oversight Forum (APCOF) at United Nations Office in Geneva (UNOG) on Extrajudicial Killings in Kenya and Police Reforms in East Africa on the same the day the UN Special rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings Philip Alston is to present a report on Kenya on 3 June 2009 from 2:00 -4:00 PM in room number 25.

The war against HIV/AIDS, which has too often been fought in plush offices and conference centres, needs to be reclaimed by people in developing countries, who are most affected, or it will continue to be a losing battle. This was the message from the Global Citizens Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, organized by international anti-poverty agency ActionAid, and attended by a broad range of organisations in the field of HIV and AIDS to discuss using social mobilization to "repackage" the HIV response.

In September 2008 I was in New York to attend the UN high-level meeting on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the internationally agreed targets to reduce poverty by 2015. Delegate after delegate talked about the need for more funds to eradicate hunger, to cut preventable deaths of infants and pregnant women, to provide clean water and sanitation, to educate girls. The life and dignity of billions of people were at stake, but there was only limited will to back up the talk with money.

Norway said on Monday it was renewing aid to Zimbabwe it cut off in 2000, despite worries about what it called "years of misrule, embezzlement and hyperinflation" under President Robert Mugabe. The Norwegian government, one of the first to renew badly needed aid, said it would give 58 million crowns (5.8 million pounds) via non-governmental organizations, the World Bank and United Nations, avoiding the government financial system.

An expert group meeting on the role of the private sector and civil society organizations in the implementation of NEPAD programmes and projects is underway in Addis Ababa to identify challenges hindering the process. Opening the meeting the Head of the NEPAD Support Section at the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Mr. Emmanuel Nnadozie challenged the team to clearly "articulate policy measures to accelerate their involvement in NEPAD implementation at regional, sub regional and national levels".

In an interview with Mahmood Mamdani, questions the author about his views on the Darfur conflict and his latest book Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, Politics, and the War on Terror. Contending that children and teenagers in the US mobilised under the Save Darfur campaign should be considered as 'child soldiers' supporting a military effort, Mamdani argues that what essentially represents a form of political mobilisation for war has been effectively promoted as a moral crusade. Mamdani will be speaking at an event organised by Pambazuka News in Oxford, UK, on

The Lesbian and Gay Equality Project (LGEP) – formerly the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality - is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation that works towards achieving full legal and social freedom, dignity and equality for lesbian, transgender, gay and bisexual (LGBT) people in South Africa. As part of implementing the strategic plan, the LGEP is now seeking to employ a Senior Programmes Officer.

Aid agencies are far more accountable to disaster affected people than they were a decade ago, says the latest Humanitarian Accountability Report, but problems remain in transparency about interventions, communication with aid recipients, monitoring and reporting on sexual abuse and eliminating corruption

ILGA, the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association publishes the third edition of its report and map on State Sponsored Homophobia based on research by Daniel Ottosson. The report is a collection of legislation criminalising consensual sexual acts between persons of the same sex in private over the age of consent.

Every day, almost everywhere around the world, Transexual, Transgender, Intersex people face violence, abuse, rape, torture and hate crimes. The only motive : they are not conforming to social stereotypes about the way they should appear and behave in society as men or women. Be it out of ignorance, prejudice, fear or hate, Trans people overwhelmingly face daily discrimination, which results in social exclusion, poverty and poor health care, with little prospects for employment.

Since its first edition in 2003, the International Day Against Homophobia has grown larger year by year. With this, May 17 has become the prime moment to remember that homophobia still exists and that we must combat it. The proposed goal for the 2009 Campaign is to make the general population and, more specifically, ethno-cultural communities of all backgrounds more aware of gay and lesbian issues, and sexual diversity. Ethno-cultural communities occupy an increasingly significant place in our societies. What’s more, contributions by these communities are invaluable to our country.

Sanusha Naidu compiles a list of the top stories on Sino-African relations.

Wsftv.net was created especially to showcase videos featuring activities from the World Social Forum Global Day of Action on 26th january 2008. Wsftv.net has also continued to collect and promote videos related to WSF themes and principles charts.

Underlining the importance of South–South cooperation and a new 'look east' policy for the new South African premier, Sanusha Naidu considers the prospects for the country's foreign policy under Jacob Zuma's presidency. With China likely looking to diversify its risk portfolio through providing loans to companies like the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), Naidu highlights South African banks' probable desire to serve as intermediaries between the African continent and India's burgeoning private sector.

cc Dambisa Moyo’s argument that aid is detrimental to Africa’s development has made her a star on the literary and academic circuit, writes Ronald Elly Wanda, but it isn’t true. Moyo’s recent book Dead Aid, Wanda says, makes no ‘correlation between Africa’s development and its accompanying social and historical conditions’ nor does it explore the possibility that ‘exogenous factors have and continue to hamper development in Africa’. If Moyo’s argument that Africa’s culture of dependency is to blame for its woes was true, writes Wanda, the economies of countries which have received virtually no foreign aid – such as Eritrea, Mauritania and Somalia – should have improved notably, which is not the case. The real problem, Wanda argues, is not aid itself but the way in which it is structured and delivered.

cc Mphutlane wa Bofelo comments on the ‘barbarity of wage-slavery’, after confronting working conditions at a hotel in Mauritania, where staff work long hours for meagre wages. This situation prevails in the restaurant and hotel industry throughout the world, writes wa Bofelo, with big South African companies ‘paying their workers as little as three hundred rand per month and some who do not give a salary at all, paying their labourers with the tips from their clients’. Wa Bofelo is disturbed that ‘even Muslim-owned businesses have resorted to this… practice of employing people without a salary’. Halaal certification, wa Bofelo argues, should take into account labour-relations practices, labour rights and human rights culture, not just whether a enterprise is Muslim-owned or has prayer facilities.

Ashoka’s Changemakers, in partnership with the National Geographic Society, have launched an exciting online competition entitled “Geotourism Challenge 2009: Power of Place – Sustaining Future Destinations". Our aim is to search for global innovative ideas in tourism that celebrate the distinct destinations of the world by honoring culture, cherishing history and enhancing the environment. Submit your entry by May 20, 2009 at to take advantage of the funding opportunities and global exposure, while contributing to the next big change!