Amidst the spreading global financial crisis, a special debt audit commission released a report charging that much of Ecuador's foreign debt was illegitimate or illegal. The commission recommended that Ecuador default on $3.9 billion in foreign commercial debts--Global Bonds 2012, 2015 and 2030--the result of debts restructured in 2000 after the country's 1999 default.

As one of the lead elements proposed for recommendation to the Financing for Development Review Conference, the Civil Society Forum supports an international summit on financial and economic architecture and global economic governance structures, in 2009. The Forum position challenges the proposal of some governments that the Bretton Woods Institutions (the World Bank and International Monetary Fund) organize an event, as well as moves to concentrate decision-making in the G-20 group of governments.

We have put our popular series of QuickGuides fundraising and management guides on CD and made them available as pdf email downloads in order to slash costs and make them financially available to even the smallest organisations. At the same time we are doing our bit to reduce the use of paper and cut down on air miles from sending paper Guides around the world. Email downloads are even less expensive than the same product on CD.

For the third year in a row, Radio 1812 will bring together migrant groups and radios from around the world to celebrate International Migrants Day on 18th December. Last year, over 150 radio stations produced, broadcasted and shared programmes on migration, turning the event into a successful opportunity to make migrants’ voices heard across the world.

AIDS Outlook is a new report from UNAIDS that provides perspectives on some of the most pressing issues that will confront policymakers and leaders as they respond to the challenges presented by AIDS in 2009. In many ways the year ahead will be a year of transition—and acceleration. Many countries are reviewing their national strategies on AIDS. Even though political commitment for AIDS is at an all-time high, recent developments in the financial world will test the resilience of many.

This year marks the 20th Anniversary of World AIDS Day. Looking back over the last 20 years, we see there has been progress — there is not only greater awareness of the gender dimensions of HIV and AIDS but also greater commitment to addressing these. But today, let us instead look forward, to what the world could look like 20 years from now, if we are able to deliver on these commitments. We would then have cause not just for commemoration but also for celebration.

By 1980 AIDS had spread to five continents around the world. Twenty eight years on there is still no cure although many people claim to have one. Thousands of people spend their life savings on ‘Quack doctors’ each year, with the belief that they can be cured. December 1st 2008 marks the 20th anniversary of World AIDS day. Runtime: 30 minutes.

As we commemorate the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day, we pay tribute to the leaders in communities and nations who have promoted greater awareness and action to address the AIDS pandemic. If there is one lesson learned over the years, it is that success in responding to the HIV epidemic requires sustained leadership, community engagement and the involvement of people living with HIV.

1 December 2008 marks the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day. Since 1988, efforts made to respond to the epidemic have produced positive results, however, the latest UNAIDS report on the global AIDS epidemic indicates that the epidemic is not yet over in any part of the world. Together with its partners, the World AIDS Campaign set this year’s theme for World AIDS Day as “Lead – Empower – Deliver”, building on last year’s theme of “Take the Lead”.

Stephen Marks does a roundup of this week's China-related news from Africa and around the world.

In response to , I just can't believe how this things happen in modern world. That Western worlds preach democracy, human rights but do atrocities to other people is hypocrisy. Anyways i also blame those Africans that don't see the interest of their country, region, and people.

How can company own 75% of anything without challenge from anyone? That is is really sad.

The International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) hosted its 24th world conference in Vienna, Austria on 3 to 6 November 2008. This assembly, which was attended by more than 80 member countries of the world aimed to, among other objectives, create and strengthen networks between activists campaigning in all regions of the world.

SOUTH Africa's cabinet says it will withhold $28m of agricultural aid to neighbouring Zimbabwe until a representative government is in place. South Africa's cabinet said the impasse was creating a humanitarian crisis. The current outbreak of cholera was a clear indication that Zimbabweans were becoming "victims of their leaders' lack of political will", it said.

The Human Rights Advocates Program (HRAP) is a capacity building program designed to strengthen the skills, knowledge, and networks of proven human rights defenders from the Global South and marginalized communities in the United States.

Stephen Marks does a roundup of China-related news for Africa and around the world.

cc. The time when Canada's presence on the African continent was primarily characterised by numerous missionaries and food donations is well and truly over! In countries such as Congo, Mali and Tanzania, when it is learned that you are from Canada, you are immediately asked if you work for the ‘mining’, a perception entirely consistent with reality. Canada is now a superpower in the African mining sector, a position the country intends to maintain and develop using all means at its disposal.

The salient presence of Canadian mining is relatively new in Africa and is rooted principally in the programmes of liberalisation of the sector from the early 1990s. These programmes have been driven by the World Bank, which from 1992(1) had begun defining the extractive sector as the main engine of development for many countries.(2) The privatisation of state enterprise – promoted as a means of encouraging the entry of foreign investment – has opened the door to foreign companies. At the head of this development, especially with regard to the smaller exploration companies known as ‘juniors’, are Canadian companies. These companies have an immense commercial presence in Canada: of the 1,223 mining companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, the largest in the country, more than 1,000 are juniors!(3)

A HUGE EXPANSION

Currently, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources Canada (NRC), only the Republic of South Africa, with over 35% of assets and investments, is just ahead of Canada in the African mining industry. But with South Africa’s assets concentrated on its own territory, Canada dominates the rest of the continent.

The data compiled by the NRC demonstrates the speed with which the value of Canadian mining assets in Africa has grown over the last twenty years: at US$ 233 million in 1989, this figure grew to $635 million in 1995, and $2.8 billion in 2001, growing further to $6.08 billion in 2005, and $14.7 billion in 2007.(4) This total value is estimated to reach $21 billion by 2010.
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(1) World Bank, Strategy for African Mining, World Bank Technical Paper no. 181, Africa Technical Department Series, Mining Unit, Industry ands Energy Division, Washington D.C., World Bank, 1992
(2) For a deeper analysis of the World Bank's political orientation, please consult the work of the Groupe de recherche sur les activités minières en Afrique (GRAMA) at the University of Québec in Montréal (UQAM).
(3) Without exception, the majority of the statistics mentioned in this article come from the Ministry of Natural Resources Canada (NRC) and have been taken from Fode-Moussa Keita, 'Les sociétés minières canadiennes d’exploration et de développement du secteur de l’or; les impacts de leurs activités en Afrique de l’Ouest', political science thesis at the University of Québec in Montréal (UQAM).
(4) September 2008 estimate.
(5) Fode-Moussa Keita, op. cit. p. 123.
(6) Ibid., p. 125.
(7) Paula Butler, 'Canada’s 21st Century Colonial Interests in the "Good Governance" of African Minerals', 2003, pp 24-30.
(8)

With vivid examples of the unapologetically exploitative approach of multinational mining corporations in Tanzania, Evans Rubara highlights some of the glaring malpractice of rapacious foreign companies operating on Tanzanian soil. In a sector supported by lax tax collection by the country’s government and whose only concern is for profit, companies such as Barrick Gold Corporation have much to answer for in the face of widespread environmental degradation, the displacement and forcible removal of local people, and criminalisation of local mining activities. Drawing on the information collected within damning reports such as A Golden Opportunity?, Rubara documents the extent to which mining companies operate with impunity in Tanzania, an impunity giving rise to sustained abuse of local people’s rights and wholesale stealing of national resources.

Mikhael Missakabo reveals the extent to which Canadian mining companies are benefiting from instability and weak institutions in the Democratic Republic of Congo to reap huge profits while paying little attention to the ecological and human cost of their actions. These companies have become adept at hedging their bets in the ongoing conflict and negotiating contracts that literally impoverish the host country. All that remains in their wake is environmental and economic and social ruin.

In late 2006 South Africa imposed quotas on the importation of selected clothing lines from China. In the past 18 months tralac has been monitoring on a periodic basis, the changes in the selected quota imports and making preliminary assessments as to whether they may be indicating that they are meeting their specific goal of slowing the trade flows of clothing imports from China.

The current question on most peoples lips within South Africa's clothing industry is will the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) extend the quotas on Chinese apparel and textiles that are due to end this year? However, I feel extension or no extension will make very little difference to the economics of this industry sector. Admittedly, if the quotas do end we may see a sudden influx of imports from China as they offer price incentives to our clothing importers in order to recapture market share.