The Congolese government, in the wake of the Carter Center press release on March 10, 2008 and at the end of a five-day mining conference in the Congo, published the final report of the mining contract review, which was initiated in April 2007. The report indicated that the government launched the review process to make certain that Congo's mineral wealth benefit the people of the Congo. In order to achieve this goal the government had to review 61 existing mining contracts and establish a process for rectifying the abusive contracts. Deputy Mines Minister Victor Kasongo noted "that none of the contracts met international standards of contracts."

China wants up to 40 percent of its oil and gas imports to come from Africa in the next 5-10 years, a Chinese industry official has said. "We wish to increase the imports, the oil and gas from Africa from 35 to 40 percent in the next five to 10 years," Zhiming Zhao, executive president of China Petroleum and Petro-Chemical Industry Association told reporters at an energy conference in Cape Town.

Building an appropriate architecture of global institutions that are well positioned, rational, and well-governed remains a key political challenge, said south African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel on Tuesday. Manuel indicated that "poorer" countries needed a greater voice in these institutions.

Thank you for an insightful brief [http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/46555]. As far as our criticism of the report's apparent "lack of a gender analysis, and narratives (not just descriptions) of how mining operations are devastating lives in local communities" is concerned, I think we should consider the report's disclaimer below and consult its accompanying report: "There are several further concerns about the impact of the mines on local people - notable in the area of human rights, displacement to make way for the mines and environmental pollution.

These issues lie beyond the scope of this report, which focuses on tax and economic impacts, and are instead considered in an accompanying report, Not All That Glitters is Gold: How Tanzania's Mining Boom Has Impoverished Communities, Violated Rights and Degraded the Environment"(page 43). Where can we get hold of this accompanying report?

China has had bad press regarding its involvement in sub-Saharan Africa. Its lack of aid conditionality – particularly in the field of human rights and environmental issues; its apparent disregard for transparency in the loan contraction processes and its general lack of adherence to international standards in responsible funding has caused alarm in the donor community. However although this paper largely agrees with and expands on these criticisms it also seeks to highlight the benefits of Chinese involvement.

Their makeshift shelter of branches and leaves is only 800 metres from Chad's border with the Central African Republic, but for Josephine and Veronique it could be 800 kilometres. The two women finally feel safe on this side of the border, where they have joined almost 14,000 other refugees, including some 3,000 of whom arrived over the past two weeks. Most have left Central African Republic (CAR) since mid-December to escape attacks by rebel fighters and bandits on their villages.

Leading trade unions from three emerging economies, South Africa, the Philippines and Brazil, voiced concerns in Geneva on Wednesday regarding the risk their industries face in the current Doha round of trade liberalisation talks. Rudi Dicks of COSATU, the South African trade union congress, said that negotiators have failed to take account of the positions of developing countries in the Doha round, which aims to reduce global barriers to trade.

International Budget Project (IBP) is pleased to announce the release of its latest publication, "Our Money, Our Responsibility: A Citizens' Guide to Monitoring Government Expenditures." This Guide documents pioneering methodologies used by civil society organizations around the developing world to hold their governments to account for the use of public resources.

The Sigrid Rausing Trust is a UK-based human rights funding organisation, with an annual grant-making budget of approximately £18 million. It is seeking to employ an Africa Programme Officer, who will assist the Trust to increase its human rights grant-making in Sub-Saharan Africa, within its priority areas of civil and political rights, women's rights, minority rights and social and economic rights. The programme officer will be responsible for developing a strategy for grant-making in parts of the region. S/he will be the first point of contact for organisations applying for funding from the region and will be responsible for all aspects of grant-making for the portfolio. S/he will be located at our offices in London but will travel regularly to the region.
Please send a cover letter and your CV, either by email to [email][email protected]; or by mail to Diana Clarke, Sigrid Rausing Trust, Eardley House, 4 Uxbridge Street, London W8 7SY. Please clearly mark the application "Africa programme officer position." Deadline for receipt of applications is 2nd April 2008.

The Global Humanitarian Platform, created in July 2006, brings together UN and non-UN humanitarian organizations on an equal footing.
- Striving to enhance the effectiveness of humanitarian action, based on an ethical obligation and accountability to the populations we serve,
- Acknowledging diversity as an asset of the humanitarian community and recognizing the interdependence among humanitarian organizations,
- Committed to building and nurturing an effective partnership, … the organizations participating in the Global Humanitarian Platform agree to base their partnership on the following principles:

Food riots in Indonesia, Mexico, Egypt, the Philippines and Vietnam. Price controls and food rationing in Pakistan and China. Are we back to the Malthusian trap as prices of agricultural and food commodities from wheat and corn to dairy products and meat have risen in the last few years to historically unprecedented levels?

Salma Maoulidi looks at the mining research report, "A Golden Opportunity? How Tanzania is failing to benefit from Gold Mining” and argues that it builds a powerful case for continued activism in trade and economic justice in line with various Human rights instruments that call for a country’s wealth and natural resources to benefit primarily local communities.

Following intense scrutiny over suspect investment contracts by the government and investment companies, a consortium of activist organization and religious communities launched in Dar es Salaam a research titled “A Golden Opportunity? How Tanzania is failing to benefit from Gold Mining”. The report is authored by Tundu Lissu, a lawyer and long time environmental activist from Tanzania and Mark Curtis and independent author and journalist affiliated to a number of academic institutions in Europe.

The research in a critical policy area is a product of a year long initiative by activists and religious leaders to add moral weight to the mining tragedy that looms in Tanzania. Various human rights violations have been recorded including killings and displacements mainly resulting from conflicts between small miners and large scale multinational miners over mining rights. “It is not just about the mining companies but also highlighting the role of rich governments who remain silent over this injustice and in some instances have invested heavily in these companies reaping the benefits from an immoral tax structure”, says Fredrik Glad Jernes, Norwegian Church Aid Tanzania Country Representative.

The report makes grim reading about the governance and practice of mining companies in Tanzania. Mining is the fastest growing sector in the Tanzanian economy but the growth of the sector is not comparable to its contribution to the GDP at just about 3%. Part of the problem lays in the structure of the tax laws that is overly favourably to mining companies and not to Tanzanians.

The situation is attributed to the World Bank financed sectoral reform project begun in the mid nineties which became the basis of laws that inform the tax and mining regimes in the country. The royalty paid to the Government for gold is only at 3%. Tanzania posses around 45m ounces of gold which at the current gold prices means the country is worth USD39 billiion yet it is categorized as one of the poorest countries in the world. In the last 5 years Tanzania exported gold worth more than USD2.5 billion but whereas the government has only received an average of USD21.7million in royalties and taxes on the exports Mining Companies record handsome profits out side of Tanzanian on their websites and company audits presented to shareholders.

Two main companies were scrutinized on the basis of activist work done by the Lawyers Environmental Action Team headed by Tundu Lissu- Barrick Gold a Canadian Company operating mines in Bulyanhulu, North Mara and Tulakawa and AngloGold Ashanti a South African company with British links which operates mines in Geita, the largest gold deposit in the country. The researchers estimate that mining companies have earned about USD2.5 billions from exports but Tanzania only records about USD100 million from gold earnings. The researchers estimate that Tanzanian is loosing more than USD400 billion from tax concessions as well as tax evasion e.g. non payment of corporation tax and waivers on income tax on expatriate workers.

The impunity reigns in part because there is no parliamentary scrutiny over mining contracts. Also the government does not have the capacity to adequately monitor the sector. For example, there are wide discrepancies between statistics published by the companies and those issued by the government pertaining to the sector suggesting discrepancies in record keeping. In some instances the researchers have found under reporting of earning to local governments but the tendencies to inflate the amounts of investments made. Rarely is there an indication of the environmental hazards committed and likely to be committed from mining operations. In addition the investments to local communities are negligible with companies being obliged to contribute not more than USD200, 000 to local governments.

The research is published by the Christian Council of Tanzania (CCT) the National Council of Muslims in Tanzania (BAKWATA) and the Tanzania Episcopal Conference (TEC). It was funded by the Norwegian Church Aid and Christian Aid, the latter having done similar research in Zambia looking at the Copper Sector leading to the Zambian government declaring its intention to review the terms of investment contracts governing its mining sector. This is the first time the religious community in Tanzania have been involved in high profile advocacy against the government and multinationals.

The Bomani Commission, a presidential commission created to investigate the mining sector is expected to publish its findings by the end of March. “The report will provide us with sound reference on some of the recommendations” declared Hon. Zitto Kabwe who attended the launch. The Commission was constituted following the call in parliament by opposition member Zitto Kabwe for a probe committee into the suspect dealing of the Ministry with regards to Buzwagi Mine where Barrick Gold plans to open another mine in the midst of a review process of the mining sector. This triggering uproar from civil society organizations and opposition parties creating the impetus that ultimately saw the former Prime Minister Edward Lowassa resigning and his cabinet being dissolved a few weeks ago.

While the report can be criticized for lacking a gender analysis, and narratives (not just descriptions) of how mining operations are devastating lives in local communities where mining operations take place, it provides a powerful reading. It also builds a powerful case for continued activism in trade and economic justice in line with various Human rights instruments that call for a country’s wealth and natural resources to benefit primarily local communities.

* Salma Maoulidi is an Activist/Executive Director of the Sahiba Sisters Foundation in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

*Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is at the highest rate ever seen in the world, according to the largest ever survey on drug resistant TB. Data from South Africa showed that 996 or almost 6% of 17 615 MDR specimens collected between 2004 and October 2007 were extensively drug resistant (XDR) TB. In KwaZulu-Natal 656 (14%) of 4 701 MDR cases recorded in this time period were XDR-TB.

Kenya's children run increasing risk of physical and sexual assault and face worsening food shortages in the aftermath of recent bloodshed, aid agency Save the Children said on Thursday. A disputed December 27 election sparked widespread violence that killed 1,000 people and displaced some 300,000. The aid group said over half of those were likely to be children, who were by far the most vulnerable.

The Masters in International Human Rights Law at the University of Oxford is a part-time degree offered over 22 months. It involves several periods of distance learning via the internet as well as two summer sessions held at New College, Oxford. The degree programme is designed in particular for lawyers and other human rights professionals who wish to pursue advanced studies in international human rights law but may need to do so alongside their work or family responsibilities. The final closing date for the Masters is 14 March 2008 and this is to start the course in October 2008. The closing date for the 2008 Summer School is 1 April 2008.

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) was established in 1973 as an initiative of African scholars for the promotion of multidisciplinary research that extends the frontiers of knowledge production in and about Africa, and also responds to the challenges of African development. As part of on-going programme innovation and expansion, the Council in 2004 launched an institute on Health, Politics and Society in Africa in a bid to promote an enhanced interest in multidisciplinary health research among African scholars.

The Legal Clinic for Refugees and Immigrants (LCRI), which provides legal aid to refugees and immigrants from a number of countries, was forcibly deprived of its office space in the Faculty of Law at Sofia University, Sofia, Bulgaria, on January 17, 2008. The LCRI serves a number of African clients, most recently including individuals and families from: Algeria, Angola, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Congo-Brazzaville, Rwanda, Somalia, Tanzania, Western Sahara, and Zambia.

One legacy of South Africa's extensive mineral deposits is the infrastructure and wealth of the country. But another more troubling legacy is emerging as an increasingly urgent problem: environmental contamination from over 100 years of mining that could severely pollute the country's water, affecting the food chain and citizens' health.

The first microbicide candidate to reach the final phase of testing has failed to prevent HIV transmission, researchers announced this week. Testing of the microbicide, Carraguard, was carried out over a three-year period on 6,000 women in South Africa, and was completed in March 2007. But there was no difference in HIV infections between women in the group using Carraguard compared to the placebo group.

FORUM-ASIA and International Movement Against All Forms of Racial Discrimination (IMADR) will organise the 1st Regional Workshop on the Durban Review Conference (DRC) 2009. About 30 representatives of civil society organisations are expected to attend the event, which will be held from 25 to 26 February in Bangkok. They two organisations will facilitate civil society consultation and participation in response to the DRC.