The Human Rights Fellowship Programme for Students from Least Developed Countries (LDC) is jointly organized by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). Selected candidates will be informed in writing, before 3 September 2007 about the status of their candidature.

All these Upcoming Events and Conferences Serving Africa and other activities listed on these pages may add value to Africa's Development! This service is provided to allow Africa to remain informed and to participate in these events where possible!

Five years after the concept was first proposed, the so-called $100 laptop is poised to go into mass production. Hardware suppliers have been given the green light to ramp-up production of all of the components needed to build millions of the low-cost machines.

The annual International Human Rights Colloquium is a one-of-a-kind forum that brings together scores of human rights activists and academics for a week each year to learn from their peers and experts in the field, obtain a fresh perspective on their work, and lay the foundation for professional alliances down the road (networking). The colloquium will take palce in Sao Paulo, Brazil from 3-10 November, 2007.

UNAIDS invites joint bids from coalitions and networks of civil society organizations to come together to form a year long mechanism to support national civil society and community groups in maximising the impact of the 2008 UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting on AIDS. The deadline for bids and decision is September 3 2007.

Panos Institute West Africa (PIWA) seeks to recruit a Coordinator for the Globalization and International Governance thematic programme. Deadline for receiving applications is 10th August, 2007.

Last fall, shortly after I returned from Nigeria, I was accosted by a perky blond college student whose blue eyes seemed to match the "African" beads around her wrists. "Save Darfur!" she shouted from behind a table covered with pamphlets urging students to TAKE ACTION NOW! STOP GENOCIDE IN DARFUR! My aversion to college kids jumping onto fashionable social causes nearly caused me to walk on, but her next shout stopped me. "Don't you want to help us save Africa?" she yelled.

This report published by the Bench Marks Foundation discusses corporate responsibility issues around the platinum mining industry in Rustenburg, South Africa. It examines mining companies against internationally accepted standards of socially responsible business practices and looks at how mines invest in local communities, in order to assess the full impact of mining activities on local communities.

This paper published by Q Squared uses case studies of recent initiatves to explore how official statistics have been used by civil society organisations (CSOs) to hold public agencies accountable for service delivery or for the effective use of public resources. Amnog the key findings are that where governments are committed to increase the accountability of the public sector to citizens, it may be necessary to create new institutions and/or pass new legislation in order to raise the demand for data.

Leaders of the world's 370 million indigenous peoples are reiterating their calls for the 192-member U.N. General Assembly to recognise their sovereignty over ancestral lands and resources. "It is now time for the General Assembly to adopt the declaration by vote, if necessary," Les Malezer, chairman of the U.N.-based Indigenous Peoples Caucus, told reporters at a news conference Wednesday.

Information technology company Microsoft will give technical assistance to enhance access to online research for scientists, policymakers and librarians in the developing world.This was announced at a meeting in Washington on 10 July.

Rejection. Fear. Anger. These are some of the feelings that come to the surface when HIV-positive women talk about stigma and discrimination. "It's like being completely invisible to society," said Esther Sheehama, 24, of the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) of Namibia. Sheehama and other women living with the virus have many stories about how they were rejected by their families and communities because of their status.

Short-sighted and inadequate foreign aid has worsened the plight of millions of people in Africa's parched and poverty-stricken Sahel belt, according to a report commissioned by major charities in the region. The study entitled "Beyond Any Drought", backed by charities including Oxfam and Save the Children, argues that unless aid programmes are overhauled Africa's poorest nations face harsher famines as free-market reforms deepen the roots of poverty.

In an effort to strengthen needed capacity, the Open Society Institute Public Health and Information programs are seeking applications from qualified organizations interested in receiving institutional support for their work on access to essential medicines. Grants for up to $75,000, renewable for up to three years, will be awarded to local NGOs with a mandate and demonstrated capacity to advance policy and civil society engagement related to access to medicines in Brazil, India, Kenya, Malaysia, South Africa, and Thailand. Interested organizations should submit an application no later than Monday, July 16, 2007.

It is now settled that Kenya ’s public debt portfolio of US$10 billion is a matter of concern. That a substantial portion of it – over US$1 billion – relates to uncertain commercial creditors is a matter of urgent national importance. That by the admission of senior Treasury officials, some of the entries of commercial debt are falsified is a national scandal, says corruption watchdog, Mars Group.

Countries around the world, including some of the poorest in Africa, have made “significant progress” in improving governance and fighting corruption over the decade, the new “Worldwide Governance Indicators” (WGI) report by the World Bank Institute and World Bank Development Economics Vice-presidency shows.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has launched year two of the Knight News Challenge, a contest awarding as much as $5 million for innovative ideas using digital experiments to transform community news. Do you have a big idea for informing and inspiring community using bits and bytes? Cell phone documentaries? New operating software for news collectors? Journalism games? Nothing is too far out to qualify.

The Global Forum will bring together development partners, donors, UN Agencies, Civil Society organizations, Law Enforcement Agencies, Human Rights Activists and research Organizations to develop a Consensus Document on a global Strategy to eliminate FGM/FGC Date: 30th July to 4th August 2007.

Seated on beer crates around a cattle kraal on the Wild Coast, a small gathering of tribal elders, headmen and residents this week resolved that their communal land was not on offer for mining. Recent prospecting has revealed a heavy minerals deposit extending 22km from the Mzamba and Mtentu rivers south of Port Edward.

The CIVICUS Civil Society Index Global Survey of the State of Civil Society: Volume 1 is the result of rigorous self-examination by civil society actors around the world. By featuring the civil society profiles of 44 countries around the world, the publication presents a detailed, yet concise description of the current state of civic activism, highlights the key strengths and weaknesses of each country’s civil society and puts forward specific recommendations to strengthen the sector’s capacity to contribute to positive social change.