This guide illustrates both how to find resources for teaching about Africa on-line; and how to navigate the Internet. Users can access the African Studies World-Wide Web (WWW) database at the University of Pennsylvania, which contains resources and information on events and issues that are related to African countries. These materials are available for use by students, teachers, librarians, the business community, and the general public.

The recent raid on a Chinese software piracy syndicate would benefit the fight against piracy in Nigeria, according to the Licensing and Compliance Manager at Microsoft Nigeria, Mr. John Okereke. Speaking in Lagos, Mr. Okereke said, the result of what he described as the largest investigation and raid of its kind in the world,would boost the Nigerian software market.

Dozens of experts from around the world – including representatives from United Nations agencies, religious and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), law enforcement agencies, Government and research institutions – are meeting in Addis Ababa on ways to eradicate the practice of female genital mutilation or cutting (FGM/C). More than 100 million women and girls worldwide have undergone a form of FGM/C, which has serious physical and psychological effects.

This paper published by WIDER examines the relationship between state failure and development assistance. It begins by looking at poor development performance as a criterion for state failure and then examines common causes why states fail, looking in particular at the cases of Burma, Rwanda and Zambia. The author argues that donors much be strongly engaged in fragile states in order to build political accountability and institutional capacity, including in cases where fragile states lack political will.

The Draft Guiding Principles on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights were developed over a five year period to formulate rules of action to put an end to extreme poverty and realize human rights for all, including the poorest of the poor. For the first time in its history, the United Nations proposed an international law document which considers the fight against extreme poverty as an obligation for all States. Consultations on this text were launched for 2007 by the Human Rights Council.

Entering the 21st century, China has a global agenda. Its aim is to establish itself as a genuine super-power to rival the United States militarily, politically and economically. In the context of these ambitions over the past decade and a half, China has endeavored determinedly to develop an array of economic relationships, beyond its traditional trading partners of Asia, North America and Europe. In no uncertain terms, it is aggressively integrating itself into the economies of South America and, of course, Africa.

The Synergos Institute’s Senior Fellows Program is an international network of distinguished philanthropic and other civil society leaders committed to collaborative efforts that address the underlying causes of poverty and inequity. Synergos Senior Fellows participate in a three-year learning and action program that aims to build their skills, spread their knowledge, and deepen their impact. The deadline for applications is 20 August 2007.

Continued insecurity and poor roads have been restricting humanitarian access to thousands of internally displaced people in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to an official of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Over half of the world’s major exporting countries are still lacking the political will to prosecute foreign bribery, according to a new report by Transparency International (TI). The 2007 TI Progress Report on OECD Convention Enforcement shows that more than half of 34 parties to the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials are not enforcing the Convention or keeping their commitments. Signatory countries account for about two-thirds of world exports of goods and services. At the same time, there is now significant enforcement in 14 countries compared with 12 in 2006 and 8 in 2005.

While China's growing trade and investment flows to Africa have sparked a sometimes contentious debate with the United States and Europe over who has the continent's best interests at heart, a closer look at the dynamic developing reveals a political landscape where the rhetoric is rarely in line with the reality, observers say.

China defended its stance on Darfur on Friday and urged patience as Western critics warned that Beijing's reluctance to back stronger action in the troubled Sudanese region could blight Olympic Games goodwill. China has pressed Sudan to accept U.N. peacekeepers alongside African Union forces struggling to quell bloodshed in Darfur. Experts estimate that 200,000 people have died and 2.1 million been displaced there by violence involving pro-government Arab militia fighting other ethnic groups.

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.