Harmbee Holdings and Dimension Data have pledged R28 million for a state–of–the–art school. The school’s plight caught the eye of the minister of Social Development and other MPs when they visited the area three years ago.

Development finance ministers have backtracked on support promised for the new Education for All Action Plan programme at the 2002 IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings. Since the promises were made in April donors have failed to deliver additional financing, implementation has slipped and the financing framework has still not been finalised, says a report from the Global Campaign for Education.

At a time when roughly 14,000 people become infected with HIV every day the United States is falling behind on policy and funding, while the donor community and countries most affected by the epidemic are failing to adequately support programs that promote and distribute male and female condoms, says a report from Population Action International.

A review paper on NGO Participation in the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria undertaken by the International HIV/AIDS Alliance examines and provides recommendations on issues relating to problems of access to information by participating NGOs, the need for NGO involvement to mean more than simply consultation, a need for improvements in NGO networks and accountability and the role of NGOs as recipients in fund disbursement.

The UN refugee agency has co-published a handbook on refugee resettlement, addressing issues like initial reception, education and employment while incorporating the experiences of resettled refugees.

The Wassa Association of Communities Affected by Mining (WACAM) in Ghana need your support. Intense research in areas including the operational area of Ghana Australian Goldfields, GAG, found massive human rights violations, e.g. forced evictions, contamination of water bodies for local consumption and the destruction of villages. The gold mining company GAG has recently been bought by Ashanti Goldfields Corporation, and is financially supported through credits of an international consortium which consists of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the German Development and Investment Company (DEG), the Dutch bank FMO and the Swedish bank SEB. The IFC is playing a leading role and has a 20% equity stake in GAG. Write to the IFC and tell them that you are aware of the situation and that you expect a thorough investigation and for the human rights violations to stop.

The Kenya Wildlife Service and conservation organisations have expressed urgent concern about elephant poaching and illegal ivory trade following the seizure in Shanghai, China of a 3.6 ton shipment of ivory from Kenya. ECOTERRA NEWS interviewed Dr. Paula Kahumbu, CITES co-ordinator, Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS).

This new Global Health Council report is the first-ever global analysis of the impact of unintended pregnancies on maternal deaths in developing countries. The report details more than 300 million unintended pregnancies and the resulting deaths of nearly 700,000 women between 1995 and 2000, most of which could have been prevented had basic reproductive health services been made available to these women.

Six months after the Second World Assembly on Ageing agreed a new International Plan of Action, HelpAge International has launched a long-term programme to involve older people in citizen monitoring, to track how governments, international bodies and local authorities are acting on the commitments they made.

The International Monetary Fund's policy-making panel has directed the institution to develop a "concrete proposal" that will allow heavily indebted countries to, in effect, declare bankruptcy.

This new and first in the series of the AFRODAD Reality of Aid publications, authored by African Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) drawn from Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, Mozambique, Cameroon, Kenya and Uganda, is a classic edition that offers answers to fundamental questions of the whole Aid regime. It gives proposals pointing to a fresh start on aid in terms of what conditions the recipient governments should adopt for such a start.

Effective treatment of curable sexually transmitted infections (STIs) is one of the few strategies available to reduce the spread of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. Many people with STIs seek treatment from private practitioners. Why are patients turning to the private sector for help? Do they receive adequate care?

The World Bank will assist the Angolan government in the resettlement of 1,500,000 people in their respective areas of origin, the government-owned news agency reports.

The World Bank and IMF's Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) initiative has a stated aim of providing a 'lasting exit' to the debt problems of the poorest countries - but a new report suggests it is doing anything but. The latest draft 'Status of Implementation Report' for the HIPC initiative, due to be released in time for the 2002 Annual Meetings of the Bank and Fund, shows that of the 19 countries originally expected to reach completion point by the end of this year, at least 11, or 60 percent, will fail to do so and that even according to the narrow definitions of the World Bank and IMF, HIPC only appears to be working for between seven and 10 countries out of the 42 included within the initiative.

Kenya's NGO forum, led by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, has called on African Elephant Range States to oppose the reopening of the ivory trade at the 12th Conference of Parties for Convention on the International in Endangered Species in November in Santiago, Chile.

Millions of people in 45 coffee-growing countries are facing economic ruin due to collapsing world prices, according to Oxfam, who have launched a campaign on the issue. Oxfam says the benefit of aid and debt relief is being severely undermined. For example, Ethiopia’s coffee income dropped by $110m compared to the $58m it is set to save in debt relief this year.

The International Monetary Fund has set tough conditions for Uganda under a new aid deal approved last week by the fund's board. Among the terms that came with a $17.8m (Shs 32bn) aid support is a requirement that the government submits to the Cabinet a plan to reduce its expenditure by 31 December.

"Political elites and their cronies continue to take kickbacks at every opportunity. Hand in glove with corrupt business people, they are trapping whole nations in poverty and hampering sustainable development. Corruption is perceived to be dangerously high in poor parts of the world, but also in many countries whose firms invest in developing nations," said Peter Eigen, Chairman of Transparency International, speaking on the launch of the Corruption Perceptions Index 2002 (CPI) in late August.

Critics of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) charge that the whole approach is fundamentally flawed. Three years after the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) introduced their Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) approach as the latest template for the world's poorest countries to get out of poverty, a new Panos report examines the progress so far and the arguments about whether PRS can succeed.

Deutsche Bank South Africa has formally launched its Africa Foundation aimed at supporting and uplifting impoverished individuals and communities. Deutsche Bank Board of Directors approved a US$15-million endowment for the Africa Foundation in 2001.