The Power of Persistence report highlights the importance of recognising the evolving dynamics of national politics and institutions in achieving sustainable, long-term improvements in education systems. A section of the report reviews the introduction of education reforms in five countries over a 20-year period. The five countries - Egypt, El Salvador, Namibia, Nicaragua, and Zambia - are not intended to be broadly representative of all developing countries, but do capture a range of national contexts, including post-conflict recovery, democratic transitions and elections, scale of national bureaucracy, and role of civil society.

Political leaders have committed to ramping up restoration of the world's forests and tackling poverty in forest communities as part of pledges made at the ninth session Forum on Forests. Rwanda, in central eastern Africa, led the way with promises to launch a 25-year plan to tackle ecosystem degradation and improve rural livelihoods, a move hailed by environmental groups including the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The true scale of the theft of overseas aid money by corrupt foreign regimes is disclosed in leaked documents obtained by The Daily Telegraph. Tens of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money has been pocketed by their ministers and officials, much of it used to buy luxury goods. In one of the worst cases, £1.2million given to Sierra Leone by the Department for International Development (DfID) to 'support peacekeeping' was stolen by the country’s 'top brass' and spent on plasma television sets, hunting rifles and other consumer items.

The US has followed Germany's footsteps to withhold about $350 million that was supposed to be disbursed to Malawi this month through the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). Last month, US Government announced that Malawi had qualified for the $350 million grant to improve the energy sector. The signing of the same was supposed to take place mid February in Washington. However, Washington has put a plug to the whole process citing Malawi’s failure to observe governance and human rights issues.

Oxfam has added its voice to a growing chorus of concern about Britain’s system for deciding on asylum claims, and the suffering it causes, in a report on destitute asylum seekers, who are forbidden to work but cannot claim state benefits. These men and women, who told their stories anonymously in 'Coping with Destitution: Survival strategies of asylum seekers in the UK', live in the shadows, penniless and dependent on the charity of others.

The UN-backed Global Fund Against Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria has announced it is strengthening financial safeguards following corruption claims. The fund, with a budget of almost $22bn (£13.6bn), said the new measures would include a panel of independent experts to review financial procedures.

The Commission of the African Union invites applications from University lecturers, who intend to undertake postgraduate studies at the PhD level in any reputable Indian University. The applicant must possess a Masters degree with at least 3 years post-graduation experience, and not above be 45 years of age.

In this week's edition of the Emerging Powers News Round-Up, read a comprehensive list of news stories and opinion pieces related to China, India and other emerging powers.

Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) has issued a statement showing how solidarity groups can help following the murder of David Kato on 26 January 2011. Kato was an advocacy officer and a longtime leading activist for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) human rights.??

The government has announced that laws requiring foreign mining companies to sell a majority of their shares to locals will be gazetted by the end of February. In a statement published in the state-run Herald newspaper on Wednesday, the Indigenisation and Empowerment Minister, Saviour Kasukuwere, said consultations were at an ‘advanced stage’ and new regulations would be gazetted no later than the end of February. A controversial Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act, requiring all businesses to give 51 per cent of their shares to locals was signed into law in 2008, but the government has not yet acted on it.

The Right to Education Project and ActionAid has launched the Promoting Rights in Schools: providing quality public education (PRS) resource pack. Aimed at actively engaging parents, children, teachers, unions, communities and local civil society organisations in collectively monitoring and improving the quality of public education, PRS offers a set of practical tools that can be used as a basis for mobilisation, advocacy and campaigning.

To allow least developed countries (LDCs) to protect nascent industries, they are not required to cut tariffs for industrial goods and fisheries in the Doha Development Round. However, tariffs cuts will affect them if they are members of customs unions where some of their neighbours are larger developing countries without LDC status. For example, 'Nigeria is not an LDC but the nine LDCs in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) may also be bound by the commitments that their more powerful neighbour agrees to in the Doha Round,' explains Aileen Kwa in response to questions from IPS about what lies ahead for LDCs at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) during 2011.

The theme of Davos this year was 'shared norms for the new reality', one of those phrases where the words can be rearranged in any order and remain utterly vacuous, says this article in the London Guardian about the just-concluded World Economic Forum. 'Business leaders, policy leaders and the world's smartest academics had five days in the high Alps to work out what this actually meant. Despite much head scratching not one of them could.'

The European commission's emergency suspension last week of trading in carbon allowances to put a halt to rampant theft of credits by hackers has been extended indefinitely until countries can prove their systems are protected from further fraud. While the suspension had been expected to end last night, Brussels now says that the freeze in trades had been imposed to give the commission executive some breathing space to figure out what to do.

The Norwegian Government is accepting applications for the International Ibsen Scholarships for the year 2011. This is the fourth time that the Government will be handing out the scholarships meant for individuals, organisations or institutions from around the world.

The Commonwealth Foundation is an inter-governmental organisation supported by Commonwealth governments to provide support towards strengthening of civil society for sustainable development, democracy and intercultural learning within the commonwealth countries. It has grantmaking programmes for NGOs specifically for supporting activities that involve intercultural exchange.

The African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) has partnered with AWID and WIDE to organise a women’s consultation on aid effectiveness at the World Social forum in Dakar Senegal, as part of preparing for the Fourth High level Forum (HLF4) on Aid Effectiveness which will be held in Korea sometime in November this year. We do not have funds for this activity because we have just been invited to co-host the event with AWID and WIDE. To that effect, we are inviting members who already have funding to go to the World Social Forum to be part of this consultation. Please confirm with us as soon as possible if you are going to the World Social Forum and you already have funding from other sources, so that we can invite you to be part of this consultation.

French version:

Le Réseau de Développement et de Communication des Femmes Africaines (FEMNET) est entré en partenariat avec AWID et WIDE pour organiser un forum de consultation des femmes sur l’Efficacité de l’Aide au Forum Social Mondial à Dakar, Sénégal, comme partie des préparatifs du Quatrième Forum de Haut niveau (4ème FHN) sur l’Efficacité de l’Aide qui se tiendra en Corée quelque part en novembre cette année. Nous ne disposons pas de fonds pour ces activités car nous venons juste d’être invitées à co-organiser l’événement avec AWID et WIDE. A cet effet, nous invitons les membres qui ont déjà un financement pour se rendre au Forum Social Mondial de faire partie de cette consultation. Veuillez nous confirmer aussitôt que possible si vous irez au Forum Social Mondial et que vous avez déjà le financement en provenance d’autres sources, pour que nous puissions vous inviter à faire partie de cette consultation.

Dans l’attente de vous lire, nos sincères remerciements.

African Women's Development and Communication Network (FEMNET)
Réseau de Développement et de Communications des Femmes Africaines
P. O. Box 54562, 00200, Nairobi, Kenya.
Behind KUSCCO Centre, Kilimanjaro Avenue, Off Mara Road, Upper Hill
Tel: +254 20 2712971/2; 20 2341516/7 (Wireless)
Cell: + (254)725.766932
Fax: +254 20 2712974
E-mail: [email][email protected]
Website:

INTERIGHTS’ have signed a statement opposing the introduction of fees at the European Court of Human Rights. Imposing a fee on applicants to the European Court of Human Rights may deny victims of human rights violations access to justice, based on their ability to pay, says the organisation. Administering a fee system could drain the Court of human and financial resources while deterring individuals - based on their economic standing - with well-founded human rights claims from seeking redress before the Court. If you are an NGO, a Bar Association or a law firm and would like to sign the petition opposing the introduction of fees, please email Amnesty International at [email][email protected] with the name and country of the organisation and your name and email address.

In this week's edition of the Emerging Powers News Round-Up, read a comprehensive list of news stories and opinion pieces related to China, India and other emerging powers....

In May 2009, toxic waste from a gold mine located in North Mara, Tanzania, spilled into River Thigithe. Reports from the surrounding villages alleged that 20 people and from 700 to 1,000 head of livestock died from the contaminated water. The company that operates the mine, African Barrick, denied that the spillage led to the deaths of villagers, and Barrick's spokesperson said recently that there are no more problems with the river. But villagers living in Tarime district claim they are still experiencing health-related illnesses from the water. There are also reports that a number of people have been killed by security forces belonging to the company. Zahra Moloo reports in this