In early 2011 the World Bank will approve a new education sector strategy amid trends that mean that international goals on education will not be met. Zoe Godolphin of the University of Bristol argues that the Bank’s proposed approach fails conceptually because it does not accept that education is a human right. It also fails pragmatically because it continues to advocate a template approach instead of supporting genuinely country-driven priorities in education planning.

Campaign Against Arms Trade and The Corner House are challenging the blanket immunity from prosecution given by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to BAE Systems as part of its February 2010 plea bargain settlement with the company. In exchange for securing this immunity, BAE pleaded guilty to a relatively minor accounting offence in its complex scheme of offshore companies used to pass and make payments relating to its supply of a radar system to Tanzania.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s state visit to South Africa shows that he is already looking ahead to next month’s national election, which he is expected to win comfortably. With Uganda’s first oil exports expected to start flowing next year, as well as a growing service sector and significant agricultural potential, opportunities for economic cooperation between South Africa and Uganda is likely to dominate discussions during the two day state visit, says the South African Institute of International Affairs.

In renewed demonstrations against Tunisia's government, thousands marched from Sidi Bouzid to downtown Tunis on Sunday (23 January), seeking the removal of Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi's interim administration. The 'Caravan of Liberation', which left Sidi Bouzid on Saturday, was just the latest in a wave of demonstrations protesting the continued presence of members of former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's regime.

'The Southern Sudan referendum allowed the free expression of the will of the people for self determination. Turnout was massive, in a peaceful environment, and administrative procedures met national legal requirements in an atmosphere of respect and cooperation. Though the counting and tabulation stages of the referendum have yet to be completed and the final results are still awaited, our observation showed that voter participation far exceeded the required 60 per cent threshold and indicated that the final official referendum results will show that people chose a peaceful secession.'

Tunisia’s former president Zine Abbedine Ben Ali has fled following popular uprising, but will he simply be replaced by another ruling elite, asks Dennis Sammut.

Cameron Duodu remembers working as a journalist in Ghana and documenting Patrice Lumumba’s dramatic rise to power - and subsequent assassination - from afar. In so doing he uncovers why Lumumba is such an important historical figure who 'was not assassinated merely as a person, but as an idea'.

With ‘the current ruling crew’ highly unlikely to respond with ‘genuine post-carbon strategies’, addressing to the huge environmental challenges that South Africa faces will rely on the rise of a mass democratic movement, writes Patrick Bond.

‘The statement by Afrikaner author, Anneli Botes, that one group that she still does not like are “black people”, reveals a deeper malaise that continues to permeate the post-apartheid psyche among certain sectors of South African society,’ writes Tim Murithi.

Coward Fate stares at us in our eye tonight;
I see the naked fear in us in its bolder eyes…

‘The ideals that Lumumba stood for remain very relevant given the situation in which majority of Africans find themselves today,’ writes Lyn Ossome.

Rasna Warah calls on Kenyans to join a campaign against the government’s proposals to withdraw from the ICC and ‘to use taxpayers’ money to pay the legal fees of the six suspects accused of committing crimes against humanity’.

Why was Lumumba killed? Because he was a ‘relentless, dedicated, intelligent, passionate anti-colonialist, Pan-Africanist and Congolese nationalist’ with ‘the unstinting support of the Congolese masses’ who ‘stood in the way of Belgium’s plan to transform Congo from a colony into a neo-colony,’ writes Carlos Martinez.

It wasn’t just Patrice Lumumba his assassins wanted to kill, it was the genuine self-determination, dreams and aspirations of African people, writes Horace Campbell, reflecting on the murder of the DRC’s (Democratic Republic of Congo) first prime minister on 17 January 1961.

Awino Okech outlines how, following the assassination of Lumumba, the stage was set for ‘political patronage and plunder’ – essentially a pact between elites and former colonial masters. But there is still the possibility for latter day Lumumbas to challenge governments.

Kenya's artisanal or small-scale fishermen have been living off the sea for decades. They have been facing a range of problems over the past years. In Malindi, a number of conflicts have arisen between the fishermen and prawn trawlers, large vessels that trawl the ocean floor catching prawns for sale. The fishermen say that the trawlers often cut their nets and discard healthy fish as by-catch. One trawling company faced a number of law-suits relating to these conflicts. Along Mombasa's coastline, fisherman are increasingly having to compete with the expanding hotel industry for access to scarce land along the sea. As more and more hotels take over these areas, the fishermen fear that they will lose their only means of survival. Zahra Moloo reports in this

The United Nations has reinforced its nearly 9,000-strong peacekeeping mission in Côte d’Ivoire with extra peacekeepers and helicopters, as senior officials called for urgent action to prevent growing post-electoral violence from degenerating into genocide. In a unanimous resolution adopted under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, which allows for the use of force, the Security Council authorised the immediate deployment of an additional 2,000 troops and three armed helicopters in the West African country.

Niger's 10 presidential rivals have asked the ruling military junta to delay elections by three weeks to 20 February and to replace the electoral commission after problems with local polls held earlier this month. The presidential elections are meant to restore civilian rule after a military coup in February 2010 toppled the former president, Mamadou Tandja.

Malawi has only voted for local government representatives once since 1994 when democracy was ushered in. The country’s constitution demands that local elections be held in the year following the national general election. Malawi has had general elections every five years since 1994, but local elections supposed to be held in 1995 and 2005 never took place. The government has never explained why. This article from IPS Africa explains the impact on ordinary citizens.

According to the World Bank's Global Economic Prospects 2011, released on 13 January, the GDP growth rate for Sub-Saharan Africa is projected at 4.7 per cent for 2010, from a 1.7 per cent low in 2009, increasing to 5.3 per cent in 2011 and 5.5 per cent in 2012. This compares to negative growth for the United States in 2009 (-2.6 per cent) and weak recovery in 2010-2012 (2.8 per cent, 2.8 per cent, and 2.9 per cent). The World Bank notes that the recovery is due in large part to trends in commodity prices, particularly for metals and minerals as well as for oil. But it also stresses the significance of domestic demand and of expanding investment in the region, including in manufacturing and telecommunications service. This edition of AfricaFocus Bulletin contains excerpts from the report's regional annex on Sub-Saharan Africa.