The Rural Poverty Report 2011 from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) provides a coherent and comprehensive look at rural poverty, its global consequences and the prospects for eradicating it. Young people and children make up the single largest group among poor rural people, and the Report emphasizes the importance of creating new and better opportunities for them – in particular, with a focus on expanding educational opportunities that specifically address the skills young people will need to succeed in the rural context.

Seven presidential candidates will take part in the 31 October general elections in Tanzania, with incumbent President Jakaya Kikwete being the clear favourite. But the opposition may make important gains. Education, health and employment are some of the main issues dominating the election campaign as Tanzanians prepare for the 31 October election. President Kikwete and the CCM are expected to be rewarded by voters for the positive economic development in Tanzania during his first period.

The Rwandan government should fully respect the rights of opposition party members and allow them to carry out their legitimate activities without fear for their safety, Human Rights Watch has said. Human Rights Watch issued its statement in response to the re-arrest of Victoire Ingabire, president of the opposition party FDU-Inkingi, and the transfer from prison to a hospital of Bernard Ntaganda, president of another opposition party, the PS-Imberakuri, both on 14 October 2010. Both parties have been critical of the Rwandan government and were prevented from participating in the presidential elections in August.

The UN's release of a long awaited report on crimes committed in the Democratic Republic of Congo between 1993-2003 is not only an opportunity to re-examine the historical record of mass violence in DRC - the scale and nature of which was often overlooked in the wake of the genocide in neighbouring Rwanda - but is also a chance to correct the terms of the deceptive and fragile peace some leaders wish to proclaim in the resource-rich Great Lakes region of Africa, writes Fabienne Hara, the vice president for multicultural affairs at the International Crisis Group.

President Robert Mugabe wants Zimbabwe's power-sharing government to end next year, saying the unity pact was only meant to last two years, state media has reported. 'Some will say let us negotiate and give it another life. I am reluctant because part of the things happening [in the inclusive government] are absolutely foolish and stupid,' Mugabe said in the Herald newspaper.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/500/zahrah-pic_1b.jpgInspired by the nomination of Ngugi Wa’Thiongo for this year’s Nobel Prize for literature, Sokari Ekine reviews a selection of Africa’s art, music and literary blogs.

Land and housing are the most urgent problems in South Africa’s cities, writes S’bu Zikode, but as long as the country pretends that the issue of land is technical and not political, it will not be resolved. The real struggle, says Zikode, is to ‘put the human being at the centre of our society, starting with the most dispossessed, who are the homeless.’

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/500/10_500.gif‘Unity is indispensable in order for the peoples of Africa to live in peace, improve their quality of life, restore the natural environment, repair the human spirit and the earth,’ but there are challenges Pan-Africanism must overcome to achieve it. Horace Campbell looks at the role Pambazuka News has played in nurturing networks for the emancipation of the continent, and how it can champion transformation by 'strengthening popular power'.

The latest round of talks between north and south Sudan over the future of the oil-producing Abyei region has failed to reach an agreement. The issue stands as a key hurdle ahead of referendums in the country, and according to the north's National Congress party (NCP) and the south's ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), 'serious efforts and many productive discussions, [the delegations] did not succeed in reaching agreement on the eligibility criteria for voters in the Abyei Area referendum'.

Pambazuka platform has 'given voice to the vibrant and engaged people of Africa and its diaspora; people who are passionate about pursuing justice', writes Marion Grammer.

European Union Naval Force Somalia (EU NAVFOR) justifies its presence in the Horn of Africa with claims that is has reduced piracy in the region, yet according to ECOTERRA Intl, since the launch of EU NAVFOR operations in 2008, not only has there been an increase in cases of piracy, but also an escalation in the use of violence and arms. So what purpose do multi-national naval forces in Somalian waters actually serve?

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/500/10_500.gifPambazuka News distinguishes itself by exploring the issues the continent faces ‘without reinforcing stereotypes about Africans’, writes Mandisi Majavu, challenging ‘the way we understand African politics’ and the way in which ‘African politics are presented in the mainstream media’.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/500/10_500.gifPambazuka News provides ‘very much helpful’ perspectives for Chinese scholars who seldom have the chance to visit Africa, writes He Winping.

Alemayehu Mariam keeps coming back to Pambazuka News in his search for informed analysis on African current affairs. While Western countries have think tanks to debate important issues, Africans have Pambazuka News, he writes in his letter to celebrate Pambazuka News’ 500th issue.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/500/10_500.gifTo celebrate the newsletter’s 500th issue, Henning Melber remembers two of his favourite contributors to Pambazuka News, Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem and Dennis Brutus.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/500/10_500.gifDale McKinley discusses how Pambazuka News has avoided eclipsing grassroots activism in Africa by adhering to a Pan-African and internationalist foundation. He also adds new directions for the platform to pursue.

Malawian universities should become more involved in training primary school teachers, argues Steve Sharra. As it stands, a university teaching degree is a ticket out of the classroom into higher paid jobs. ‘The best teachers are always taken out of the primary school classroom and sent to secondary schools and other administrative positions,’ Sharra writes. Teachers should be motivated to stay in the classroom via ongoing skills development programmes.

With new figures showing a record amount of World Bank funding for projects relying on coal power and other fossil fuels, the issue of reforming the institution's energy lending was once again a hot topic at the World Bank and IMF annual meetings, which concluded over the weekend. The figures, released by the Bank in mid-September, show it lent 3.4 billion dollars to coal projects.

Alemayehu Mariam celebrates the release of Ethiopian judge and rights campaigner Birtukan Mideksa.

The UN refugee chief has called on countries to stop sending refugees back to the war-torn Somali capital Mogadishu and the Iraqi capital Baghdad. Antonio Guterres also said it was time rich countries shared the global refugee burden more fairly with developing countries and revealed tentative plans to set up an enlarged EU-wide resettlement programme. Some Somalis have even been deported to Mogadishu - a city under nearly continual shelling, from which more than 200,000 people have fled this year, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said.