With some 5,000 families in Angola’s Lubango, Matala and Quipungo municipalities affected by housing demolitions since August, struggles continue to get the government to respect both legislation and its own public statements, writes Sylvia Croese.

Amid accusations that most UN peacekeepers turned a blind eye to the recent 'mass rape' of more than 300 civilians in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon admitted that the mounting problems in the sprawling, crisis-stricken country are virtually beyond the capacity of the world body. 'We must be realistic,' Ban told reporters Wednesday, 'Bluntly put, the sheer geography is too large, the number of peacekeepers too small, our resources too limited.'

The Bank Information Centre (BIC) has made available a new toolkit for civil society on how to access information at the World Bank. The resource is available for download as a .PDF from BIC's website.

A new report by Oil Change International dispels the myth that World Bank support for coal and oil projects increases access to energy for the world’s poorest. This finding stands in contrast to government, Bank, and industry claims that ongoing taxpayer support for these large coal and oil projects is necessary to alleviate energy poverty.

Burundian security forces have arrested an opposition official and his wife, his party said. Deo Nshimirimana, a former lawmaker and a Union for Peace and Development (UPD) party official was detained alongside his wife and a businessman. A security official who asked not to be named said the UPD official and even the party are linked to a terrorist group bent on destabilising Burundi, according to AFP.

Development models that harness the potential of specific areas can help solve the problem of regional disparities in social advancement in the world’s poorest countries, according to experts attending a United Nations - convened forum on local development. Participants at the three - day First Global Forum on Local Development, which opened in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, yesterday, stressed the importance of taking a regional or even district or commune - level approach to local development in developing countries.

A team of technical experts has been instructed to draft terms of reference acceptable to all five member states of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), local media reported on Wednesday. South African President Jacob Zuma said this was being done in order to resolve the contentious issue of an economic partnership agreement with the European Union. Zuma was speaking on Tuesday at Pretoria's Union Buildings, where he hosted Botswana's President Ian Khama on a two-day official visit.

The 2010 Ibrahim Index, released this week, shows recent gains in many countries in human and economic development but declines in political rights, personal safety and the rule of law. The Ibrahim Index, launched in four cities across the continent, is published by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, an organisation committed to supporting good governance and great leadership in Africa. The Index assesses the delivery of public goods and services to citizens by governments and non-state actors across 88 indicators.

Synthetic biology – the design and engineering of biological components that can be used to construct a variety of biological systems – is a hot scientific topic. But with enormous implications for human health, Gareth Jones and Mariam Mayet ask when the very real ethical concerns associated with the technology will be debated.

New mapping technologies make it easier to collect data on biodiversity, making biopiracy easier and taking intellectual property out of the hands of indigenous communities. ‘New forms of biopiracy and new strategies for biomass control may mean that the realisation of rights, benefits and justice for indigenous peoples are receding,’ Pat Mooney writes.

Watch out for the new biomass economy driven by large biotech, chemical, forestry and agribusiness companies, says Jim Thomas. The new biomassters are on a global looting spree of the world’s natural resources to feed the consumption and capital accumulation of the industrialised North.

‘The funding of climate change adaptation and mitigation-oriented programmes in Africa has opened up new forms of resource imperialism, extractive investment and land grabbing opportunities, in particular for European and Chinese companies,’ writes Blessing Karumbidza. Land-intensive projects negatively affect the livelihoods of people who rely on land for food and other resources. The case of Idete village in Tanzania, the site of a plantation by Norway-based Green Resources AS, is an example of how supposedly ‘clean development’ projects don’t always benefit the community.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/499/67531_kathulumbi_tmb.jpgRe… in the village of Kathulumbi in Kenya are building a seed bank to help strengthen biodiversity and access to uncontaminated seed varieties. Traditional staples like cassava and millet have been largely replaced by more cheaply available genetically modified varieties of maize. By preserving traditional seed varieties, villagers in Kathulumbi want to make seeds affordable, sustainable and more nutritious than their genetically modified counterparts.

Twenty-five years ago the idea that would become the Rural Advancement Foundation International (and then, in 2001, ETC Group) began with a conversation about seeds. A quarter of a century later, ETC Group is still talking about seeds, but the world has grown more complex: new technologies have developed; economies have globalised; multinational companies have expanded their reach; and wealth and capital are concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer giant corporations. Life itself has been manipulated, picked apart, reassembled – and then patented.

African countries suffer the most from the rapid trend towards the privatisation of African plants, writes Oduor Ong’wen. Even though the patented plant materials often originate in Africa, once they are patented by multinational corporations it becomes virtually impossible to access them for the public good.

Geoengineering is playing an increasingly more prominent role in northern-led approaches to tackling climate change, writes Diana Bronson, with proponents dismissively oblivious to the social and environmental consequences for populations around the world.

In his latest partisan move on Zimbabwe, South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma told EU Foreign Affairs Committee MEPs on Wednesday 29 September that 'the international community should lift sanctions against Zimbabwe', and claimed credit for giving leadership 'before anybody else did and the current power sharing deal was facilitated by South Africa'. Before the EU lifts targeted sanctions on Mugabe and his inner circle, they should note that the whole of Zimbabwe is 'a giant crime scene' based on what happened before and after the 2008 elections as well as what is happening on the ground now.

As the UN General Assembly prepares for the June 2012 environmental summit in Rio de Janeiro, the global response to the current set of crises around ‘food, fuel, finance and Fahrenheit’ are giving rise to even greater commoditisation of our lives, writes Pat Mooney. In the face of new ‘shock doctrines’ around agricultural erosion, ecosystem collapse, cultural extinctions and gender ‘disappeareds’, Mooney discusses the supposed therapies and ultimate pay-offs.

Sudan has announced November 14 as the start date for voter registration for a referendum on independence for the south, amid fears over the amount of time left to organise the vote. Under a 2005 peace agreement that ended Africa's longest-running civil war, the south is to vote on January 9 on whether to become independent or to remain part of a united Sudan.

Guinea will hold the delayed second round of its presidential election on October 24, a spokesman for the president of the military ruled West African minerals producer has said. The election is intended to return Guinea to civilian rule and, if it passes off smoothly, it will be its first properly democratic election since 1958 independence from France.