The World Bank continues to influence developing country economic policies through placing conditions on loan agreements, despite concrete commitments by the Bank to significantly reduce the economic policy reforms required for the receipt of Bank funds in order to ensure an increase in recipient country policy space. What is new, however, are the more discreet channels of influence. This briefing finds that the conditions for the receipt of loans are increasingly being pushed in through the side door, for example by being stipulated outside of the loan agreement itself in side documents and letters, contravening responsible financing principles.

The date for long-delayed presidential elections in Ivory Coast has been set for 31 October, Prime Minister Guillaume Soro has said. A rebellion lead by Mr Soro split the country in half in 2002 and polls are seen as a vital step to end the crisis. Mr Soro joined a unity government in 2007, but the peace process has been dogged by delays.

South Africa has recalled its ambassador to Rwanda following a diplomatic row over the shooting of an exiled Rwandan general in Johannesburg. Gen Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, a critic of Rwandan President Paul Kagame, was shot and wounded in June. South Africa said it had not broken diplomatic ties and no connection was being made between the ambassador's withdrawal and the shooting.

Kenyans have overwhelmingly voted in a new constitution, which would redefine the political landscape and make it easy to send a sitting President to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to face trial for crimes, including genocide, as part of the East African nation's range of law reforms. Kenya's draft constitution easily sailed through during the 4 August vote, with the provisional poll results Thursday showing at least 67.9 percent of the voters had given it their approval, against 33 percent of the voters who opposed the draft law.

As Kenyans go to the polls to vote on a new constitution, Dibussi Tande reviews reactions across the African blogosphere. Tande also looks at lessons for Kenya from Ghana, and humorous calls for a new Malawian flag.

Assaults on MDC officials and supporters intensified in the Chipinge area of Manicaland on Wednesday and Thursday, as ZANU PF continued its campaign of violence linked to the Constitutional outreach program. Provincial spokesperson and Makoni South MP, Pishayi Muchauraya, told SW Radio Africa that two MDC officials sustained broken limbs and MDC vehicles were attacked and vandalized by youth militia and CIO agents in separate attacks.

Sokwanele is launching an online Constitution survey that aims to gather views from Zimbabweans everywhere, including the millions of Zimbabweans who live in the Diaspora and who have been largely excluded from the constitution-making process. he constitution survey features a mix of questions. Some questions directly address content usually included in a constitution, while others seek to survey opinions on issues of concern to Zimbabweans. These issues, and Zimbabwean opinions on them, should guide those who are tasked to draft the new document and our views should be honoured in the detail making up a new constitution.

The Refugee Law Project (RLP), Faculty of Law, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, in collaboration with the African Transitional Justice Research Network (ATJRN) has established an Institute for African Transitional Justice (IATJ). The institute is pleased to announce its first short course on African Transitional Justice. The course will take place in Kampala, Uganda from 21 – 27 November 2010. This week-long residential course will consist of a series of interactive lectures, workshops, and round table discussions focusing the theme “Addressing Transitional Justice in the Context of African Challenges”.

Provisional results of the referendum in Kenya indicates a landslide victory for the new constitution - at last a home grown one. Yash Ghai and Jill Cottrell Ghai discuss the challenges of implementation and the importance of Kenya’s people ‘proclaiming their sovereignty’ through a constitution ‘made by the people, for the people’.

Now two years in the making, the South African state's War on Poverty (WoP) is ‘one of the most clandestine operations in South African history’, writes Patrick Bond.

Gender is far more dynamic and variable than most understand, writes Ken Rhode, while Lindsay highlights that some transgender women/men may actually identify as men or women rather than as transgender.

!!! Nigerians home and abroad have a lot to learn from this piece. Brother keep on spreading the gospel of Fairness, Justice, Faith and Peace because we are confident in the victory of Good over Evil.

Thank you for the comprehensive updates. With this Africa will go somewhere.

Once again a feast of knowledge and wisdom useful also to us in the work we do for justice and equality. You certainly illustrate the truth of the axiom, 'Knowledge is power', and you reinforce facts with a people-rooted system of thought and analysis, properly contextualised in history and personal experience.

Peace, love and blessings on your work.

South Africa’s media could soon be working under tighter restrictions if a new ANC bill restricting press freedom is approved, writes Richard Pithouse. The bill proposes to give government bodies the right to withhold information from the media, the creation of media tribunals and the publication of a new pro-ANC newspaper, removing the right of any media to critique government policies and leaders. ‘If the ANC was committed to the democratisation of society it would be working to democratise the media by legislating for real diversity, generous subsidies for autonomous community media and serious state support for genuinely public broadcasting. What they are doing, instead, is trying to bully the media into submission to an increasingly authoritarian and conservative regime,’ says Pithouse.

Following a century of colonialism, contemporary neoliberal imperialism is the cause of many of the crises ravaging Africa, writes Ayo Ademiluyi, with particularly harsh consequences for Nigeria’s working class. With oil accounting for over 90 per cent of government revenue, local industry has collapsed, leading to widespread unemployment and increasing poverty. As child and maternal mortality rates continue to increase and life expectancy decreases despite the wealth oil exports have brought the government, Ademiluyi calls for the workers’ movement to galvanise itself to transform society.

‘Any attempt to strictly define Africa and Africans in terms of one race or culture without acknowledging its diversity is discriminatory,’ writes Chambi Chachage. ‘What we now know as Africa is such a complexity. A cursory look at its history shows that it has always contained a variety of practices and peoples. Its dynamic nature – for every cultural and geographical entity is not static as the theory of relativity shows us – has allowed it to give and take from other continents.’

Following an extensive parliamentary inquiry in 2002, the Belgian government assumed a portion of responsibility for the murder of Patrice Lumumba, writes Stephen R. Weissman. But ‘controversy has continued to swirl over allegations of US government responsibility’, despite a 1975 investigation concluding that it was not ‘in anyway involved in the killing’. ‘It is now clear,’ writes Weissman, ‘that conclusion was wrong.’

When you think of Zimbabwe, think not just of Mugabe. Think also of Thomas Mapfumo, the Mbira Man. Beautiful mbira. Metal, wood and calabash. Ancient instrument of Zimbabwe - channel to the ancestors.

Kenya is once again at a crucial stage in its pursuit of a democratic constitution capable of bringing stability and unity to the country. Energy and resources are being focused towards ensuring the constitution referendum process is not plagued with violence in a repeat of the tragic events following the 2007 election. One innovative initiative is to allow the citizens themselves to provide up-to-date reports of potential trouble through the use of mobile phones and the internet.