The Mutual Review of Development Effectiveness in Africa Report 2009 is both an exercise in 'mutual accountability'- assessing what has been done to deliver on commitments to Africa's development, and a review of 'development effectiveness'- assessing what results have been achieved. It is also intended to be of practical use to political leaders in looking forward to the key policy challenges ahead.

African states and institutions are raising hundreds of millions of dollars in trade credits and business loans to shore up Zimbabwe's bankrupt unity government in the absence of a financial rescue package from the west. Regional officials fear that the reluctance of western and multilateral creditors to provide direct financial support could lead to the collapse of the fragile power-sharing deal they brokered between Robert Mugabe, president, and Morgan Tsvangirai, his opposition rival and now prime -minister.

A third of the World Bank’s support for health, nutrition and population programmes over the past decade has been unsatisfactory, the multilateral agency’s own evaluation unit has concluded. Out of $17bn (€12.9bn, £11.5bn) in support to countries, only two-thirds had satisfactory outcomes, with many projects marred by inadequate risk assessment, weak monitoring and evaluation, and lack of accountability, said its Independent Evaluation Group.

Kenya has been challenged to exploit the opportunities found within the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) in an effort cushion the country from the imminent challenges posed by the ongoing global recession, Kenya’s Trade Minister Amos Kimunya said last week.

Following Jacob Zuma and the African National Congress's (ANC) victory in the 2009 South African election, Sanusha Naidu considers the role of the Congress of the People (COPE) and the country's other parties in chipping away at the ANC's dominance within much of the country. While the ANC's victory proved conclusive, the emergence of parties like COPE and the Democratic Alliance (DA) reveals a political landscape very much in flux, a situation strongly reflective of the South African electorate's underlying desire for effective political representation and a better life, Naidu concludes.

arid environment and barren economy are fuelling divisions among the country's people, says Ramesh M Shah. If the country was more prosperous, discrimination would fall away.

Tokwe is grateful for efforts to ensure that African children in the diaspora retain links to their cultural heritage through literature.

cc It is clear why Zimbabweans want a change of government, writes Adolf Mkenda, but it isn’t clear why the West has been more critical of Mugabe than other leaders with worse records on human rights and democracy. Mkenda argues that two key factors sparked this response: The international connections of white Zimbabweans, and Mugabe’s reneging on the IMF’s structural adjustment program in favour of nationalisation and land seizure, in contradiction with the neo-liberal thinking of the time. ‘International efforts to promote democracy and human rights must be accepted and encouraged, but these must not be allowed to be used abusively as a selective instrument of punishing governments that chart out an independent path for their own people,’ writes Mkenda.

cc Disillusionment with the failure of the 2008 peace deal is the only point of consensus in Kenya, writes Kwamchetsi Makokha, with Kenyans using their shared sense of despondency to hide their frustrations with the decision to force two ideologically parallel political systems to work together for five years. Outlining the demise of the country’s institutions from the judiciary to parliament, Makokha argues that ‘unless the international community forcefully reengages with Kenya and progressive civil society finds a way to engage the middle class to reflect more on their role in rescuing the country, the future looks bleak’. While those who wish to ‘provide leadership face innumerable risks and palpable threats’, the absence of individuals with ‘unquestionable moral authority in the public sphere… feeds the despondency that has come to characterise Kenya’, Makokha concludes.

The North America-based Ekiti Focus Group has strongly condemned election violence and intimidation in Nigeria’s Ekiti State, describing reported cases of ‘arson, maiming, ballot stuffing, ballot hijacking, and shooting’ as ‘barbaric acts’. In a statement the group called for ‘the release of true and valid votes of the remaining election results’; a re-run of a free and fair election in Oye; the prosecution of all the perpetrators of violence and electoral crime, no matter how highly placed; adequate security for life and property of all Ekiti people; and no declaration of state of emergency in Ekiti.

Though confessing that she was originally unconvinced about the call for a seven-day sex fast from the G10 women's coalition, Wandia Njoya discusses her surprise at the chauvinistic and hyper-masculined reaction to the fast from much of Kenyan society. Given that the majority of Kenyan men clearly do not expect sex from their wives every single day, Njoya considers what really informs the sexist outpouring of discontent, concluding that it is ultimately about power and domination. Essentially reflecting the absence of effective leadership on the national political stage, Njoya laments the inability of ordinary men to offer an alternative model of manhood to one which has simply exploited Kenya's people, resources and environment. Stressing that Kenya's men need to grow up for the greater good of the country, Njoya salutes the G10 for exposing the deep flaws of Kenyan masculinity.

cc Following the Kenyan Orange Democratic Movement's (ODM) allegations of Agricultural Minister William Ruto's role in a maize scandal, Joachim Omolo Ouko discusses the internal mudslinging and internecine feuding within Prime Minister Raila Odinga's party. Ruto's problems with the party stem from his criticisms of Raila last year, Ouko notes, compelling the prime minister to seek a means of fixing the rift developing with the ODM, particularly as his own son is instead now alleged to be involved in the scandal.

cc Kenya's president and the prime minister knew people would be angered by the inadequate increases the government has made to the minimum wage, writes Joachim Omolo Ouko, and that’s why they stayed away from Labour Day celebrations. Workers threw stones and ‘shouted at’ labour minister John Munyes, who was invited byCOTU to make the government address in Nairobi’s Uhuru Park. Despite recent growth in GDP, essential commodities are still too expensive for the average Kenyan worker, says Ouko, with many unable to send their children to school, let alone feed them.

cc Zionist efforts to keep Palestinian rights off the agenda at the

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/431/56103_Zvisinei_Sandi2_tmb… an interview with , Zvisinei Sandi discusses the intended audience for her works and her approach to writing. A Politics and Literature in Southern Africa lecturer at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University, Sandi's short stories have been published in anthologies like Creatures, Great and Small (Mambo Press, 2005) and

The heads of state of the East African Community (EAC) met in Arusha to discuss the reports from national consultations on the rapid formation of the East African federation in Rwanda and Burundi, the common market protocol and is expected to come up with a joint position on the proposed African Union Government. Prior to the heads of state summit, Tanzanian negotiators had differed with their peers from other EAC country members on three issues included in the draft protocol, namely: national ID documents, access to and use of land as well as permanent residence. Furthermore, airlines in the region have expressed their impatience over delays in instituting a single EAC visa, a move that would boost tourism in the community.

African foreign ministers met for an extraordinary session in Sirte, Libya to deliberate on the process of transforming the African Union Commission (AUC) into a Union Authority, focusing on the key ministries that would constitute the new authority. The ministers adopted a report on the creation of an AU Authority to replace the existing AUC and agreed on the structures, the plan of action for the Authority and on the number of Authority ministries, but decided to present to the heads of state and government issues regarding foreign affairs, security and defence. However, research from the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) argues that the transformation should offer an opportunity to institute some of the recommendations called for by the Audit Report, in particular those concerning the Commission’s independence and capacity.

Elsewhere, the chairperson of the AUC Jean Ping, appealed to all member states of the pan-African organisation and its partners to ‘refrain from any action likely to endorse illegality in Madagascar’ and urged them to support the AU position as expressed by the peace and security council of suspending the country from the AU. During a seminar hosted by the African security analysis programme, lssaka K. Souaré ‘noted that to date the AU has been consistent in its application of its policy’ towards unconstitutional changes in government by way of a military coup d’état but that there appeared to be no coherent position with regards to the other forms such as those seen in Zimbabwe and Kenya. He further suggested that ‘the AU should not only be reactionary but should also begin with the condemnation of undemocratic governments or those abusing the democratic process’.

The Commonwealth Secretariat and the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie organised ‘The Commonwealth Ministerial Debt Sustainability Forum’ at the World Bank headquarters in Washington D.C. for finance ministers from some 53 African and Caribbean countries to compare notes on how to deal with the global financial turmoil in developing countries. Leaders of the world’s 20 biggest economies (G20), acknowledging that the global financial crisis has a top-heavy impact on poor countries, had earlier promised to avail hundreds of billions of United States dollars to those countries as part of a $1.1 trillion plan to rescue the world economy. African leaders who met the United Kingdom Prime Minister, the host of the G20 summit, delivered a strong message that the international community had to honour their commitments ‘to increase aid, improve trade access and agree to a fairer, more flexible system of managing international financial affairs’ to help the continent protect the development gains of recent years. The AU ministers in charge of commerce, during their fifth ordinary session on the global economic and financial crisis on trade and development in Africa, highlighted the need to place African economic development at the centre of international efforts to stabilise the ailing financial sector and to build strategies towards the recovery of the global economy. The AUC, the African Development Bank and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa organised a two-day workshop at the AUC headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to analyse trends and difficulties encountered by countries with the aim of seeking solutions and accelerating the progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals in Africa.

In other news, a Pan African delegation of farming leaders, national parliamentarians and civil society organisation representatives travelled to Berlin, Brussels, Madrid, Paris and London to engage their European peers regarding the Economic Partnership Agreements and the European Common Agricultural Policy, instruments that risk having disastrous consequences on African small scale farmers. Also, African trade ministers have reiterated their position that all development-oriented partnerships between Africa and the European Union (EU) should be geared towards the attainment of the objectives of eradication of poverty, achievement of sustainable growth and deepening of Africa’s integration into the global trading and economic systems. The AU and the EU have jointly launched a new ten million Euro initiative called ‘Better training for safer food in Africa’ to help African states improve their food safety systems for the benefit of their populations and economies. Agriculture ministers of the G8 and G5 met for a two-day conference in Italy to discuss the global food crisis and develop concrete proposals to address food security. Finally, African journalists are invited to join the Twenty Ten project, which is inspired by the 2010 FIFA World Cup and being organised on the African continent for the first time.

Support Gaddafi's good intentions: Christine Kaluma

Fully aware most Congolese want to remain Congolese: Herman J. Cohen

New book on Joseph Kony and the LRA: Peter Eichstaedt

Migingo is a way of avoiding more serious issues: Devapriyo Das

Cameroonians shamed by corruption: Mckingsley

Concerned about South Africa's future: Edi Jarju

Zumababwe!: Charles Sondergaard

I wish to say a few words about Bantu. Specifically on Bantu's, Ndungi Githuku's and their dedicated team's role in drama therapy at Langata womens prison. Bantu and team embraced the open door policy of the prisons by pioneering the use of drama therapy to bring the prisoners and staff to a level where they could live together by accepting that in addressing their pasts and presents they could see in each other not just prisoners and prison officers but women whose only difference was the colour of the uniform they wore.

The three principals in the unity government, Robert Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara, have met five times recently to discuss the controversies surrounding the implementation of the Global Political Agreement, but they have still failed to come up with a solution. Observers say this ‘dilly-dallying’ has been part of Zanu PF's strategy to wear the MDC down while not addressing the fundamental issues.

In every country, bank notes carry unique serial numbers which are never reapeated, except, it seems, in Zimbabwe. Dealers in the USA, Germany and South Africa who sell pristine-quality paper money to collectors are turning up Zimbabwe dollar notes with duplicate numbers, especially on the $100bn "Agro-cheques" that were released last year.