Ensure that the program has a well functioning financial/administrative capacity; act in the Country Director's absence as needed and as directed. 3 - 5 years overseas experience in high-level management for at least one NGO, including on the ground experience with programs.

Host governments, and international and national organizations; develop new programs; manage security and personnel. Liaise with Headquarters and oversee the establishment and implementation of program objectives, activities, evaluations and assessments. English and French fluency required.

The government of Gabon has heard that it needs to expand its inter-ministerial commission against child trafficking, reinforce its laws on illegal child immigration and repatriation, and sensitise its security forces in order to minimise the exploitation of children.

The Rwandan-backed rebel group governing much of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is limiting access to refugees in the Masisi region of North Kivu who have been forcibly repatriated from Rwanda, according to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has recommended establishing a headquarters for the UN Mission in DRC (MONUC) in Kisangani to enable it to shift "its centre of gravity" to the eastern part of the country. The headquarters would enable it to coordinate MONUC activities in the east and to spearhead disarmament, demobilisation, repatriation, resettlement and reintegration in the region, he said in a report on the mission.

The first round of the promising peace process mediated by the regional Inter-Governmental Authority for Development (IGAD) produced the breakthrough Machakos Protocol, with provisional agreements on the key issues of a self-determination referendum for the South, and religion and state. However, the government walked out of the second round after losing an important city on the battlefield in early September. IGAD mediators and the observer countries must devise a strategy for reviving the talks and then keeping the parties focused on negotiating a comprehensive solution, says an international think-tank.

Malawi's four major donors have asked that the government of President Bakili Muluzi allow wider consultation before going to parliament with another bill aimed at allowing him to run for a third term.

Liberian President Charles Taylor on Monday reiterated his opposition to calls for an international peacekeeping force to end the violent conflict in his country. "There will be no intervention force in Liberia as long as I am president," news agencies quoted him as saying. "Anybody who sets foot on Liberian soil without the consent of this government must be prepared to fight."

A retired high court judge, who clashed with a Zimbabwe government minister two months ago, was released on bail this week after spending three days in a squalid police cell. Magistrate Lillian Kudya granted bail of R1800 to Fergus Blackie, 65, and ordered him to appear again on November 18.

Nigeria plans to set up a refugee centre in the southeastern city of Calabar in expectation that the border dispute with Cameroon might trigger a refugee crisis, a senior official in charge of refugees said on Saturday.

The United Nations' World Food Programme expressed "major concern" last Friday over lack of access to people trapped in areas of conflict or close to military front lines in Liberia. WFP noted that thousands of people had abandoned the town of Tubmanburg and now it had a population of 5,000 to 6,000, compared to between 20,000 and 30,000 before the war.

As fuel and food queues lengthened on Thursday structural faults in the latest Zimbabwe-Libya $360-million fuel deal were emerging. Despite being granted a pick of the country's choice assets, the Libyan government has reportedly stepped up pressure on Zimbabwe to offer more assets of greater value as guarantee for sustained fuel supplies from the North African country.

Negotiations aimed at achieving a ceasefire agreement between the transitional government of Burundi and armed opposition movements will resume in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on Thursday, 19 September, according to a statement issued by the office of South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma on Monday.

President Paul Kagame of Rwanda announced last Friday that Rwandan troops would begin their pullout from neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) "in approximately one week's time".
* Related Links: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/world/africa/2262015.stm and http://irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29949

President Joseph Kabila of Congo was last week urged by Human Rights Watch to use his visit to the United Nations General Assembly to announce the release of one of the country’s leading human rights defenders. N’sii Luanda Shandwe has been held in Kinshasa for more than four months and is charged with treason and sheltering criminals. He is facing trial before the Military Order Court, and could be sentenced to death if found guilty.

Following a recent increase in fighting in Burundi, over 300 refugees have crossed the border into western Tanzania over the last three days, a humanitarian agency told IRIN last Friday.

Groups of Botswana's Gana and Gwi Bushmen, also known as the Basarwa, were reported to be returning to their homes in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in defiance of government attempts at forcing them to settle elsewhere.

The new United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Sergio Vieira de Mello, started his four-year term in Geneva last week, saying that he wanted to focus on the protection of civilian populations in conflict as well as the fight against racism and promotion of women's rights.

To deal with recurring drought and famine in Africa, long-term strategies must be developed to address the fundamental economic and political problems facing these, and other, African countries. It is imperative that significant investments are made by both local governments and foreign donors to strengthen the capacity of the countries to become more agriculturally productive, and for local people and institutions to deal with the effects of droughts and related epidemics, according to a new report.
* Related Link: http://www.unfoundation.org/unwire/index.asp

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo urged U.N. members Sunday to seek a legally binding agreement to curb trafficking in small arms, which he said worsens many conflicts in Africa. Many African wars were exacerbated "by the influx of small arms into the continent," he said.