Corrupt practices in the private sector are on the increase, Institute of Southern African Development (ISAD) president Lewis Mosho has observed. Mosho said ISAD has identified that various forms of corruption exist in private sector firms and professional associations in their business dealings among themselves and between them and government institutions.

groundWork, a local environmental NGO, is joining forces with international NGOs - such as Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, CorpWatch, Third World Network, Corporate Europe Observatory and the Goldman Foundation - as well as local NGO’s and community based organisations to host a variety of exciting events during the week prior to the WSSD. These activities will form part of a Corporate Accountability Week, which will take place from the 19th - 23rd August in Sandton.

The Digital Freedom Network is looking for experienced writers throughout the world to write articles on a volunteer basis about local human rights issues. The articles are usually 500-1500 words in length and will be published on the organization's Web site, www.dfn.org.

From 26 August to 4 September the world's leaders will be meeting in Johannesburg for the World Summit on Sustainable Develoment (WSSD), to agree a strategy for curing the world's environmental and social ills, building on the landmark successes of the Rio Earth Summit ten years ago. Or so the publicity would have us believe. In fact, fears are growing that the summit will be seized as an opportunity to further push the corporate-led globalisation agenda, with genuine environmental and social concerns being sidelined as governments push their own vested interests and those of the rash of corporations and corporate lobby groups attending the summit.

By the second day of the UN's Bali Preparatory Committee (PrepComm) for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), most delegates from the Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) oscillated between disgust and depression. The "Chairman's Report"--the summary language that all the world governments were trying to agree upon--was little more than a neoliberal anti-environmental agenda. Naty Bernardino of the International South Group Network called it "Rio minus 10." As the governmental delegates were debating the language for the final declaration, an angry UN official, thinking his microphone had been turned off, was overhead lamenting, "What are we going to do about the United States?"

The United Nations and international aid agencies are sending their first humanitarian evaluation mission to the region around Uvira, South Kivu, in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where fighting has displaced over 50,000 people.

Corporations (both local and international) investing in developing countries affect millions of poor and vulnerable people. How can corporations learn more about the political, historical, social and cultural environment in which they operate? Can they engage in dialogue with vulnerable people and become partners in, and not obstacles to, sustainable development?

Since independence, Zambia has received billions of dollars of development aid from Europe. Yet at least 75 percent of the population remains poor and over the last three decades, life has become increasingly difficult for the average Zambian. Has aid done anything to reduce poverty?

The correctional services department plans to strengthen its internal anti-corruption unit using forensic investigators from the elite Scorpions unit.

In the context of widespread criticism of the WTO , South Africa chose to project itself internationally as the "bridge between the developed and the developing world". But within South Africa, government spokespersons have been proudly proclaiming South Africa's "leadership role" in the WTO "in the best interests of the developing world". As the evidence in this analysis shows, it is highly debateable whether this self proclaimed "leading role" is a reality among developing countries.

Globalisation: it’s a buzzword you can’t escape. For some it’s the ticket to a democratic world of instant communications and global prosperity. For others it’s a money-mad juggernaut, spinning wildly out of control, threatening both cultural and biological diversity. Today the Western consumer model has seeped into every corner of the globe while gaps in wealth, food security and social provision continue to grow. The No-Nonsense Guide to Globalisation traces the journey towards a borderless world. And in the process it shows that the promise of globalisation is seductive, powerful, and ultimately hollow.

The United Nations warned on Wednesday that escalating fighting in Liberia threatened peace in neighboring countries, especially Sierra Leone, and hindered aid groups trying to help thousands of refugees in the region.

Since the ending of the Jubilee 2000 campaign, activists have been encouraged to divert their energies into other campaigns - around trade, aid and Aids. Western development and finance ministers and IMF staff have breathed a sigh of relief, pleased that the "crude analysis" of the debt campaigners has been replaced by debates about trade. It is of course vital to highlight the double standards of western governments; and to pressurise these governments to reverse trade injustice, increase aid and fight Aids. But it takes a tragedy like the one unfolding in Malawi to remind us that debt remains the very lynchpin of global economic injustice.

Bernard Ndorainywe, 39, is a Burundian who has lived in the Nduta refugee camp in western Tanzania since 1996, and he wants to go home. However, as with many of the 100,000 refugees in the camps in Kibondo District, his home is in southern Burundi, where the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is not facilitating repatriation.

Aid agencies have welcomed an announcement that the United Kingdom will increase aid to Africa, but said it is likely that there will be little progress on debt relief, trade and funding for education at the G8 summit.

Tony Blair underlined his determination yesterday to make Africa a priority at the G8 summit when he announced British aid to the continent would rise to £1bn a year by 2006. The initiative requires African nations to institute good governance and crack down on corruption as part of a drive to make development cash more effective.

Since the mid-1990s, the G8 annual summits have incorporated more social issues and developing country concerns into their agendas, but they have failed to demonstrate much progress on these issues. Similarly, the G8 has failed to produce the kind of global leadership necessary to jettison the failed neoliberal model for managing the global economy. For many NGOs and developing countries, the G8 summit remains a symbol of elite global governance, but concerns about the legitimacy of this self-constituted forum are increasingly overshadowed by criticisms of the forum's ineffectiveness.

More than 30 people may have suffocated deep inside a tanzanite mine in northern Tanzania last Thursday after an oxygen pump failed, mining officials said. Alex Magayane, Arusha regional mines officer, said rescue workers had pulled one body from the gemstone mine in Mererani, 24 miles southeast of Arusha, and believed 31 others were still trapped inside.

The US government announced that it will make a $14 million aid donation to enable hunger-stricken Malawi to import the staple food, maize. The Unites States Agency for International Development (USAID) said the funds would be used to buy 40 000 metric tones of maize.

On 14 June 2002, RSF called on the government of Somaliland, an autonomous region of Somalia, to reverse its 5 June ban on all privately-owned radio stations. The Information Ministry announced that "no other voice" could be heard on the air except that of government-run Radio Hargeysa, and that privately-owned stations would not be permitted, because of "potential dangers." It warned anyone with transmitting equipment to hand it over to the authorities and warned those who did not do so would be "prosecuted in court." "This move is a serious obstacle to press freedom and the growth of independent and diverse expression in the region," RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard said in a letter to Somaliland President Dahir Riyale Kahin. "The government has taken this step because it knows most of the region's inhabitants get their news from the radio," Ménard added.