The Director of Development is responsible for all aspects of the management of The Climate Group’s Development Office based in London, and is responsible for global co-ordination of fundraising activities in the regional offices of The Climate Group. He/she will report for all operational purposes to the Chief Operating Officer, but have a direct access link for the purpose of strategy and major gift approaches with the Chief Executive. He/she will be part of the International Management Team.

I understand what Pambazuka is about - a platform, and outlet for those angry indignant people who have experienced an injustice and raised their pen to wage a war against it, with a pent-up feeling simmering inside them. It is there for them. I know what it really means because I was in search of such a platform myself for a few years and I tell you it has never been easy to find one. But it is not for those who have already spent their anger and indignation. I really appreciate your service in providing this platform as it gives voice for the voiceless.

I think 'Kumekucha', a thought-provoking title, is more attractive for your newsletter than the current 'kumepamabazuka'. The two words have more or less same meaning but there is a stronger emphasis in 'Kumekucha'. Experts in Swahili language will agree with me in this proposal. Just a thought I wanted to share with you if you really care to popularise your newsletter to a Swahili speaking readership.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick on Thursday spoke out against corruption in poor countries that receive the bank's loans, echoing the anti-graft stance of his controversial predecessor, Paul Wolfowitz. "If people are trying to steal the World Bank's money, we can't accept that," Zoellick told reporters.

The demons of the past will remain the evils that will continue cursing the development of ICT in Africa, if not exorcised. This was the sentiment held by the delegates attending the session on 'ICT Policy in Africa' at the SANGONeT conference. Delegates from various countries in Africa were given an opportunity to share experiences of the information technology communication (ICT) environment in their countries.

It all seems almost too normal to be newsworthy. On August 11, Sierra Leone goes to the polls to choose a new president among three candidates, all pledging to reform government, create jobs, address health and education, and expand the economy. For most countries, this would hardly merit outside attention. But Sierra Leone remains for many the ultimate symbol of the failed state, the classic case of a violent crisis arising from environmental degradation, crime, overpopulation, and ethnic divisions. What seems normal elsewhere is exceptional here.

Poor farmers in Tanzania are using modern information and communication technologies like mobile phones and even the Internet to get access to market information, and to learn how to build better and more collaborative market chains from producer to consumer. Market “spies”, known locally as shu shu shus, investigate prices and other aspects of local markets, then use their mobile phones to report the information back to their villages. Soon they might be using SMS to access Internet-based databases of locally-relevant market information.

This paper published by the Institute for Security Studies examines the problems of civilian protection created by the war in Darfur, focusing on the role of African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) and the challenges it has encountered in protecting civilians in Darfur. The paper argues for the strengthening of the AU force in the context of the UN support and the fast-tracking of the peace process within Darfur between Khartoum and the Darfur rebels. It also draws attention to the need for dialogue between Khartoum and its neighbours.

A report published by Wateraid argues that there is a genuine risk that the human development related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will not be met if international donors continue to pursue single issue ‘global causes’ instead of building an aid system that will respond to the complex needs of poor communities.

Climate change climbed another rung up the global agenda when the United Nations General Assembly held its first ever plenary debate in New York on “Climate Change as a Global Challenge” on 31 July – 2 August 2007. Many speakers stressed that climate change has emerged as the major environment crisis of our times, but it must be dealt with in the context of development.

FEATURE: Mvemba Dizolele on coltan, conflict and the DRC

COMMENTS AND ANALYSIS
- Laurie Nathan asks is if the Darfur Roadmap is likely to bear fruit
- Mammo Muchie calls for an alternative mediation process in Ethiopia
- If government was a restaurant, then … writes Rakesh Rajani
- Betty Muragori casts African eyes on America’s virtual segregation

LETTERS
- Jacques Depelchin responds on ‘A farewell to activism’
- Old habits die hard
- Calls for an end to the harassment of human rights defenders

BOOKS & ARTS: The double bass and a political instrument

PODCASTS: Don’t turn away from Sudan and Darfur

AU MONITOR: As AU Monitoring work expands, so does the round up of key news
WOMEN AND GENDER: African sex workers still at risk of violence
CONFLICT AND EMERGENCIES: Morocco and Polisario in new talks
HUMAN RIGHTS: Mauritanians outlaw slavery
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: Slum-dwellers’ leader arrested
REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRATION: More Kenyans flee attacks
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: Massive irregularities in Zimbabwe voter registration
CORRUPTION: Nigeria, US cooperate on bribe probe
DEVELOPMENT: Foreign aid will not make poverty history
HEALTH AND HIV/Aids: Victory for affordable ARVs
LGBTI: Circumcision message could confuse gay community
ENVIRONMENT: UN debates climate change
LAND AND LAND RIGHTS: Women still back of the queue on land access
MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: Zambian Minister’s attack on journalists condemned
INTERNET AND TECHNOLOGY: Wireless launched for rural Uganda
PLUS: e-newsletters and mailings lists; courses, seminars and workshops and jobs

*Pambazuka News now has a Del.icio.us page, where you can view the various websites that we visit to keep our fingers on the pulse of Africa! Visit

SADC Member States are scaling up the provision of regional infrastructure, a critical foundation for the speedy realization of regional integration objectives. Infrastructure support intervention has been placed at the core of the region's community-building agenda and concerted efforts are being made to ensure the availability of an integrated, efficient and cost-effective system to sustain regional economic development and trade.

Nigeria's anti-corruption police is working to uncover who allegedly received $6 million in bribes from a U.S. oil services executive who has been indicted in the United States, the head of the force said on Thursday. U.S. prosecutors have accused Jason Steph, a former manager at Willbros Group Inc., and others of bribing Nigerian officials between 2003 and 2005 to help the Houston-based firm secure a $387 million contract to build a gas pipeline.

There are reports that hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans could have failed to register their names with the mobile voter registration teams, after officials avoided certain areas associated with opposition supporters. MDC legislator Editor Matamisa, who first raised the issue of the irregularities with her party, claimed on Wednesday that the mobile registration teams did not bother to visit her constituency, which has close to 10 000 residents who want be added to the voters’ roll.

Climate change could lead to potential food shortages and increase the risk of hunger in developing countries, the head of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has said. However, industrialized countries could see an increase in their crop yields, FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf said in a speech in Chennai, India.

The United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Somalia François Lonsény Fall has called on the war-ravaged East African nation’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG) to invite opposition groups to join the reconciliation meeting currently under way in the capital Mogadishu. “We would like to see the stakeholders who renounce violence inside and outside the country take part in this process,” Mr. Fall said in an address to the National Reconciliation Congress.

The United Nations envoy tasked with re-energizing the peace process in Darfur is heading to the violence-wracked Sudanese region for talks with local authorities, tribal leaders, civil society groups, Arab nomads and internally displaced persons (IDPs). Jan Eliasson, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Darfur, travels first to El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur state, before heading later to Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state, where he is expected to stay overnight.

Christian Aid is calling for the Angolan government to stop its harassment of human rights defenders.

Angolan government officials have recently accused seven human rights organisations of illegal activities. Two Christian Aid partners, SOS Habitat and the Association for Justice, Peace and Democracy (AJPD), are among those publicly named as lawbreakers.

Christian Aid is deeply concerned by these accusations, and is calling on the European Union to take urgent action to protect these groups so that they can continue their vital work. Our partners are concerned that, without international pressure, they may face legal action to shut down their activities.

On 10 July 2007, the Director of the Angolan government's Technical Unit for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid (UTCAH), Mr. Pedro Walipi Kalenga, claimed in a radio broadcast that certain national and international organizations working in Angola were violating the law and mobilising the population to oppose the government.

Mr. Walipi went on to say the organizations were sponsored by opposition political parties, and using human rights claims as a cover for illegal activities. He threatened that the cases would be investigated by the public prosecutor.

The seven organizations accused are Associação Justiça, Paz e Democracia (AJPD), SOS Habitat and Associação Mãos Livres, Open Society, the National Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute and Search for Common Ground.

SOS Habitat protects poor people’s housing rights by publicising and opposing illegal evictions. AJPD works to protect prisoners by denouncing prison beatings, police brutality and torture, and also promotes the rights of people living with HIV and other marginalised groups.

This is not the first time that SOS Habitat has been the target of the Angolan government. In May 2006 Prime Minister Fernando Dias Dos Santos publicly accused SOS Habitat of inciting unrest.

‘These organisations have a vital and legitimate role to play in building a fair and democratic society in Angola,’ says Maria do Rosario Advirta, Christian Aid’s programme manager for Angola. ‘These accusations are totally baseless; they are simply intended to intimidate our partners and curb their legitimate activities.’

Christian Aid and seven other international organisations has sent an open letter to Dr. Luís Amado, the President of the Council of the European Union, asking that the EU pressures the Angolan government to retract these accusations, and respect the right of human rights groups to work freely, without government interference.

The signatories to the letter are: Christian Aid, Amnesty International (AI), the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), Front Line, Global Witness, the Interchurch Organization for Development Cooperation (ICCO), the Netherlands Institute for Southern Africa (NiZA) and Oxfam Novib.

To date none of the Angolan organizations accused have been formally notified of any wrongdoing or informed of the legal basis for such accusations.

The Maandagshoek community, nestled in a valley just outside Burgersfort (a booming mine town that straddles the Mpumalanga-Limpopo border), is theoretically one of the richest places on the planet. But here, where platinum rises up from the bowels of the earth to empower a new breed of capitalist, the people of this valley still wait for the illusive dream of a ‘better life’ for all’.

A resolution for the adoption of an Additional Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, on Freedom of Expression was drafted at the CSO AU Summit conference on Strengthening Freedom of Expression organised in Accra, Ghana 25-26 June 2007. The communique and resolution are available at