A continuing economic crisis in Benin has left the government without funds to pay for presidential elections in March 2006, according to Finance Minister Cosme Sehlin. Unlike the heads of states of regional neighbours Chad, Burkina Faso and Gabon, President Mathieu Kerekou has agreed to step down next March when his second mandate expires. But Benin's cash crunch could harm this gesture of democracy. During parliamentary question time last week, Finance Minister Sehlin confirmed that government books are in the red to the tune of US $57 million, with no means of raising the US $58 million more to pay for elections.

Africa looks set to be betrayed by rich nations at World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks in December in what would be a bitterly disappointing end to 2005 - the supposed "Year for Africa" - a new report published today (November 14) by Oxfam reveals. On the same day that Prime Minister Tony Blair will make a speech on the importance of concluding the WTO talks, Oxfam's report warns that Africa is the only continent to have grown poorer in the past 25 years and sub-Saharan Africa is the only region in the world to have lost market share in agricultural trade.

Source: Millennium Campaign

The United Nations has developed procedures to curb sexual abuse by peacekeepers, but the measures are not being put into force because of a deep-seated culture of tolerating sexual exploitation, an independent review reported Tuesday, November 15.

Dgroups is a starting point for fostering groups and communities in international development, a partnership which caters to both individuals and organisations by offering tools and services that bring people together. Dgroups is an online home for groups and communities interested in international development. In Dgroups, one can find the online tools and services needed to support the activities of a team, a group, a network, a partnership or a community. Dgroups is also a place to find groups who are interested in the same topics in international development as you.

Ex-deputy president Jacob Zuma sang and danced with supporters on Saturday, November 12 after hearing that his corruption trial would start in the high court on July 31 next year. Zuma was cheered by the large crowd outside the magistrate's court as he sang the struggle song Mshini. According to people in the crowd, the song means "bring my machine" but implies "bring my machinegun". Speaking in Zulu, Zuma explained the judicial process to the crowd and asked for them to be disciplined and not repeat any incidents such as the one at his previous court hearing when people burnt T-shirts showing the face of President Thabo Mbeki. Earlier a court official formally served Zuma with an indictment outlining the two corruption charges against him.

Female candidates in Egypt's upcoming legislative elections should be given as much say in their country's political affairs - and as much coverage in the media - as their male counterparts, women parliamentary hopefuls said on Monday, November 14. Speaking at a conference held by the Arab Alliance for Women (AAW), a local NGO, women candidates from a range of backgrounds stressed the need for more female representation in national politics and for a greater recognition of the role of women in society as a whole. “Despite clear differences in their ideologies, all the candidates are united in their struggle to voice women’s concerns,” Heber Radwan, AAW chairwoman, said at the conference. “This election is the first step towards the true integration of women into Egyptian politics.”

Source: Agenda News

This event is organised by CODESRIA, the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa. Selected topics to be explored include: mobilising citizen participation in the development process; engendering African development; culture, tradition and custom in African development; social policies for sustained African economic development; trade and industrial policies for sustained development in Africa; and the media in the development process.

A key starting point of this resource is that "monitoring and evaluation processes rely on personal judgement as well as theory. Bear in mind that there is no single, best evaluation method." Given these challenges, the resource does not provide a set of rules for monitoring and evaluating information and communication for development (ICD) programmes; rather, it introduces a range of approaches for users to choose from at various stages in programme design and evaluation.

Kindernothlife, a German NGO and Eurodad member, has produced a new report, assessing the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) processes in Ethiopia, Kenya and Zambia from a child rights perspective. The report links up with a previous study, titled 'Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers: blind to the rights of the (working) child?', which showed that the majority of the PRSPs did not deal with child labour. The study in 2004 called for a case study with a wider scope that also goes beyond a mere text analysis. This report aims to address this gap.

At the end of this month, the Moroccan Equity and Reconciliation Commission (Instance Équité et Réconciliation or IER) will be handing its final report to King Mohammed VI and formally ending its mandate. The Commission's final report and the processes it recommends provide Morocco with a tremendous opportunity to advance victims' rights, prevent future abuses, and strengthen the rule of law. In its 33-page report, "Transitional Justice in Morocco: A Progress Report," the ICTJ traces the historical process, dating back to the early 1990's, that led to the formation of the IER in early 2004, and places its work within that larger context.

Nigeria recently made a $6.4 billion payment to the Paris Club that fell in step with the schedule laid out by the International Monetary Fund to help the African country write off 60% of its $30 billion debt. Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told Reuters that once the government spent another $6 billion under the Paris Club accord, after an IMF review scheduled in March, its total foreign debt would decline to $5 billion from $35 billion now.

President Olusegun Obasanjo has expressed support for the proposal by the African Union (AU) to increase the membership of the United Nations (UN's) Security Council to 26. He stated this at the inaugural lecture for Course 14 of the National War College (NWC), noting that Africa has a vital role to play in the planned changes in the UN's Security Council, which is geared towards global peace. President Obasanjo, who was represented at the occasion by the Minister of State for Defence, Roland Oritsejafor, said the AU was in support of the proposal by the Group of Four, dubbed Model A, except that it will give the new members veto privileges.

Although armed conflict in Darfur continues to leave millions of people homeless, vulnerable to violence, and susceptible to potentially life-threatening diseases, a report released by the Brookings Institution University of Bern Project on Internal Displacement says that, contrary to popular belief, African Union (AU) peacekeeping troops have made a difference in the region.

Community Multimedia Centres (CMCs) combine community radio and telecentre services to form a comprehensive information and communication platform serving local development needs. Launched in 2001 by UNESCO, today there are over 50 centres in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean and scale-up projects are underway in Mali, Mozambique and Senegal.

The West Africa Democracy Radio (WADR) has started broadcasting on Monday 14 November 2005. The station will broadcast from its studios in Dakar, Senegal, on 17555 KHz on Short Wave to the whole of West Africa and beyond, and on 94.9 FM in Dakar. In the near future, it will broadcast online, and also through local community radio partners in the Mano River Union (MRU) countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. These partners will also generate some of its broadcast content. A brainchild of the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), WADR is conceived to be the hub of a West African network of public, private and community radio stations, creating an avenue for networking between the radio stations and a channel for dialogue among the peoples of the respective countries they serve.

More than 40 representatives of youth, women’s networks, national coalitions and faith-based organizations organized in Africa under the Global Call to Action against Poverty, and representing NGOs and civil society organizations gathered in Harare from Monday to Thursday 7-10 November. The meeting reviewed the status of the campaign in Africa and tentatively agreed on priorities that would guide their activities for the next two years. The meeting acknowledged that a lot of positive gains had been made in mobilizing communities in Africa to participate actively in the designated White Arm Band Days and that GCAP had been widely embraced by key poverty campaigners in Africa.

The report provides a first-hand look at how AU troops on the ground have saved lives and prevented atrocities against internally displaced persons (IDPs) and other civilians, but also suffer from "grossly inadequate" numbers of troops and police, a weak mandate, and limited equipment. Based on interviews with AU troops, IDPs, and humanitarian and human rights officers over a 7- month period, the report finds that AU troops did not "stand by and just watch innocent people get slaughtered." While AU soldiers do not have the strength or authority to remove or disarm Janjaweed and other paramilitary forces from displaced persons' camps, they have "demonstrated a willingness to patrol, be visible and try to deter violence."

About 750 Sudanese exiles went on hunger strike outside U.N. offices in Cairo on Saturday to back demands to receive assistance, rather than be repatriated. They said five people, including three children, had died in the camp and that many suffered from malnutrition and disease.The UNHCR said in a statement that Sudanese in Egypt were generally not fleeing persecution or violence, but were economic migrants hoping for resettlement in the West.

Voters in Egypt have taken part in the first round of a parliamentary election seen as a test of the government's commitment to reform. President Mubarak's National Democratic Party is expected to win another substantial majority. He has promised the vote will be free and fair. But the leader of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Mehdi Akef, accused the NDP of widespread fraud.

Karamoh Kabba, author of “A Mother’s Saga,” “Lion Mountain” and “Morquee—A Political Drama of Wish over Wisdom”, in an article on the website of World Press Review, takes a loot at the upcoming 2007 presidential election in Sierra Leone. "It appears to be leaning toward the Sierra Leone Peoples’ Party (S.L.P.P.). Although the All Peoples’ Congress (A.P.C.) is reclaiming its political stature with alacrity, for now, the political scales seem to be tipping in favor of the S.L.P.P," he writes.