"The African paradox can be simply stated. Africa is widely perceived throughout most of the world as the continent of perpetual socio-political upheavals and tragic military confrontations; yet its people’s commitment to democracy, far from undergoing any erosion, is, at grassroots level in particular, more and more vibrant." Click on the URL provided and read the rest of this article by Congolese writer Kabasubabu Katulondi.

African and international civil society groups have launched a campaign urging the African Union (AU) Assembly to demonstrate its human rights commitment when it meets in Libya by ensuring that Charles Taylor faces justice for the crimes that he committed against African men, women and children. “It is now time for the African Union to join ranks with other key nations and international bodies in calling for Charles Taylor to face trial for these serious crimes,” said Kolawole Olaniyan, Africa Program Director at Amnesty International.

The African National Congress will adopt a "zero tolerance" approach to corruption - no matter who it involves. This was the commitment made by ANC chief whip Mbulelo Goniwe when he announced that the five serving ANC members of parliament who pleaded guilty to fraud with parliamentary travel vouchers have resigned from parliament.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and 14 of his top officials have stashed away at least $238 million dollars out of which Meles, the mayor of Addis and a top confident of the premier have a combined deposit of $100 million in overseas banks, a radio reported on Wednesday. The radio said it has the evidence which verifies the loot of the Ethiopian treasury by the top-notch of the regime which is trying to contain public protests through killings, detentions and prolonging a state of emergency.

While there is no single solution to Africa's need to increase its capacity in science and technology, higher education is a central concern, reports the latest edition of the SciDev.net newsletter. "Though the number of universities has proliferated, teaching quality is often poor (with low salaries and 'brain drain' being contributing factors), and public spending on universities is often small. Equipment and support resources are also lacking. With a Millennium Development Goal focusing on universal primary education, in a few years there will be a crucial need for more and better universities to cater for a more educated population."

Yes I definitely want to say no to debt, but one thing bothers me, where did all the money go? Who benefited from the whopping sum given to African leaders?

Take Tanzania for instance, things are at a complete standstill including the people. Where did the money go? Why has no one done anything to stamp out corruption? Bribery is the only language people know. The poor have to fork out what they don't have, to give the haves in order to have things done no matter how little the service may be, including giving of a bedpan to a loved one in a hospital bed.

How long are these tin gods going to be propped up and to whose benefit? Tanzania is nothing but a rubbish dump. The city of Dar ES Salaam is nothing but an unsightly rubbish heap with pot holes even around the diplomatic offices and homes.

It is time the CCM allowed fair elections and see what happens. It is time the CCM stopped being dictatorial. It is time the CCM stopped lying to the world saying they are democratic. It is time the people were given the opportunity to make up their own minds and if they wanted to try a new leader they should be allowed to choose.

It is time we stamped out corruption in Africa. If after 40+ years the CCM has not done anything but run the country to the ground it is not likely to make any changes now, otherwise, they would have done it long ago.  All it means is that they have perfected the art of concealment and will continue to do so unless the eyes of the world focus on them. The masses now say, enough is enough. It is time we were all given a fair opportunity to voice our opinion.

So we call upon the world to support change. We call on the Western powers to oversee the coming elections in Tanzania. We call on the rest of Africa to stand up for once and start bringing change for the benefit of all Africans from all walks of life.

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) invites applications to its Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellows Program. Established in 2001 to enable activists, scholars, and journalists from around the world to deepen their understanding of democracy and enhance their ability to promote democratic change, the fellowship program is based at NED's International Forum for Democratic Studies, in Washington, D.C.

Olive (Organisation Development and Training) is running two - five day sessions on Development Planning and Management on the 15th to 19th August and 14th to 18th November respectively, and altogether covering 5 modules.

In response to changing continuing education needs of agricultural institutions and their personnel in Eastern Africa, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and Alemaya University (Ethiopia) are setting up a Center for Agricultural Research Management and Policy Learning for Eastern Africa (CARMPoLEA). This regional center will serve as a home of capacity building initiative to improve the management, organization and leadership of agricultural research and policy making and ultimately support the Agricultural Innovation System (AIS). To launch the center, we are organizing a series of workshops which are aimed at responding to regional knowledge and skill needs in the areas of agricultural research management and policy.

I am writing this letter to applaud the Live 8 events that have happened this past weekend in Berlin, London, Philly and elsewhere in the Western world. I have to say that after a long period of living and being exposed to real life in Western countries, I have become a Western- or to put it more specifically "White-pessimist" and developed a very big ego of Afro-optimism. This is particularly due to the way I have watched, observed and received news about Africa in these countries. The media, regular people and the education system mainly potrays its connection with Africa driven by a culture of pity. So, I had become convinced that white people have no intrinsic interest in Africa or Africans.

However, after watching "Live 8" events on TV in London, Berlin and Philly, I felt a change of heart. People coming out in numbers and thinking about Africa, performing for Africa, sweating for Africa, driving miles from the comfort of their homes for Africa. Although some of us Africans who love Africa very much are saddened by the way Africa is represented in Western audiences, today a part of me feels grateful and sad as well. I wrote to friends in Madagascar, in Senegal, in Uganda and in Nigeria, wondering how many cities in Africa have held similiar events? How many, really, how many places in Africa will you go and there is a band or fundraising event for the war in Northern Uganda or Darfur or Congo or Cote D'Ivoire? Yet if P Diddy or U2 or Snoop or 50 Cents were to come to perform in Africa for commercial purposes, many of us would save our salaries to watch their shows, and give our month(s) payment back to the rich when we cannot even raise money for our fellow Africans. Why don't African artists do this in their own countries? Or do we need an Africa International TV to show us that we are raising money for the continent?

One may say we have a lot of problems in our own countries but my goodness how many Ugandans even raise money for the people living in displaced camps in Northern Uganda? Besides those with relatives in these camps, usually it takes the likes of Save the Children to set up bases in Northern Uganda, so that our own media can report the humanitarian assistance. Then we complain that Bono or Paul McCartney are stealing the show....uhm! As Bob Geldof said today, "Don't let them tell you this doesn't work". Because twenty years ago, that girl on the TV screen had only two minutes to live. But this year, she finished her exam and degree in Agriculture in Northern Ethiopia. So, I thought to myself, even though these people's mercy is driven by an annoying culture of pity, I am watching Madonna, Snoop, Destiny's Child, Bono, Paul McCartney, sweating for Africa and raising their voice for Africa's poverty to the G8. And this made me rethink a part of my heart and pessimism about White people and the West. And I felt grateful and a little more certain that this money being raised now has a higher chance of making it to Africa unlike that money Western governments claim to allocate to Africa each year or the so-called humanitarian agencies but ends up paying their own staff and machinery.

Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa
http://www.pambazuka.org/petition/1/protocol.pdf

Not Yet a Force for Freedom: Publication of articles on the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa
http://www.fahamu.org/pamphlet.pdf

Pambazuka News Special Issue on Debt and Africa
http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?issue=197

Pambazuka News 190: Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa: A pre-condition for health and food security
http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?issue=190

Pambazuka News 176: From Beijing to Addis Ababa: what progress for African women?
http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?issue=176

Pambazuka News 173: Putting an End to Female Genital Mutilation: The African Protocol on the Rights of Women
http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?issue=173

Pambazuka News 162: Unfinished business – African leaders must act now to ratify the Protocol on the Rights of Women
http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?issue=162

Equality Now
http://www.equalitynow.org/

Femnet
http://www.femnet.or.ke/

Wildaf West Africa
http://www.wildaf-ao.org

Akina Mama wa Afrika
http://www.akinamama.org/

Women’s Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative
http://www.wrapa.org.

The Coalition on Violence Against Women
http://www.covaw.or.ke/

Abantu for Development
http://www.abantu.org/

African Gender Institute
http://www.uct.ac.za/org/agi

Association for Women’s Rights in Development
http://www.awid.org

Africa Women’s Media Centre
http://www.awmc.com/

Agenda
http://www.agenda.org.za/

Association of African Women Scholars
http://www.iupui.edu/~aaws/

Commission for Gender Equality
http://www.cge.org.za/

Flame
http://flamme.org/

Global Fund for Women
http://www.globalfundforwomen.org/

International Lesbian and Gay Association
http://www.ilga.org/

International Women’s Tribune Centre
http://www.iwtc.org/

ISIS – Women’s International Cross-Cultural Exchange
http://www.isis.or.ug

Organisation of Women Writers of Africa
http://www.owwa.org/

Peacewomen
http://www.peacewomen.org

Unifem
http://www.unifem.undp.org/

Saving Women’s Lives
http://www.savingwomenslives.org

Women’s E-News
http://www.womensenews.org

Women’s Human Rights Net
http://whrnet.org

Women of Uganda Network (Wougnet)
http://www.wougnet.org/

Zimbabwe Women’s Resource Centre and Network
http://www.zwrcn.org.zw/

Ananilea Nkya looks at the rise of maternal mortality in Tanzania and asks whether more attention would be given to the deaths if they were caused by road accidents or plane crashes. Without a concerted effort to reduce maternal mortality, the MDGs will remain a dream.

Although the reduction of maternal mortality is an area of focus for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of which Tanzania is a signatory, pregnancy related deaths continue to be a major threat to women of reproductive age in the East African country which attained its independence 44 years ago.

Statistics indicate that deaths during child birth jumped from about 10 deaths a day (208 per 100,000 live births) in 1995 to 26 deaths (800 per 100,000 live births) in 2004. “What if this was a road accident or a plane crash killing 26 people daily. Would action not be taken to prevent it?” Professor Malise Kaisi, a long serving Gynecologist with the national hospital Muhimbili and based in the city of Dar Es Salaam, has asked.

Kaisi believes there is a need to break the silence on maternal death by sensitizing the public, decision makers, law makers, development partners and financial institutions on the need to make maternal mortality a priority.

He said for the MDGs to be a success the national government should accord maternal mortality due priority by setting aside sufficient financial resources for establishing and adequately funding reproductive health services, training of more medical personnel and running massive public education programmes against behaviour and cultural practices that endanger the health of the pregnant mother.

A gender and media consultant, Charles Kayoka, said the government should treat child bearing as a public service. “This important labour must be recognized and budgeted for,” he noted. He was speaking at a session organized by the Tanzania Media Women’s Association in collaboration with State University of New York (SUNY) in the central capital Dodoma recently. The session was intended to sensitise women parliamentarians on the need to make maternal mortality their permanent agenda.

Kayoka said the road pregnant mothers travel to their preventable deaths is a narrative of their own low status in society and indifference by the government towards reproductive health.

He indicated that medical reasons attributed to maternal mortality can be explained in general terms. “The medical causes given by doctors could be indicators for a more serious problem of where a pregnant woman comes from,” he noted, adding that “we should study the woman’s journey to the hospital to see how certain cultural elements contribute to her death when giving birth.” He said: “What made her anemic? What made her marry early? What made her undergo FGM and thus have a problematic delivery?”

Kayoka said many of these deaths are attributed to the poor status women are accorded in society. As a result they are denied rights to control resources and power to control their bodies - a crucial factor is planning when and how to have a child.

The women parliamentarians who attended the session admitted that maternal deaths are a preventable problem and that some work needed to be done to empower various leaders, women, men and communities at large to take action. “Before this session I hardly looked at maternal mortality in gender terms nor as a road accident that claims so many lives on daily basis,” noted Monica Mbega, Iringa Urban Member of Parliament. She urged members of parliament to take up the issue as a priority and build a case for government as well as people in different constituencies to act. “ If the government, MPs, councilors and communities work seriously on this problem, it will take a short time to reduce the number of these shameful deaths in the country,” she said, noting that without such efforts the realization of the MDGs would be a mere dream.

Anne Makinda, MP for Njombe South in Iringa region, who is also the chairperson of women parliamentarians, suggested the organisation of bigger training events for all MPs after the 30th October general elections to sensitise law makers on their role in the prevention of maternal deaths. “Sensitisation of the entire house is crucial, should we wish to engage all parliamentarians so that they are able to see the problem from a gender perspective and act accordingly,” Makinda insisted.

* Please send comments to [email protected]

In Uganda in 1967 there were no women members of parliament and in 1980 only one out of the 143 members of Parliament was a woman. In the 1989 National Resistance Council elections, the NRM Government brought significant improvement to women’s political participation and reserved thirty-four seats for women. Uganda, writes Jacqueline Asiimwe, is often given as an example of effective women’s political participation, but there is a long way to go before the playing fields are truly level. Part of the solution is to turn the aspirations of the Millennium Development Goals into action by ratifying the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa.

Introduction:

One of the millennium development goals is the promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women. While limited in nature, the goal addresses gender disparity in education, the share of women in wage employment and the proportion of seats held by women in national parliament. The importance of this goal to human development cannot be over emphasized.

This article explores just one of the aspects of the promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women by sharing Uganda’s experience in the area of women’s political leadership.

The Uganda Experience:

Uganda is oft cited as a success story with regard to the issue of women in leadership – specifically political leadership. Indeed the 1995 Constitution has various articles that address women’s [political] leadership. The National Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy enshrined in the Constitution stipulates that the State shall ensure gender balance and fair representation of marginalized groups on all constitutional and other bodies. Article 32 addresses the need for affirmative action; Article 33 spells out rights specific to women. Article 78 states that every district shall have one woman representative to parliament and article 180(b) ensures that one third of members of each local council shall be women.

One of the first demands that the women’s movement made of the new NRM regime (The NRM came to power in 1986 and has ruled Uganda since then. It is also known as the Movement Govenrment.) was in the area of women’s political rights. At independence in 1962 there was a 2:88 female to male ratio in parliament. But in 1967 no women served in Parliament; in 1980 only one out of the 143 members of Parliament was a woman. In the 1989 National Resistance Council elections, the NRM Government brought significant improvement to women’s political participation. Thirty-four seats were reserved for women; two women won their seats in open contests against male candidates, three women were nominated by the president and two were historical members, appointed because of their participation in the guerrilla war led by the National Resistance Army. By 1996, 52 women held parliamentary seats, 39 of them reserved and constituting 19 percent of the members of Parliament. By 1995 also, women constituted 17 percent of all ministers, 21 percent of all permanent secretaries, 35 percent of all under secretaries, and 16 percent of all district administrators. Women were also represented on National Commissions such as the Constitutional Commission, the Electoral Commission and the Human Rights Commission as well as on parastatal boards.

Through affirmative action, women made considerable headway in Parliament. Women now make up 24 percent of the parliamentarians in Uganda and despite the ongoing discussion of the merits or demerits of such a policy one of the positive results is that women have been given exposure, political experience and increased confidence. When asked about the changes to women’s status after the 1986 NRM takeover, women overwhelmingly responded that the biggest changes related to women’s participation in politics, standing for office, becoming public and government leaders, and being able to express themselves publicly to a greater degree than in the past.

Despite these gains though, it is still not very easy for women to make it into political offices and prestigious leadership. The major players in politics and decision-making continue to be men despite women’s presence and the issues on women’s political agenda do not feature nor are they deemed a priority. The fact that men predominate in the public/political sphere in Uganda means that its organization and structures are heavily influenced by male values, attitudes and priorities. Very often women are expected to conform to and not transform the structures and norms of the public sphere. Whether the culture and atmosphere of politics is actively antagonistic to women, or simply organized in a way that doesn’t suit them, it can be difficult for women as relative newcomers to challenge. Those who attempt to transform the structures and norms face a quick and brutal backlash.

Further, despite the high numbers of women in politics and in the public space, women are still regarded as intruders in this [male] space and are largely unwelcome in the political domain and for the most part they are endured as a necessary evil rather than an equal partner on the pathway to development. As one person put it:

‘The biggest threat facing the stability of families today is the desire for women to join high-level politics. There are shortcomings to this, most important being the lack of “quality time” and parental love to children…Women should be limited to 10% political representation and should be stopped from voting for presidents and MPs at least for some 200 years. [See Dr. Joy C Kwesiga, Leaders Within Limits: Gender Ideologies and Identities in Uganda Today (research paper under a research program titled “ Consolidating Peace and Development in the Lake Victoria Region and its Environs: The National and Local Responses to Transformation from Turmoil to a More Sustainable Development Process”]

Another person put it this way: “Sometimes when you give financial, economic and social power to women, in most cases it brings problems. Check which type of woman is given power.” (Muhairwe, Ekimeza 23/02/02)

The major scenario with regard to women and leadership has been bureaucratically putting women in places of leadership and authority without any attempts at simultaneously removing the practical and structural obstacles that stand in their way to effective involvement in this arena. In short it is not enough to increase women’s participation in politics/leadership without democratizing the public space where such politics are done. [Sylvia Tamale, Gender and Affirmative Action in Post-195 Uganda: A New Dispensation, or Business as Usual? IN CONSTITUTIONALISM IN AFRICA: CREATING OPPORTUNITIES, FACING CHALLENGES, J.OLOKA OYANGO (Ed) 2001 at221. ] This issue is closely related to tokenism, which is the practice of appointing a few women to positions of power and responsibility, without giving them the requisite support, or eliminating the impediments they face. The following quote illustrates this point:

‘Women are not brought in as an equal partner but as a means of balancing the composition. This is reflected during parliamentary debates where in most circumstances the Speaker or the chairperson is giving women a chance to speak. He will often say ‘let me first gender balance’. When looked at analytically it seems like the speaker has been giving an opportunity to substantive speakers, and then giving women a chance for the sake of balance. [SUPRA Note 7.]

Bringing women into the policy and decision making space does not necessarily mean or lead to power sharing or redress in imbalances at that level. Many women have in fact shared of the struggles in that space, struggles to assert the worth of a woman, struggles to be respected as competent legislators or decision-makers, etc. Take for example Maria Mutagamba’s experience, who in 1996 was a member of the Democratic Party (DP). When she was still with the DP she was chairperson of the presidential elections campaign in 1996 and when she asked Dr. Kawanga Ssemwogerere what he expected of her he said “All you have to do is present yourself at the conference center, welcome me when I come in and introduce me to the gathering.” [WINNIE BYANYIMA AND RICHARD MUGISHA (Eds), THE RISING TIDE: UGANDAN WOMEN’S STRUGGLE FOR A PUBLIC VOICE 1940 – 2002 (2003) at 186] She also recounts the following about her high post in the DP

‘Slowly I was coming face to face with the realities of politics. I had to get my campaign team to accept me first. They had not agreed on me becoming their chairperson. I think that Dr. Ssemwogerere had sat somewhere and thought of a woman for several reasons. One he thought I had money, which would help his campaign. Secondly I think he wanted to appear gender sensitive and appointing a woman head of his team would portray a gender-balanced campaign and thirdly, as I came to realize later, he thought I was a quiet innocent person who could be pushed around easily…At first men close to him did not accept me easily because they had lined up some other people to head the campaign and they did not want a woman to head…’

While the public sphere is opening up to women the private sphere remains intact. By private sphere we mean the family. Difficulties arise because the entry of women into leadership positions is discussed in isolation of these structures. Consequently, while the power centers are shifting, the other institutions in society are not changing. This is particularly so in the case of family structures and household dynamics. People are often quick to remind women where they belong as the following quotation illustrates:

‘However high you have gone politically, socially or economically, your husband is your husband. Even if you become the President of Uganda and your husband is a primary school teacher, he is still entitled to his respect in that capacity. Drop the pride! It smacks of arrogance, conceit and egoism. Its capacity to destroy marriages is unquestionable. [SUPRA Note 18.]

Despite the challenges that women in politics face, it goes without saying that their presence has gone a long way in improving the lives of ordinary Ugandans. Their contribution is summed up as follows:

‘The presence of such an unprecedented number of females in an institution that was traditionally dominated by men has… introduced a gendered perspective to the law-making process…Moreover, the increased visibility of women in positions of leadership is slowly changing the attitudes of Ugandans (both men and women) towards women’s presence in the political arena. This new consciousness forms the crucial basis for a new kind of political self-organisation for women and for a more radical transformation of gender relations in Ugandan society (Tamale: 2001: 220).

Affirmative Action in politics in Uganda has delivered numbers. Presence and action of women has expanded and relatively deepened public concerns. Both at the national and local levels, the relative presence of women has brought new questions on the political agenda. The experience of the constitution making process in 1994 and the resultant 1995 constitution indicate that numerical presence of women in the Constituent Assembly had a lot to contribute to the gendered contestations and outcomes. The outlook of decision-making bodies has changed, ideologically accommodating the construction of a leader as male and female.

Enter the Protocol on Women’s Rights:

With regard to the issue of women’s rights to participate in politics and decision making the Protocol provides that:

1. States Parties shall take specific positive action to promote participative governance and the equal participation of women in the political life of their countries through affirmative action, enabling national legislation and other measures to ensure that:
a. women participate without any discrimination in all elections;
b. women are represented equally at all levels with men in all electoral processes;
c. women are equal partners with men at all levels of development and implementation of State policies and development programs.

2. States Parties shall ensure increased and effective representation and participation of women at all levels of decision-making.

The Millennium Development Goals and the Protocol tie in beautifully because both demand for the equal participation of women in the political life of their countries, part of which includes levels and numbers of representation. No one country can stand tall and proud or even seek to make headway in politics if it continues to exclude or marginalize women. If women are the backbone of our economies, if they are the central to agriculture and food security in our countries, if they are the pivot around which our populations grow and expand, then they must be included in the same measure in politics and decision making.

The Millennium Development Goals and the Protocol on Women’s Rights must not be seen as separate instruments, with governments being able to pick and choose which they will deliver on. They are two sides of the same coin. One cannot be properly implemented without the other and that’s why the clarion call goes out to all African Leaders – we need to ratify the Protocol NOW! Turn the aspirations of the Millennium Development Goals into action by ratifying the Protocol on the Rights of Women.

* Please send comments to [email protected]

This book is a collection of trenchant editorials from Pambazuka News, a weekly electronic newsletter on social justice in Africa. The editorials were published in 2004 on the organisation’s website, which has established a reputation of telling like it is when it comes to issues impinging on the development of Africa.

Like Africa Week magazine (which publishes not only on the web but in hard copy form), Pambazuka is out to bat for Africa. It carries commentaries and analyses on topical issues relating to the continent. In the current climate of Western dominance of global news dissemination, Pambazuka is truly providing a voice for Africa.

The publishers of this great collection are based in Dar es Salaam and they have done a great job to get this book out. Covering such topics as the World Bank, Darfur, Rwanda, and the rights of women in Africa, it is a veritable source of informed comment on matters that Africans feel strongly about.

Africans or others, tired of the Western media’s blinkered coverage of African issues, would do well to get a copy of this book, which will offer them better insights into the continent.

You can order copies of the book from http://www.africanbookscollective.com/ or [email protected]

Civicus in Johannesburg, international secretariat of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty, is shortly to announce that there will be a concert in Johannesburg called Africa Standing Tall against Poverty. The concert will take place in Mary Fitzgerald Square between 12.00 and 19.30 p.m. The concert is the first in a series of three that will be staged on the African continent the others will take place in Ghana and Kenya. The July 2nd. concert will be performed live and linked to the Live8 concerts which will be performed in London, Paris, Rome, Berlin, Philadelphia, Canada and possibly in Russia. All the concerts share the same objective, to raise the issues of debt, trade and aid ahead of the G8 summit in Gleneagles, with a view to G8 leaders taking policy decisions that could significantly alleviate poverty.

Caught between the need to dismiss the Global Call to Action Against Poverty and remind us of the valuable and important actions of social movements, Bond, Brutus and Setshedi's article in the last issue of Pambazuka News almost missed a great opportunity to create a bridge for dialogue.

The characterization of the GCAP's leadership as naive about the global political economy, the importance of social movements and the interests that control trans-national capital and international finance and trade organizations is misplaced. Many of us in the alliance would agree with the structural analysis in the article. We would find common ground (perhaps) in the analysis that the crushing reality of power inequalities, absolute poverty, conflict and human rights denial combine to produce gross injustices globally.

Less agreeable may be, is that a confluence of global policy processes over 2005 combine with high policy rhetoric and mass expectation to provide the conditions for a mass global constituency for change. 2005 is simply, a moment for broad based mobilization.

GCAP is organized around four core pillars; 100% debt cancellation, increased and better quality aid, trade justice and democratic and responsive domestic governance. The article singled out only some of GCAP demands linking them with some fairly eclectic and "out of context" references over the last 5 years. It would be important to note also that GCAP has called explicitly against imposed conditionality and for the realization of fundamental entitlements and basic rights as a way of eradicating absolute poverty. This framework resonates with the positions of many of the movements, organizations and networks named in the article. Nevertheless, it is true that GCAP does not call for the abolition of global capitalism or global institutions of finance and trade.

GCAP is a broad platform and includes many shades of opinion. For this reason, criticisms from within (and without) that strengthen our theory-action (praxis) can only be welcome. However, divisive and paternalistic language ("many excellent African organisations have joined the campaign, but have they fully applied their minds, and social-change instincts?") will defeat the objective of criticism - to improve, to strengthen. The analogy of white-bands as a "symbol of collaborators to apartheid" was tenuous but deliberately destructive, particularly to the colleagues in South Africa. Lastly, I resist the temptation to parry the allegations leveled against Oxfam as we have done this elsewhere (see www.oxfam.org for a response to the New Stateman article).

Yet, important and strategic questions are provoked by Bond etal's article. Have the campaigns started to make life better for poor people in Africa, Asia and Latin America? What strategies can keep the campaign rooted in real ground level struggles and ensure the involvement of people living in poverty in our campaigns?

Since September 2004, this Alliance has grown from the original 50 organisations that came together in Johannesburg to over a hundred national coalitions of over 1000 organizations and networks across the world. GCAP members co-organized two weeks in April on trade and education (this included members of Another World is for Sale and Global Campaign for Education). With a base among trade unions, NGOs, youth and women's networks it has been able to mobilize thousands of people through simultaneous events, influence public opinion through mass media and project the symbol of the white-band.

African organizations not mainstream NGOs are in the forefront of the work in Africa. On June 16th, mobilization of children and youth took place in countries as far as Zambia, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Kenya among others. While northern attention has been on live8, over one hundred African musicians, sportspeople and celebrities (Lucky Dube, Salif Keita, Baaba Maal, Oumou Sangare among others) have endorsed the campaign. Thousands of ordinary men, women and children wore white-bands and declared their commitment to GCAP positions. July 2nd looks set to see this impact multiplied by a factor of ten.

Yet it is clear in June, that effective outreach among the productive classes in our societies is still but an aspiration. We need to accelerate the involvement of teachers and health-workers unions to demand changes in the light of the debt cancellation victories and farmers to challenge the inadequacy of state protection from rice, sugar and cotton dumping and lack of effective public support for agriculture among others. What about the unemployed, pastoralists, women, youth? Sweet will be the victory when at this level, we can see growing confidence, organisation and self-representation in the corridors of power and policy by some of these groups. Sweet also, will be the moment when GCAP can look back and identify 100 new leaders that emerged from our work. It is only this context that will safeguard the gains of the recent victories around debt cancellation and aid. In the next few weeks, we must consciously develop strategies to nurture this.

Thousands of kilometers in any direction from Edinborough on July 2nd, millions of people will demonstrate for set of global policy and practise changes. If your conscience does not allow you to go to Gleneagles, I invite you to join us in any of the cities and rural settlements around Dhaka, New Delhi, Tripoli, Johannesburg, Maputo, Dar es Salaam, Lusaka and Montevideo with or without a white band. There is space for us all.

Njooni pamoja Patrick, Dennis and Virginia!

Irungu Houghton is a Kenyan working as Pan Africa Policy Advisor for Oxfam GB.

Send comments to [email protected]

The next meeting of the most powerful nations in the world is set to take place this July in Scotland. However, the billions of people most affected by the policies and decisions of the G8 will not be present to make their voices heard. Raised Voices aims to create vital space for some of those voices of the absent majority – unmediated and uncensored. This set of filmed testimonies is available to watch online.

L'objet de ces subventions est de permettre aux femmes et a leurs familles de retablir et de transformer leurs vies et leurs communautes dans des zones rurales apres des annees d'un conflit devastateur en Casamance et dans la region du fleuve Mano. Nous avons l'intention de realiser cela en apportant un soutien a des organismes communautaires existants disposant de programmes de travail etablis, mais aussi a l'aide d'initiatives temoignant d'une demarche et d'une creativite nouvelles sur la facon de repondre aux defis auxquels sont confrontes les femmes rurales, leurs familles et leurs communautes.

EDITORIAL: World Refugee Day took place on June 20 and is followed by World Refugee Week from 20-26 June. The articles in our Editorial section this week focus on the situation of refugees in Africa.
- Refugee academic and activist Barbara Harrell-Bond answers questions on the situation of refugees in Africa
- Aryah Somers examines the dilemmas facing refugee minors in Cairo and concludes that much more needs to be done
- Richard Carver reviews a new book “Rights in Exile’, concluding that it sets the terms of the refugee debate
COMMENT & ANALYSIS:
- Issa Shivji on the beastly face of capitalism
- Gerald Caplan offers a Canadian view of the Live 8 concerts and explains why he is nervous about Tony Blair’s crocodile tears for Africa
- Helping the West to wean itself of African aid would be “a great leap forward for humanity”, writes Chukwu-Emeka Chikezie
LETTERS: Irunguh Houghton provides a rejoinder to last weeks critique of GCAP by Patrick Bond, Dennis Brutus and Virginia Setshedi
PAN-AFRICAN POSTCARD: Keep Walter Rodney alive, says Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem
GLOBAL CALL TO ACTION AGAINST POVERTY: News from around the continent on African Day of the Child activities; Nine-year old sends SMS to G8 leaders on poverty; Tanzania social watch country forum
CONFLICTS & EMERGENCIES: G8 arms exports fuelling poverty and human rights abuses; Oil discovery in Darfur adds new twist
HUMAN RIGHTS: Canada to look into human rights allegations against mining firm in DRC
REFUGEES & FORCED MIGRATION: Integrating refugees locally could be a durable solution
WOMEN & GENDER: Law Reform And The Case Of Woineshet Zebene Negash in Ethiopia
ELECTIONS&GOVERNANCE: Good governance; whose governance?
DEVELOPMENT: Playing chicken with the IMF in Ghana
CORRUPTION: Malawian President benz over to fight food shortages
HEALTH AND HIV/AIDS: Women AIDS activists' advocacy for an equal voice
EDUCATION: Post-conflict education: what are the chances?
ENVIRONMENT: Communities Sue Shell to Stop Nigerian Gas Flaring in Nigeria
MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: Information on the Progressive African Library & Information Activists’ Group
AND MORE…links to news on Advocacy, Internet and Technology, Courses, Jobs and Books.

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Minerals and Energy Minister Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka was appointed on Wednesday as South Africa's second-in-command after the sacking of former deputy president Jacob Zuma last week. Mlambo-Ngcuka is the country's first female vice-president and has been a member of parliament since 1994.