While Sierra Leoneans in the country would be glued to their radio or television sets following the Local Government Elections as they trickle in, those in the Diaspora and with access to the internet now have the opportunity of following the same on the website, www.elections-sl.org.

A meeting, jointly hosted and organized by the Center for Governance and Development (CGD) and the Development Policy Management Forum (DPMF) was held in Nairobi on the 4th of March 2004. The theme of the meeting was “Deepening Regional Integration For Democratization and Development Through Networking/Coalition Building in the East African Community (EAC)”. The meeting was organized under a project of the Ford Foundation's Special Initiative for Africa (SIA) that, through an earlier workshop, mandated the DPMF to develop a program for mobilizing CSOs and Research Institutions (RIs) to “promote regional cooperation for democratic governance and monitoring the African Peer Review Mechanism process”.

"During the past decades, many people believed in the idea that the rural areas did not have an important role in economic development.....In fact rural areas are very rich and concentrate the majority of natural resources, such as water, farm land, minerals, and biodiversity. It's not a coincidence that international financial institutions, like the World Bank, focus their projects on these regions." Visit the webpage of the Land Research Action Group for more information on this booklet.
Edited by Evanize Sydow & Maria Luisa Mendonca

The government’s blitzkrieg on corruption has claimed its biggest corporate scalp to date following the arrest of South African-based Zimbabwean business mogul, Mutumwa Mawere in Johannesburg this week, the Daily Mirror reported. A South African police spokeswoman confirmed that Mawere was picked up by Interpol officers in the plush Johannesburg suburb of Sandton on charges of violating the Zimbabwe Exchange Control Act.

A new United Nations report has urged the Angolan authorities to transfer more power to local communities. The joint study by the UN Development Programme and Angola's ministry of territorial administration has called for greater decentralisation of power. The report noted an "enormous need" for local-level staff to provide basic services and promote development in areas such as agriculture, commerce, transportation and housing.

More than half of Zambia’s children aged under five are stunted –one of the highest levels in Africa, according to UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF). "The levels of child malnutrition in Zambia had showed improvement throughout the 1990s, but since 1999 have deteriorated quite significantly," UNICEF’s nutrition and health officer, Claudia Hudspeth, told IRIN.

I went through your article (Pambazuka News 156: From Coffins to ABC’s) and I found it most interesting and educative.

Indeed the white space got to me. Here I was anxiously logging in at an Internet Cafe to get my weekly instalment of Pambazuka News. It was there in the inbox! I read the letter and then came to the white space. It made me realise that even though I cannot at the moment contribute financially, the least I can do is say "Thank you". So, I am saying thank-you, ndatenda, siyabonga to the Pambazuka team for the weekly updates. They say you don't know what you have until its gone! At least next week Pambazuka will be back. Thank you once again and God bless.

It is very interesting to note that women met in Zambia to reveal and make some recommendations for the way forward (Pambazuka News 157: Implementing the Beijing Platform for Action). This is highly recommended by all women, expect women and girls with disabilities as it seems this target group is left out. I think it is high time that women with disabilities are included in issues concerning other women and given the opportunity to air their views.

Barbara Lopi Replies: Thank you for your comments to the editorial ‘Implementing the Beijing Platform for Action’ that appeared in Pambazuka news. Indeed it was interesting for SADC gender activists to meet in Zambia and reflect on progress towards the implementation of the Beijing PFA. The Lusaka meeting is among the many fora taking place to share progress and chart the way forward. In this case, participation to this meeting was limited to representatives of National NGO focal points. Issues of women and girls with disabilities where considered as cross-cutting and featured in all discussions on the 12 critical areas of concern. But I do agree with you that little came out in the recommendations.

Currently, countries are in the process of preparing progress status reports on implementation of the BPFA and I will advise that you forward recommendations to the relevant NGO and government machineries that are working on the progress review reports in your country. Currently, discussions on issues that various groups would like to be included in the plan of action post Beijing +10 are in progress. Regarding what we at SARDC WIDSAA have done, our key mandate as an information organisation is to ensure that information on the situation of women's empowerment issues in various aspects in the southern African region is made available to the relevant policy makers and development planners for use. We thus, in collaboration with national partners and other relevant organisations, collect, document and disseminate information on gender and development related issues for use in lobbying, advocacy and policy formulation. For instance, our publication Beyond Inequalities: Women in Southern Africa (2000) has various chapters on the 12 critical areas of concern, including one on women with disabilities.

The driving assumption within the international development policy establishment is that 'there is no alternative' to neo-liberal economics and globalisation. In 'Reclaiming Development' Ha-Joon Chang and Ilene Grabel explain what this dominant school says about how economies develop and the economic policies it imposes worldwide. By analysing the actual historical experiences of the leading Western and East Asian economies during their development, the authors question the validity of the neo-liberal development model.

Media for Development Trust (MFD) is one of the leading producers and distributors of African film and development communication in Africa south of the Sahara. Established in 1989, MFD is a registered, non-profit social welfare organisation seeking to promote development through communication, particularly through the production and distribution of high quality, socially conscious films and videos that are relevant to an African audience. MFD distribute a wide range of films from all over Africa, produced and directed by distinguished local and international filmmakers, some of which are award winning. They have just finished writing and recording our two-year-long project, the radio serial drama, Mopani Junction. A talented team of 6 young writers put together 104 episodes, with exciting storylines as well as important information about HIV and AIDS. MFD is building a new website at an address which is more snappy and easy to remember. It’s going to be more modern, more colourful and more user-friendly. It’s under construction at www.mfd.co.zw . If you want information now though, visit the current website at www.samara.co.zw/mfd or contact [email protected]. For a listing of MFD films, click on the link below.

The mantra that market reforms would pull the least developed countries out of poverty collapsed under major new findings by UNCTAD presented in London last Thursday. The 50 least developed countries (LDCs) increased gross national income (GNI) and export growth but poverty levels within the countries have also risen, or at least not declined, says the report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). "Trade liberalisation has actually worsened the trade balance in LDCs," the report says.

Four opposition parties operating in Ethiopia have voiced their concern over the upcoming election activities and ongoing human rights violations in the country. The Ethiopian Democratic Party (EDP), Oromo National Congress (ONC), Ethiopian Peace and Democracy Alternative Forces (EPDAF) and South Ethiopia Democratic Union (SEDU) were the political organisations that gathered on Sunday at Meskel Square to voice their concern over the current political situation in Ethiopia.

Political talks between the Togolese government and opposition parties officially opened last Thursday under pressure from the European Union (EU) despite the absence by main opposition parties. Some 26 political parties were invited to participate in the opening ceremony of the first political talks to be held since 1999. The EU is currently putting pressure on Togo to improve democracy, one of the conditions to lift ten-year-old sanctions against the country.

Tensions between political parties in the Comoros were set to heighten following a "surprise" decision by Union President Azali Assoumani this week to postpone the opening of the national assembly. The establishment of the federal assembly was expected to resolve the impasse between political leaders and pave the way towards permanent stability in the troubled Indian Ocean archipelago.

Chief Electoral Commissioner Eugene Davies told journalists on Friday that results from last Saturday’s local elections would be delayed while 68 separate appeals were investigated. Between the close of polls on 22nd May and up to the 27th May, "the Commission received a total of 68 appeals from political parties and independent candidates," said Davies.

Several thousand supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo attended a rally in Abidjan on Saturday to call for the resignation of Prime Minister Seydou Diarra. They also demanded UN peacekeeping troops press ahead with the disarmament of rebels, known as the "New Forces."

A spokesman of President Domitien Ndayizeye said on Monday that the South African team in charge of Burundi's peace process had rejected a government proposal to extend the transitional period by one year. The spokesman, Pancrace Cimpaye, told IRIN in the Burundian capital, Bujumbura, that the mediation team had maintained that the transitional period should end on 1 November as stipulated in the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Accord, signed in August 2000, under which the three-year transitional period in Burundi was established.

This paper argues that making children central to development and social analysis requires a person-centred rather than category-centred approach, recognising the fundamental importance of relationship to people's actions, entitlements and well-being.

Swazi children will provide a key data-collection resource to determine exactly how many orphaned, impoverished or otherwise vulnerable children (OVC) are not in school. The database will allow government and child welfare organisations to strategise bursary programmes to achieve universal enrolment of OVC. "We are dedicated to keeping orphans and vulnerable children in school. If they have dropped out for financial or other reasons, we need to get them back," Minister of Education Constance Simelane told IRIN. The first step in the new initiative is identifying the children, Simelane added.