The Academy for Educational Development (AED) seeks senior project managers for private health sector programs designed to increase the sustainable provision and use of quality “public health” products and services through the private and commercial sector in developing countries in East Africa and South Asia.

CIVICUS is recruiting a Project Coordinator to initiate and coordinate CIVICUS’ involvement in various international networks. Besides managing the key activities of those networks, which are led by CIVICUS, the incumbent would also research potential further networking opportunities, monitor the development of civil society networks globally as well as design appropriate initiatives. The tasks involved under this job are managerial, conceptual as well as administrative.

Plainclothes Gambian security agents Tuesday sealed the offices of the twice-weekly newspaper The Independent and arrested staffers found on the premises, local journalists told the Committee to Protect Journalists. Most of the staff members were released after brief questioning, but Editor Musa Saidykhan and General Manager Madi Ceesay remained in custody at the end of the day.

The School of Politics and International Studies (POLIS), University of Leeds, brings to the attention of qualified graduates funding opportunities for postgraduate study in the fields of politics, international relations, development studies and European studies.

Think Again! is the title of a new initiative that seeks to instill greater understanding and appreciation for Africa. This educational text-book, think-piece, and motivational force will supplement educational programs and curricula across high-schools and universities across the United States, cutting across boundaries and misconceptions of Africa.

As part of a joint, collaborative effort that includes research, a joint research masters degree programme, publications and dissemination, CODESRIA and the ASC have launched a series of conferences on research, documentation, publishing and dissemination in the context of the ITCs revolution.

Kenyan students sit the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education. Parents want secondary school students allowed to resit only subjects in which they fail instead of repeating a whole year. They say it is unfair of the Kenyan National Examination Council (Knec) to brand the students failures even when they had failed in one or two subjects in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE). The secretary-general of the Kenya National Association of Parents said the current system of making students repeat Form Four was time wasting and demoralising to the candidates.

LocaleGEN, an online tool to help build African language locales in up to 700 African languages, will be released. Alberto Escudero-Pascual, a software localisation developer known for his work on the Swahili translation of Linux (KiLinux) is responsible for the development, and says the tool aims to help facilitate the creation of African language locales.

The Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (IHRDA) is a pan African human rights organization, based in Banjul, the Gambia, established to promote the effective use of African human rights treaties and law to protect rights in Africa. The Executive Director will provide strategic direction and professional leadership, sustaining and building on IHRDA’s reputation and unique contribution to the human rights movement in the continent, and developing a strong team of professional and motivated staff.

The individual in this position is responsible for implementing operations research activities on HIV/AIDS, with a specific focus on the care and treatment of people living with HIV/AIDS, including linking/integrating the provision of antiretroviral treatment into other HIV/AIDS programs.

International donors should invest more in Africa's universities because of the important role they could play in alleviating poverty, according to a study commissioned by the World Bank. The report, published last month, calls for donors to reverse their neglect of the higher education sector. It says wider access to university education would give many Africans a better life and stimulate economic development.

Prof Olive Mwihaki Mugenda, 52, has been appointed the first woman Vice-Chancellor of a public university in Kenya. Prof Olive Mugenda, the new Kenyatta University Vice-Chancellor, addressed the press after her appointment. Mugenda edged out three male professors to clinch the top position at Kenyatta University - one of Kenya's oldest universities - for a five-year term. Formerly in charge of finance and planning, she deputised her predecessor, Prof Everett Standa, who returns to his teaching post at Moi University, after his three-year term ended on Monday.

UNESCO and partner NGOs organized two panels on education at the Polycentric World Social Forum in Bamako, Mali, last January. The first workshop focused on the positive links between literacy, HIV prevention education and women’s empowerment. The second looked into civil society perspectives on Education for All. Participants underlined civil society’s role and responsibility in ensuring that governments respect their commitments to providing education opportunities to their people.

Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE) is a non-partisan organization whose mission is to promote gender equality in all decision-making through advocacy, training, research and publishing. A resource center has been in existence at FOWODE since 1998 to facilitate women leaders at Parliamentary and lower levels. Young leaders and students now can access the library. We are looking for a committed librarian to participate in the on going reorganization of this Library.

The Centre for Civil Society (CCS), University of KwaZulu-Natal, would like to invite applications for researchers wishing to locate themselves at CCS for periods of either six months or a year. Six month fellowships will receive a grant of R75000 and one year fellowships will receive a grant of R150000. These may be treated as taxable income.

More than 40 African migrants heading for Spain's Canary Islands drowned at the weekend when their boats sank off the West African coast, Mauritania's Red Crescent organisation said on Monday (March 13). More than 40 other migrants were rescued in the incidents, which took place in waters north of the Mauritanian coastal city of Nouadhibou, off the coasts of Western Sahara and Morocco, a Red Crescent spokesman said.

The successful applicant will provide technical assistance and support to the Making Medical Injections Safer Behavior Change Communications Officers in 4 to 6 sub-Saharan African countries. S/he will help plan, implement, and evaluate behavior change strategies aimed at changing the behaviour of health care workers and patients.

The incumbent will be responsible for achieving an integrated package of interventions that will address the United States Agency for International Development and Government of Senegal goals of improved maternal and neonatal health and reduced fertility. S/he will have overall programme, managerial, and fiscal responsibility for the West Africa Program.

On 6 March 2006, Jean-Pierre Pambu Lutete, publisher of the Kinshasa-based newspaper "La Tolérance", was transferred to Kinshasa's Penitentiary and Reeducation Centre (Centre pénitentiaire et de rééducation de Kinshasa, CPRK, formerly Makala Central Prison). The journalist was placed under arrest just before noon on 3 March 2006 by the Kinshasa/Kalamu Public Prosecutor's office for "damaging allegations" and "inciting tribal hatred" against Michel Tudu Zingo te Lando at the Land Registry Office of Funa, a district of Kinshasa. At issue is an article he published entitled: "Pillage and collusion in the fraudulent sale of lands left to the Mount Amba Land Registration Department: Steward Michel Tudu Zingo te Lando has his hands in the coffers".

This study was used to find out the reasons for the continuous drop-out of girls in Primary Education in three districts in Zambezia Province, namely Maganja da Costa, Morrumbala and Nicoadala. The study looked at the barriers to girls' education and the interlinkages between different barriers, both from a rural and semi-urban context, and attempts to establish an understanding of the relations between poverty and other causes affecting girls' access and retention to primary education.