The European Commission (EC) said on Thursday that access to basic education remained a major challenge in Somalia despite tremendous gains in literacy in recent years. "Much remains to be done to ensure that Somalis, especially the poor, have access to basic education and lifelong learning opportunities," the EC delegation in Kenya, which also handles Somalia operations, said in a statement on the occasion of the international literacy day.

Rural high school pupils in Mpumalanga will now have access to well-equipped mini science laboratories. The mini laboratories are small, compact, durable boxes that weigh no more than 15kg and do not need electricity. They also come with printed and electronic manuals, as well as equipment and chemicals for the Grade 8 and 9 Natural Science curricula. "The mini labs are designed to bridge the gap between secondary and tertiary education by stimulating an interest in science," said provincial education spokesperson Thomas Msiza.

Reporting to the General Secretary, the Finance Officer (FO) is responsible for assisting the General Secretary (GS) in the prioritization and management of the many financial issues and processes related to the support of the WACSOF Regional Secretariat in Abuja, Nigeria and providing support services to the national WACSOF Chapters/focal points at the national level in ECOWAS member states.

In addition to a weekly email alert, SciDev.Net now offer another free service that allows you to receive the latest SciDev.Net news on your computer desktop. If you want to attract users to your website, keep your site fresh and dynamic, and provide a valuable science and technology information service, a SciDev.Net newsfeed could be the answer. Go to http://www.scidev.net/index.cfm?fuseaction=su bpages&root=aboutthissite&page=17 to find out more.

Experiences across South countries show that the basic rights of people, especially the poor and the marginalized, are being progressively eroded by governments surrendering such critical services sectors as health, water, power, housing and education to private big business. Many countries in the South have suffered outbreaks of cholera and other gastro-intestinal diseases because safe water and basic health care are increasingly being made accessible only to those with the capacity to pay.

ILRIG is an NGO providing education, publications and research for the labour and social movements in South and Southern Africa. ILRIG have a new and informative website that contains news about events, publications and articles.

The candidate, instructed by the Chief Prosecutor, the Deputy Prosecutor or the Head of the Operational Support Section, will be responsible to be in contact and cooperate with IGO/NGO information and analysis centres; and responsible for the active identification, location, collection, analysis and dissemination of relevant IGO/NGO information and intelligence.

Zimbabwe will be hosting the 2nd edition of the Southern Africa Social Forum 2005 in Harare, from 13-15 October 2005. This year's SASF is expected to bring together thousands of participants from community-based groups, social movements and civil society organizations from SADC under the theme, 'People's Resistance to Neo-Liberalism'.

This post offers an exciting opportunity to develop a new programme working alongside Yemeni non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society groups. Working specifically with local NGOs in Hodeidah you will provide training and capacity building support in organisational development, advocacy and assist LNGOs to coordinate and network with a range of stakeholders.

When Precious was just 12, she sold her body for the first time to a man nearly four times her age. Now 18, the Liberian schoolgirl sleeps with five to six men on an average day to pay her school fees of 1,500 Liberian dollars (£16) a year and to buy food. Precious receives the equivalent of between 27p and 54p from each client.

About 200 delegates from 28 countries all over the world are expected on Monday at the 31st Annual Conference of International Association for Educational Assessment (IAEA), slated to take off on September 4-9,2005 in Abuja. The Conference, which for the first time will take place in Nigeria, is aimed at assisting educational agencies in the development and appropriate application of techniques to improve the quality of education, will be hosted by JAMB, NECO, NTI,WAEC, NABTEB, and Fleet Technologies limited.

Namibia is one of the few countries that allocate a huge chunk of their budgets towards education, and parliamentarians who met in Zambia recently feel Southern African governments need to follow this trend. This plea was made at the third Forum of African Parliamentarians for Education (FAPED) in the Southern African region that took place last month in Living-stone, Zambia.

The biggest barrier to girls' education around the world is school fees, a charity argues. Save the Children says in a report that 17 of the 25 countries with the most girls not in school still charge fees. It says another 4.5 million children would go to school if fees were abolished in 13 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, for instance. The report focuses on girls, who are said to make up 60% of the 100 million children worldwide not being schooled. Save the Children says that in Liberia, for example, sending one child to school costs half the average income of £62.

An international symposium on "Islamic Civilisation in Southern Africa" will be jointly organised by the Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA), the National Awqaf Foundation of South Africa (Awqaf SA) and the University of Johannesburg, South Africa on 1-3 September 2006. The symposium will examine topics such as the spread of Islam in South Africa; the relationship between trade and Islam; language and Islamic literature; Islamic education and intellectual development; history, contribution and challenges; colonialism, apartheid and democracy; coexistence of cultures; arts and crafts, architecture and archaeology; future perspectives; Muslim media; influential figures; establishment of financial institutions; community-state relations; NGOs.

A prominent Arab TV journalist is working on an Arabic book on the political and human rights crisis in an Arab country. He is looking for volunteer research assistants to go through original documents in English, German and Italian and prepare Arabic summaries of them. The documents mostly deal with the illicit dumping of toxic waste on the shores of that country. The assignment will take between 2-4 weeks on a 10-hour/week basis and the work will be fully acknowledged. Expressions of interest should be sent to [email protected]

NAMAwatch is a resource for people following the non-agricultural market access (NAMA) negotiations at the World Trade Organisation. The site brings together in one place official documents, research and critical voices, with navigation in English, French and Spanish.

HelpAge International is a global network of organisations, working with and for disadvantaged older people worldwide to achieve a lasting improvement in the quality of their lives. We link direct services work with policy, advocacy and campaigning work at national and international levels, for 11 regional development centres and country programmes. The successful candidate will have strategic and day-to-day management responsibilities for HelpAge International’s current and new HIV/AIDS work in the Africa Regional Development Centre, taking forward advocacy work aimed at mainstreaming ageing into global HIV/AIDS strategies and key initiatives.

Between 1987 and 2001 PRODDER established itself as the most comprehensive development publication of its kind in Africa and became a much sought-after reference tool on Southern African development. It was previously compiled and produced by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) in book format. SANGONeT has since acquired the rights to the directory. The new PRODDER directory is a combination of the last published PRODDER and SANGONeT's electronic databases. In the future, information from the Department of Social Development’s NPO Directorate’s database (collected over the past eight years) will be added.

CIVICUS seeks a qualified professional to oversee planning, fundraising, programme development and delivery of high-profile international convening events for civil society, in particular the CIVICUS World Assembly, but also other events that CIVICUS may organise. This is a management-level position with significant opportunity for creativity and initiative and, for the right candidate, could result in a long-term appointment.

IDRC is seeking Expressions of Interest from suitably qualified and experienced individuals, firms, consortia, NGOs, or research centres to research and write a scholarly history of the Centre to be completed by 2008. IDRC is preparing to launch its History Project, which will culminate in the publication of a scholarly book on the history of the Centre. The book is not intended to be a vanity publication, but an exercise in critical reflection and learning. The desired book is expected to be accessible to non-academic audiences without compromising scholarly integrity and conventions.