The responsibilities for the Country Director include: Strategic planning, program implementation and evaluation; fund raising and grant management; the even and consistent implementation of IRC policies and procedures as described in the IRC Field Operations Manual; develop recommendations for policy revisions as necessitated by field conditions, and Human Resource management.

In the past few months Cote d'Ivoire (CI) has undergone massive unrest starting with a failed Coup in September and subsequent attacks resulting in rebel control over several important cities in the north and central areas of the country. In response to this ongoing crisis IRC will send an Education/Child Protection (E/CP) Coordinator to the region to carry out an emergency assessment.

Bridges.org, the international NGO that helps people in developing countries to use ICT to help themselves, is expanding its offices in Cape Town. To this end, we are currently inviting applications for the positions of business manager, technology associate and webmaster.

The position provides an outstanding opportunity for the right individual to participate in the growth of a dynamic programme, and to work with a variety of medical, public health, policy, and community development professionals.

The purpose of this position is to provide strategic leadership, overall vision and good management in order to fulfil the goal of the Resource Centre. Duties will include leading the review and analysis of sexuality and sexual and reproductive health (SRH)/rights trends and developments in the region and directing and overseeing data gathering activities and analysis to identify and glean experience, lessons learned, and best practice related to human sexuality and sexual and reproductive health programs for dissemination and exchange.

We're looking for an experienced and motivated individual to represent Christian Aid in Burundi. With responsibility for Christian Aid's Burundi programme, you will manage the staff and field office, develop Christian Aid's policy and programme, and contribute to the strategic planning of the wider team.

Vendors of Ethiopian free press publications are being hunted down and detained, and their newspapers are being snatched from them by police, says the Ethiopian Free Press Journalists' Association (EFJA). This comes at a time when local and foreign journalists, publishers and media professionals have strongly protested against the new draft press law that have been made public by the Ministry of Information.

The poor state of Nigeria's educational sector has resulted in a frightening decay which has put the performance of the country's candidates in public examinations behind that of their counterparts in war ravaged countries in West Africa. This is revealed in a quarterly review of the sector by Shelter Rights Initiative.

A new multi-million dollar project has been launched to speed up access in developing countries to a vaccine against the world's leading cause of severe diarrhoea among children. The goal of the three-year US$30 million venture is to ensure that a vaccine against the rotavirus is made available to children in developing countries at the same time as it is to those living in the developed world, a move that, it is claimed, could save half a million lives a year.

Nadjikimo Bénoudjita, publisher of the weekly Notre Temps, and Mbainaye Bétoubam, the paper's deputy editor-in-chief, were sentenced to six months' imprisonment and fined two million CFA francs ($3,300) in damages and interest on 6 February 2003.

ARTICLE 19 has released a report on the current legal framework for freedom of expression in Ethiopia. ARTICLE 19 believes that the report will inform the ongoing dialogue in Ethiopia on the new draft press law. The Report presents an independent assessment of the current legal framework for freedom of expression in Ethiopia and identifies the key areas of concern in relation to freedom of expression.

This is a call for the South African government to start taking the issues of youth unemployment seriously. It’s about time the National Youth Service is implemented. This issue has been discussed for more than eight years since the Government of National Unity took over. Since then, more 40% of the youth from age 15-35 years have remained economically inactive, unemployed, and living under extreme condition of poverty.

Any organization or individual wanting to get funds or establish partnership with OSISA, should send an initial letter of inquiry that shows how its own initiative relates to the mission, strategies and guidelines of OSISA. This letter should present the executive summary of the proposal and should include the project's goals and objectives, the activities of the project, the rationale and methodology, expected outputs, and a budget summarizing resources needed for the whole project and what is being requested from OSISA.

A school founded in a shearing shed seven years ago moved to brand new buildings last week, thanks to the work of the Vusisizwe Trust and the AngloGold Fund. Since 1990 the trust has funded and managed the construction of 1051 classrooms, administration facilities and toilets at 56 Eastern Cape schools at a cost of R96,4 million.

The Daily Dispatch reports that the Eskom Development Foundation has donated 10 industrial sewing machines for the Happy Home Centre for Disabled Children in the Eastern Cape. The Foundation is providing a helping hand to the Centre for the second time after it realised the significant impact of a first donation it made in 2001.

According to the Daily Dispatch, Steve Heath has embarked on a month-long journey from Cape Town to KwaZulu -Natal to raise funds for the Bobbi Bear Foundation. Bobbi Bear is a national charity for abused children. Steve is pushing a 85kg trolley which carries a tent, food, fishing rods and clothes as well as a South African flag and a red teddy bear. The Bobbi Bear Foundation is hoping to raise R500 000 from Steve's long journey.

Britain has given Shs 1.5bn (£600,000) to boost education in Uganda through the Commonwealth Education Fund. The fund was started in 2002 by the British government to help poor countries develop their education systems. Seventeen Commonwealth countries, including Uganda, are to benefit from the initial fund of £10m.

Civilians in Western Upper Nile (Wahdah State), southern Sudan, including women and children, have been targeted by the Government of Sudan and allied militia groups in a series of attacks since the new year, a new report has said. A preliminary report issued on Sunday in Khartoum by the independent Civilian Protection Monitoring Team (CPMT) stated that the attacks had occurred in villages around Mayom, Mankien, Tam and Leel.

The World Food Programme (WFP), in partnership with World Vision, has launched a major school-feeding programme in the northern Burundi province of Karuzi, thereby boosting the chances of higher school attendance rates among otherwise hungry pupils.

In a recent diplomatic dance to confront those governments and armed groups using child soldiers, the United Nations took both a firm step forward and a small side step. The challenge to act came in 2001 when the UN Security Council, led by France, adopted a ground-breaking initiative to compile a list of those using or recruiting children as soldiers in armed conflicts on its agenda. Non-governmental organisations campaigning against the use of child soldiers welcomed this landmark resolution.