Africa's impressive growth during the financial and economic crisis of the last five years will be put at risk unless action is taken to combat rising inequality, according to the annual health check on the continent from a panel led by the former UN secretary general Kofi Annan. The report from the Africa Progress Panel found that African countries were growing consistently faster than almost any other region, with booming exports and more foreign investment. But it warned that there was a contrast between a growing yet still relatively small middle class and the Africans left behind after a decade of buoyant activity.

The UN has found asylum-seekers increased by 20 per cent in 2011. The Guardian UK has mapped the countries where asylum-seekers are coming from and the countries they are going to.

This is to invite you to Kilombo 2012, which is an event on Africa, Africans and Social Justice. This is going to be an annual event and the first which is Kilombo 2012 will lay the foundation for launching the Kilombo Centre for Civil Society and African Self-Determination.

'The Unemployed People’s Movement rejects the Youth Wage Subsidy as a solution to the unemployment crisis that is leaving millions of young people without a future. We note that there has been a concerted attempt by big business, their academic and media allies and the DA to present workers as lazy and overpaid. This is outrageous. Workers have struggled bravely for a living wage over many years and the gains that have been won must be defended.'

'Birthing Justice: Women Creating Economic and Social Alternatives' is a series that features 12 alternative social and economic models which expand the possibilities for justice, equity, and strong community. The latest installment looks at water being turned into a good for sale and for profit. 'Driven by a different vision and by economic necessity, a global counter-trend is growing to assure that household water be free or cheap, accessible, and safe, and that the earth’s water be kept pure and flowing. Marcela Olivera is a part of this movement. In 2000, she played a key role in organizing the massive protests in Cochabamba when residents of the city forced the Bechtel Corporation to give up control of the municipal water system, thereby restoring water as a human right for all instead of as a source of corporate income. This victory has been repeated elsewhere in Bolivia and around the world.'

Algeria's legislative election saw women take almost a third of the seats, making the national assembly the most gender-balanced in the region but activists say the battle is far from won. According to official results made public Wednesday, 143 of the enlarged national assembly's 462 seats will be occupied by women, up from a representation of only seven per cent in the outgoing house.

Media Foundation for West Africa,in its bid to promote issues-based and decent language campaigning in Ghana’s 2012 elections, launched a project to monitor and report indecent expression by politicians and political activists in the campaign process. The level of indecent expression increased from nine in the fourth week to 24 in the fifth week covering the period April 29 to May 5, 2012.

Preferably based in London with frequent travel

Saferworld is an independent non-governmental organisation that works to prevent and reduce violent conflict and promote co-operative approaches to security. We work with governments, international organisations and civil society to encourage and support effective policies and practices through advocacy, research and policy development and through supporting the actions of others. We are seeking a senior manager with extensive experience in the areas of conflict prevention, peace- and security- building to help lead Saferworld’s development into the future.

On 17 May 2012, Trans Support Initiative Uganda (TSI-U), a Transgender and Intersex Organization in Uganda joined the rest of the world to commemorate the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia. 'We take this day to remember all the injustice, violence, discrimination and murders that have already occurred to colleagues, relatives and friends. It has not been long since we lost our very own David Kato because of homophobia, Aunt Victoria from Tanzania because of transphobia, the denial to access of medical services more especially HIV/Aids drugs to people like Beyonce and the closure of human rights workshops denying already marginalized people access to information.'

The African Union Commission, in collaboration with South Africa, will hold the first Global African Diaspora Summit on 25 of May 2012 in the southern African nation. The summit will coincide with the African Day. 'The African Union recognises the fact that the African Diaspora, found in North and South America, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia and various parts of the world are an integral part of the continent,' the commission said ahead of the summit.

Thousands of people rallied Saturday in a demonstration by the opposition Unita, to celebrate a surprise court victory that forced the national elections chief to step down months ahead of polls. Dressed in T-shirts emblazoned with a photo of Unita boss Isaias Samakuva, with many wearing caps in the party's trademark red and green, thousands sang and danced in a plaza in the Angolan capital.

New data released by the World Health Organisation (WHO) titled, 'World Health Statistics 2012 Report' has focused on the growing problem of the non-communicable diseases burden. According to the report, one in three adults worldwide has raised blood pressure, a condition that causes around half of all deaths from stroke and heart disease; while one in 10 adults has diabetes. WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan, said: 'This report is further evidence of the dramatic increase in the conditions that trigger heart disease and other chronic illnesses, particularly in low-and middle-income countries. In some African countries, as much as half the adult population has high blood pressure.' And although no new case of the Wild Polio Virus (WPV) was reported in the last two weeks in Nigeria, the country accounts for 56 per cent of global cases recorded in 2012.

‘I’ve dedicated my entire life to documenting queer lives. I wanted to make sure I document (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex) lives. All my major projects are gone.’ -Zanele Muholi, Cape Town

A Somaliland military court has sentenced 17 people to death and jailed five others for life following what it said was their role in attacking an army base. The ruling by the court sitting in Hargeisa, some 1,500 kilometres northwest of Mogadishu were immediately seen as harsh and raised concerns over its impartiality given the speedy delivery and absence of independent lawyers for those charged.

Date: 24th May 2012

Venue: UN Conference Centre, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

In honour of notable Pan-African civil activist - the late Dr. Tajudeen Abdul Raheem (6 January 1961 – 25 May 2009)

PANELISTS

1. Prof. Horace Campbell
2. Prof. Mohamed Salih
3. Dr. Kayode Fayemi
4. Dr. Funmi Olonisakin
5. Mr. Napoleon Abdullahi 6. Dr. Patricia Daley
7. Mr. Brian Kagoro
8. Mr. Ahmed Rajab
9. Ms. Uduak Amimo

For registration and attendance please contact :

Ms. Abijah Yeshaneh (email: [email][email protected] or 011 544 3536) or Mr. Gideon Gamora (email: [email][email protected] or 011 544 5479).

Last day for registration 21st May 2012.

Organized by the Governance and Public Administration Division (GPAD/UNECA)

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) has denounced the crackdown of the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) and Security Services on the freedoms and rights acquired by the Egyptian people after the revolution. 'ANHRI considers the raid on the office of al-Alam news channel in Cairo on May 13th as a new episode in the series of stifling press freedom and clamping down on media work in Egypt for exposing the violations committed in the transitional phase.'

Transgender and intersex people in Uganda face physical and verbal abuse, are denied access to health services, are victims of blackmail and extortion as well as unlawful arrests and mob justice.

An international group of research organisations are collaborating on a project to boost Internet access in rural Sub-Saharan Africa. The project was discussed at a meeting of the board of the Global Research Alliance (GRA) - an international organisation that seeks to align the efforts of its members with the UN’s Millennium Development Goals - in Sydney, Australia, this month that looked at new strategies for improving access by the developing world to science and innovation.

Press release
Pambazuka Press and GRAIN
17 May 2012

Pan-African publisher Pambazuka Press in collaboration with GRAIN, a small international non-profit that works to support small farmers, is to launch a vital text in the studies of food, land and climate, The Great Food Robbery: How corporations control food, grab land and destroy the climate. Available worldwide in May 2012, this publication marks the five-week countdown to Rio+20, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.

After the failure of the United Nations Climate Change Conference at Durban last December to formulate a united response strategy, there are mixed feelings on what Rio+20 will be able to achieve. But what is clear is that all participants will need to be well informed. ‘Everyone should read The Great Food Robbery – every citizen, every political leader – to understand how agribusiness, which has created hunger and disease, is now contributing to the biggest resource grab since Columbus,’ said Dr Vandana Shiva, physicist, internationally renowned activist and founder of Navdanya International. Shiva is one of many high profile academics from around the world who have endorsed The Great Food Robbery. Others include Dr. Hans Herren, Naomi Klein, Eric Holt-Giménez, and UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Prof. Olivier De Schutter.

Henk Hobbelink, of GRAIN, in his speech to the Swedish government upon receiving the Right Livelihood Award stated the latest trend in global land grabbing for outsourced food production is just one facet of a much greater attack. ‘Land grabs for mining, tourism, biofuels, dam construction, infrastructure projects, timber and now carbon trading are all part of the same process, turning farmers into refugees on their own land.’

The Great Food Robbery is an advocate for the rural communities that have fed the world for millennia. It examines how agribusiness is driving today’s global food crisis and highlights the culpability of the industrial food system regarding the climate crisis, revealing how land grabbing is being fuelled by a financial industry unconcerned by its exploitation of the world’s poorest.

GRAIN has collected materials on topics ranging from agribusiness and food sovereignty to land grabbing and the climate crisis to produce The Great Food Robbery. It is an essential introduction to understanding the powers that are controlling our food system and crucially offers the means to challenge the status quo. It will be of interest to activists, academics, students, journalists, development and NGO professionals.

???FOR INTERVIEWS:

Contact

- Aaron O'Dowling-Keane (Ms.)
Publishing and Marketing Coordinator, Pambazuka Press
Tel: +44 (0)1865 727006 x204
Email: [email][email protected]
www.pambazukapress.org

- Dexter X
Information worker, GRAIN
Tel: +1 (0) 514 585 3987
Email: [email][email protected]
www.grain.org

NOTES TO EDITORS:

GRAIN supports small farmers and social movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems. In 2011, GRAIN was awarded the Right Livelihood Award (the Alternative Nobel Peace prize) for ‘its worldwide work to protect the livelihoods and rights of farming communities and to expose the massive purchases of farmland in developing countries by foreign financial interests’.

BOOK DETAILS

17 May 2012
9780857491138
Paperback
GB pounds 14.95 / US dollars 24.95 / CAN dollars 24.95
216 x 279 mm
164 pp

On 10 May 2012, Egypt's first ever presidential debate took place between two presidential candidates, Amr Moussa and Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh. The debate was three hours long and the candidates were asked questions on various topics such as human rights, health plans, the economy, foreign relations, sharia law, and the role of the military. Both Egyptians and Arabs around the region were tweeting the candidates' replies - a summary of the tweets is included in this post.