The Educational Research Network for West and Central Africa (ERNWACA) calls for scientific articles in all areas of education for the maiden edition of the Journal of Educational Research in Africa (JERA), a social science review. JERA, a long time objective of ERNWACA, will help promote quality research relevant to African contexts and should help teachers, educational administrators and policymakers gain analytical in-depth understanding of contemporary educational issues.

A burial ground for African slaves, which had been forgotten for almost two centuries, has been opened to the public in New York. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and poet Maya Angelou attended a dedication ceremony for a monument at the site. The late 17th Century burial site was gradually built over as New York expanded, but was rediscovered during an excavation in 1991.

Controversial both inside and outside the institution, the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) strategy in low-income countries was debated at a recent panel that questioned whether or not the IMF should exit low-income countries. The role of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in low-income countries (LICs) is a highly controversial issue both inside and outside the institution, as reported in the findings by the external committee on World Bank-IMF collaboration, known as the Malan Committee.

How do firms decide to provide HIV/AIDS prevention services? In this CGD Working Paper, Visiting Fellow Vijaya Ramachandran analyzes data from 860 firms and 4,955 workers in Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya. She finds that larger firms, and those with more highly skilled workers invest more in AIDS prevention. Firms in which more than 50 percent of workers are unionized are also more likely to do more prevention activity.

The executive director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) is urging action as concerns the transmission of HIV to children through sexual abuse, incest and early teenage sex. Many outreach programmes target HIV-positive pregnant women and young children, and progress is being made in this arena, Peter Piot told IPS during a recent conference at Harvard Medical School in the eastern U.S. city of Boston.

Ahead of the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) this November, Maja Daruwala says that African heads need to lead on issues of concern to the Continent and not leave it to others to finger point.

A high-level dialogue entitled Mobilizing Aid for Trade: Focus African countries will take place in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, the 1st and 2nd of October 2007. This event is organized by the African Development Bank, the World Trade Organization and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa in cooperation with the World Bank and hosted by the Government of Tanzania.

Commonwealth presidents and prime ministers, who meet every two years in a CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting) almost always say something about human rights. But there are huge differences between comments which are banal, and commitments which lead to specific action by the Commonwealth Secretariat and member governments.

Growing evidence shows that getting and keeping young people in school, particularly girls, dramatically lowers their vulnerability to HIV. By itself, merely attending primary school makes young people significantly less likely to contract HIV. When young people stay in school through the secondary level, education’s protective effect against HIV is even more pronounced.

Zimbabwe posted a trade deficit of US$189,000,000 in the first six months of 2007 against China, the price of a costly marriage of convenience founded on Harare’s quest for friendship and Beijing’s search for cheap raw materials. Bi-lateral trade between the two countries clocked US$205,000,00 between January and June, almost 80 per cent of the US$270,000,000 registered during the whole of 2006.

The divide in perceived levels of corruption in rich and poor countries remains as sharp as ever, according to the 2007 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), released today by Transparency International, the global coalition against corruption. Developed and developing countries must share responsibility for reducing corruption, in tackling both the supply and demand sides.

At the beginning of October, the European Commission will hold a prize-giving ceremony at Europe House for the International Drawing Competition on Gender Equality, which was launched in March by European Commissioner Benita-Ferrero Waldner on the occasion of International Women’s Day. This was announced in a press statement by the European Commission’s Aude Guignard. According to Guignard, ten drawings from children aged between 8 and 10 were pre-selected and sent to Brussels.

The head of Kenya's Anglican Church has rejected a compromise over gay bishops by US Episcopal Church leaders. They have said they will halt the ordination of gay bishops and public blessings of same-sex relationships to prevent a split in the Anglican Church. 'That word "halt" is not enough', said Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi.

Several popular Spanish rock groups have helped collect 600,000 signatures and delivered them to the government in support of an international campaign calling for the Spanish government to modify its trade policy towards Africa and eliminate restrictions on imports from that region.

Up to $42 billion will need to be found by 2010 if universal access to HIV treatment, prevention and care is to be achieved in line with the 2005 commitment by G8 governments, UNAIDS has said. UNAIDS’ estimate has been developed ahead of an international meeting, which starts today in Berlin, to win increased donor commitments to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. The Fund currently accounts for one-quarter of all international donor expenditure on Aids.

There is a 'melting pot' of all the races of Europe in America, but it does not include African Americans. It may someday include light-skinned Hispanics, and everybody else except Blacks, Stephen Steinberg writes. The American paradigm of race requires that there be an 'other' - and the other is Black people. That's what makes white people, white.

This new research report conducted by the Centre for Chinese Studies evaluated the market entry models of Chinese construction firms in Angola, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Zambia. Particular attention was paid to the methods of engagement and the impact on the local construction industries.

An appalling total of 144 trade unionists were murdered for defending workers’ rights in 2006, while more than 800 suffered beatings or torture, according to the Annual Survey of Trade Union Rights Violations, published by the International Trade Union Confederation, which boasts 168,000,000 members. The 379-page report details nearly 5,000 arrests and more than 8,000 dismissals of workers due to their trade union activities.

Somewhere, some time this year, a baby will be born on the 25th floor of a city hospital or the dirt floor of a dark slum shack; a first-year college graduate will rent a cramped apartment in lower Manhattan, and a family of five will finally concede their plot of farm land to an encroaching desert or sea, and turn towards Jakarta or La Paz or Lagos in search of a new livelihood and a new home. The arrival of this family or graduate or baby will tip the world’s demographic scale and, for the first time in history, more than half the human population will live in cities.

Aid donors should re-think their self-appointed role as saviours of the poor, and try more modest and realistic approaches, argues William Easterly. Over the past five decades, the West has donated US$2.3 trillion in foreign aid to poor countries. Most of this money has been funnelled into a series of grand plans to eradicate poverty — plans that have become increasingly high-profile in a bid to attract money from both public and private purses.