This paper attempts to analyse Africa’s strategic partnerships: the Africa–Indian Forum Summit, Africa–Europe Summit, China–Africa Cooperation Forum (South–South) and the Africa–South America cooperation (South–South).

This report builds on field research conducted in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Gabon in 2008 and 2009. While few of the Chinese company representatives in both Gabon and the DRC consulted for this study were aware of the EITI, all of them expressed great interest in the notion of an overarching transparency initiative.

In this week's emerging powers roundup, China is set to have a massive foreign exchange surplus for the foreseeable future, gobbling up natural resources producers in Africa and elsewhere, and is starting to pay more attention to its press, given its position as a major trading partner.

A new report that reveals how vulnerable the internet as we know it is, has just been published by two global civil society organisations. The annual report, called Global Information Society Watch (GISWatch), was released by the Association for Progressive Communications and Dutch-funder Hivos. GISWatch 2009 is entitled Access to online information and knowledge – advancing human rights and democracy.

As the Doha Round of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) stumbles into its ninth year, a group of 22 developing countries are poised to clinch their own deal to cut tariffs and boost trade among themselves.

UNICEF has said that more than 43,000 children work in mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The UN agency made this known in a statement it issued ahead of the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Children's Rights.

Dr. Robert Zeigler, an eminent American botanist, flew to Saudi Arabia in March for a series of high-level discussions about the future of the kingdom’s food supply. Saudi leaders were frightened: heavily dependent on imports, they had seen the price of rice and wheat, their dietary staples, fluctuate violently on the world market over the previous three years, at one point doubling in just a few months.

India's ONGC Videsh (OVL), ONGC’s foreign investment arm, is in talks with Ghana’s national oil company to bid for Kosmos Energy’s stake in the giant offshore Jubilee field of the region. Dallas-based Kosmos Energy focused on Africa, holds a 30.8 per cent stake in the Jubilee oil block, one of the biggest oil blocks in Africa.

The International Detention Coalition has released a media statement for Universal Children’s Day 2009, which calls upon States to stop the detention of refugee, asylum seeker and migrant children and to use community alternatives to the detention of children and their caregivers.

The biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meet is a major target for CHRI’s advocacy. CHRI will be distributing hard copies of its report during the proceedings of the human rights assembly organised by the Commonwealth Foundation and Commonwealth Human rights Initiative. The report titled ‘Silencing the Defenders: Human Rights Defenders in the Commonwealth’ looks into an issue of human rights concern in the Commonwealth, which includes recommendations to further protect and promote human rights.

Somali nationals claiming asylum in India form a small but significant community of refugees who are seeking asylum in a region far from their roots. But the Government of India does not recognize Somali refugees, who are part of the approximately 11,257 refugees (also including Burmese, Iranians, Iraqis, Palestinians and Sudanese, among others) who can only rely on the ‘protection’ of the Indian office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The Municipal Service Project (MSP) systematically explores alternatives to the privatization and commercialization of service provision in the health, water, sanitation and electricity sectors. We evaluate service delivery models deemed to be successful alternatives to commercialization in an effort to understand the conditions required for their sustainability and reproducibility.Our focus is on the water, electricity and primary health care sectors in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

On the heels of a federal appeals court ruling that only the U.S. Congress and the executive branch of government - not the courts - can interfere with government-sponsored "extraordinary rendition", a U.S. citizen from New Jersey is asking another court to tell the government it wasn't okay to secretly imprison and abuse him in three different African countries over a period of four months.

This week's emerging powers news roundup focuses on the the FOCAC Sharm El Sheikh meeting, reports by the World Bank and OECD on Africa's infrastructural needs, the African land grab by rich nations, and growing Chinese investment on the continent.

On the 8 October, seven prominent Sahrawi human rights advocates were arrested at Mohamed V airport in Casablanca, Morocco. They were driven away by Moroccan security forces immediately after disembarking from a flight returning from Algeria where they had been visiting the Sahrawi refugee camps between 26 September and 8 October.

It is the ninth time the Global Fund Board approved new proposals to support programs fighting the three diseases. The total two-year value of the programs recommended for funding was US$2.4 billion; the second largest ever approved by the Global Fund, following a US$2.75 billion round in 2008. The Global Fund has now approved a total funding of US$18.4 billion for 144 countries since it was created in 2002.

On November 5, 2009, Christian Aid partners OMUNGA and SOS Habitat were awarded the Civil Society Human Rights National Award, organized by the Human Rights Coordination Committee and Open Society Foundation –Angola. The award was implemented for the first time this year and is granted to organisations and individuals that have contributed to the defence, respect, protection and guarantee of human rights in Angola. This is a fantastic recognition of our partner’s human rights work in the country.

The Chinese government defended its decision not to block a UN Security Council resolution in 2005 referring the situation in Darfur to the International Criminal Court (ICC).Beijing, despite being a strong ally of Khartoum, abstained from voting on the resolution outraging Sudanese officials who accused China of failing to “protect its friends”.

With cheap labour, investment incentives and unrestricted exports, one Chinese textile group has turned to Egypt as an ideal location to produce its ready-made garments, beating stiff competition at home. The Chinese-owned Nile Textile Group has set up shop in the Port Said free zone, overlooking the north entrance of the Suez Canal, and developed an industrial estate now hiring 600 workers, 20 percent of which are Chinese and the rest Egyptian.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao delivered a speech entitled "Building the New Type of China-Africa Strategic Partnership" at the opening ceremony of the 4th Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on November 6, 2009. The following is the full text of the speech.