Physical mobility and transport barriers that prevent rural children from attending primary school can be substantial but are often complex and hidden. The situation is particularly severe in sub-Saharan Africa where, with few exceptions, more than half the children in any age group fail to attend school regularly.

African education policymakers have failed to meet growing demand for secondary schooling. Budgetary provision for secondary education has stalled or declined and fewer pupils are moving from primary to secondary level.

The last time the Zambian government built a secondary school was in 1979. So the community of Kachembe took charge. The women fetched sand from the river 2km away and carried it, bucket by bucket, on their heads to the site they had chosen for their school. The men dug the foundations and made the bricks.

The International NGO Journal (INGOJ) is currently accepting manuscripts for publication. INGOJ was founded to publish proposals, appraisals and reports of NGO projects. The aim is to have centralized information for NGO activities where stakeholders including beneficiaries of NGO services can find useful information about ongoing projects and where to obtain particular assistance.

Ethiopia has asked the Nigerian government to allow it engage the services of 600 Nigerian teachers, Nigeria’s Ambassador to Ethiopia, Olusegun Akinsanya said here Tuesday (September 5). Akinsanya told journalists in Addis Ababa, the capital that the Ethiopian government wanted to recruit the teachers to teach in the 12 new universities being constructed throughout the country.

Working in Sudan since 1985 FAR has been involved in a number of programs including emergency relief to refugees and IDP populations, agro forestry schemes, health and nutrition programs, food security and income generating activities. FAR headquarters are in Khartoum with field offices in 5 other locations, staffed mainly by local personnel. FAR’s vision is to empower the people of Sudan.

The Program Officer will be responsible for developing, monitoring and evaluating the Ford Foundation’s work in the field of Sexuality and Reproductive Health (SRH) in the Middle East and North Africa region, with special focus on Egypt and Palestine

The Africa Programme of Amnesty International (AI), International Secretariat is seeking a dynamic person to fill the post of Africa Human Rights Defenders Coordinator based in AI's Africa Regional Office in Kampala, Uganda. As the Africa Human Rights Defenders Coordinator, you will coordinate AI's program of work for the protection of Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) in Africa.

Ghana's government has banned a conference for gay men and lesbians due to take place there later this month (September). Information Minister Kwamena Bartels said as homosexuality was illegal in Ghana the gathering was not permitted. "Government does not condone any such activity which violently offends the culture, morality and heritage of the entire people of Ghana," he said.

The Spanish government has said it will not tolerate the continued arrival of African migrants on its shores. Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega called on African countries to help cut off the flow of migrants, and to take them back again. She was speaking after a weekend in which more than 1,400 Africans landed on the Canary Islands alone.

The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, an organ of the African Union will be organising a 'Regional Sensitisation Seminar on the Rights of Indigenous Populations and Communities in Africa'. The Seminar is the first in a series of Regional Seminars earmarked by the African Commission’s Working Group on Indigenous Populations and Communities in Africa

Six years into the new millennium and the world feels like a very different place from the last years of the twentieth century. For those engaged in civil society capacity building, these changes are felt as increasing pressures for conformity with the orthodoxies of the aid industry.

The Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society is pleased to announce a unique fellowship opportunity: the spring 2007 Emerging Leaders International Fellows Programme. The programme provides leadership training through applied research and professional mentorships for young scholar-practitioners in the nonprofit sector.

Soul Beat Africa is an exciting organisation using information and communication technologies to create opportunities for those involved in development communication in Africa to share what they are doing, thinking and experiencing and to discuss and review each others work to improve the impact of communication on African development.

The Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) has been flooded with complaints by individuals, candidates and political parties of violations of the code of conduct, it has been learnt. Chairperson, Ireen Mambilima, said in Lusaka that the commission had taken the reports seriously and was giving each of it due consideration, while in some cases parties involved had been summoned to the commission to answer charges.

The Center for Domestic Violence Prevention (CEDOVIP) works to prevent violence against women in Uganda. We are looking for two experienced and committed professionals to join us in this work on a part time basis. The successful candidates will be articulate and dynamic individuals with demonstrated commitment to promote women’s rights.

The CODESRIA Annual Social Science CampusCall for Applications for the 2006 Session Theme: The Role of Institutions in African Development The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is pleased to announce the fifth session of its Annual Social Science Campus, and invites applications from African scholars for participation in the programme which, this year, is scheduled to hold at the end of November 2006.

The Program Officer will be responsible for developing, monitoring and evaluating the Ford Foundation’s work in the field of Sexuality and Reproductive Health (SRH) in the Middle East and North Africa region, with special focus on Egypt and Palestine. The current portfolio of initiatives and grants focuses primarily on reproductive health policy reform and reproductive rights and falls under the Foundation’s Asset Building and Community Development program.

Guinea has made steady progress in increasing primary school enrolment, especially of girls. Yet, schools are overcrowded and the quality of education is poor. Local communities must be key partners with national and international organisations if there is to be further progress in increasing girls’ participation.

Crumbling campuses, inadequate equipment, a lack of bursaries: the problems facing Cameroonian students are numerous -- and they're not only compromising the education that students receive. These difficulties have also laid the ground for sects and religious groups to flourish on campuses.