Only candidates who scored a B+ of 67 points will make it to Kenya's public universities. This is heartbreaking news for thousands of parents whose children sat the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examination in 2004. The Joint Admissions Board (JAB) broke the news as it announced that more than 47,000 candidates who sat the KCSE examination in 2004 would not join the six public universities although they had met the minimum qualifications. JAB, the team of public university administrators that picks students, said yesterday the institutions would admit 10,632 of the 58,239 who qualified.

The four African countries that originally proposed the Cotton Initiative will produce a proposal on cutting domestic support in the “coming days”, Benin told the Cotton Sub-Committee on 31 January 2006 in its first meeting since the 13-18 December 2005 Hong Kong Ministerial Conference. The Cotton Four (Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali), sub-committee chairperson Crawford Falconer, and some other countries said work on domestic support will be urgently needed if members are to meet the 30 April deadline for “modalities” that was agreed in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration says cuts in trade-distorting domestic support on cotton will be deeper and quicker than those agreed for agriculture as a whole, but does not spell out how much deeper or faster, according to the Millenium Development Goals Campaign.

A new report highlights the role of the European Investment Bank as financer of so called "development" projects in the South, including Africa. The question raised is: development for whom? The research, entitled "The European Investment Bank In The South. In Whose Interest?", gives insights around that question.

The RHC will 1) facilitate the acquisition of emergency preparedness, mitigation, and response 2) perform the designated activities under the direct supervision and in consultation with the Regional Director as the designated “Humanitarian Lead,” activating Humanitarian Response Department support, coordinating with the regional office, activating the Oxfam International and partner’s network, and otherwise implementing contingency plans 3) The RHC will also support integration of conflict transformation skills.

Key responsibilities of this challenging position based in Nairobi, Kenya will include: the provision of vision and strategic leadership for the Kenya programme (the largest of CCF’s operations with a budget of $10 million) with full operational responsibility; articulating CCF’s vision and mission; designing and implementing a strategic plan to address the causes and effects of poverty and other adverse conditions affecting children in the country. This position will attract a leader with plenty of initiative and extensive high level management experience within an NGO/development context.

This Conference will focus on the relevance and application to data collection, policy development and practice of researchers and practitioners in the field of reducing and preventing firearm related death and injury.

AFRODAD, in collaboration with the SADC Parliamentary Forum, convened a second Dialogue between SADC Parliamentarians and representatives of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in Windhoek, Namibia on 15 and 16 February, 2006 to discuss the question of Loan Contraction and Debt Management in the region. The workshop, which brought together about 12 Parliamentarians and 20 CSO representatives, was held under the theme 'Dialogue on the Loan Contraction Process and Debt Management in SADC' and was a continuation of an earlier Dialogue between Parliamentarians and representatives of CSOs that was held from 23 - 24 August 2004, in Harare, Zimbabwe. At the end of the meeting, Communique was issued, which is available through the link below.

The Public Health Association of Southern Africa (PHASA) is pleased to announce its Third Public Health Conference to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, from 15 th - 17th May 2006. The conference will be co-hosted by PHASA, the Gauteng Department of Health, the University of the Witwatersrand School of Public Health, the International Epidemiological Association and the Health Systems Trust.

A donor conference for the Central African Republic (CAR) began on Monday in the Cameroonian capital, Yaounde, organised by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)."New dramas emerge regularly," OCHA said. "Following banditry in the country's north since late December, thousands are still homeless, while 45,000 refugees have fled to Chad, 15,000 of whom have left their homes since June 2000." UN agencies and NGOs struggle to get funding to support the internally displaced. OCHA said although most major donor governments have confirmed their attendance at the Yaounde meeting, organisers were not optimistic that pledges or commitments would be made at the event.

SAFDEM is a continental NGO with regional representation in Southern Africa. We are currently recruiting experienced personnel to be deployed to various international missions.

Candidates should meet the following requirements:
· Post Graduate degree preferably in Law, Development Studies, Finance, International Relations, IT, Human Resources and Conflict Mgmt
· At least 10 years experience in an NGO environment.
· Project management experience with ability to manage
· Willing to working in challenging environment
· Fluency in Portuguese and French an advantage
· Proficiency in current office software applications
· Women candidates are encouraged to apply
· Valid passport

The incumbent will, under the supervision of the General Director, carry out the Five Years Strategic Plan and contribute to PIWA's institutional building. S/he will develop new operational partnerships and maintain relationships with organisations that are active in fields that interest PIWA, amongst other duties. Applications must be received by February 15.

The successful applicant will serve the Alliance in the next steps of its development in order to promote decentralised cooperation and good local governance to accelerate and expand responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, based on values of equity and partnership across sectors and targeting those most in need. Fluency in English and French is essential.

The successful candidate will oversee projects in South Africa, Mozambique, Swaziland and Lesotho and will work to advance economic progress, promote community development and help to eradicate disease, famine and conflict.

South Africa faces key challenges in meeting international standards of justice as well as those laid out in its own constitution, according to a new report. The report, launched today (February 17) by the Open Society Foundation-South Africa and AfriMAP, a project initiated by the Open Society network of foundations in Africa, provides a comprehensive audit of justice sector performance in post-apartheid South Africa. It also calls on the government to take steps to ensure that South Africa's justice system operates fairly and transparently and follows the rule of law.

After waiting more than three years to sit key exams because of Cote d'Ivoire's unrelenting civil war, more than 90,000 school students left in limbo in rebel-held territory could be able to take the tests as soon as this month (February). In a statement issued after a weekly cabinet meeting, the West African country's interim government announced a new plan to restore schooling in the northern half of Cote d'Ivoire, which has been split in two since a failed coup in September 2002.

The 2006 session of the CODESRIA sub-regional methodological workshops will explore the conditions for the employment and validation of qualitative perspectives in African contexts. To this end, the workshops will be open to all the social research disciplines. These disciplines are uniformly confronted with broadly similar difficulties of understanding social reality and the challenges posed by techniques of data collection and analysis, which, on account of their ''qualitative'' nature, are suspected by some to be seriously lacking in scientific rigour.

The African Child Policy Forum will hold its 2006 International Policy Conference on the African Child: Violence Against Girls in Africa on May 11 and 12 at the United Nations Conference Centre in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Speakers from the African Union, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and members from Pan-African policy makers will join women's-rights and child-rights organisations, as well as child survivors of violence, in this major two-day conference.

Business tycoon Jimmy Wanjigi has moved to court seeking to gag The Standard newspapers from writing stories about him over the unfolding Anglo Leasing scandal. Wanjigi moved to court under a certificate of urgency claiming that The Standard wrote defamatory words concerning him in a story published earlier in the week. The story indicated that Wanjigi had been ordered to surrender his gun and passport as investigations into the Sh7 billion scandal gained tempo.

ATPS is seeking to recruit a dynamic individual to fill the international position of director of research and training to be based at its secretariat in Nairobi, Kenya. Reporting to the executive director, he/she will be responsible for providing overall intellectual and administrative leadership to the development and implementation of research, capacity building and policy advocacy programmes.

This article, from the e-zine "At Issue", examines Botswana's progress in the education sector from 1965 (independence from Britain) to 2005. It argues that due to revenue from diamonds, Botswana has been able to invest heavily in its education system, thus making it a model for other African countries. The article states that Botswana is two percent short of achieving universal access to primary school as envisaged by the Millennium Development Goals. This compares favourably with most countries in sub-Saharan Africa, which have very low primary completion rates, many less than 50 percent.