Equality Now, an international human rights organisation dedicated to end violence and discrimination against women and girls globally, is looking for a Program Officer with experience in human rights work focusing on protecting the fundamental rights of women. Based in the Africa Regional Office of Equality Now, located in Nairobi (Kenya), the Program Officer will be responsible for program work in French Speaking Africa, with a particular focus on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). She/he will report to the Africa Regional Director.

The European Commission (EC) said it has initiated new Micro Project Programmes in the six states of the Niger Delta region worth 42 million euros (about N6.2 billion).The states covered by the programme are Abia, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Edo, Imo and Ondo. The project is aimed at improving the living standards of the impoverished settlements in the Niger Delta region.

United Nations agencies and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have announced a new initiative focused on developing new diagnostic tests for the world's most deadly infectious diseases, increasing the possibility of early detection and treatment. The Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) was formed by the UN-backed Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) and the Gates Foundation in response to the critical need for new tools to detect infectious diseases.

The Khanya College Annual Winter School was launched in July 1999. The Winter School represents an important step in Khanya College's response to the changing political and economic environment within which social movements have to work. In many different ways Khanya College programmes seek to assist communities in the difficult task of developing their responses to globalisation and its various manifestations. The Annual Winter School provides the space for activists from various social movements to work together across different sectors and interests. This is an opportunity for activists from the different sectors to exchange views and share experiences. Winter School 2003 will focus on Nepad as an overall theme. Over the last two years social movements in all parts of the continent have expressed grave doubts about Nepad's ability to deliver on its promises. Many social movements have pointed out that Nepad is a Structural Adjustment Programme in the tradition of the Bretton Woods institutions.

NGO's have called for an independent audit of the national AIDS fund as they fear that the money might not be reaching the intended beneficiaries because no audit has been done. The call was made by representatives of NGOs in the country who met in Masvingo on Wednesday to discuss the national AIDS policy.

One of the greatest threats to the realisation of child rights in South Africa and in sub-Saharan Africa is the HIV/Aids pandemic, the University of Cape Town's Children's Institute said on Tuesday. "The illness and death of adults as a result of HIV/Aids has a profound impact on the survival, development and protection of children in South Africa," the institute said.

The Daily Dispatch reports that the European Union (EU) has made available R40mn for poverty relief projects in the Eastern Cape. The Mvula Trust will administer the programme that will target 100 projects in 50 communities. Depending on the successful implementation of the programme, a second phase is on the cards, which will increase total funding to R100 million. The programme will focus on several designated district municipalities, and projects will be aligned with local government integrated development plans (IDPs).

According to Business Day, the small, medium and micro enterprise (SMME) sector has received a shot in the arm from the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) and the Department of Trade and Industry. They have put in seed funding for the sector to the tune of R32 million and R5 million respectively. The initiative is part of the Swedish-SA Business Partnership Fund and its strategy to provide access to finance for SMMEs.

Built on the sweat of black migrant workers, Johannesburg is synonymous with social fragmentation, environmental degradation, violent crime and rampant consumerism alongside grinding poverty. How is the city reinventing itself in post-apartheid South Africa? What can it teach other divided cities similarly struggling to promote political, economic and social justice?

An estimated 11-million children younger than 18 were living in poverty last year, according to a study by the Children's Institute of the University of Cape Town. The university said in a statement released on Monday, the beginning of Child Protection Week, that poverty, child abuse and violence and HIV/Aids were the major challenges facing children in South Africa.

Two South African lobby groups this week picketed a biotechnology conference in Johannesburg over the controversial issue of genetically modified (GM) food. A small group of protesters from the Environmental Justice Networking Forum and the South African Freeze Alliance on Genetic Engineering held up placards with slogans like "Say Yes to Organic Agriculture" and "Warning: GM foods can damage your health". Sister Angelica Loub, one of the protesters, said she had environmental, social and economic concerns about genetically modified foods.

Educators and learners from The Queenstown Private High School were locked out of the school building recently because rent on the premises had not been paid.

In South Africa, where an estimated five million people are HIV-positive and 500,000 children have been orphaned because one or both of their parents have died of AIDS-related causes, "child-headed household" is an official census category, although no one knows how many such households exist. Without "radical changes," the number of AIDS orphans is expected to quadruple by 2015. Carol Dyantyi, who runs the Soweto-based Ikageng Itireleng AIDS Ministry, and a group of 15 volunteers care for more than 100 AIDS orphans who live in the sprawling township. The group, which operates on a monthly budget of less than $1,000, pays the children's electricity and telephone bills, provides them with money to attend school, gives them clothes and brings food to them when their shelves are bare, reports the Los Angelos Times.

A United States proposal on Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Public Health at the 56th World Assembly asserts that strengthening intellectual property (IP) protection is the best way to stimulate investments in R&D. But this assertion disregards mounting evidence to the contrary: the emerging global consensus that the current system of IP protection is failing to stimulate R&D for diseases of the poor.

The Labour Court ruled the week that the 12-day strike by teachers is illegal and ordered all the strikers to report back to work within 48 hours. Most teachers across Zimbabwe have been on strike since schools re-opened for the second term on 8 May.

They are young and gorgeous, dressed scantily, if at all, and with sex on the brain. When not unbuckling belts, rolling in bed, entwining legs and sliding hands towards nether regions, they are talking about sex. And they are everywhere. On billboards and television, in newspapers and magazines, suffusing South Africa with what resembles a racy advertising campaign for Coca-Cola or Levis. In fact this is an HIV/Aids prevention campaign, one of the most audacious and controversial to be attempted in Africa, and the use of branding techniques is intentional. If it works, safe-sex will become as hip and ubiquitous as Coke.

The Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP) has announced its Seed Grant and Small Innovative Projects Fund (SGSIP Fund) for the year 2003. Supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), GKP invites project proposals for pilot projects or from new or ongoing small-scale initiatives, not exceeding US$25,000, with a focus on developing countries.

Although Malawi is making some progress towards improving its human rights, the areas of education, health, freedom of expression and women's rights remain problematic, says a new report by the Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC).

Somali communities have reacted with shock and dismay over a decision to close the Saudi-based Al-Haramayn aid agency after the US government accused it of links with terrorists. The Islamic agency closed its doors in Somalia on Saturday after the Saudi government ordered its international staff to leave the country, Nur Alasow, a Somali employee of the agency told IRIN.

Angola's children are finally beginning to enjoy the fruits of the end of the country's long civil war with back-to-school-campaigns, free birth registration and a decrease in malnutrition rates.