Professor N’Dri Assie-Lumumba and Professor Tukumbi Lumumba-Kasongo were awarded, each separately and for their respective scholarship, the 2010 Distinguished Africanist Award offered by the New York State African Studies Association (NYASA) on March 27, 2010 at NYASA’s Annual Conference at SUNY Binghamton on the theme of "GLOBAL-AFRICA, GLOBAL-ASIA: Africa and Asia in the Age of Globalization."

Rwanda's government should allow independent experts to carry out an autopsy on a murdered opposition politician, Human Rights Watch says. The US-based group says there are discrepancies in the official account of Andre Kagwa Rwisereka's death.

Participants at the on-going Fifth African Agriculture Science week, which entered its third day on Wednesday, want all the stakeholders including political leaders to develop func tional policies that will encourage more intra-Africa trade. The participants, who include civil society groups from within and outside Afric a involved in agriculture, farmers group and non-governmental organizations, said existing protocol on free movement of goods and persons, particularly in ECOWAS countries and other Regional Economic Communities (REC), needed to be fully implemented.

Mango's mission is to help NGOs working around the world to strengthen their financial management and accountability. We are widely respected as the leading specialists in our field and recently received one of the UK's most prestigious awards at the Annual Charity Awards 2009. This particular course is aimed at senior managers and those responsible for strategic management, including maintaining the financial continuity and security of their NGOs. The workshop focuses on strategic financial management challenges, such as financing strategies for sustainability, building reserves, financing core costs and managing donor relationships. The course is 5 days long and non-residential, and will be offered to NGO staff in South Africa and Zambia during August and September 2010. We are also offering a few scholarships to poorly-resourced local NGOs - more details

Mango's mission is to help NGOs working around the world to strengthen their financial management and accountability. We are widely respected as the leading specialists in our field and recently received one of the UK's most prestigious awards at the Annual Charity Awards 2009. This particular course provides a practical introduction to financial management for managers and finance officers of small to medium sized NGOs. It covers ‘the building blocks’ of financial management: keeping accounts, financial planning, internal control and financial monitoring. The course is 5 days long and non-residential, and will be offered to NGO staff in South Africa and Zambia during August and September 2010. We are also offering a few scholarships to poorly-resourced local NGOs - more details

The Open Society Institute works to build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable to their citizens. To achieve its mission, OSI seeks to shape public policies that assure greater fairness in political, legal, and economic systems and safeguard fundamental rights. On a local level, OSI implements a range of initiatives to advance justice, education, public health, and independent media. At the same time, OSI builds alliances across borders and continents on issues such as corruption and freedom of information. OSI places a high priority on protecting and improving the lives of marginalized people and communities.

In 1993, investor and philanthropist George Soros created OSI as a private operating and grantmaking foundation to support his foundations in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Those foundations were established, starting in 1984, to help countries make the transition from communism. OSI has expanded the activities of the Open Society Foundations to encompass the United States and more than 60 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Each foundation relies on the expertise of boards composed of eminent citizens who determine individual agendas based on local priorities. In addition, over twenty thematic specialist platforms serve as OSI Network Programs frontlining OSI’s engagement with various issue areas.

The Higher Education Support Program (HESP) is one such Network Program. It is supported by the Higher Education Sub-Board (HESB). HESP, through its support to institutions and individuals, promotes the advancement of higher education. HESP provides assistance – both financial and technical – to a network of institutions, ranging from undergraduate universities to doctoral programs and centers for specialized advanced studies. Institutional support tends to focus on sustainable curriculum and faculty development and the improvement of methods of teaching and learning. In the future, an important component of the work of HESP will be to collaborate with the School of Global Public Policy that is currently being established at Central European University. Drawing on the synergistic strengths of both Central European University and Open Society Foundations, the School of Public Policy addresses important contemporary issues in international public affairs.

The Director of HESP will be based in any of the three principal offices out of which Network Programs operate: Budapest, New York or London. S/he will report to the OSI Director of Programs and will work closely with the OSI President.

Responsibilities:
The Director of HESP will:
• Provide strategic leadership in the development of OSI's higher education program efforts.
• Manage the resources, including staff and budgets, of the Higher Education Support Program.
• Serve as program officer for the HESP grants portfolio.
• Serve as OSI’s focal point in networks of relevance to the organization's higher education program objectives.
• Develop, on the basis of priority regions agreed within OSI, cutting-edge programs in new geographies where HESP has not operated before.
• Strengthen OSI's effectiveness in its ongoing programs in the region of the organization’s traditional efforts, including the former Soviet Union.
• Contribute to the conceptual and strategic articulation of HESP as part of a composite OSI intervention in education – an intervention that includes the Education Support Program, Early Childhood Program, Roma Education Fund, the University-based Initiative on Climate Change Adaptation, and the Network Scholarship Program.
• Align, in relevant instances, the higher education support efforts of OSI with the Central European University's School of Public Policy.
• Support tertiary institutions and academics in the defense and enlargement of freedom of inquiry, in the context of initiatives such as the Bologna process, the Dar es Salaam Declaration on Academic Freedom and the Social Responsibilities of Academics, etc.
• Facilitate the work and role of the HESB in the furtherance of OSI's higher education support efforts.

Qualifications:
• A respected leader with a minimum of ten years of involvement in a higher education setting. A research background in higher education policy would be an advantage.
• Advanced academic training.
• Some experience of high-level programmatic work in thematic issues of OSI’s interest, such as human rights, public policy, etc.
• Strong international-level reputation and demonstrable track record as a program innovator.
• Strong program and staff leadership and management record.
• Superior analytical skills and an ability to deal simultaneously with a range of complex thematic issues.
• Superior written and verbal communication skills in English. Additional language skills would be an advantage.
• Willingness and ability to travel extensively.

Compensation: Commensurate with experience.

To apply:
Please send a covering letter, CV and writing sample; with ref: HESP in the subject line to: [email][email protected]

Application Deadline: August 31, 2010

Please note:
Due to the large volume of applications expected – only those candidates selected for interview will receive notification.

No phone calls, please. The Open Society Institute is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Educational inclusion relates to all children accessing and meaningfully participating in quality education, in ways that are responsive to their individual needs. The terms ‘inclusion’ and inclusive education’ are often used in relation to children with disabilities and/or special needs and emerged partly out of debates to reduce their segregation from mainstream schooling.

The World Cup is wreaking havoc with a key millennium development goal in South Africa: as the football tournament hit its stride, not a single child across the nation attended school. It's temporary, of course: the winter holiday has been extended so schools are closed during the month-long tournament.

John Muswere, 34, arrived four hours ago at the main bus terminus in Harare, capital of Zimbabwe, after making an unplanned journey with his wife, their three-year-old child and few household possessions from Johannesburg, South Africa, where he spent 18 months working as a mechanic. "I am left with little money on me because I left South Africa in a hurry and before my employer could pay me. All the transport operators are saying my money is too little and I don't know how I am going to leave this place [the bus terminus]," Muswere told IRIN while his wife tried to pacify their wailing child.

The 2010 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. Deadline: 6th August, 201 0.

The current issue of Africa Spectrum is now available online. Africa Spectrum was first published in 1966 by the GIGA Institute of African Affairs (IAA) in Hamburg. It is an inter-disciplinary journal dedicated to scientific exchange between the continents. The journal focuses on socially relevant issues related to political, economic and socio-cultural problems and events in Africa as well as on Africa's role within the international system.

The National Olympic Committee (NOC) and National Paralympic Committee (NPC) Services and Relations team is located within the Sports department of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG). The team will define the service levels and manage the relationships with the 205 NOCs and 162 NPCs preparing for and sending athletes to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. We are looking for a highly motivated and multilingual Regional Coordinator for Africa to contribute to building and managing successful relationships with a number of assigned client groups in order to deliver key services at Pre-Games and Games time. Experience of working in, or closely with Africa is essential

This year’s conference amends Kwame Nkrumah’s and Cheikh Anta Diop’s challenge to the African Personality—to move beyond mere festivals and cultural celebrations of African identity—to introduce a cohesive Pan-African Personality configured to reflect the distinct cultural character of African aspirations at home and abroad. The Pan-African personality embodies the historical memory, common sense, collective consciousness, artifacts, social institutions, innovations and creative visions of the composite African People.

In an effort to ensure that African youth learn about their common heritage, the UN, historians, education specialists and governments are now developing a history syllabus for schools across the continent. The new syllabus is to be based on the book entitled "General History of Africa", an eight-volume series written from the African perspective and published by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). It will be the first such programme designed for an entire continent.

After 13 years as founder and executive director, Firoze Manji has stepped down from his role as ED to focus attention on developing Pambazuka News and Pambazuka Press.

We should clarify that Firoze remains as Editor in Chief of Pambazuka News and Pambazuka Press - and he remains a member of staff of Fahamu (letters from many of you indicated that our original advert might have been ambiguous).

The board of trustees of Fahamu is therefore seeking a dynamic, visionary person with a passion for social justice, to lead the organisation, ideally based in Kenya.

If you are interested in applying, please review the by 31 August 2010.

Does your organisation need legal help? i-ProBono is a new, free website to connect organisations that need legal assistance with lawyers and students who want to use their legal skills for the public good. Partnered with A4ID, LawWorks and the Bar Pro Bono Unit, i-ProBono has a global network of over 40,000 lawyers. It’s quick and easy for organisations to post projects on the website, ranging from legal advice, to internships, to smaller tasks like translation or research. i-ProBono will match your project instantly with the profiles of lawyers or students who can best assist you and allows you to immediately contact them through the . It only takes a few minutes to sign up! – or you can contact [email][email protected]

Does your organisation need legal help? i-ProBono is a new, free website to connect organisations that need legal assistance with lawyers and students who want to use their legal skills for the public good. Partnered with A4ID, LawWorks and the Bar Pro Bono Unit, i-ProBono has a global network of over 40,000 lawyers. It’s quick and easy for organisations to post projects on the website, ranging from legal advice, to internships, to smaller tasks like translation or research. i-ProBono will match your project instantly with the profiles of lawyers or students who can best assist you and allows you to immediately contact them through the . It only takes a few minutes to sign up! – or you can contact [email][email protected]

The Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT) and Sisonke have launched a helpline to give sex workers a voice. Micky Meji, country coordinator of the African Sex Workers Alliance (ASWA) said the line was initiated to give sex workers a platform to voice their concerns and fears they faced at work. “Not everyone knows where to get help for sex workers. It is not easy for sex workers to get adequate information because they are often scared of revealing what they do to earn a living,” said Meji.

Open Channels is seeking to appoint an experienced individual to support its work with indigenous peoples in southern Africa, and in particular its work with San communities in Botswana. Interested applicants should submit their résumé, a covering letter and details of three references, all to be sent as attachments, by email to Open Channels’ administrator at: [email][email protected] The closing date for applications is 21st July 2010.

After 13 years as founder and executive director, Firoze Manji has stepped down from his role as ED to focus attention on developing Pambazuka News and Pambazuka Press.

The board of trustees of Fahamu is therefore seeking a dynamic, visionary person with a passion for social justice, to lead the organisation, ideally based in Kenya.

If you are interested in applying, please review the by 31 August 2010.