The Special Nigerian edition of the methodological workshops that is on offer for 2009 is designed for doctoral students and young, mid-career African researchers based in Nigeria. The working language to be employed during the workshop will be English. The session will be led by a director who will be assisted by a team of three lecturers, all with an acknowledged expertise in the application of social science research methods. Senior researchers wishing to be considered for a role as resource persons are invited to send an application which indicates their interest and includes their current CV and an outline of issues they would like to cover in four lectures of two hours each.

The outpouring of emotion across Africa when President Barack Obama was sworn in had as much to do with his heritage as with the possibility that he might reverse some of the Bush administration's disastrous policies. President George W. Bush trumpeted Africa as a foreign policy success, highlighting the President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR) as proof. He didn't mention the extremely unpopular ideological limitations on PEPFAR that he championed.

The disaster of climate change is intertwined with peace and conflict at many levels, from international environmental negotiations to indigenous communities using local abilities and resources to forge connections for dealing with climate change's impacts. This session will explore these interlinks, in particular to try separate the hyperbole over climate change causing all witnessed problems from the reality of climate change exposing vulnerabilities and conflicts that have long simmered but have not been addressed. Authors are encouraged to think broadly about peace and conflict and to ensure that any presentation critically engages with contemporary discourse on the topic.

Africa and Middle East Refugee Assistance (AMERA) is seeking a dynamic human rights professional to lead its refugee rights program in Cairo, Egypt. The Country Director, ideally an Egyptian national and an Arabic speaker, will provide overall strategic leadership for the organisation in Egypt. Application deadline: 22 February 2009.

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa is pleased to announce the 2009 session of its Advanced Research Fellowship Programme and to invite interested scholars based in African universities or research centres to submit applications for consideration for an award.

The NEW PATH: AFRICAN FORUM FOR INTELLECTUAL THOUGHT is published quarterly by the African Research and Resource Forum (ARRF) and provides a forum for innovative thinking about our common future and about how we need to tackle the most intractable problems facing Africa today – focusing on Eastern Africa. The editor invites your articles (opinion and analysis) for the March 2009 edition.

On 28 January 2009, Ndola High Court Deputy Registrar Jones Chinyama banned "The Post" newspaper from covering former president Fredrick Chiluba's case currently before the Magistrate's court. The ban came on the heels of a story published in "The Post" on 28 January, which sought to interpret the meaning of Chiluba's intention to give an unsworn statement in court.

Members of the IFEX-Tunisia Monitoring Group (IFEX-TMG), a coalition of 18 member organisations of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) network, firmly condemn the siege carried out by police on Tunis-based media outlet Kalima and call on the Tunisian authorities to immediately launch an investigation into the abduction of one of its journalists and harassment of the station's staff and contributors.

Although the Swazi constitution stipulates free primary education from 2009, parents will have to pay school fees this year. Only three days before the start of the January term, the country's government announced it will continue to charge for primary education, contrary to the law.

cc. Reviewing the misguided and inaccurate data informing the Independent Review of Election Commission’s (IREC) Kriegler report, Kenyans for Peace, Truth and Justice (KPTJ) offers its conclusions on the statistical inadequacies that have precluded the drawing of a definitive picture of electoral fraud. Without an effective research design to establish where and why vote counting inaccuracies developed, KPTJ argues that the IREC’s inferring of ‘materially defective’ results has failed to add anything meaningful to what Kenyans already know about what went wrong with the election process.

The Corporate Council on Africa (CCA), The Embassy of the Republic of Kenya, African Diplomatic Corps, African Union, and African Professionals in Washington, D.C., will donate $35,000 to the Barack Obama Secondary School in Kogelo, Kenya, CCA has announced. The donation, to be given in February through the United States Embassy in Nairobi, will be used to purchase books, supplies, and other needed enhancements. Event partners agreed at the offset of the event’s planning process that the Senator Barack Obama Secondary School would be the most appropriate beneficiary of event proceeds.

We lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex individuals, in a word, queers, have had the distinct un-pleasure of being told we don't exist—in official government statements, historical documents, and contemporary statements. Well, we do.

The first six grants have been awarded by the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF), totalling about $6.5m and covering over five countries, including Uganda, Cameroon, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Malawi. The estimated number of rural households expected to benefit from this round directly total 1,240,000.

Research collaborations with African institutions must be equal, fair and meaningful, says Damtew Teferra. Africa's capacity for research and creating knowledge has always been the most marginalised and least competitive in the world.

Zimbabwe media organisations have been licensed to sell their newspapers and other products in both local and foreign currency. With effect from 22 January 2009, a copy of The Herald was selling at US$1 or the equivalent in pound sterling, pula or rand. The Zimbabwe dollar price would be determined by the market rate of the day. On the same day, the weekly privately owned Financial Gazette also started selling its 22-28 January edition at US$2 a copy.

Striking Zimbabwe teachers on Thursday vowed to remain on strike until the government pays them salaries foreign currency, a teachers union said. "Our industrial action continues unless we are paid 2,200 US dollars per month,"Takavafira Zhou, Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) president said at a media briefing.

Freedom House, founded in 1941, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that promotes an engaged U.S. foreign policy; evaluates human rights conditions; sponsors public education campaigns; facilitates training and other assistance to promote democracy and free market reforms; and provides support for the rule of law, free media and effective local governance. Freedom House seeks a Human Rights Trainer to provide direct design, development and implementation for trainings related to its Middle East and North Africa Programs.

Freedom House is an independent non-governmental organization that supports the expansion of freedom in the world. Freedom House functions as a catalyst for freedom through its analysis, advocacy and action. Freedom House seeks a Director for its Ethiopia Human Rights Technical Assistance Program to be based in East Africa.

We are writing to invite you to join us in the upcoming inaugural Beyond Juba Distinguished Lecture Series, which will be held on Wednesday, 28 January, 2009 from 2:30pm to 5:00pm at the Faculty of Law Auditorium, Makerere University, Kampala.

Four Chinese contractors have become the latest casualties of a global purge on corruption in World Bank-funded projects with a huge impact on Kenya’s construction scene. Caught in a corruption muddle that was instigated by a construction tender award scandal in the Philippines are two Chinese companies — China Road and Bridge Corporation and China Wu Yi — that control a significant share of the Kenyan construction market.