The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is pleased to announce the seventeenth competition under its Small Grants Programme for Thesis Writing. The grants are designed to contribute to the development of the social sciences in Africa, and the continuous renewal and strengthening of research capacities in African universities through the funding of primary research conducted by post-graduate students and professionals.

Are you able to work under pressure and to tight deadlines, and still come up smiling? Do you have a sharp eye for detail? Are you able to help writers turn their articles into clear English. Are you highly organised and efficient? And do you have excellent access to the internet? Are you a team player? Do you want to work for Africa's leading social justice newsletter? If so, we'd like to hear from you. Contact [email][email protected]

As Senegal's parliament prepares to debate possible changes to rape laws, civil society groups say legislative reforms will not be enough to combat sexual violence against women and children. “It is not enough to put rapists in prison and change the laws," Adama Sow of the Senegalese NGO Action Group Against Child Rape (GRAVE) told IRIN. “That is needed, of course...but we also need to change mentalities. If not we will never overcome this problem.”

This year’s first-time fee waivers for primary and pre-school students in Togo have swelled enrolment, raising questions about how schools will fund additional classroom space, teachers and school supplies. Education experts said the government should have planned better before lifting school fees. Until this year, male students paid up to US$4 per year and female students about half that.

CLARION, a Governance and Human Rights NGO based in Nairobi, is seeking an individual to fill the position of a Programme Officer.

You will work as part of a Project Team and in collaboration with youth focused civil society organisations in Kenya you will mobilize young people nation-wide for human rights activism and grow a Youth Network linked to wider AI's Africa Youth Networks.

As the holder of this new and high profile role at the Nairobi Office, you will be central in driving AI’s human rights and growth agenda in Kenya. You will be responsible for providing strategic and political advice to the movement and lead AI’s work in Kenya in conjunction with colleagues at the International Secretariat in London and the Regional Office in Kampala.

President Kibaki has been urged to convene a crisis meeting following a wave of corruption scandals in the country. Officials from the National Anti Corruption Steering Committee said the proposed meeting with all agencies tasked with fighting graft should provide leadership in resolving these scandals.

The International Peace Support Training Centre is pleased to announce the forthcoming lecture by Daniela Kroslak. Daniela Kroslak is the Africa Program Deputy Director at the International Crisis Group. She has experience as both a practitioner and a researcher in the field of peace and security and has previously worked in such positions as Political Analyst with the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Program Officer with the United Nations Population Fund, and Researcher at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs.

To mark CEDAW’s 30th birthday, we want to celebrate. We want to gather and share stories, testimonies and reflections about CEDAW to inspire women the world over. Tell us your stories of change that show how CEDAW has been used to address injustice and to open up pathways of women’s empowerment. And tell others about us, so they can contribute too.

Kenya teachers' plan to go on strike looks imminent as a scheduled talk between them and the education minister hit a snag. The minister Professor Sam Ongeri failed to convince leaders of the teachers' body - Kenya National Union for Teachers - on Tuesday to rescind their decision.

The reopening of schools in Zimbabwe after the Christmas break has been delayed by two weeks. Education Minister Stephen Mahere said teachers needed to mark last year's exams before the new term can begin.

In a bamboo and matting shelter on the edge of the town of Awassa, rows of tiny children are struggling with Ethiopia's fiendishly complicated Amharic alphabet "Huh - HUH! Hoo - HOO! Hee - HEE! Ha - HA!" they chant in unision after their teacher.

As part of its mission to ensure that the Web is available to all, W3C invites participation in a public Workshop on the Role of Mobile Technologies in Fostering Social and Economic Development in Africa in Maputo, Mozambique, on 1-2 April 2009. Participants will explore ways to fulfil the potential of mobile phones as a platform for deploying development-oriented ICT services towards the poorest segments of populations in developing countries, with an emphasis on the African context.

The authors introduce a new paradigm to study the African state, Fundi wa Afrika. According to this paradigm, the current African predicament may be explained by the systematic destruction of African states and the dispossession, exploitation, and marginalization of African people through successive historical processes: the trans-Atlantic slave trade, imperialism, colonialism, and globalization.

WAJIBU: a journal of social and ethical concern, is a Kenyan journal that has been published in Kenya for the past 22 years and has subscribers not only in Kenya but in various other countries in Africa and abroad. We invite submissions on all aspects of how digital technology is shaping public discourse, culture, politics and economy in Kenya.

In response to Horace Campbell's : I can see where you are coming from. All the aspects of African Kleptocracy and neoliberal capitalist influence you describe are familiar for an African like me. I was in Harare 2001 and I had travelled there severally before.

When one reads such opinions as yours and compares them to Mahmood Mamdani's, it is easy to be confused. But here is my question, given that most African countries are ruled by Neoliberal kleptocrats, why is Zimbabwe special? Reading your article,

I would have liked to see data, schorlarly, right? showing how the 2001 ZIDERA has less impact on Zimbabwe as opposed to Brendenkamp and co. Since Kleptocracy was there before ZIDERA, are you saying what we see in Zimbabwe today is solely because of Kleptocracy? A historical review from 1979 and the issue of land redistribution could help set the context.

Otherwise, it sounds like you are saying Mugabe has no moral basis to fight imperialism without honestly analyzing the effects of ZIDERA on the people of Zimbabwe. In addition, how does Mugabe's support to Congo's Government feature here? The war in Congo, the imperial and capitalist interests in Congo are as much a factor here. Furthermore, South Africa has to face complex land redistribution issues sooner or later and how they deal with the Zimbabwe issue is critical. This is true of Namibia.

Now be honestly scholarly.

Regarding to Ross Herbert’s article,

Reporters Without Borders is very disturbed by the abduction of freelance photojournalist Shadreck Manyere and attempted abduction of Obrian Rwafa, a reporter with the state-owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), in separate incidents on 13 December 2008. The incidents took place just 10 days after the kidnapping of journalist and human rights activist Jestina Mukoko, who is still missing.

Children in sub-Saharan Africa want to know more about sex and how to protect themselves from HIV, but taboos surrounding children's sexuality can mean life-saving information is kept from them, according to an international NGO. Children in the region say they need access to sex education that is comprehensive, practical, and free from moral judgment, according to the report Tell Me More! by Save the Children Sweden (SC-S).