Fasika Kebede, a 15-year-old girl, works seven days a week, but earns only US $1 a month. She is one of the thousands of children who have travelled from southern Ethiopia to the capital, Addis Ababa, hoping to earn some money to support their families back home.

This book focuses on eight UK-based international NGOs (INGOs) engaged in rural development interventions in Ethiopia. The author investigates their attempts to employ participatory monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems as a means of assessing and thereby strengthening local participation. The findings suggest that perceptions of participation vary considerably between different hierarchical levels. The story that unfolds offers valuable insights into the current myths and realities of M&E within INGOs and shows how standard models of practice play out in particular cultural contexts. Published by INTRAC, June 2004, 236 pages, ISBN 1-897748-82-5. Please contact [email][email protected] if you would like to order copies.

Almost a year after its adoption of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa on July 11 2003, Maputo Mozambique, The Republic of Ethiopia on June 2, 2004 signed the protocol. Twenty-seven other member states have signed it but are yet to ratify it as at June 7, 2004 . 14 more countries must ratify it in order for the Protocol to come into force.

Cooperatives are playing a key role in helping impoverished Ethiopian farmers escape from the cycle of poverty, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) said on Wednesday. Ethiopia's cooperatives were vital in helping to promote rural economic development and getting farmers a fairer price for their crops, USAID said in a statement. "Cooperatives are an important means to bring smallholder farmers together to open new markets and receive higher prices for their produce," it said.

Thousands of Eritrean refugees are being moved away from the contested border with Ethiopia, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Monday. Some 2,400 refugees who had been living in makeshift camps in Ethiopia close to the disputed 1,000-km border began moving last week "further into Ethiopian territory for their own safety", Mahary Maasho, the UNHCR spokesman in Addis Ababa told IRIN.

Four opposition parties operating in Ethiopia have voiced their concern over the upcoming election activities and ongoing human rights violations in the country. The Ethiopian Democratic Party (EDP), Oromo National Congress (ONC), Ethiopian Peace and Democracy Alternative Forces (EPDAF) and South Ethiopia Democratic Union (SEDU) were the political organisations that gathered on Sunday at Meskel Square to voice their concern over the current political situation in Ethiopia.

At the Board Meeting of the International Press Institute, held in Warsaw, Poland on 15 May, the Executive Board voted unanimously to add Ethiopia to the IPI Watch List. Zimbabwe is also on the list. IPI Director Johann P. Fritz said, "After a recent fact-finding mission to the country carried out by IPI, we have grave concerns about the deteriorating media freedom situation in Ethiopia. Though the government has expressed its support for diversification of the broadcast media by opening the airwaves to private broadcasters, it has constantly delayed the implementation of this intention and, despite promises to the contrary, there are genuine fears that it will not do so before the next general election in 2005."

Over 100 Ethiopian health workers have undergone training in the treatment and management of severely malnourished children, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported on Tuesday. The health workers will in turn be deployed to various hospitals to train others, UNICEF added. The trained health workers included 41 nurses, 12 doctors and 54 medical officers. They were trained at the Addis Ababa, Gondar and Jimma universities, UNICEF said in a statement.

Save the Children is seeking a HIV/AIDS Adviser to provide technical support to programme staff involved in the implementation of HIV/AIDS related projects and assist in the development of proposals and the start up of new interventions.

The Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN is concerned by the continued detention of Ethiopia journalist, Merid Estifanos, who has been unable to raise the elevated bail demanded of him. Estifanos, the former editor of the independent Amharic weekly newspaper Satenaw, appeared in court on 2 April 2004 to face charges of defamation. He had been led to believe that the charge referred to an alleged defamation of the Ethiopian foreign minister Seyum Mesfin. However, in court, he discovered he was also being charged with defamation of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) has again highlighted the ongoing crimes against humanity and acts of genocide being perpetrated by the Ethiopian Armed Forces and "highlander" militias against the Anuak (or Anywaa) indigenous ethnic group in rural areas of Gambella, Ethiopia. "It has been estimated that during the period spanning December 13th, 2003 to March 31st, 2004, the total number of persons killed had reached 1137, and the killings have reportedly continued since then. The massive targeting of a specific ethnic group, with the clear intent of destroying a part or the entirety of the group, bears all the hallmarks of acts of genocide and crimes against humanity," said the organisation in a press release.

A $6.3 million community care campaign for families affected by HIV/AIDS has been launched in Ethiopia. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the government's HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office (HAPCO) have collaborated on a project to support HIV/AIDS affected households, women and children. According to recent studies in Ethiopia, almost two-thirds of deaths in the capital among people aged between 20 and 54 are AIDS-related.

Twenty years after images of starving Ethiopian children shocked the world, famine and drought continue to stalk this African nation. Now, a new strategy to address poverty is prompting experts and farmers to ask whether it will substantially alleviate hunger. Since 1984’s much-photographed famine, Ethiopia has experienced more than seven famines - with far less world attention. However, successive governments have quietly tried different ways to improve agricultural output in a bid to resolve the root problem. Still, the latest drought in 2003 left 13.2 million people in need of food aid.

A Canada-based representative of the Anuak Survival Organisation has given chilling testimony on a genocide being perpetrated against the Anuak people in Gambella Province, Ethiopia. Obang Metho spoke to a special UN Human Rights Commission meeting in Geneva on April 8, 2004. Mr. Metho said, “I speak to you as the representative of a forgotten people, the Anuak (or Anywaa) of Ethiopia. We number only 100,000 persons in the Gambella province of south-western Ethiopia. Our province is the tongue of fertile land, rich with natural resources such as oil, gold and other minerals that extends into southern Sudan. In the past four months, over 1137 Anuak have been murdered by the Ethiopian defense forces and some others from the highland.”

Ongoing crimes against humanity and acts of genocide are being perpetrated by the Ethiopian Armed Forces and "highlander" militias against the Anuak (or Anywaa) indigenous ethnic group, which comprises around 100 000 persons, in rural areas of Gambella, Ethiopia, according to information received by The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT). Since December 2003, there have been numerous reports of attacks leading to massacres of civilians, mass rapes, forced disappearances, torture, illegal arrests and detentions, burning of homes and crops, and the forced displacement of thousands of persons. These acts have caused a humanitarian crisis which may lead to a significant number of additional casualties if steps are not taken immediately by the Government of Ethiopia and the international community, says OMCT.

According to reports, on 2 April a federal court in Addis Ababa jailed Mr Merid Estifanos, former editor-in-chief of the private, Amharic-language weekly Satanaw, after he was unable to pay bail in a criminal defamation case. The defamation charge stemmed from a September 2001 opinion piece entitled "The Hidden Agenda of Prime Minister Meles", which accused Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of supporting the government of Eritrea and alleging that Eritrea had defeated Ethiopia during the two-year border war ending in 2000.

Ethiopiandiaspora.info is a website dedicated to provide timely, relevant and accurate information, to the Ethiopian community abroad. This website has been created with funding from the Italian Government. The information on the website, which will regularly be updated, can be used as an information centre, a traveller’s guide and a directory for Ethiopians and friends of Ethiopia.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says it is deeply concerned about the recent jailing of an Ethiopian journalist, after he was unable to pay bail in a criminal defamation case. On Friday, April 2, Ethiopian authorities jailed Merid Estifanos, former editor-in-chief of the private, Amharic-language weekly Satanaw. According to local sources, Estifanos appeared before a federal court in the capital, Addis Ababa, on April 2, in connection with a defamation charge stemming from a September 2001 opinion piece titled "The Hidden Agenda of Prime Minister Meles."

The Ethiopian government said on Monday that the situation in the volatile southwestern region of Gambela, where scores of people have been killed in ethnic clashes, mainly between the Anyuak and Nuer, has improved. In a statement sent to IRIN by the Ministry of Federal Affairs, Ethiopia said that "the situation on the ground has come down to normality". It said security in the region had been beefed up, the perpetrators of the violence arrested, destroyed homes rebuilt and the provision of relief was ongoing.

Ethiopia has launched a National Partnership Forum Against HIV/AIDS to coordinate a multi-sectoral response to the disease, highlight the government's commitment and bring together a wide range of partners to avoid duplication of efforts, according to an AllAfrica report. A statement from the foreign ministry quoted President Girma Wolde-Giorgis, who launched the forum on Wednesday, as saying: "We should be able to discharge our historical responsibility of saving the generation from HIV/AIDS."