The rich and beautiful land of Africa has been an area of great concern and interest for great researchers through the centuries. In their study of Africa, these researchers have unanimously agreed that the African people have a common identity which can be seen the distinctive African way of life.This presents and makes the African what he is deriving mainly from what he has namely: The African thought and the African culture. This indeed, is the African identity.

Despite the fact that the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are promising to put Africa on top of their priorities, Civil Society Organisations gathered at the sidelines of the annual meeting of the Bretton Woods institutions are calling for a major rethinking of the roles that the IMF and World Bank play in the global economy. These organisations have called for IMF and World Bank changes to reflect the initial purpose of these institutions and listen to the voices of the low income and developing countries.

In its report entitled "Challenging Conditions: A new strategy for reform at the World Bank and the IMF," Christian aid, says that IMF and World Bank have continued to impose conditions on poor countries, which calls for donor countries to put their money where its mouth is and place a moratorium on funding the IMF and World Bank, until they stop imposing economic conditions. The report says that conditions undermine democratic decision making and countries are forced to adopt specific policies to secure development finance, even when reforms are unpopular to their citizens.

The IMF and the World Bank have slammed the doors on a number of civil society groups whose members were due to participate in the meetings going on in Singapore. Despite having formal accreditation from the WB and the IMF to participate in the meetings, these groups were denied the right to raise critical voices against the work of these organizations, according to a release from the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP). "GCAP, the world's largest ever anti-poverty movement, joins the chorus of civil society organizations the world over in condemning the reports that a number of civil society representatives have been 'blacklisted' and denied entry into Singapore for the Annual Meetings of the World Bank and IMF."

Economic conditions imposed by donors have frequently been used to promote inappropriate policies, such as trade liberalisation and privatisation to many countries. For example, last year, Christian Aid estimated that in Sub-saharan Africa, enforced trade liberalisation, mainly at the hands of the World Bank and IMF-cost developing countries US$ 272 billion over the past 20 years. The IMF announced this week that it would initiate an integrated set of reforms to its governance structure over the next two years and, has given a small quota increases to Turkey, Korea, Mexico and China.

However Eric Gutierrez of Action Aid International said that "if the IMF wants to restore credibility, then it must stop tinkering around and make fundamental reforms. Otherwise borrowing countries will keep voting with their feet." Despite the criticism, finance ministers backed a new World Bank anti-graft strategy at a meeting in Singapore on Monday. The Bank's President, Paul Wolfowitz, plans to link future aid so long as beneficiary countries demonstrate good governance, like adopting transparent public procurements and make efforts to stamp out corruption.

But there is a growing number of Africans who say foreign aid -- regardless of whether it is tied to good governance -- does more harm than good. "In principle, we are not for cutting back on lending, but to increase the amount of aid we give. We want to ensure the money we give is used to buy textbooks for children, provide sanitation for poor and nutrition for mothers, but not used to line pockets of powerful people," Wolfowitz said.

Wolfowitz, however says, his aim is to reduce poverty. "The purpose is not to disengage from areas where there are problems but rather to engage more deeply to help countries solve their problems and improve governance." Wasteful use of aid, he says, comes at the expense of 'many other countries or ministries that have demonstrated the need and capacity to use more than what are available to them.'

The Liberian government needs to reexamine how it deals with children whose parents are HIV-positive or have died of AIDS, the leader of a local AIDS charity says. "We have received no government subsidy as compared to other social welfare institutions, which the government is providing annual financial assistance. We just rely on funds from the Global Fund and other private donations," said Lela Samuels, executive director of the Liberia Orphans of AIDS Foundation (LOAF).

The organisation, formed in 2001, provides tuition, uniforms, notebooks, monthly healthcare and food for more than 500 children whose parents are infected with HIV or have died of AIDS. Some of the children are HIV-positive. Under Liberia's current US $129 million budget, some US $400,000 in subsidies is allocated to orphanages. This falls under the US$ 7.2 million health budget - modest spending for a country trying to rebuild after years of civil war.

But a government budget official told IRIN that subsidies are only granted to established orphanages approved by the ministry of health. "The government is aware of those children orphaned by AIDS, but they needed to be integrated into other mainstream orphanages if they would have to benefit from government subsidies," said the official, who asked not to be named. "This government is less than a year in office and there are lots of priorities out there and maybe in the future AIDS orphans could be included in the budget."

Samuels said AIDS orphans, like adults, live with the stigma of the disease. "We have been having incidents where those orphaned children experience stigma in schools from their peers, but we try sensitise the communities and schools against stigma which could pose a psychological problem for the upbringing of the children" she said. The children cared for by the foundation are housed with family members and receive regular visits from the group to monitor their condition. Most of the children live in the Monrovia area. Samuels said LOAF has identified other AIDS orphans in rural areas and has established branches in 45 communities.

THERE is something anachronistic in titles given to international institutions. The "United Nations" meeting in New York this week are as disunited as ever. In the same auditorium was US president George Bush declaring he is not an enemy of Islam and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who has in the past said he "does not give a damn about the UN" in his country's nuclear research. He has his coterie of supporters in the misnamed and outmoded Non-Aligned Movement (Nam) which in essence is mobilising as an axis against the Western dominance.

At the Nam summit our Mugabe did not attempt to disguise his dislike of the West. "Our small states now live in fear as daily threats emanate from the West to attack or undermine our systems in order to bring about regime change," state media quoted Mugabe as saying in Havana last week. He was joined in this refrain by his comrades Ahmadinejad, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, and North Korea's number two, Kim Yong-nam. An attempt at counterbalancing the anti-West rhetoric came from Malaysia's premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi who said he did not regard the summit as being anti-US or "anti-anyone".

South Africa's President Thabo said Nam could be an important instrument in creating a multipolar world. He took a soft dig at the US saying there was "a global imbalance of power". "Such is the imbalance that you then get results like the practice of unilateral action without respect for the United Nations," he said. Leaders attending the summit were however clear on the need to strengthen the movement to fight Western unilateralism. They saw strength in the growing membership with Chavez even declaring: "American imperialism is in decline. A new polar-world is emerging." If this is the case, Nam now requires a new name.

But the strength in numbers theory is a fallacy. It is not a guarantee of world peace and prosperity. UN secretary-general Kofi Annan told the gathered leaders in Havana that size was not everything. He said governments had a duty to "protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. That includes a duty to protect populations from carnage by allowing the international community to make a positive contribution for change."

The African Union -- another misnomer -- with 53 member states is a classical example of size having no bearing on the end result. The continent is tainted with numerous flashpoints especially the Darfur crisis in Sudan. The AU with a 7 000-strong peace keeping force in Sudan, has been told to leave at the end of its mission next week. The Sudanese strongman has also told the world that he does not want the UN to send peace-keepers to the troubled country because they could be agents for regime change (sounds familiar). In other words he would rather see the continuation of carnage in his country than allow international intervention.

The Darfur crisis also debunks the strength in numbers myth in that the whole continent appears powerless to deal with Al Bashir's regime. Recently foreign minister Ali Ahmed Kerti said his country would not allow African peace-keepers to be re-kitted with the blue berets of the UN. "The AU force can remain in Darfur only if it accepts Arab League and Sudanese funding," he said, tongue in cheek. What does the AU have to say about this slap in the face? Nothing, because the body is broke, disunited and awash with members who play truant with impunity knowing too well that African brothers and other dictators around the world can always find kind words to justify the unbecoming behaviour. This is the same AU that is expected to send troops to deal with the strife in Somalia. Ha ha ha! And it was not surprising that the leaders gathered in Havana could only come up with a clumsy statement on Darfur in their lengthy declaration.

Despite the international focus of attention on the humanitarian crisis in western Sudan, just eight lines of the declaration in the 40 000-word document dealt with the conflict there. There was no reference to UN attempts to send peacekeepers to Darfur. The best the leaders could say was they supported Sudan's "efforts to sustain and reinforce peace". What a crowd!

“The United Nations said yesterday that the best way for the rich world to deliver on its promise to double aid to poor countries would be to set up a new, independent, UN agency to replace the soft loans arm of the World Bank.



A report by the UN Conference on Trade and Development argues that aid structures are too chaotic, with developing nations facing too many donors pushing often unsuitable projects.

The report follows heavy criticism of the World Bank agenda, with many saying that its president, Paul Wolfowitz, is pursuing anti-corruption measures at the expense of delivering essential funds to the poorest people. [The Guardian]



“But the idea of establishing a new UN fund to handle Africa's funds is highly controversial. The Overseas Development Institute, a respected British think-tank, has criticised this approach. It says the UN must earn its right to administer a larger share of aid. It must prove it can do a better job than the World Bank, and this is presently not the case.” [BBC/Factiva]



“… Mr Benn's Department for International Development welcomed the report, agreeing that international aid institutions needed reform. But, it said, focus should be placed on improving existing bodies rather than creating a new UN fund.” [The Guardian]

The Call for Papers for the eLearning Africa 2007 conference programme is open. You can submit a proposal for a session, presentation, workshop or discussion.

Please send your proposal (up to 500 words) until December 8, 2006. Please use the online form for submission at www.elearning-africa.com.


Themes of eLearning Africa 2007 are:

- Improving Quality and Outreach of Technical and Vocational Education in Africa (new)
- Unleashing the Capabilities of Universities through Information and Communication Technologies
- Empowering Women through ICT with ICT-based Capacity Building (new)
- Setting up and Implementing a Sustainable eLearning Project (new)
- Designing and Delivering Online Learning
- Localisation, Customisation, and Content Development
- Introducing eLearning to the School System
- Building ICT Infrastructures to Provide Access and Connectivity in Africa
- Cutting-Edge Technology Developments for Africa
- eLearning in African Corporations (new)
- Policy Issues and Large-scale Take-up of eLearning
- eLearning for Governments and the Public Sector
- Libraries as Access Providers to Digital Resources and Distributed Expertise (new)
- Open Source, Open Content, and eLearning
- eLearning in Development Cooperation
- The new Africa - Europe Partnership Framework
- Research in eLearning (new)
- Quality Development and Quality Assurance (new)
- eLearning in Medical Education and the Fight against HIV and AIDS

The 2006 CBC Literary Awards competition is now open. Put your talent to the test and send us your unpublished short stories, poetry, and creative nonfiction. Please note that this year’s deadline is November 1st, 2006.

What are the Awards?
The CBC Literary Awards competition is the only literary competition that celebrates original, unpublished works, in Canada’s two official languages. There are three categories—short story, poetry, and creative nonfiction—and $60,000 of prize money courtesy of the Canada Council for the Arts. In addition, winning entries are published in Air Canada’s enRoute magazine and broadcast on CBC radio.

What’s new?
Please note that we have changed the word limits for the poetry category this year. Poetry submissions to the 2006 competition must be between 1000 and 2000 words.

And don’t forget that last year we replaced the travel literature category with a new category called creative nonfiction. Creative nonfiction includes memoir, biography, essay (including personal essay), travel writing, humour writing, and feature articles.

He who gives a child a treat makes joy-bells ring in Heaven's street". This verse from John Masefield's poem Everlasting mercy, may well be an apt description of the epoch-making space trip by a 16-year-old Nigerian student, Miss Stella Felix, this Saturday, September 23. The space treat which kicks off at the prestigious John F. Kennedy space centre in Orlando, Florida, United States of America, (USA), is the first by any student outside the U.S.A.

By all accounts, Miss Felix's journey by any African student is an inspirational story of a local girl made good by dint of hard work. Coming at a time when the vast majority of Nigerians are disenchanted with the political leadership in our country, is like a fairy tale, a dream come true for an unimpressionable young girl. Miss Felix is currently a senior secondary school student of Moremi High School, Ile-Ife. The honour done her will no doubt inspire hope and set her apart as a rare role model for Nigerian youths searching for a philosophy of life.

As the hour ticks for Miss Felix for the once-in-a-life time adventure, news from the Kennedy space centre speaks of the Zero-G-plane which is already revving for take-off. For emphasis, Zero -G flight is a two-hour mission on shuttle manned by specially trained pilot maneuvering the space aircraft at between 24,000 and 32,000 feet altitude above sea level.

The gesture to Miss Felix is courtesy of the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA). It's part of the agency's efforts to promote the interest of students at both elementary and secondary school levels. Emphasis is on students with special talent in the core sciences, in particular aeronautical engineering. The overall aim includes inspiring education on a global basis while promoting international understanding among youths of the world. The facility and privilege to be enjoyed by the young Nigerian student is similar to those used by the US National Space Administration for the training of real astronauts, and it is an initiative packaged by the American Spaceweek International Association (SIA), a non-profit organization based in Houston, Texas, in partnership with the Zero-G corporation of Florida, the sunshine state of American.

Without any shadow of a doubt, Miss Felix's space trip this weekend represents a classic example of the American dream. She is a girl of poor background, yet with a compelling story to tell in academic excellence. Hers is a profile that soars in adversity. She is reported to walk daily to her school several kilometres away from her home, yet she remains poised and focused on her studies. It was the sort of profile the Spaceweek International Association, sponsors of the space trip, said they were looking for. Miss Felix was consequently nominated among the list of other competing students by the centre for Space Science and Technology Education, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife.

It therefore follows that the space trip by the Nigerian student is a demonstration that hardwork has its rewards. And the benefit Miss Felix will get from the awesome experience cannot be quantified. In addition to the knowledge and exposure, her participation will no doubt portray Nigeria as a savvy, technology striving nation anchored on the determination and zeal of the youth. In this regard, we see the exploits Miss Felix will make in the space trip as a motivation for our students striving to make a career in astronomy and aeronautical engineering, a field Nigeria needs more brains to make headway in her technological endeavours.

For us in Nigeria, as Miss Felix is set to board the weightless flight from the Kennedy space centre, one thing is clear: the future of every nation lies with the new generation of youths and excelling in their chosen careers is one sure way of unlocking the barriers that lie ahead. Miss Felix needs to be reminded that she is carrying Nigeria's flag and that of the African continent as a whole, and that requires always keeping her mind undistracted from issues that have always denied the ambition of many of our youths.

We thank the organizers of the programme for finding her most worthy. Other talents abound in Nigeria, looking for the window of opportunities to shine. No doubt, Miss Felix's trip will be a nervy one with butter flies in her stomach, for that is usual with flight adventure of this magnitude. But her trip will, in the end, be a box office story from which a best seller can be written. As a child born without a silver spoon in her mouth we advise her not to be carried away by her feat. She should see her trip to space as a stepping stone to greater feats.

The number of federal civil servants pencilled own for disengagement in the on-going civil service reform may rise to 35,000 from its initial figure of 33,000, Chairman of Public Service Reform Committee, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, has said.
Making a symbolic presentation of cheques to 26 retirees in the first phase of the exercise in Abuja yesterday, el-Rufai, who is also Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), disclosed that the payment, which is N2.6billion for 4,500 retirees, represented 10 per cent of the N26 billion earmarked by the Federal Government for the exercise.
He added that: “An estimated N26 Billion is for 33,000 retirees but there is possibility that it will rise to 35,000. The retirees are also entitled to terminal benefits too.”
El-Rufai who described the occasion as solemn said “The advantage of early retirement is that some of you will continue to enjoy your pension benefit for the rest of your lives but what we are just paying you here is your severance pay.”
Twenty six symbolic beneficiaries received their severance packages ranging from N500,000 to N4.5 million.
El-Rufai told the retirees that government was spending about N26 Billion as severance packages saying the amount excluded pension packages to be received at a later date.
According to him, “What we are doing is to build the private sector, the government can not employ everybody. Nigerians, the way we are very industrious, Nigerians like to create wealth. I believe what we are doing now is not creating unemployment, what we are doing is shifting employment from the public sector to the private sector. Because when you empower a person retiring and give him the opportunity to start a small business, this business will grow. One of the retirees here today told us he has already started a catering service supplying to the airlines, with his severance pay, he can expand.”
He noted that though the disengagement seem painful to the workers, but government will do everything within its reach to ameliorate pain of preparation is the immediate release of benefit.
“The only thing we can do ameliorate the pains of separation is to release your benefit outside the government. Of this small minority three out of 70 million; you’re being separated back to the private sector if you are joining the 77 million Nigerians that make their living in the private sector.”
The FCT minister though it seems difficult to bear the pain of uncertainty but advised them to face the situation positively noting that the phase mark the opening of a new chapter of life “having close the chapter of life as public civil servants”.
In his remarks, Director-General of the Bureau of Public Sector Reforms (BPSR), Dr. Goke Adegoroye, said Zenith Bank Plc has been appointed to pay the retirees their cheques. He pointed out that, the Bureau was starting with retirees of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. He added that the payment which started yesterday with 26 ex-civil servants will continue through the weekend and will also commence on Monday in Lagos while the same will be replicated in Akure, Port Harcourt, Calabar, Sokoto, Kano and Maiduguri. The exercise is expected to last for two weeks.
Also commenting, Deputy Managing Director, Zenith Bank Plc, Mr. Godwin Emefiele said expressed gratitude to the Federal Government for appointing the bank to pay terminal benefits to the retirees.
Disclosing that the International Conference Center (ICC), Abuja venue of the payment will serve as a temporary branch of the bank till the end of the exercise, he advised the beneficiaries to either collect their payment in draft or cheques for security reasons. He added that those that may wish to open an account with the bank and save their entitlements were free to do so.

"Countries concluded at the 2005 World Summit that the internationally agreed development goals will not be achieved unless we do development differently"

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan will open the first-ever meeting at the United Nations of the newly formed Global Alliance for Information and Communication Technologies and Development (GAID) on September 27. Chairing discussion of Alliance strategic goals will be Intel board chairman Craig Barrett.

Launched in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 19 June, the Alliance promotes action to utilize new information and communication technologies to fight poverty and promote development.

In addition to Barrett, other Steering Committee members attending include Jamaludin Jarjis, Malaysia's Minister of Science, Technology and Innovations Minister; Luis Alberto Moreno, president of the Inter-American Development Bank; Walter Fust, director-general, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation; Titi Akinsanmi, program manager, Global Teenager Project, South Africa; John Bernander, secretary-general, Norwegian Broadcasting, European Broadcasting Union; Renate Bloem, president, the Committee on NGOs, Switzerland; and Guy Sebban, secretary-general of the International Chamber of Commerce.

The Steering Committee, which provides the Alliance with executive oversight and guidance, is composed of a chair, Barrett, and several co-chairs representing governments, business, civil society, the media and international organizations.

The meeting will open at 3 p.m. in Conference Room 8. Remarks by Secretary-General Annan and welcoming remarks by Under-Secretary-General Jos? Antonio Ocampo will be followed by a statement from Mr. Barrett.

An interactive discussion will examine the strategic goals and business plan of the Global Alliance, followed by a discussion on the Alliance's funding.

"Countries concluded at the 2005 World Summit that the internationally agreed development goals will not be achieved unless we do development differently," said Alliance Executive Coordinator Sarbuland Khan. "One of the ways to do that is connect the poor with the rest of the world, with the formal economy, through information technologies."

ICTs can help in the areas of enterprise, education, health and government, said Khan, allowing the poor to participate in the economy. "Many developing countries have strong growth rates, but the poor are not part of the growing economy."

GAID will seek to bring together the private sector and international financial institutions, such as the Inter-American Development Bank, in big
partnership initiatives, such as bringing broadband to Africa, Khan
said.

In countries like Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique and Ghana, mobile telephony
is locally driven and demand driven, Khan said. The greatest growth of
mobile phones is taking place in Africa, and women are using mobile phones to
generate businesses and income. "The issue now is how to get mobile telephony to
be a conveyor of information and knowledge on health and the economy. For
this, you need the private sector."

The Alliance seeks to bring together key organizations involved in ICT-for-development to enhance their effectiveness; introduce ICT-for-development into the broader development agenda; create an environment and business models for investment benefiting the poor; find technological solutions for specific development goals; and foster partnerships among all those involved. Partnerships
and new initiatives are expected to be announced at the closing of the 27 September meeting.