Africa

In the slums of Kibera, an area of Nairobi, it is hard enough getting a job if you live here and are able-bodied.

Joseph is partially blind, but doing well, running his own business selling wool and making intricate trinkets, necklaces, and lamp shades.

But he is the exception in a country which is more likely to shun the visually-impaired than to offer any help.

The African continent is one of the least connected - and when it is connected the costs tend to be higher than in most other parts of the world.

In May 2008, the Association for Progressive Communications released the results of the study - The Case for "Open Access" Communications - Infrastructure in Africa: The SAT-3/WASC Cable. The briefing report, written by Abiodun Jagun, summarises the results of the study, conducted in four African countries, Angola, Cameroon, Ghana and Senegal, which examined the impact of the SAT-3/WASC cable on communications markets.

The SAT-3/WASC cable is a submarine cable running from Portugal to South Africa, landing in a number of west African countries, including the four studied. It was built in 2002 by a consortium of communications companies in each of the countries that the cable lands, which were, at the time the cable was constructed, largely protected state-owned monopolies.

It emerged at a forum by CSOs to herald the UNCTAD conference that Sub-Saharan Africa in particular is experiencing a growing informalization of labour relations with dire consequences for women.

The character of employment in countries in the region is found in the informal economy where majority of women make a living, mostly in self-employment.

This has been described as one of the fallouts from economic globalization and highlights the gross global inequalities in incomes and living conditions, resulting in the exponential growth of the informal economy in many developing countries.

Is there a direct connection between empowerment and access to information and communication technologies? Patricia Litho interrogates this question through the CEEWA ICT project case study in rural Uganda. She examines the conceptualisation of empowerment, and its relationship with infrastructure, skills, connectivity, access and participation.

It is estimated that between 100-140 million girls and women worldwide have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM). At the current rates of population increase and with the slow decline in these procedures, it is estimated that each year a further 2 million girls are at risk from the practice. Most of the women and girls affected live in 28 African countries, and a few in the Middle East and Asia. They are also increasingly found in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States of America, mostly among immigrants from countries where FGM is the tradition.

Hot stuff or hot air? Is Liberia's Iron Lady, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, great because she is the first and only woman president on the continent, or is her unique position in fact beguiling?

She swept South Africa's most powerful women off their feet this week. She was here to deliver the sixth annual Nelson Mandela lecture and to encourage bilateral trade ahead of the establishment of South Africa's diplomatic mission in Liberia in the 2008-2009 financial years.

On Friday, at the Dialogue for Justice, at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (Gibs) in Johannesburg, she was hailed as a trailblazer and a bullet dodger; the one African woman who had the strength in a time of war, and amid incredible hostility, to campaign for the presidency of Liberia - in a man's world.

The 2nd Ordinary Session of the Conference of African Ministers of Health, meeting in Gaborone, Botswana, in October 2005, adopted this, the Continental Policy Framework on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights which was endorsed by AU Heads of State in January 2006. The Continental Policy Framework on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights addresses the reproductive health and rights challenges faced by Africa. This Maputo Plan of Action for the Operationalisation of the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Continental Policy Framework seeks to take the continent forward towards the goal of universal access to comprehensive sexual andreproductive health services in Africa by 2015. It is a short term plan for the period up to 2010 built on nine action areas: Integration of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services into PHC, repositioning family planning, youth-friendly services, unsafe abortion, quality safe motherhood, resource mobilization, commodity security and monitoring and evaluation. The Plan is premised on SRH in its fullest context as defined at ICPD/PoA 1994 taking into account the life cycle approach. These elements of SRHR includes Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (ASRH); Safe Motherhood and newborn care; Abortion Care1; Family planning; Prevention and Management of Sexually Transmitted Infections including STI/HIV/AIDS; Prevention and Management of Infertility; Prevention and Management of Cancers of the Reproductive System; Addressing mid-life concerns of boys, girls, men and women; Health and Development; the Reduction of Gender-based Violence; Interpersonal Communication and Counselling; and Health education.

ARTICLE 19 has published a checklist designed for civil society organisations who wish to conduct analyses of the implementation status of the African Union's Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa. The checklist intends to allow civil society organisations working on issues relating to freedom of expression and access to information to establish the key obstacles to the fulfilment and protection of freedom of expression. According to the publishers, the checklist interprets each article of the Declaration in a comprehensive manner, providing details on how freedom of expression should be fulfilled and provided for. The checklist can be used for researching and writing "shadow reports" to be submitted to the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights.

This report covers progress made by Gender Links as the lead agency for the policy arm of the Media Action Plan on HIV/AIDS and Gender. It begins with a general overview followed by country reports. Attached at Annex A is a list of the country facilitators for the MAP policy roll out and their contact information. Attached at Annex B is a composite plan for the roll out in each country for 2007/2008, showing how facilitators plan to complete work started as well as approach new media houses to achieve the MAP target of eighty percent of all media houses in the region having HIV and AIDS and Gender policies by the end of 2008.