The importance of political governance in Africa
Political governance is the cornerstone of democratic development.  Idasa’s Political Governance Programme works in 16 different countries in Africa, to support systems of governance, working with political and state actors, as well as citizens and civic groups. See more about their work in this video here.

 
 

Models of Hope in Ghana
The Community of Practice for African media practitioners working on HIV/AIDS was recently launched in Livingstone, Zambia.  Two of the participants speak in this video clip, about an initiative in Ghana called "Models of Hope" which provides positive role models for people living with HIV.  See more here.




The role of the journalist in a democracy
Ruby Quantson of the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) in Ghana talks about the importance of journalists in encouraging citizen action.  She says that journalists wear two hats – both of citizen, and of journalist, and they are obliged to use the power they have to encourage citizens to speak up and act together for the common good. See Ruby here.



Challenges of HIV/AIDS reporting
Kanya Ndaki from IRIN news talks about the challenges faced by reporters working on HIV/AIDS in Africa. She says it can be hard to keep the story “fresh” because people are tired of hearing about AIDS; and journalists don’t always have time to interrogate stories to make the science of HIV/AIDS accessible. See Kanya here.




Dambiso Moyo – Alternative Policies to Address Poverty and Inequality in Africa
Dambiso Moyo, the controversial author of the book Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There is a Better Way for Africa. In her book she argues that aid does not work and is actually detrimental to Africa's economic development. She posits alternative strategies for Africas economic development that governments, multinationals and bi-laterals should adopt to ensure thriving economies instead of aid. Moyo spoke at this event hosted by Idasa and ANSA in September. See more here.

 

For more videos, see Idasa’s channel – www.youtube.com/idasa05

For more discussion, visit our blog - www.idasa.wordpress.com
 

Small farmers crucial to African development
In Africa, agriculture is at the core of most national economies and provides the most consistent source of livelihood for many households.  However issues that relate to smallholder farming are often marginalised in major global forums. Some suggest abandoning the smallholder agriculture model because it doesn’t produce large enough quantities of food required to feed entire populations. However, smallholder agriculture offers one of the best ways out of poverty because it feeds many families and provides them with a source of local income.  Idasa recently brought together stakeholders to discuss proactive ways for smallholder farmers to make a meaningful contribution to the decisions that govern their lives and livelihoods. See the press release here and a partner’s conference report here.

Traditional leadership and democracy
African communities, especially in rural areas, continue to place high value on indigenous customs and traditions for guiding their day to day lives. Traditional leaders are thus central in devising strategies for embedding popular democracy on the continent. Idasa held an internal roundtable discussion on the roles traditional leaders can play in efforts to consolidate democracy in the African context. Professor KC Sharma of the University of Botswana and Dr. Mcebisi Ndletyana, of the Human Sciences Research Council led the discussion. See more here.

Discussing governance indicators
Idasa staff were in Namibia this month for a UNDP and partners conference, presenting Idasa's work on governance indicators and the AU Charter; and chairing a panel on African Think Tanks and Measuring Governance. The panel included Idasa partners from Rwanda and Ghana who are working with us on a UNDP funded comparative study of the development and use of governance indicators on the continent.
See the slideshow presented by Idasa here, and the full document of proceedings here.

Promoting a habit of citizen participation
What are the prospects of a more citizen-centred approach to democratic practice? This was the subject of a public discussion in Newcastle, KZN, in late November.  Idasa staff held a workshop and discussion forum on Promoting a Habit of Citizen Participation where participants shared their experiences of using the concepts and principles of the citizen-centred approach to democratic practice in their work. This is part of the Governance and AIDS Programme (GAP) Communications work.

HIV/AIDS and media in Africa
The Governance and AIDS programme launched a community of practice for media practitioners working on HIV/AIDS. If you are a media practitioner in Africa, working on HIV/AIDS then join the group here, and the facebook group here.

Children’s socio-economic rights in Africa
The Imali Ye Mwana network held a regional dialogue on children's socio-economic rights in Maputo, Mozambique at the end of November. The dialogue was hosted by our partner in Mozambique, Rede da Crianca, a national children's rights network in Mozambique. Participants came from 19 different countries, including Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Botswana, Uganda, Tanzania, Mauritius and Swaziland. UNICEF in Botswana and Mozambique made presentations about budgetary allocations to education and Swaziland made a presentation that looked at the overall state of children's socio-economic rights in the country. Zimbabwe and Zambia shared experiences on their work in children's rights and the SADC Council of NGOs Advocacy Manager made a presentation about how children's organisations can use both the SADC and SADC Council of NGOs structures to put children's issues on the agenda of leaders in the SADC. There was also a presentation from a freelance journalist associated with the Media Institute of Southern Africa in Zambia on how to get children's socio-economic rights issues into the media.

Electricity governance in South Africa
Idasa chaired and participated in the Electricity Governance Roundtable hosted by the WWF in November.  The forum included diverse stakeholders from government, civil society and business and discussions included a focus on the future energy mix for South Africa.  Idasa is part of a multi-stakeholder initiative focused on electricity governance, along with WWF and WRI. See more about the event here, and about the electricity governance initiative here.

SA Parliament at work
See the latest about the South African Parliament’s work in the last 6 months, including SCOPA’s rigorous questioning style, ministers spending millions on luxury cars, and the alleged selling of arms to rogue regimes. Click here for the full article.

The future of human rights institutions in South Africa
 Idasa, Heinrich Boll Stiftung and the Centre for Study of Democracy convened a vibrant and dialogue on the “Future of Independent Human Rights Commissions”. Some have argued that that the independence of these institutions is under threat, making it more difficult to preserve the rights enshrined in the constitution. Others have insisted that the institutions have not adequately protected human rights in the past and that changes are needed to ensure that they do so in future. While there has been ‘insider’ discussion of these questions, there has been little public debate on the future of human rights institutions recently. The workshop brought together public representatives, civil society organizations and academics .

Supporting the African charter on democracy
Idasa has launched a project to support the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance.  Idasa is currently visiting and working with partners in Ghana, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Botswana, Namibia, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Cape Verde.  See more about this project here. 

The challenges of regional migration
The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) presented "Reaching Ubuntu: the Challenges of Regional Migration 2010 and Beyond" at the Goedgedacht Forum for Social Reflection this month, as well as at a workshop organised by the Department for Social Development on Xenophobia.

US-Africa policy
Witney Schneidman, a member of our Friends of Idasa board in the US, was in South Africa at the end of October as a guest of the US embassy in Pretoria. He was invited to give a speaking tour, talking about US-Africa policy from President Kennedy to President Obama.

ANSA in West Africa
Idasa recently met with our partners in Senegal for the Affiliated Network for Social Accountability (ANSA)-Africa - a network of organisations which advocates for citizen involvement in demand-side governance initiatives. ANSA-Africa Secretariat is hosted by Idasa. See more here.
 

ZIMBABWE

Zimbabwe GNU Watch October 2009
As Zimbabwe extracts itself from years of turbulence, the Global Political Agreement (GPA) provides the map for the way forward. Thus, monitoring the implementation of the GPA provides some measure of understanding of progress in Zimbabwe. See the latest report that monitors the GPA agreement here. For more understanding on the current state of affairs in Zimbabwe, see this summary of the agreement between ZANU-PF and both MDC’s on how to resolve the challenges facing Zimbabwe.

Has regional solidarity with Zimbabwe made any difference?
Solidarity is the unity of the human spirit, the act of support and empathy for another, and can be given in several forms. Generally, these activities are intended to influence decision-makers in the direction of a policy approach and action. This article highlights some efforts that organisations have taken in solidarity with Zimbabweans over the last ten years and extracts lessons for solidarity work. See more here.

The suffering of commercial farm workers in Zimbabwe
The “Land Reform” policy of Zimbabwe has been considered catastrophic by some. This research comes from farm workers themselves, and talks about the lives of farm workers across the country, as they have struggled over the last nine years with State-sponsored invasions, torture, violent assaults, murders, rapes, evictions and other violations of the law and their rights.  See more here.

The power to appoint …
Presidential power to appoint people to government is a contentious issue in Zimbabwe, with the MDC-T claiming that appointments that have been made (or not made) violate the agreements relating to power sharing between the parties. Read this indepth article about recent appointments in Zimbabwe and the impact they are having. See more here.

SWAZILAND

Although Swaziland has made efforts to embrace modern forms of governance in the last few years, it remains the only traditionalist absolute monarchy on the African continent. The country has historically maintained a low profile but recent developments in Zimbabwe have catapulted Mswati III into the spotlight through his role as the head of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation. Swaziland has hosted some of the meetings on the political crisis in Zimbabwe and SADC members have attended these in apparent disregard for the lack of democracy in Swaziland, most obvious in the banning of political parties. See the full brief here.

SITO now offers a twice weekly Swaziland News Flash. To sign up and see more, click here.