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Abstract: This review examines the response of UNHCR and other stakeholders to three distinct
but interrelated mixed migratory movements that are currently taking place to and
within southern Africa. First, a movement of people from the Horn of Africa to South
Africa, generally transiting through Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique and, to
some extent, Zimbabwe; second, a movement of people from the Great Lakes region
of Africa (Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda) to South Africa, a
proportion of whom are also taking up residence in Malawi and Mozambique; and
third, the large-scale departure of Zimbabwean citizens from their country of origin,
the majority of them also moving to South Africa. The
second chapter of the report focuses on the irregular movement of people to and
through Malawi and Mozambique. The chapter examines the way in which the
journey is organized, the protection risks encountered by those engaged in this
movement, as well as the challenges that it has posed for UNHCR and the two states
concerned.
The report draws attention to the fact many of the refugees involved in this
movement, especially those from the Horn of Africa, have their own notion of
protection - one that does not correspond to UNHCR’s traditional approach to the
issue of asylum. Chapter 3 of the report analyzes the much larger movement of people from
Zimbabwe to South Africa, an influx that continues at a rapid rate, despite the recent
political and economic changes that have taken place in their country of origin and
despite the xenophobic violence that continues to threaten foreign nationals living in
South Africa. The fourth chapter of the report provides a more detailed account of the way that
UNHCR, the authorities, regional organizations, civil society and other actors have
responded to the large-scale mixed migration that South Africa has experienced in
recent years.
Abstract: In a region apparently awash with weapons and plagued with rising levels of
armed crime, Malawi is a welcome exception to these characteristics. In early
2007 there were only 9,320 legally registered firearms in Malawi excluding
those used by the security forces, compared to just under 87,000 in Zambia and nearly 4 million in South Africa. Though a country of an estimated 13 million people,
in the 5 years between 1996 and 2000 Malawi suffered just 2,161 reported
cases of armed robbery. For 2005
the figure was 316 and for 2004 it was 263, according to figures provided by the
Malawi Police Service (MPS). Even leaving aside South Africa, where there were
119,726 recorded cases of aggravated robbery in 2006, Malawi’s
armed crime statistics still compare favourably with the rest of the region. In
neighbouring Zambia, for example, where there is a population of only 10
million people, there were 3,168 reported cases of armed robbery in the 5 years
between 1998 and 2002.
Abstract: The problem of civilians becoming unintentional victims of landmine detonation in the world today is one that cannot be underestimated in terms of its importance to global and local humanitarian efforts. The human-life and financial costs associated with landmine detonation are paramount, and are being addressed by the Global community via the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping and its associated agency UNMAS (The United Nations Mine Action Service). In terms of human-life cost, the current statistic is that every 28 seconds a person steps on a landmine, resulting in 6500 – 20,000 new casualties per year. These tragic events are happening in at least 84 states, and every world region is affected. It is the intent of this literature review to enlighten the reader in two main topic areas. The first is that of mine action and our understanding of it, with specific regard to what is generally understood to be the most affected continent: Africa. A comprehensive description and discussion of the geo-political status of mine action in Southern Africa and its relation to development will be set out.
The second topic area that will be reviewed is that of predictive GIS modeling, as it applies to mine action. The intent is to put forth the scientific (i.e.: based on peer-reviewed publications) background information that justifies and supports an experiment that will be conducted. The goal, in general lay terms, will be to see whether it is possible to predict with a reasonable, usable, and repeatable amount of accuracy the delineating outlines of where minefields are located in a specific geographical study area. It is hoped that the effort with predictive GIS modeling will yield a technique that is valid for use across a variety of study areas. Having said this, the study area that is the concentration of this review is the region of Southern Africa and it must be acknowledged that the results, if positive, may not be transferrable to different Geo-political regions.
Abstract: IPI is pleased to introduce a new series of working papers on regional capacities to respond to security
challenges in Africa. The broad range of United Nations, African Union, and subregional peacekeeping,
peacemaking, and peacebuilding initiatives in Africa underscore a new sense of multilayered partnership in the
search for the peaceful resolution of conflicts in Africa. As the total number of conflicts on the continent has
been significantly reduced in the past decade, there is widespread recognition of the opportunities for a more
stable and peaceful future for Africa. But there is also a profound awareness of the fragility of recent peace
agreements, whether in Kenya, Liberia, or Côte d’Ivoire. Furthermore, continued violence in the Sudan, the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Zimbabwe; the long absence of a viable central government in Somalia;
and continued tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea—to name only a few cases—reflect the legacy of
unresolved historic disputes and ongoing power struggles...The southern African region is now
generally defined in political terms as
those countries that are members of the
Southern African Development
Community (SADC) (the geographic
definition is usually somewhat more
limited). Currently there are fifteen
member states of the SADC: Angola,
Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the
Congo (DRC), Lesotho, Madagascar,
Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique,
Namibia, the Seychelles, South Africa,
Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and
Zimbabwe.
These countries are disparate in many
ways: they vary greatly in size, population,
and levels of economic growth, and
include some of the poorest countries in
the world, but also some of the richest in
Africa. Six of them are landlocked; two of
them are Indian Ocean islands. They
share a common history of colonization—variously
involving French, British, Belgian, and German
imperial powers—and this continues to impact
significantly on the nature of governance and
politics in the region. Many, but not all, of the
countries of the region experienced periods of
European settler colonialism, resulting in armed
liberation struggles for independence. Several of
them also endured apartheid or various forms of
racial segregation and oppression as a result of that
history of settler colonialism.
Conflict and war has marked the region considerably,
particularly conflicts over apartheid and
colonialism, which engulfed most of southern
Africa and led to millions of deaths. Angola and
Mozambique suffered further from post-independence
civil wars, fueled in part by South Africa and
Rhodesia. After a bloody civil war following the
collapse of Mobutu Sese-Seko’s authoritarian
regime in the DRC in the second half of the 1990s,
however, the region is, for the first time in forty
years, almost completely at peace, except for
residual conflicts in the east of the DRC.
Nevertheless, there remain profound threats to
human and state security, many of them fueled by
poverty, marginalization, and the weakness of
states.
Abstract: Humanitarian mine action refers to activities undertaken to reduce the effect caused by land-mines and other explosive remnants of war in terms of social, economic and environmental impact of mines. The objective is the reduction of risk to a level where people can live safely and where economic, social, and health development can occur without hindrance from land-mines. This report documents how Norwegian People's Aid (NPA) are working in humanitarian mine action. Case studies are presented include Bosnia Herzegovina, Cambodia and Croatia, Ethiopia and Iraq and Malawi.
The document recommends that the mine action community needs to develop, implement and standardise new globally accepted methods and approaches to de-mining. Full mine and battle area clearance is costly and time consuming; hence such activities should be a last option, only to be used when the presence of land-mines and/or explosive remnants of war has been confirmed by technical survey. The immediate objective of mine action programmes should be to release land suspected to be hazardous as cost efficiently as possible and with a quality that meets the requirements of international and national mine action standards. NPA believes that land can be released through three different actions:
* cancellation: the process in which an area is released based on information gathered and analysis only
* reduction: the process in which one or more mine clear- ance tools have been used to gather information about the presence/absence of mines
* clearance: "full clearance" according to International and National Standards for Mine Action.
Abstract: This Review summarises current thinking on impact assessment in humanitarian assistance, and considers how recent field based initiatives have addressed some of the key issues and challenges facing impact assessment in the sector. Part one of the review presents a summary of the literature on impact assessment, focusing on impact assessment of humanitarian assistance and highlighting the key issues and challenges. These are presented in terms of Conceptual Issues; Methodological Issues; and Organisational Issues. Part two then considers the development of the Participatory Impact Assessment (PIA) methodology by the Feinstein International Center and its application, and the extent to which the challenges outlined in Part one have been addressed by these and other recent developments.
Abstract: La région des Grands Lacs en Afrique centrale et orientale
a été ravagée par des confl its pendant plus de dix
ans. Les guerres dans la région ont conduit à des mouvements
massifs de population, qui ont eux-mêmes
constitué un motif supplémentaire de confl it. Par exemple,
l’un des fl ux de population les plus importants
et les plus rapides de l’histoire récente a fait suite au
génocide de 1994 au Rwanda qui a causé la mort de
près d’un million de personnes. Des acteurs armés et
des auteurs de violations graves des droits de l’homme
étaient mêlés à une foule de réfugiés authentiques
dans ce fl ux sans précédent. L’incapacité de gérer cette
situation complexe a contribué au déclenchement et
à la poursuite du confl it en République Démocratique
du Congo (RDC).
Aujourd’hui, la région s’efforce de revenir sur la voie
de la paix et du développement. Des accords de paix
ont été signés au Burundi, au Sud Soudan et en RDC.
Des négociations sont en cours pour mettre un terme
à la guerre dans le nord de l’Ouganda avec le soutien
de plusieurs Etats africains. Grâce à ces évolutions, un
grand nombre de réfugiés et de personnes déplacées à
l’intérieur de leur propre pays («personnes déplacées»)
ont été en mesure de rentrer chez eux dans l’ensemble
de la région, que ce soit en Angola, au Burundi, au
Sud Soudan et, dans une certaine mesure, dans le
nord de l’Ouganda. Ce guide a été conçu pour aider les lecteurs à comprendre
le cadre politique, juridique et institutionnel de la
CIRGL. Il se concentre sur les trois protocoles du pilier
social et humanitaire de la Conférence internationale
sur la région des Grands Lacs les plus pertinents pour
la protection des droits des personnes déplacées.3 Nous
espérons que ce guide aidera les défenseurs des droits
des personnes déplacées dans la région à utiliser le Pacte
sur les Grands Lacs pour élaborer des politiques et des
décisions au bénéfi ce des personnes déplacées.
Abstract: The Great Lakes region of central and eastern Africa has been torn apart by conflict for more than a decade. The region's wars have resulted in, and have been further propelled by, massive population movements. For example, one of the largest and fastest population flows in recent history followed the 1994 genocide in Rwanda which claimed nearly a million lives. This unprecedented flow included armed actors and those who had committed serious human rights abuses, amid throngs of genuine refugees. The failure to address this complex situation contributed to the outbreak and continuation of conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It was in response to these linked challenges and the need to tackle them comprehensively and transnationally that the United Nations (UN) and African Union (AU) initiated the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR). The objective was to bring all the countries of the region together "to dialogue and agree on a strategy to bring peace and prosperity to the Great Lakes region." This Guide is intended to help readers understand the political, legal and institutional framework of the ICGLR. It focuses on the three protocols in the social and humanitarian pillar which are the most relevant for protecting the rights of displaced people. We hope that the Guide will help advocates for the rights of displaced people in the region to use the Great Lakes Pact to shape policies and decisions for the benefit of the displaced.
Abstract: Même si le Malawi demeure l’un des pays les plus pauvres et les moins avancés d’Afrique, il a réalisé de véritables progrès, en posant les jalons d’une accélération de la croissance économique et d’une lutte plus efficace contre la pauvreté.
Durant l’année 2007, le pays a maintenu une croissance économique solide, au rythme de 6.8 pour cent, après le taux exceptionnel de 7.9 pour cent enregistré en 2006. Il recueille ainsi les fruits de plusieurs années de gestion financière et macro-économique prudente. Les taux d’intérêt amorcent désormais un repli, et la part du crédit octroyé au secteur privé augmente, car le secteur public n’évince plus l’investissement privé. La réussite du programme national de subventions aux engrais conjuguée à des pluies régulières dans lamajeure partie du territoire s’est traduite par des récoltes exceptionnelles de maïs, la principale denrée nationale. La sécurité alimentaire s’en trouve améliorée, ce qui, avec une plus grande discipline budgétaire, a permis de contenir l’inflation à 8.6 pour cent en 2007, soit le taux le plus bas en plus de deux décennies. Si le Malawi veut soutenir une croissance économique rapide, le pays devra s’attaquer plus efficacement aux obstacles structurels à l’essor de l’investissement privé, tels que la pénurie de qualifications et une faible productivité, les carences de l’environnement d’affaires et les lacunes des infrastructures.
Abstract: Le présent rapport fait la synthèse de la première grande étude continentale visant à mesurer et contrôler les « Progrès accomplis sur la voie de la bonne gouvernance en Afrique », entreprise par la Commission économique pour l’Afrique. Dans le cadre de cette étude, des enquêtes et des recherches ont été menées sur 28 pays. Les résultats complets et l’analyse de l’étude seront
publiés en 2005 dans le premier «Rapport sur la gouvernance en Afrique ».
La CEA a entrepris ce travail pour évaluer l’idée que les citoyens se font de l’état de la gouvernance en Afrique, pour rassembler des informations sur les meilleures pratiques et pour identifier les principaux besoins de la région en
matière de développement des capacités. Le projet a identifié quatre tendances positives sur la voie de la création d’États compétents en Afrique: transitions démocratiques, ouverture politique, liberté d’expression et obligation comptable, et gestion économique.
Abstract: Le Rapport sur la gouvernance en Afrique est le fruit de larges travaux de recherche sur les pratiques de gouvernance entrepris dans 27 pays africains par la Commission économique pour l’Afrique (CEA), par l’intermédiaire d’instituts nationaux de recherche, qui ont recueilli, ensemble par échantillonnage, les opinions de plus de 50 000 ménages et de 2 000 experts. Les conclusions, soumises à la CEA entre 2002 et 2004, ont fait l’objet d’un processus rigoureux d’examens auxquels ont participé des experts nationaux et internationaux travaillant sur la gouvernance et les questions politiques et économiques.
Ce rapport est la première grande étude de ce type initiée par les pays africains, qui vise à analyser de façon empirique les opinions des citoyens quant à l’état de la gouvernance dans leurs pays, tout en mettant en évidence les principaux déficits de capacité dans les pratiques et institutions de gouvernance et en recommandant des pratiques optimales et des solutions pour y faire face. On s’est attaché à assurer l’appropriation locale de l’ensemble empirique de résultats afin de renforcer l’efficacité et la légitimité de la prise de décisions et de l’effort de sensibilisation aux niveaux national et infrarégional. Les données ainsi générées peuvent être utilisées pour mesurer la performance des gouvernements et de toutes les principales parties prenantes dans leur réponse aux préoccupations exprimées par les citoyens et pour suivre la mesure dans laquelle le contrat qu’ils ont passé entre eux est respecté. Nous avons pris soin de ne pas être trop directif. Le Rapport sur la gouvernance en Afrique contient des recommandations qui découlent essentiellement des réalités propres aux pays, car, pour être durable, la gouvernance doit être replacée dans son contexte et internalisée.
Abstract: Ce rapport contient des résumés sur les régions suivants: Afrique australe, Afrique de l’Est, Afrique de l’Ouest et Afrique centrale, et Afrique centrale, et aussi sur les thèmes suivantes: le double défi de la tuberculose et du VIH, circonsion masculine et préventions du VIH, epidémies latentes parmi les hommes ayant des rapports sexuels avec des hommes, la consommation de drogues injectables: un facteur croissant dans plusiers épidémies de VIH de L'Afrique Subsaharienne, et signes de changements vers des comportements à moindre risque.
Abstract: The Safe Schools Program (Safe Schools) is a five-year project under the U.S. Agency for International Development, Bureau for Economic Growth, Agriculture, and Trade, Office of Women in Development. The objective of Safe Schools is to create safe environments for both girls and boys that promote gender-equitable relationships and reduce school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV) by working in partnership with children, youth, parents, teachers, schools and communities. This report summarizes the results of the participatory learning and action (PLA) research activity conducted in October and November 2005 to help raise awareness, involvement, and accountability at national, institutional, community and individual levels of SRGBV in the Machinga District in the Southern Region of Malawi. Altogether, 952 pupils participated in the PLA workshops. The focus group discussions included more than 2,000 participants. In addition, 370 key informants including traditional leaders, initiation counselors, members of school management committees and parent teacher associations, head teachers, government Primary Education Advisers, religious leaders, members of the school disciplinary committees (where these existed) and club patrons were interviewed.
Abstract: Between 2000 and 2004 Malawi received $ 2,221 million in aid; of this DFID provided $ 444 million. DFID has provided Poverty Reduction Budget Support (PRBS) to the Government of Malawi (GoM) since 2001.
Abstract:
The problem of hunger is not limited to Malawi. The United Nations Food
and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reports that more than 800 million
people around the world suffer from hunger and that the millennium target
of reducing that number by half will not be met without stronger commi#tments
and an accelerated pace. In its annual report, The State of Food Insecurity
in the World 2005, the FAO cites "good governance" as a key factor in countries
where food insecurity has been significantly reduced. The FAO pointed to
specific elements of democratic governance necessary for the reduction of
hunger, including respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.1
With regards to human rights, the FAO highlights the recent adoption by
its members of Voluntary Guidelines to support the progressive realization of the
right to adequate food in the context of national food security.2 The Guidelines
provide a practical tool to assist States to both understand and fulfill their
obligations. The process to draft and adopt the Guidelines was the first time
that any of the economic, social and cultural rights have been negotiated
by governments in a multilateral forum outside of the UN's human rights
system. Their adoption in September 2004 illustrates the value that States
place on human rights as a basic construct of development.
This report and the fact-finding mission on which it is based represent an
effort to apply the FAO Guidelines in a practical experience and in doing so,
to illustrate the distinct advantages a human rights framework provides for
policy and program development. Rights & Democracy and FIAN International
hope that the information gathered in the course of our mission and
presented in this report will encourage greater support for the FAO Guidelines
and generate new approaches to ending hunger in Malawi as well as
in other countries and regions of the world.
The international fact-finding mission (April 17-23, 2006) was undertaken
as a collaborative initiative of Rights & Democracy and FIAN International.
It responded to a request from the National Taskforce on the Human Right
to Food, a network of Malawian civil society organizations coordinated by
Church and Society, a project of the CCAP Blantyre Synod. The objective
of the mission was to take stock of the hunger crisis from a human rights
perspective and to provide related recommendations as a contribution
towards sustainable food security and food self-sufficiency in Malawi. It
was also hoped, that the exposure provided by an international delegation
of human rights experts would be an impetus to the civil society campaign
for a "Human Right to Food Bill" to be passed in Malawi's parliament.
The mission delegation was comprised of six individuals from Canada, Germany,
Ghana, Malawi and Zambia. Their biographical notes are included
in Annex 1 of this report. [Ed. note: Publishing date not given]
Abstract: Malawi, like other countries in Africa, has a new land policy designed to clarify and formalise customary tenure. The country is poor with a high population density, highly dependent on agriculture, and the research sites are matrilineal-matrilocal, and near urban centres. But the case raises issues relevant to land tenure reform elsewhere: the role of xe2x80x98traditional authorities' or chiefs vis-Ã -vis the state and xe2x80x98community'; variability in types of xe2x80x98customary' tenure; and deepening inequality within rural populations. Even before it is implemented, the pending land policy in Malawi is intensifying competition over land. We discuss this and the increase in rentals and sales; the effects of public debates about the new land policy; a new discourse about xe2x80x98original settlers' and xe2x80x98strangers'; and political manoeuvring by chiefs.
Abstract: The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has been in existence since 1980, when it was formed as a loose alliance of nine majority-ruled States in Southern Africa known as the Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC), with the main aim of coordinating development projects in order to lessen economic dependence on the then apartheid South Africa. The founding Member States are: Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. SADCC was formed in Lusaka, Zambia on April 1, 1980, following the adoption of the Lusaka Declaration - Southern Africa: Towards Economic Liberation. The transformation of the organization from a Coordinating Conference into a Development Community (SADC) took place on August 17, 1992 in Windhoek, Namibia when the Declaration and Treaty was signed at the Summit of Heads of State and Government thereby giving the organization a legal character. The Member States are Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. SADC headquarters are in Gaborone, Botswana. The objective of SADC: Achieve development and economic growth, alleviate poverty, enhance the standard and quality of life of the people of Southern Africa and support the socially disadvantaged through regional integration; Evolve common political values, systems and institutions; Promote and defend peace and security; Promote self-sustaining development on the basis of collective self-reliance, and the interdependence of Member States; Achieve complementarity between national and regional strategies and programmes; Promote and maximise productive employment and utilisation of resources of the Region; Achieve sustainable utilisation of natural resources and effective protection of the environment; Strengthen and consolidate the long-standing historical, social and cultural affinities and links among the people of the Region.
Abstract: The collection of quantitative information on violence against women has
for many years been a contentious issue. The data has often been based on
reports and files from institutions of the criminal justice system, medical
facilities and counselling and support groups. As such, the data has been
inadequate, as it has been reliant solely on the reports of those who publicly
acknowledge victimisation and/or those who, through the severity of their
injuries, are forced to seek medical, welfare or legal assistance. The DFID
MaSSAJ programme, recognizing this inadequacy, undertook through the
Crime and Justice Statistical Division of the National Statistics Office in
Malawi, a national household violence against women survey. This book
presents the main findings of the study.
In total, 3,546 households were sampled, and within these 3,546 females
and 2,246 males were interviewed. The innovative methodology allowed
not only for an assessment of men's perceptions about intimate partner
violence, but also minimized the chance of any retribution or violence
resulting from the women's participation in the study.
Focusing on intimate partner abuse only, the study explored sexual,
emotional, and physical violence, as well as financial abuse. Rather than
using broad definitions that might be subject to various interpretations,
specific acts of violence or abuse were provided, and respondents were
asked whether they viewed such behaviour as acceptable, and whether their
intimate partners had ever perpetrated such acts against them. When positive
responses were recorded, the nature of such experiences was explored.
Abstract: The Tribunal of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) is the newest operationalized subregional court in Africa. Provided for under Article 16 of the 1992 Declaration and Treaty Establishing the Southern African Development Community, the Community's members approved the Protocol required to set up the Tribunal in 2000. Despite the ratification requirements in the Protocol itself, the Protocol entered into force with the signature of the Agreement Amending the Treaty of SADC in August 2001. The Agreement Amending the Treaty marked a renewed energy in the integration of the Community, making the Protocol on the Tribunal an integral part of the Treaty and thus automatically applicable to all Member States. The renewed energy of the Community however, was not reflected in a swift establishment of the Tribunal. The first judges of the Tribunal were not sworn in until November 2005.
Abstract: To oversee the implementation and interpretation of the COMESA agreement, the Treaty established a Court of Justice, modeled on the European Court of Justice. Like the European Court of Justice, the COMESA Court of Justice can be seized of a matter by one of several ways. First, a member State may bring another member State or the Council before the Court for breach of the Treaty or failure to fulfill an obligation thereunder. Providing the Common Market with independent monitoring and enforcement power, the Treaty permits the Secretary General (with the agreement of the Council) also to bring a member State before the Court for failure to fulfill its Treaty obligations. Like the European Court of Justice, the COMESA Courtxc3xads decisions have precedence over any decisions of national courts.
Abstract: The Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC), which evolved into the Southern African Development Community (SADC) , has been in existence since 1980. The original nine member-countries were Angola , Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. South Africa joined SADC in 1994 followed by Mauritius (1995), and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC, 1997). In 2005, SADC granted Madagascar membership. In addition to belonging to SADC, Angola, DRC, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe are members of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). In order to facilitate development in the region, member-states in SADC formulated various objectives which the community works to achieve. Among those objectives are the promotion of regional economic integration, creation of intra-governmental policies, and sustainable utilization of natural resources. In addition to the broader objectives of SADC, the region's Trade Protocol calls for member-states to further liberalize intra-regional trade, while eliminating trade barriers in order to establish a Free Trade Area (FTA) by 2008. The creation of the FTA is part of a strategic plan announced by the SADC executive secretary in 2004, which also includes the establishment of an SADC customs union by 2010, a common market pact by 2012, and establishment of an SADC central bank and preparation for a single SADC currency by 2016.
Abstract: Malawi is a small, landlocked country in southern Africa with a population of 12 million. The struggle against the HIV -epidemic - which affects about 1 out of 12 people - remains one of the country's main challenges. For fieldworkers like Prabhu Gounder - a doctor with Médecins Sans Frontixc3xa8res (MSF)- to trace local patients is to be confronted with the impact of the epidemic on individual lives and the lingering consequences of social stigma and misconceptions that still hinder scaling-up in access to care and anti-retroviral treatments. Those realities call for a renewed emphasis on public education, no doubt a key variable both in explaining the struggle current shortcomings and securing that of its future results.
Abstract: Human security is the dominant discourse within international, regional
and sub-regional organisations tasked with security and development. It
has displaced the traditional state security paradigm with its preoccupation
with protecting national interests and state borders through the projection of
power. Although the basic tenets that constitute the human security paradigm
can be traced to various alternative approaches voiced on development and
security, it was the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP)
Human Development Report of 1994 that gave concrete expression to, and
was later used to popularise, this approach to security. That report, drawing
on the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, employed the phrase
xe2x80x98freedom from want and freedom from fear' to advocate a people-centred
approach to security, to link development to security, and to broaden both
the identification of possible threats and the actors responsible for producing
and resolving insecurity.
The Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) has integrated
the human security approach into its constructions of, and policy
frameworks for, peace and security. Southern Africa, a region defined by
its anti-colonial and civil wars, is undoubtedly enjoying an unprecedented
measure of peace and stability, despite continued tensions in Zimbabwe,
Swaziland and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Peace agreements
in Mozambique, South Africa, Angola and the DRC created an enabling
environment for democratisation and development to take root. However,
the xe2x80x98peace dividend' has yet to materialise for the vast majority of
citizens in Southern Africa. The road map for transforming these states
and the everyday lives of their citizenry has been drafted in the many protocols, policies and strategic frameworks, and much of the institutional
apparatus is already in place. Yet, there remains a marked disjuncture
between the region's goals and aspirations, and the implementation and/or
outcomes thereof. The often-stated reasons for this are lack of capacity,
resources and political will. However, in the absence of contextualisation,
these reasons remain vague and, therefore, without the specificities
for redress.
This monograph broadly sets out to (1) unpack the conceptual, methodological
and institutional issues that emerge from the adoption of a human security
perspective; (2) indicate some of the major human security challenges
confronting Southern Africa and; (3) highlight the implications for policy
research and capacity-building in the region.
Abstract: In June 2001 a Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS was agreed by 189 member states at a United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS). A review of progress is under way, led by UNAIDS. This report is the product of studies conducted by the Panos Institute in seven countries: Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Haiti, Latvia, Malawi, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Abstract: On May 20, the country held its third election since transitioning to a multiparty democracy in 1994. President Bingu wa Mutharika of the United Democratic Front (UDF) was elected, succeeding President Bakili Muluzi, also of the UDF. International observers noted substantial shortcomings in the electoral process, including inequitable access to the state-owned media, the ruling party's use of state resources to campaign, and poor planning and administration by the Malawi Electoral Commission. Minor violence occurred when the final results were announced. Opposition parties filed legal challenges to the election results, which were still pending at year's end. Constitutional power was shared between a popularly elected president and the 193-member National Assembly, of which 185 members were elected on May 20. The ruling party had majority support in Parliament due to alliances with several other parties and a number of independents. The Government generally respected the constitutional provisions for an independent judiciary; however, the judicial system was inefficient and lacked resources.
