Daraja.net

One of the most important vehicles by which CODESRIA has sought to mobilise national-level research capacities and to channel these into organised reflections has been the National Working Groups (NWGs) which has encouraged African researchers to organise autonomously on priority themes of their choice. NWGs have been supported by the Council in over forty African countries and have resulted in some of the most interesting studies on politics, economy and society in contemporary Africa. Within the framework of the CODESRIA strategic plan for the period 2012 - 2016, it has been decided to retain this vehicle as an important instrument for promoting research into and publications about different national-level experiences pertinent to the pre-occupations of African scholars active in the Social Sciences and Humanities. For this purpose, the Council invites proposals for the constitution of NWGs under the 2013 competition for the research grants that are available.

The ideological dominance of capitalism as the only feasible mode of production is coming to an end. In the second half of the 1970s, when rapid and stable economic growth came to a halt in the "developed" world, the forces of capital intensified their attack on workers’ rights that has not ceased to this day. The foundation on which the ideological domination of capitalism was based had started to wither away, and the advocates of capitalism increasingly justified its existence by turning to the mere fact of its existence.

The fact that unlike really existing socialisms, capitalism has not collapsed – although it had to be rescued by fascist gangs and military juntas many times – underpinned the claim that there simply is no alternative and that we must accept any sacrifice in the name of capital accumulation. If growing inequality, poverty of the majority of the world population, terror of dictators and devastation of nature are the price to be paid for capital to flourish, then so be it.

Opening markets and creating space for multinationals to secure profits lie at the heart of the G8 and AGRA interventions. Both initiatives are built on the basis of public-private partnerships (PPPs) with the large multinational seed, fertiliser and agrochemical companies setting the agenda, and states and institutions (like the G8, World Bank and others) and philanthropic institutions (like AGRA and others) establishing the institutional and infrastructural mechanisms to realise this agenda.

Multinational corporations like Yara, Monsanto, Syngenta, Cargill and many others want secure markets for their products in Africa. In the first place, security means protection of their private ownership of knowledge in the form of intellectual property (IP) protection. Across Africa, so-called 'harmonisation' of laws and policies are underway to align African laws and systems with the interests of these multinationals.

The meeting deliberated extensively on the state of health services in West and East Africa, and the national situations in the different countries of WAHSUN member-unions, and Rwanda. The delegates also held intensive discussions on deepening the commendable role of WAHSUN and its member-unions in the quest for better health services in Africa. Convinced that there is a critical need for health workers on the continent to work ever more closely together in defence of workers and for the development of healthcare delivery for the African people; the delegates discussed in depth, on the challenge of building similar networks in all the sub-regions, which would be united as a Pan-African platform.

Governments in African countries lease out land at low rates, which makes it attractive to investors

Everywhere in Africa the story is more or less the same: communal rights are being grossly interfered with, farming systems upturned, livelihoods decimated, and water use and environments changed in ways which are dubiously sustainable.

Africa is white hot with minerals and land deals in what could be the second scramble for Africa.

Civil Society activists have held a demonstration to protest MPs demand for a salary increase.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday in favor of biotech giant Monsanto, ordering Indiana farmer Vernon Hugh Bowman, 75, to pay Monsanto more than $84,000 for patent infringement for using second generation Monsanto seeds purchased second hand—a ruling which will have broad implications for the ownership of 'life' and farmers' rights in the future.

Indiana grain farmer Vernon Hugh Bowman walks past the US Supreme Court on February 19, 2013 in Washington (AFP/File, Mandel Ngan)

A disclosure of e-mails showed the White House was more involved in revising talking points about the attack in Benghazi, Libya, than officials have previously acknowledged.

The G8 is currently discussing an “initiative to increase transparency of land transactions and tenure”, which is to be launched at the G8 summit in June 2013.

We strongly reject and condemn the G8’s proposed transparency initiative for the following reasons:
• Transparency – and the G8 initiative – will not stop land and resource grabbing
• The G8 has no democratic legitimacy to make decisions about land, food and nutrition
• The G8 initiative on transparency bypasses and undermines the CFS

We therefore call upon the members of the G8 to:
- Abandon all plans to establish the proposed initiative
- Comply with their commitments arising from endorsing the CFS Tenure Guidelines, inter alia by supporting the financial Facility proposed by FAO
- Promote true accountability by regulating investors and companies based in G8 countries to disclose their involvement in land and resource grabs, and hold them legally accountable for abuses of tenure and human rights.
- Stop the implementation of the cooperation frameworks of the G8 New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition in Africa, as well as the negotiation of new frameworks that undermine sustainable small-scale food production and local food systems.

Africa’s primary food security systems are at threat from the process of relentless land degradation, dispossession, privatisation and large scale land grabs.

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We remain sceptical that real progress for Africa’s one billion people—the majority of whom are women--will change radically through policies centred unremittingly on markets and profits, and based predominantly on the extraction of mineral resources. African people’s needs and interests—particularly those of women—are not part of this narrow economic vision.

Liberia's silent land war has now become a war of words and placards with tension brewing daily either between individuals and families or companies and tribes or clans.

Aprodev commissioned research to investigate the involvement of European Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) in land grabs. The evidence shows that European DFIs are indeed involved in some land grabs, and there are real risks of being complicit in others in the future.

Maude Barlow’s new book - Blue Future: Protecting Water for People and the Planet Forever - will be released on September 28.

As noted on the Anansi website, “In Blue Future, international bestselling author Maude Barlow offers solutions to the global water crisis based on four simple principles. Principle One: Water Is a Human Right chronicles the long fight to have the human right to water recognized and the powerful players still impeding this progress. Principle Two: Water Is a Common Heritage and Public Trust argues that water must not become a commodity to be bought and sold on the open market. Principle Three: Water Has Rights Too makes the case for the protection of source water and the need to make our human laws compatible with those of nature. Principle Four: Water Will Teach Us How to Live Together urges us to come together around a common threat — the end of water — and find a way to live more lightly on this planet.”

The U.S. State Department does the bidding of biotech giants like Monsanto around the world by "twisting the arms of countries" and engaging in vast public campaign schemes to push the sale of genetically modified seeds, according to a new report released Tuesday by Food & Water Watch.

Every time the annual season of wage negotiations is about to begin, as it is now, representatives of capital unleash a tsunami of propaganda about workers high and unaffordable wage demands.

Security Council asked to terminate the crimes against Humanity cases facing Kenyan leaders