AFRO-NETS> The Drum Beat -121- Communication and Development News and Data

["Warren Feek" <wfeek@comminit.com>]

The Drum Beat -121- Communication and Development News and Data
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Website: http://www.comminit.com

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This issue pulls together compelling stories from The CI Home Page 
from Oct 1 to Nov 13 2001. The Home Page includes 3 sections - Devel-
opment News, Communication News & Base Line. We find relevant infor-
mation, usually from sources that you won't see in the mainstream me-
dia. Links are provided for more information. Stories change every 
Tuesday & Friday. They are archived at 
http://www.comminit.com/tempo.html, 
http://www.comminit.com/about-time.html and
http://www.comminit.com/base_line.html

Please take a look, let us know what you think and send us your sto-
ries and information. 
Contact mailto:cmorry@comminit.com

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COMMUNICATION NEWS
Archived & searchable
http://www.comminit.com/tempo.html

1. Congolese Using Web to Seek Common Ground
http://www.balancingact-africa.com/news/back/balancing-act_78d.html
Sept 23 2001 Balancing Act. The office of the facilitator of the in-
ter-Congolese peace and reconciliation dialogue has launched a bilin-
gual (French/English) web site at http://www.drcpeace.org that en-
ables information to be channelled to the actors involved in the 
process, journalists, experts, and the Congolese people. The site 
contains recent information about the DRC, a directory of updates, 
publications and reports. It is designed to 'fill the information gap 
on the progress of the DRC peace process'.

2. New Report Looks at NGOs & Capacity Building
http://www.indev.org/news/1october01k.html
Sept 2001 Indev. Is much of the talk about 'capacity building' woolly 
theorizing? Is enough known about what it really entails? Donors and 
international NGOs have often understood it to be simply training in 
accountancy and financial management. What do southern NGOs want and 
expect to develop capacity? An INTRAC report  
http://www.id21.org/society/s8crj1g1.html  
looks at differences in north-south priorities and suggests how ac-
tors should work together to determine capacity building needs, plan 
appropriate interventions and measure their impact.

3. MSNBC Launches Arabic Language Website
http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,47638,00.html
Oct 17 2001 Benton Communications Related Headlines/WiredNews  
http://www.benton.org/News/ MSNBC has introduced an Arabic-language 
version of its website called Good News 4 Me. MSNBC says the site is 
unlike many outlets in the Middle East in that it will be 'free of 
government censorship' and will fill a need for 'unbiased news in the 
region'. Some, however, wonder if Arabs will take to MSNBC's Western 
perspective. Asked to comment on the initiative, the director of the 
Middle East Media Research Institute said, 'call me back in 3 weeks'. 
http://www.gn4msnbc.com/

4. E-mail Newsletter Launched by Kosova Women's Network
Oct 29 2001 The Advocacy Project  
http://www.advocacynet.org/index.html 
'The international community needs to do much more to eradicate the 
trafficking of women from Kosova and curb violence against women', 
says a new publication by and for the women of Kosova. Called 'KWN 
Voices,' it is the monthly newsletter of the Kosova Women's Network, 
linking 32 women's groups across the province. For subscription in-
formation visit the KWN website  
http://www.womensnetwork.org

5. Children in Our Midst - Voices of Farmworkers' Children
http://www.kubatana.net/
Oct 24 2001 Kubatana. For many years farmworkers in Zimbabwe have 
been a marginalised and neglected community. This is even more true 
for their children. "Children in our Midst" brings together the 
voices of several hundred children collected through essays and in-
terviews. To order a copy email 
mailto:weaver@africaonline.co.zw 
or visit the Weaver Press web site 
http://www.weaverpresszimbabwe.com/child/childframeset.htm


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COMMENTARY
http://www.comminit.com/index.html#drum_role

Making the Learning Organisation Literal - Interested in practical 
ideas to help your organisation learn from what it does and what 
those it comes in contact with do? Sue Soal of Africa's Community De-
velopment Resource Association writes about 'homeweek' - a time when 
they consciously disengage from the field to involve themselves as 
colleagues in reflection on practice and strategic development proc-
esses. 
http://www.comminit.com/Commentary/sld-3463.html

***

DEVELOPMENT NEWS
Archived & searchable
http://www.comminit.com/about-time.html

6. China Admits AIDS Crisis 
http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/323/7315/714
Sept 29 2001 BMJ. China's top health officials have acknowledged that 
China faces an HIV/AIDS crisis. 600,000 people had been infected by 
the end of 2000 and infection rates of about 30% have been predicted 
by the US embassy.  China says it will hold the numbers of infected 
people to below 1.5 million through 2010 but UN AIDS has warned the 
figure could be as high as 20 million. 30,000 to 50,000 people were 
infected through poorly managed blood collection operations and the 
government has admitted it has 'not effectively controlled the epi-
demic'.

7. South Africa's Winning Tobacco Control Strategy
http://www.idrc.ca/reports/read_article_english.cfm? article_num=1021
Sept 21 2001 IDRC Reports. Smoking has been rated South Africa's 2nd 
highest health concern, after HIV/AIDS. However, some of the strict-
est tobacco control measures by a developing country have led to 8 
consecutive years of falling cigarette consumption and a drop in the 
percentage of adult smokers from 32 to 28%. The main tool has been an 
increase in tobacco taxes to a rate of 50% of the retail price, which 
has contributed, in real terms, to a doubling of the price of ciga-
rettes between 1993 and 2000.

8. No New Drugs for 'Unprofitable' Diseases of Developing World
http://www.health-e.org.za/view.php3?id=20011019
Oct 26 2001 Health-E News Service. A report, by MSF called 'Fatal Im-
balance' claims that of 11 companies surveyed (representing combined 
annual sales of U.S. $117 billion), only 1 new TB drug was brought to 
the market in the last 5 years. 8 companies reported no research ac-
tivities in the last year for fatal diseases almost exclusively af-
fecting the poor such as sleeping sickness, Chagas disease and 
leishmaniasis while many drugs are being developed for sleeping dis-
orders, impotence and obesity.

9. Crop Yields in Tropics to Drop Dramatically Due to Climate Change
http://www.unep.org/Documents/Default.asp?DocumentID=225&ArticleID=29
52
Nov 8 2001 UNEP. Harvests of some of the world's most important food 
crops could fall by 33% in some crucial parts of the planet as a re-
sult of climate change, scientists are warning. New studies indicate 
that for every 1 degree rise in areas such as the Tropics, yields 
could tumble by as much as 10%. The Intergovernmental Panel on Cli-
mate Change estimate that average global temperatures in the Tropics 
could climb by as much as 3 degrees C by 2100.

***

DB Classifieds - Training, Books, Consultants will be issued Dec 5.  

Contact Janice Innes mailto:jinnes@comminit.com for details on post-
ing information.

***

Base Line
Archived & searchable
http://www.comminit.com/base_line.html

10. Women's Reproductive Health & Armed Conflict
http://www.savingwomenslives.org/factsheet_women_and_armed_conflict.h
tm
Source: Saving Women's Lives Fact Sheet.

* More than 26 million refugees, asylum-seekers and internally dis-
placed persons are registered worldwide and millions more are unreg-
istered. 50% are girls and women.

* Gender-based violence tends to increase in refugee situations, 
where reproductive health services are often lacking.

* As a result of violence and stress during the siege of Sarajevo, 
perinatal mortality increased from 15 deaths per 1,000 live births 
before the war to 39 deaths per 1,000 afterward, and birth defects 
went from 1 to 3 %.

* A 1994 study of Rwandan refugees in Tanzanian camps found that 60% 
of the women had a reproductive tract infection. Refugees from the 
former Yugoslavia who were treated and documented in London showed a 
34% rate of sexually transmitted infections.

* More than 20% of births at a Burundi refugee camp in Tanzania in 
1998 were below average weight, and infant deaths rose sharply from 
prewar levels. Of Rwandan women who reported being raped, 17% were 
HIV-positive.

11. AIDS Success in Zambia
http://archives.hst.org.za/af-aids/msg00057.html
Source:  Excerpt from a story submitted to AF-AIDS - 'Which Success 
Story at ICASA 2001?'

The national prevalence of HIV in Zambia is on the decline:

* Between 1994 & 1998, HIV prevalence among urban adults fell from 
28.5 to 26.2% and in rural areas from 12.1 to 11.7%.
* More impressively however, HIV prevalence among urban teenage girls 
fell from 28.4% in 1993 to 14.8% in 1998.

Why is not known for sure but educated guesses point to:

* Widespread community response led by 1000's of volunteers and 100's 
of small community organisations.
* Peer youth action.
* Reaching men in their workplace.
* Innovative rural mission hospital programmes.

***

This issue compiled by Chris Morry 
mailto:cmorry@comminit.com

***
To reproduce any portion of The Drum Beat, see 
http://www.comminit.com/Helpdocuments/sld-3318.html for our policy.

Please send material for The Drum Beat to the Editor - 
Deborah Heimann 
mailto:dheimann@comminit.com

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