RECENT developments in Europe on Internat access legislation are indeed welcome, and point to a freer and less fettered access to this important human resource. If anything, governments around the world must follow suit and ensure that their citizens benefit from this essential resource.

Like may people around the world, I use the Internet on a daily basis, and when I can not get online access I feel sick. I am not exaggerating. For me, the internet has become as important as breathing. I have to have it or at least I have to know that I can have it.

That’s why I was so intrigued to read a recent New York Times report that European lawmakers agreed on new protections for Internet users.

Part of the report stated that consumer organizations that wanted to enshrine Internet access as an unassailable right. Governments in Europe have in past few months mooted ways to limit internet access to those deemed to be engaging in illegal downloads.

“Under the compromise, any decision to sever Internet access, an approach championed by several E.U. countries seeking to clamp down on digital copying of music and movies, must be subject to a legal review,” reported the New York Times.

In other parts of the world such as Africa, governments are not as interested in ensuring universal access to the internet as much as they are obsessed about controlling it. The United Nations’ plan that every village in the world will have access to the internet by 2015 can only be realized if governments around the world begin to recognize access to the internet as an important human right.

Commenting on the development, Catherine Trautmann, a member of parliament from Strasbourg, France, said: “It is the first time that we affirm that access to Internet is an essential tool to exercise fundamental rights and freedoms. It is progress for the rights of citizens.”

I firmly agree with Trautmann that the internet is a key human innovation that can exponentially expand the whole concept of human rights. In fact, it can facilitate the exercise of other rights and freedoms.

Governments in the world must be forced to acknowledge the fact that access to the internet is an unassailable right.

“Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe, Writer

MY inner search for a job that is in tune with my style has been sending me on voyages of all kinds online. In fact, just writing that, I feel I have hit somewhere: being online for me is a trip. I get transported into so many worlds. And its always an intelectual feast to find something compelling, well written and presented.

While there is no doubt that the internet is the greatest available real estate for all human beings, the only way to make your real estate count is to make it beautiful. It boils down to format, tone, language, design, reliability, presentation, consistency. The old qualities, the traditional stuff that made print media what it became in our daily lives are still very important to the new age type of communication.

Anyway, the purpose of this blog today is to share with you a site that I bumped into during my visits online. First, a disclaimer. After years of wanting to get into publishing school and not getting there, and feeling so torn inside about it I feel that there is a seismic shift happening inside me.

An unearthing of some sort. Maybe its because I havent been writing that much. Bu whatever it is, I am beginning to get drwan towards corporate communications. I have been in the non-profit sector ever since I entered the work world, and to be frank, its all been hogwash.

We are not really ready to make a difference particulalrly we, the so called development professionals. Its all about playing the game to make money, and most of us have no real passion to make a difference to people’s lives. Suffice to state that I am convinced that I can fir into the communications fields. And the good thing is that it is not so far from publishing which I have always wanted to do for so many years. So where am going with all this; today I found a site that frame the whole idea of social communications in a new sort of way.

According to Institute of Public Strategies’ (IPS) initial projects focused primarily on the effective use of media advocacy, demonstrating the power of this tool for elevating an issue on the public agenda and for helping community members find their voice to participate in public discussion and debate.   Its their method which appealed to me: it can be applied anywhere, but it does not assume that all communities are the same.  All decisions are made locally.   It is entirely culturally sensitive.

“The IPS METHOD includes both the multi-component planning and implementation model as well as guidance on design considerations for building a supporting environmental prevention system to ensure sustainability. Key system components typically include integrated training and technical assistance, on-going measurements, a process for creating or choosing qualified staffing, and other considerations.”

What can I say, I learned something today.

“Nothing great will ever be achieved without great men, and men are great only if they are determined to be so.” – Charles de Gaulle, statesman

Poverty, inequality and unequal power relationships are the main cause of the current global water and sanitation crisis, according to a paper titled “The human right to water and sanitation: benefits and limitations” which is contained in a UN report: The Right to Water – Current Situation and Future Challenges.

Despite the gravity of the situation, water and sanitation rarely make the headlines in the news media. The financial and human cost of the crisis is humongous.

“The global damage caused by diseases and productivity losses related to unclean water and poor sanitation is estimated at a staggering US 170 billion dollars per year with developing countries’ economies bearing the brunt of this burden. Sub-Saharan Africa alone loses 5 % of GDP or US 28,4 billion per year, a figure that exceeded total aid flow and debt relief into the region in 2003,” states the report.

Such a hemorrhage is clearly unacceptable, and for Sub-Saharan Africa it is clear that lack of access to water and sanitation is not only about health and development; it is an economic imperative.

Lack of political will is cited as a key stumbling block to ensuring wider access to water and sanitation services, particularly among the urban and rural poor. The poor and marginalized bear the brunt and are left alone in the cold to cater for their water and sanitation needs.

In many parts of the world, water and sanitation are treated separately despite the fact that they are two sides of the same coin.

“Sanitation is still considered a dirty issue or even taboo in many world regions. The resulting lack of publicity severely hinders the dissemination of knowledge about good and bad sanitary practices and prevents action at the local, national and international level to adequate sanitation,” adds the report.

Treating water and sanitation as separate from each other is counterproductive because in practice the two cannot be separated.

For instance, the unsafe disposal of human excreta can impact negatively on water sources, and damage people’s health. Thus, it is critical to ensure that the provision of safe water for personal and domestic needs entails basic sanitary measures that ensure the effective separation of drinking water supplies from human excreta and waste water.

Having said this, there are strong causal links between lack of access to basic sanitation and ill-health, poverty and loss of human dignity.

Almost 2,6 billion people in the world lack access to a decent toilet or latrine, a matter of fact, which impinges negatively on their human rights.

Yet the picture is not all gloom. The growing recognition of water and sanitation as a human right is a welcome development. Many countries have revised their laws and constitutions to include the right to water and sanitation.

Including the right to water and sanitation in legal frameworks can potentially empower citizens to hold their elected officials and governments accountable to the provision of water and sanitation services.

In addition, it can generate the political will which is often a missing link in ensuring universal access to water and sanitation. It can also be used as a tool to campaign for the implementation of low-cost technical solutions to the water and sanitation problem.

“Taking deliberate steps to ensure that all people have access to basic water and sanitation services is not only a moral imperative, but also common sense from an economic perspective, and, above all – a human rights obligation that every state and the international community is legally bound to comply with,” states the paper.

Sometimes it seems I’ve spent my life trying to live up to others’ expectations of me, and failing. I never thought much about pleasing myself. That would have been “selfish.”
- JoAnn Reed

An effective communication strategy must be inextricably linked to an organization’s stated mission, objectives and goals. The strategy needs to be supported by SMART objectives

In today’s information cluttered environment, its important to figure out how to make your organization’s communications stand above the crowd. Telling a story has never been as hard as it is today but utilizing the right approaches and planning ahead will ensure that your voice is heard above the pack.

 So, to reiterate, a comprehensive communications plan must be rooted solidly within the vision, mission, goals and values of the institution. In other words, communication should be regarded as an extension of programmatic objectives. It must not exist as a separate entity.

The vision, mission, goals and values provide the framework within which the communications plan will be built. They define that which the communications must ultimately aspire towards.

Having said that, communication can make or break an organization. At the outset, its important to know where you want to go in order to determine the appropriate communication tactics and methodologies.

I propose four broad outlines:

Know where you are and where you want to go

1. Determine the appropriate strategy
2. Select tactics, budget and implement
3. Measure the effectiveness of your efforts

The fact of the matter though is that communications must achieve results; it must be a tool that pushes forward an organization’s operational activities and agenda, rather than simply function as a means to convey information.  In view of this, communications must therefore be integrated with operations.

In many non-profit institutions there is always a disconnect between operations and communications which usually reduces the latter to mere propaganda or pamphleteering.  Most managers do not quite appreciate the role that communications has to play, and how it can be invaluable in highlighting progress on meeting pre-set goals and plans.

It is important to mention that web-based technologies now offer new, cheaper, quicker. and more effective ways to communicate with more people. The web has exponentially exposed the way people access and react to communication products.

It is important to think of communications in terms of an ongoing and iterative process, as opposed to thinking in terms products (e.g. a news letter, website, etc)

A communication strategy is not the glue between different communication products; it is a means of elaborating how we network, participate, and interact with the world.

Most importantly, a good communication strategy must reflect a two way dialogue where a practitioner listens (what does our audience want, and how best can we communicate); design and deliver audience-informed strategies, and gather feed to assess impact.

GROWING up in Zimbabwe, diabetes (a polygenic disease characterized by abnormally high glucose levels in the blood) was something that the old people always talked about, and the fear of the disease grew over me like a giant baobab.

To describe a person with diabetes, the old people would say in local parlance “Ane shuga”, which literally means: “He/she has sugar”. Essentially, it meant that the affected person has a disease associated with sugar.

To my childhood fancy, I thought that the people who were affected with the diabetes ate a lot of sugar only to discover later it was the common understanding.

Most people in Zimbabwe associate diabetes with a high intake of sugar, particularly in tea.

Little to no other foods are associated with the onset of this condition. Put simply, very few people know that eating too much of carbohydrates, fats, proteins can increase the incidence of diabetes.

I discovered later that diabetes mellitus occurs when the pancreas does not make enough or any of the hormone insulin, or when the insulin produced doesn’t work effectively. In diabetes, this causes the level of glucose in the blood to be too high.

According to experts, the number of people with diabetes in Zimbabwe is growing. In 2003, Zimbabwe recorded more than 90 000 cases of diabetes, an increased of 3 000 from the 1997 figure.

The Diabetic Association of Zimbabwe estimates that around 400 000 people in the country have the disease but many are unaware on their condition.

“About 50 percent of Zimbabweans are diabetic but are not aware of the condition, so many people are suffering from diabetes but do not have any knowledge about it,” a Zimbabwe Diabetes Association official was quoted in The Herald newspaper.

“It is sad that a lot of people have died because of this disease without knowing it, and only relatives will know about it after a post-mortem has been conducted,” added the official.

With all the attention on high profile diseases such as AIDS and TB, it is not surprising that little to nothing is talked about diabetes. Yet with a little investment in information dissemination on how to prevent diabetes, many lives would be saved.

There is need for advocacy on proper dietary habits. Information can be disseminated through schools, hospitals and community health centres. The involvement of traditional leaders in the dissemination of information on diabetes can also lead to a better uptake of the message.

In addition, parents must be educated to take care of their children dietary habits. According to experts, the promotion of traditional Zimbabwean diets can also be a portent tool in the fight against diabetes. The value of exercise needs to be emphasized within the population.

There is also need for information that debunks the myth which makes people associate diabetes with high sugar intake in tea.  In other words, there is need for accurate, scientific, and evidence-based information about the disease.

All in all, greater investment in prevention efforts can save government, communities and individuals a lot of money in diabetes treatment costs.

If anything, it is critical to let the majority of people in Zimbabwe know that diabetes is not all about sugar, and that it’s possible to prevent the disease.

“We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.” – Marie Curie, physicist

News from Uganda that the government is seeking to reaffirm penalties for homosexuality and criminalize the “promotion of homosexuality” will only serve to drive people of same-sex orientation underground. The implications for public health efforts are dire, and there is no doubt that if the bill is passed into law, it will deal a body blow to HIV prevention efforts.

In Uganda, as in many parts of Africa, the health of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Trans and Intersexual Peoples is marginalized. This sub-group is already faced many challenges including HIV, STDs and STIs, and mental health problems due to lack of access to services.

“This bill is a blow to the progress of democracy in Uganda,” said David Kato of Sexual Minorities Uganda. “Its spirit is profoundly undemocratic and un-African.”

According to the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission the Ugandan Parliament is now considering a homophobic law that would reaffirm penalties for homosexuality and criminalize the “promotion of homosexuality.”

The Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009 targets lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Ugandans, their defenders and anyone else who fails to report them to the authorities whether they are inside or outside of Uganda.

The proposed law will effectively criminalize homosexuality, and consequently bar any person of same-sex orientation from seeking public health services.

“The bill criminalizes “promotion of homosexuality” in the form of funding and sponsoring LGBT organizations and broadcasting, publishing, or marketing materials on homosexuality and punishes these acts with a steep fine, 5-7 years of imprisonment, or both,” says the IGHLRC.

“The bill effectively bans any kind of community or political organizing around non-heteronormative sexuality. It will lend itself to misapplication and abuse, and implicitly encourages persecution of LGBT people by private actors,” adds the IGHLRC.

The bill has a massive potential to put paid Uganda’s response to HIV and AIDS. As the IGHLRC puts it, HIV prevention activities in Uganda, which rely on an ability to talk frankly about sexuality and provide condoms and other safer-sex materials, will be seriously compromised.

Women, sex workers, people living with AIDS, and other marginalized groups may also find their activities tracked and criminalized through this bill.

In addition, the bill will only worsen the stigma and discrimination against people of same-sex orientation, including violence. In many parts of the world, the criminalization of persons of same-sex orientation has only resulted in the denial of HIV prevention services and education to this target group.

“Discrimination and punitive laws like this aimed at marginalised groups and at those often among the most affected by HIV drives people underground and does nothing to help slow down the AIDS epidemic,” said Daniel Molokele, Africa programme officer at the World AIDS Campaign to South Africa’s Times newspaper.

Failure to reach persons of same-sex orientation with effective HIV interventions or prevention education can have severe implications to the rest of the populace. Due to stigma and discrimation, persons of same sex orientation may be left out of government HIV and AIDS programmes.

The Ugandan Parliament needs to reconsider the proposed legislation, and instead of focusing criminalization, ensure that appropriate public health services reach same-sex practicing Africans and that their human rights are protected.

Take Action Now

Join the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) and Sexual Minorities of Uganda (SMUG) in calling for the swift dismissal of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009 and the protection of all Ugandans, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Contact:

President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni

State House Nakasero

P.O. Box 24594

Kampala, Uganda

Tel: 256-41-343-311

Fax: 256-41-346-102

info@statehouse.go.ug

Prime Minister Apollo Nsibambi

Post Office Building, Yusuf Lule Road

P.O. Box 341

Kampala, Uganda

Tel: 256-41-423-6252

Fax: 256-41-434-1139

ps@opm.go.ug

Speaker of the Parliament Edward Ssekandi Kiwanuka

P.O. Box 7178, Parliamentary Avenue

Kampala, Uganda

Tel: 256-414-377-100

Fax: 256-414-231-296

speaker@parliament.go.ug

Minister of Gender, Labour, and Social Affairs

Honorable Opio Gabriel

P.O. Box 1494

Kampala, Uganda

Tel: 256-41-510-732

ps@mglsd.go.ug

Med Kaggwa, Chair of the Uganda Human Rights Commission

Plot 20/22/24 Buganda Road

P.O. Box 4929,

Kampala, Uganda

Tel: 256-414-348-007/8

Fax: 256-414-255-261

uhrc@uhrc.ug

Directorate for Ethics and Integrity

P.O. Box 7142

Kampala, Uganda

Tel: 256-(0)41-430-1600

Fax: 256-(0)41-434-3177

info@dei.go.ug

Mathisen Gørild

Chair of the Uganda Diplomatic Human Rights Working Groups

gorild.mathisen@mfa.no

Send a copy to:

Jerry P. Lanier, Ambassador to the Republic of Uganda

Embassy of the United States of America

P.O. Box 7007,

Kampala, Uganda

Tel: 256-414-259-791/2/3/5

Fax: 256-414-259-794

kampalawebcontact@state.gov

IGLHRC

communications+action.alert@iglhrc.org

Send an email and fax to:

Perezi K. Kamunanwire, Ambassador to the US

Tel: 1-202-726-4758

Fax: 1-202-726-1727

pkamunanwire@ugandaembassyus.org

Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda

Permanent Representative of the Republic of Uganda to the United Nations

336 East 45 Street

New York, NY 10017

Tel: 1-212-949-0110

Fax: 1-212-687-4517

ugandaunny@un.int

Sample Letter:

Your Excellencies:

I am writing to express concern about legislation that would severely restrict the rights of Ugandan citizens, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and their defenders, in direct contravention of domestic and international law. The Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009 would not only reaffirm penalties for homosexuality, but would criminalize the “promotion of homosexuality,” including funding and sponsoring LGBT organizations and broadcasting, publishing, or marketing materials on homosexuality. Any person in authority who fails to report known violations of the law within 24 hours will also be subject to a significant fine and up to 3 years in prison – even when this means turning in their colleagues, family, or friends.

The negative repercussions of the bill in Uganda will be immediate and severe. It effectively bans the free association and expression that are necessary for a flourishing civil society, and creates a climate of fear and hostility that undermines the citizenship and solidarity of all Ugandans. It will lend itself to misapplication and abuse, and implicitly encourages persecution of LGBT people by private actors. Effective HIV prevention activities in Uganda, which rely on an ability to talk frankly about sexuality and provide condoms and other safer-sex materials, will be difficult, if not impossible.

The Anti-Homosexuality Bill violates National Objective 5(2) of the Ugandan Constitution, which provides that “the State shall guarantee and respect the independence of non-governmental organizations which protect and promote human rights.” Moreover, it directly violates the right to equality and freedom from discrimination (Article 21), the right to privacy (Article 27), the right to freedoms of speech, expression, association, and assembly (Article 29), the protection of minorities (Article 36), and the protection of civic rights and activities (Article 38) to which all Ugandans are entitled. It also violates the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and other international human rights treaties to which Uganda is a party. This bill undermines Uganda’s commitment to the international human rights regime and threatens the basic human rights of all its citizens.

The Bill’s revocation of fundamental rights would also seriously undermine the country’s reputation and credibility in the international arena. Because it claims jurisdiction over Ugandans who violate its provisions while outside of the country, the Bill will strain Uganda’s relations with regional and international partners.

While people may hold differing opinions about sexual orientation and gender identity, the legislation before Parliament is an ineffective and fundamentally illegal way to express opposition to a minority group. In recognition of the importance of a diverse, dynamic civil society and the domestic and international commitments that Uganda has made, I urge you to swiftly dismiss the Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009 and reaffirm the rights and responsibilities of all Ugandans.

Sincerely,

Name:

Organization:

Country: