Making prompt amends is the fresh air of each new day. ~ Sandra Little

Today brings us a new hill to climb and a new view from the top. Taking time to reflect about our daily journeys is a challenging adventure in self-discovery. Looking down, we see our past trials and difficulties as lessons to learn from. Letting go of old baggage as we end our day will give us a bright window to open onto tomorrow.

Completing a daily inventory creates a good foundation for living peacefully. Honestly acknowledging the things we have done or said to hurt ourselves or others enables us to say, “I’m sorry” and to begin each day with a clean slate and a peaceful heart. As we empty ourselves of regret by making amends to ourselves and others, we make room for the love and comfort of our Higher Power.

Today help me take inventory and make amends where I need to.

Body, Mind, and Spirit. Copyright 1990 by Hazelden Foundation. All rights reserved.

WHAT does it mean to campaign for internationally recognized human rights in sub Saharan which is chock-filled with rampant human violations? Does it mean that because governments in the region violate human rights willy-nilly, there should be no concerted effort to engage in a campaign for their recognition.

It is not enough to feel outrage when we learn of the number of children exploited sexually or at work, of refugees or of those suffering from hunger. We must react, each one of us to the best of our abilities. It is not just a matter of looking at what government is doing - Federico Mayor, former UNESCO Director-General

Human rights are often misunderstood and can sometimes be seen as abstract ideals with not much practical relevance for real people. And there is no doubt that the rampant abuse of human rights in Africa only serves to worsen the inequalities and vulnerabilities of individuals and communities.

The promotion of social justice and the culture of peace in Africa is of paramount importance but doing the job can be quite a risky business. And, of course, not so many people are willing to put their lives on the line. It’s understandable.

There are many stories of people who have disappeared in the night never to be seen again, of daylight murders, of state impunity that fill the majority of the citizens of the continent with terror.If anything, the reign of terror exhibited by many African governments must in itself be a motivating factor to engage in a campaign for human rights.

Highlighting human rights abuses can go a long way in forcing States to take remedial action and/or to stop a certain course of action. Information is indeed a tool that can be harnessed to push ahead the human rights agenda, particularly in our hyper-connected age. In the arena of human rights, nothing can play so important an role in instituting change as much as information. Thus, as soon a human rights abuse is committed it is critical that the information be circulated as widely as possible. In the campaign for human, truth is of high importance hence the need to always verify the source of information.

Because many governments hide behind the pretext that human right a an imported, Western concept, it is critical to ensure that moral voices that take the lead in speaking out against abuses be African. This is not to say condemnation of abuses cannot come from anywhere in the world. As Martin Luther King Jnr put it, a human right abuse in one part of the world constitutes human rights abuse everywhere.

Campaigning for human rights in Africa needs short & long term campaign objectives & strategies. The objectives and strategies will obviously be informed by a mapping process that is aimed at identifying the human rights challenges in the region. Human rights as we know encompass a wide gamut of issues – political, economic, cultural, psychological – and as we go into the future the concept of human rights is most likely to expand.

Therefore, when framing a strategy its essential to be clear about what is to be achieved. A country mapping process is therefore critical in determining priorities. Unless there are effective country-based information, dialogue and advocacy networks for human rights, the overall vision for the recognition of human rights will not be achieved. The purpose of the networks will be to collect, analyze, synthesize and share information on a timely basis. It important for the networks to engage in partnerships. Campaigns, after all, involve decision makers, opponents and allies.

In the campaign process, there will be urgent issues that come up, and need to be addressed in very little time. Training of networks is critical to ensure that the information that they purvey to the outer world is credible.

Campaigning at regional and country level can also utilize different levels of tactics: a. highly visible public pushes, b. direct lobbying and c. media work.

Developing campaign manuals and an implementation framework can help to align the process in different countries of the region, as well as provide a basis for monitoring and evaluating activities. Planning human rights campaigning in Africa can help to identify areas of focus, quantify costs of attaining and create a concrete series of steps of actions that need to be takento achieve the ultimate vision.

“We are made to persist. That’s how we find out who we are.”  – Tobias Wolff, Writer

WHILE governments in sub-Saharan Africa continue to dole out money on military hardware, teargas canisters and baton sticks etc., pregnant women in the region are dying in droves due to lack of proper healthcare. Paradoxically, women and girls are the main caregivers for the sick in the absence of proper health systems. Yet when they need care the most during pregnancy it is not available, a scenario made worse by gender inequities that put the lives of women and girls at risk.

The statistics are downright shocking. In sub Saharan Africa, 1 in 16 women is likely to die as a consequence of pregnancy and childbirth, according to a recently published report titled “Measure of Commitment: Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Risk Index for Sub-Saharan Africa”.

For many women in the region, particularly in underserved remote and rural areas, getting pregnant is akin to a death sentence.

“Pregnancy is dangerous business in Sub Saharan Africa where a woman is 100 times more likely to die from pregnancy related complication than in a developed country,” states the report.

The number of African women who died from pregnancy and childbirth in 2008was much higher than the number of casualties from all the major conflicts in Africa combined, says the report.

Despite the gravity of the problem, many governments in the region pay little to no attention to it. There is very minimal investment by governments in services that can reduce maternal mortality. One way to explain it is that many governments in sub Saharan Africa are dominated by men who simply do not care about what is happening to women.

According to the report, few countries in sub Saharan Africa have budget lines for reproductive health and those that do invest less than one percent of the total sector budgets. To make matters worse, health systems in the region are in shambles and already overburdened by other diseases such as AIDS and TB.

“Health systems are plagued by severe staff shortages, dilapidated and rundown infrastructure, frequent stockouts of essential RH supplies including contraceptives, inefficiency and mismanagement and inadequate financing for reproductive health,” says the report issued by the Center for the Study of Adolescence Population Action International.

Instead most governments prefer to spend money on defense, terrorizing their citizenry, instead of improving the state of maternal health.  It appears that there is simply appreciation of the importance of quality maternal care to building a strong-nation state.

Despite the fact that many of the countries in the region are signatories to agreements such as the International Conference on Population and Development, ICPD (the Cairo Agenda); and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) endorsed by the international community in 2000, the evidence on the ground clearly shows that there is a clear mismatch between policy priorities and financial commitment.   

According to the report, few countries will meet MDG 5 and even fewer will meet regional targets such as the Abuja commitment of ensuring that the health budget makes up 15% of the GDP.

It is unacceptable that so many African women are dying die from complications that can often be effectively treated if only governments commitment more resources to health systems.

Reversing maternal mortality in Africa will take a rethink on the part of African governments, civil society and international donors. Expanding health in the rural areas and training health care workers is a critical part of the equation. But most importantly, it will take individuals, like you and me, to speak out about this issue wherever and whenever we can. It is time to raise our voices to the cause of Africa’s pregnant women.

“Find something you’re passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it.” – Julia Child, chef

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.