UN involved in developing gender policy in Swaziland

      The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Swaziland, in collaboration with UNESCO, UNIFEM and the World Bank, intends taking an innovative approach to assist the country in examining gender issues and formulating a national gender policy.
      The initiative, known as “An Integrated Approach to Gender Equality in Swaziland,” was launched 

in August 2000 with the endorsement and participation of the government and is already showing results, UNDP claims. 
      It has led to a greater understanding of gender issues among government agencies and highlighted the importance of incorporating gender concerns in all planning activities. There is increasing use of culture as an entry point for 

addressing gender issues, since cultural norms often affect social practices and policies.
      The UN agencies have also developed a core group of trainers with skills in key areas, including social and eco-nomic gender analysis, gender focused responses to HIV/AIDS, gender and development communications, and rural communications. (IRIN) 

African leaders outlined at the World Economic Forum, held in Switzerland end of January, the Millennium African Programme (MAP) to give their countries greater control over the direction of internationally backed economic reform programmes.
       The programme, which South African President Thabo Mbeki said was a firm declaration by African leaders to take ownership of sustainable development in the continent, would try to force a rethink

      Mbeki, President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and President Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria had been tasked by the Organisation of African Unity to seek a common African commitment to the continent’s economic development. 
      MAP’s priorities would include peace and stability and the development of human resources, infrastructure and telecommunications. Another high priority would be to develop a finance mechanism. Mbeki said the

European Union, the Group of Eight industrialized countries, the World Bank and the United Nations had all given their support to the new initiative. The private sector would also be approached.
      Obasanjo said Africa needed a plan that could serve the whole continent as well as specific countries – “something that all of our people can feel they can endorse.” (Business Report)

 in relations with the developed world and a radical review of the West’s multibillion-dollar African aid programme.
      The plan seeks to restore private sector confidence in Africa, to spur investment and a mutual respect for regulations, Mbeki said.
      African finance ministers would meet in May in Nigeria, where a more formal structure for MAP would emerge. 
      The plan is not a matter of looking for money or aid but for increased investments in infrastructure and development projects, Mbeki said. The new initiative must lay to rest the perception that Africa is “a hopeless continent.

      Namibian President Sam Nujoma has said his government would speed up its efforts to give land to people but reiterated the state would stick to its willing-buyer, willing-seller policy.
       “Starting this year increased efforts will be made to resettle our landless people in a speedy manner,” Nujoma said at the first cabinet meeting of the year. “In the same vein, I also call on those who own excess land to cooperate with the government in its efforts to address and resolve the present 

imbalances in land redistribu-tion,” he said. Reports said that an estimated 34,000 people have been resettled on commercial farm land since independence from South Africa in 1990.
      The government wants to resettle a further 243,000 people and has said it wants to acquire 9.5 million hectares of land for its programme.
      White farmers numbering just over 4,000 own nearly 30.5 million hectares, with 2.2 million hectares held by an estimated 200 black commercial farmers. (IRIN)

      Cousin Island in Seychelles has obtained world-wide recognition for eco-tourism and coastal management after being the first nature reserve in Africa to feature in the International Biodiversity Observation Year. 
      Cousin Island Special Reserve was recognised as the best example of how eco-tourism is practised as well as for coastal and marine management in two recent publications released by international organisations.
      The special reserve, managed by BirdLife Seychelles, is the only 

example in the book Sustainable Development of Tourism Compilation of Good Practices from East Africa and the Western Indian Ocean Region. 
      In a letter to the Seychelles Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister Simone de Comarmond, WTO Secretary General Francesco Frangialli said: “I am sure it (the book) will add prestige to the tourism
industry in Seychelles.”
      The second book — Marine and Coastal Protected Areas - A Guide for Planners and Managers — is pub-lished by The World Conservation Union. (PANA)

      Official figures released by the Tourism ministry in Port Louis indicate a 23 percent growth in the number of tourist arrivals in December 2000 over the same month the previous year.
      The figures reached 64,760 compared with 52, 860 in December 1999. 
      The ministry also indicated that the total figures for 2000 stood at an all-time record of 656,450 or a 14 percent increase over the 578,090 recorded in 1999. (PANA)

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