CHAD-CAMEROON
Oil pipeline opens for business

Chad formally joined the ranks of oil-producing countries on 10 October. That day marked the official inauguration of a $3.7 bn petroleum mining and pipeline project that links some 300 wells in the Chadian interior with an offshore loading facility 1,000 kilometres away in Cameroon. Over the 25-year life of the Doba Basin oil fields, the project is expected to generate $2 bn in additional revenue for Chad, among the poorest countries in the world, and $500 mn for the government of Cameroon. The project is jointly owned by two US oil companies, Exxon-Mobil and Chevron-Texaco, and the Malaysian company Petronas, and was built with nearly $300 mn in loans from the World Bank.

To secure World Bank support for the project, the Chadian government has agreed to a stringent set of controls on the handling and disbursements of the oil revenues. By law, 80 per cent of the revenue will be invested in health, education, transportation and other economic development infrastructure, with 10 per cent set aside for future investment. To ensure transparency, expenditures will be monitored by a committee that includes parliamentarians and members of civil society, while compliance with environmental and human rights standards will be monitored by international agencies. Bank officials argue that the pipeline project could become a model for the responsible exploitation of mineral resources in a region where oil wealth has often contributed to political instability, human rights abuses and environmental pollution. These stipulations followed early criticism of the project by Chadian and international human rights and environmental groups, which prompted the World Bank and other participants to make significant changes in its management and construction.

AWARDS
African women honoured

Three African women received awards from US organizations in October for outstanding achievements. Dr. Nawal M. Nour from Sudan received one of the $500,000 awards under the MacArthur Foundation's Fellows Programme, which recognizes exceptional creativity, significant accomplishment and potential. In 1999 she founded the African Women's Health Practices clinic at a Boston hospital to address the unique medical and emotional needs of immigrants who had undergone female genital mutilation (FGM) in their home countries. Among other initiatives, she has developed techniques for the surgical reversal of infibulation, the most severe form of FGM. Dr. Nour plans to use the prize money towards expanding the programme in Boston and helping women in Africa.

The Hunger Project, a US-based non-governmental organization, awarded its 2003 Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger to two legal activists fighting for women's rights, who will receive $50,000 each.

Ms. Meaza Ashenafi established the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association (EWLA) in 1995. Among other activities, her group combats domestic violence and sexual abuse, promotes women's social and economic rights, provides free legal aid, produces radio broadcasts and carries out programmes related to civil service reform, women's political participation and access to land.

Ms. Sara Longwe of Zambia has pioneered the use of international human rights law in the fight for women's rights in domestic courts in her country. In 1984, she was a founding member of the Zambia Association for Research and Development, which was instrumental in pushing the government to ratify the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Eight years later, citing that ratification, she won a court battle against the Lusaka Intercontinental Hotel, which had refused to admit her because a man did not accompany her.

HIV/AIDS
Governance commission launched

The Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa (CHGA) was officially launched in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in mid-September. It is chaired by Mr. K.Y. Amoako, executive secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), and was first announced in February by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The commission's mandate is to study the impact of HIV/AIDS on state structures and economic development in Africa, so as to identify the "complex linkages" between human losses at the local level and their relationship to economic growth and the capacity of health services and state structures to cope with the challenges.

With a secretariat at ECA headquarters in Addis Ababa, the CHGA is composed of 20 commissioners appointed by Mr. Annan. They include the president of Senegal's National Assembly, the managing director of the World Bank, the president of the African Development Bank and Mali's minister of economy and finance, among others. Documents on the commission can be found on the website: <www.uneca.org/chga>.

APPOINTMENTS The UN Secretary-General has appointed Ambassador Jacques Paul Klein of the US (left) as his special representative in Liberia. Prior to his recent appointment, Ambassador Klein was the UN special representative and coordinator of UN operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina. A graduate of the National War College, he is a career senior foreign service officer of the US Department of State. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appointed former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari as his special envoy for the humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa. Mr. Ahtisaari has served the UN many times, including as UN Commissioner for Namibia and the Secretary-General's special representative for Yugoslavia. Mr. Alvaro de Soto (right) of Peru is the new special representative of the Secretary-General for Western Sahara. Following a long career in Peru's diplomatic service, he became the Secretary-General's special adviser on Cyprus in 1999. The Secretary-General has named Mr. William Lacy Swing as his special representative for the Democratic Republic of Congo, effective 1 July, succeeding Mr. Amos Namanga Ngongi. Mr. Swing had been the Secretary-General's special representative to Western Sahara since 2001. Prior to that, he served several times as US ambassador, mainly in Africa.

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