Welcome to another
edition of

Our News
- Our time

Welcome to this newsletter from Africa Contact. The newsletter is
distributed to all Africa Contact partners in Africa. If you know
someone who should receive the newsletter, but does not, please
write to morten@afrika.dk.

In Denmark it is spring, and we are waiting for the winter
darkness to disappear and be replaced by sunshine and long bright
evenings.

This spring has been truly eventful. Both in Africa Contact,
where we have submitted five applications to the Project Advice
and Training Centres deadline of 16 April, and in Africa, where
many of our partners , besides having obtain major progress in
project development, also have been faced with huge pressure from
the local authorities. Not least in Swaziland, where police
brutality has reached new heights.

We hope you will welcome our news.

In this newsletter:

1. Principles of volunteers and staff in Africa Contact
2. New projects and applications
3. Partnership Seminar in November
4. Security Policy for Africa Contact
5. May day in Copenhagen
6. Get a Danish Intern/student to work for you?
7. News from Afrika.dk.

1. Principles of volunteers and
staff in Africa Contact

The Board of Africa Contact has adopted a set of principles for
staff and volunteers in connection with our work on the projects.
The paper is prepared to eliminate any doubt about the purpose of
the partnership - for us in Africa Contact and our partners in
Africa alike.
In the Principles, we have stated why volunteers and employees of
Africa Contact cannot work for a African partner while at the same
time being member of a working group in Africa Contact. This would
create a conflict of interest, as well as bringing the partner in
Africa in an unfair situation. We believe that it is not a fair
situation for the partner to be forced to decide whether or not to
employ a Danish volunteer from Africa Contact, when the same
person has assisted to create the economic basis for the project.
It is also the task of volunteers in Africa Contact to check if
the project funds are allocated,as agreed in the signed Project
Agreement. This is an almost-impossible task to do fairly if you
are employed by the partner at the same time. The principles also
state clearly that volunteers in Africa Contact  work voluntary
and do not receive salary or other income for their efforts.

Africa Contact volunteers or staff are not employed or working as
consultants for our partners. In cases where this has happened, it
will be stopped. Such matters will be settled as soon as possible.

If you as a partner feel that you are under pressure to recruit a
volunteer from Africa Contact, please contact Africa Contact's
office.

You can read the whole
set of principles here.

2. New projects and applications

In December 2010, we received funding for the following projects:
Youth Forum of Zimbabwe (project appraisal trip to Zimbabwe) and a
new project worth 3 million Danish kroner for our cooperation with
Masifundise and Coastal Links in South Africa. This project will
further strengthen our partners' work in two new provinces in
South Africa, so that small fishermen and coastal communities can
become organized in these areas of the country. In addition, a
small project with NCA in Zimbabwe/South Africa, where we support
a campaign against organized political violence against women in
Zimbabwe, has been approved. This project is supported with half a
million Danish kroner.

Read more about new and old projects here.

Applied projects:
On July 1 we will know whether we will receive the funding for the
five applications that we applied for on April 15.

- We have sent an application to support Youth Forum in Zimbabwe
for creating legitimate and viable platforms for mobilising and
advocating for youth issues in Zimbabwe.

- We have sent a new application together with FSEJ in Swaziland.
The old project with FSEJ is completed in July 2011 and we have
therefore submitted a new project for an extension and
continuation of the project with this partner.The project budget
is five million Danish kroner.

- Also in Swaziland, we have sent a small application to support
the Association of Former Mine Workers in the country, SNEMA,
focusing on mobilisation and capacity-building of the association.
The project budget is estimated to one million Danish kroner.

- The AIDS Group has submitted a project proposal together with
their partner HAG in Uganda. The project will pave the way for a
major project with HAG in the future and will collect data on
stigma against HIV-infected people in the province where the
project takes place.

- And last but not least, Africa Contact have sent an application
for a new partnership seminar with all our partners in Africa. If
the application goes through, the seminar will take place in
November 2011. You can read more about it below.

3. New Partner Seminar in November

Africa Contact, AC, is in the initial phase of planning the 2.
partnership seminar, scheduled to be held in November 2011 in
either Johannesburg or Harare. Participants are representatives
from the AC partners in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Uganda, Swaziland
and Zambia and members of the AC working groups.

For the time being, the contents of the seminar are divided into
3 themes:

- a political theme, concerning the situation of the
democratization process in North Africa. Among many issues, a
discussion – and preferably recommendations - of the outcome and
effects of these disturbances on the NGO work in the southern - as
well as in the northern part of Africa and Europe; lessons learnt,
precautions to be taken towards prevention of ”organized” violence
towards the staff of the project, changes/ disturbances in the
current project set-up and implementation, possibilities of
cooperation between ”south and north” etc. External resource
persons, together with representatives from the partnership, are
expected to prepare theses and facilitate the discussion.

- the current DANIDA (Danish International Development Agency)
civil society strategy is to be revised in 2012. What are the
experiences from the CSOs of the strategy in terms of expectations
and recommendations to the new strategy?

- elaboration of the Logical Framework Analysis (LFA). Especially
a comprehensive introduction to the subjects of Monitoring and
Evaluation will be conducted, as recommended in the first
partnership work, implemented in November 2009 in Swaziland, but
also a substantive introduction to the LFA will be launched.

The concrete outcome of the seminar will be a report of the major
recommendations from the seminar.

A workshop committee, given the mandate of elaborating and
finalizing the contents of the seminar, will be established in
June 2011, consisting of representatives from the partner
organisations and AC.

Contact person in Africa Contact: Flemming Alsbjørn, Project
Officer, mail: fa@afrika.dk.

4. Security Policy for Africa
Contact

Africa Contact is working on new guidelines for a security policy
for our association. The policy should provide clear guidelines
for travels in countries where there are risks involved for those
travelling. It will also provide guidelines for our collaboration
with partners working under very difficult circumstances and those
subject to abuse, and for our information work in Denmark.

Africa Contact has experienced that our volunteers have been
detained by local authorities on several occasions and/or have
been threatened and abused by local police. Meanwhile, our
partners in Swaziland and Zimbabwe are under great pressure and we
must be very careful that our work in Denmark does not constitute
a security risk for them.

When we have translated these guidelines we would appreciate
inputs from our partners.

5. May day in Copenhagen

May Day: Solidarity with Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Western
Sahara.

In Denmark, Africa Contact used the May Day celebrations to focus
on the politically motivated violence against women in Zimbabwe by
holding a so-called ‘solidarity event’ at Blaagaards Plads and
Fælledparken in Copenhagen where the largest May Day celebrations
in Denmark take place. The event is part of a larger campaign,
initiated by Africa Contact and partner organization the National
Constitutional Assembly, a Zimbabwean NGO that amongst other
things campaigns for a democratic and people-driven constitutional
process in Zimbabwe.

Read the full story here.

Stop politically motivated violence against women in
Zimbabwe, web page.

6. Get a Danish Intern/student to
work for you?

Africa Contact has arranged for Danish students to work for our
partner organisations in Africa for several years now. Until now
only in Cape Town, South Africa, but we would like to continue to
offer this to other parts of Africa. Having a student working for
you as an intern in your organization is completely free of charge
and cost neutral. The interns or students will work for between
three and six months. They are willing to work on the tasks

you have in your association.

We do it this way:
The student sends an application and CV to Africa Contact. We hold
a meeting with the applicant and access the suitability of the
person. If he or she fits the bill, we'll send the application to
those of our partners that the applicant is interested in. It is
then up to you whether or not you can or will take him or her.
Once agreed, you sign a contact, which specifies the tasks and
other practical issues to be clarified during the stay.

Africa Contact sends approx. 35 students to Africa each year.

If you are interested in hosting trainees from Denmark, you can
write to morten@afrika.dk.

NEWS from AFRIKA.dk:

-
Send Swaziland’s king and his many wives home from today’s
Royal wedding in London

- International community must act now
to stop Swazi regime’s brutality

- Swazi youth leaders tortured and
forced to confess during mass protests

-
Swazi regime’s end is near, says democratic movement

- Maxwell Dlamini and Swazi uprising front page
news in Denmark

- Swazi
regime’s “victory” is a pyrrhic one

- Swazi police hunt down and continue
to brutalize democracy advocates

- Swazi police violently disperse
demonstrators; dump them 100 km from town

- Africa Contact condemns arrests of
democracy activists in Swaziland

- Will Swaziland
revolt on April 12?

-
Collection of Swazi articles:
A collection of articles in English on Africa Contact's website
related to the struggle for democracy in Swaziland.

- Africa Contact sends message of solidarity to
PUDEMO-congress

The newsletter is sent to all Africa Contact's partners in
Africa.
Published by Africa Contact in Denmark.
Editors: Peter and Morten.
Write to morten@afrika.dk
to contact the editors.

AFRICA CONTACT - WESSELSGADE 4 - DK2200
COPENHAGEN N. - DENMARK
Phone: +45 35 35 92 32 Mail: sak@afrika.dk
Web: www.afrika.dk