aid

The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has to date recovered just over a quarter of the R12-billion it has loaned to poor students.

In its latest report releasing in Cape Town, NSFAS has recovered only R3.2 billion [26 percent] of the total R12 billion in funds it has loaned -- the second-lowest recovery ratio globally among student financial aid schemes.

Students qualifying for state funding could get R43 000 a year from the National Students’ Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) if a proposal made to the Department of Higher Education is accepted by the Cabinet.

Higher Education Minister, Blade Nzimande, says he accepted the recommendations of a report into higher education funding, adding that this is a matter for the Cabinet to debate when his department submit its final proposal, probably by August.

The Forum for African Women Educationalists in Uganda (FAWE) says the stiff competition in education has led to many students who obtain reasonably good marks failing to get admitted at university on Ugandan government sponsorship.

Speaking at the graduation of 27 girls who were sponsored by FAWE during their secondary school, the organisation’s coordinator, Martha Muhwezi, welcomed the proposed student's loan scheme, which she said is likely to help many needy students.

Aid workers, with the help of Google Earth, are uploading key information onto the web to illustrate the needs of hundreds of thousands of people left homeless by Haiti's earthquake.

The innovation, which could significantly boost the ability to respond to future disasters, can enable the United Nations and non-governmental aid officials can log onto Google Earth from makeshift settlements housing more than 600 000 people in Haiti.

It can also provide real-time details about the population and its global positioning.

Somalia's hard-line Islamist rebel group, al-Shabaab, has ordered the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) to halt all operations and leave the failed horn of Africa state.

In a press statement, al-Shabaab maintains that the agency's food distribution has negatively affected local farmers. The group also accuses the WFP of handing out expired food and of harbouring covert political aims like offering assistance to Ethiopians.

World Vision Rwanda says it will not be affected by cuts in food aid programmes by its parent organisation, World Vision International.

The non-governmental organisation has curtailed its food aid programmes and rations in Uganda, Sudan, and Burundi as they react to increasing global food prices coupled with high food demand.

The South African Red Cross has handed over its first R1 million to its international affiliate's Haiti relief and recovery operation.

SA Red Cross president, Isaiah Modisha, points out that, "The response from the South African community has been absolutely phenomenal.

Modisha states that the SA Red Cross hope to raise more funds, as it continues to receive enquiries and pledges from more people wishing to support this humanitarian cause.

‘Governance Assessments and Domestic Accountability: Feeding Domestic Debate and Changing Aid Practices’ follows on from recently completed research that investigated the impact of donor harmonisation on domestic processes of democratisation. The aim of this research is to further inform donors on how they can operationally redirect their day to day work, if the rhetoric of both partnership and domestic accountability is to be taken seriously.

The United States has suspended a five-year US$7 million programme for Kenya's education ministry over a massive corruption scandal.

Washington's ambassador, Michael Ranneberger, who points out that the programme was scheduled to begin this year, says that the suspension will be effective until there is a credible, independent audit and full accountability.

"Those culpable for the fraud should not merely be sacked; they should be prosecuted and put behind bars," says Ranneberger.

Surgical teams of the international medical charity, Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) are continuing to work round the clock to treat victims of the devastating earthquake in Haiti.

Two MSF operating theatres have been opened in the grounds of one of the wrecked hospital in the city.