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Environmental Impact Assessment in Southern Africa,
This is a well-produced, soft-covered book that presents both systematic analyses and situational reports on 13 southern African countries, as well as some helpful case studies from across the southern African region. The target audience of this book is not identified and is not readily apparent from the content. The length, density and style of the material presented make it most unlikely that the book will be read by senior government officials, Ministers of State - precisely the persons to whom the book would be most relevant. Professionals actually undertaking environmental impact assessments in any of the SADC countries should find the country-by-country listing of legislation pertaining to EIAs useful. The appendices to each chapter listing "useful contacts" may also be helpful, though these are likely to go out-of-date very quickly. Businesses undertaking due-diligence studies preparatory to investment in SADC countries should also find these sections helpful.
The book will probably serve as a useful compendium of 2002 information for persons wanting to make a comparative study of the state of readiness to utilise EIAs as a tool for achieving sustainable development amongst southern African countries. These would include academics making comparative studies, students in environmental management courses as well as the staff of international financial institutions responsible for channelling funds to southern Africa.
The book adopts the all too familiar format of outlining the policies, legislation, regulations and institutional arrangements pertinent to Environmental Assessments in the countries discussed. However, a welcome departure is the inclusion of sections, variously headed challenges, lessons learned, or weaknesses, that attempt a degree of critical appraisal of current EIA practice in each of the countries. The depth and robustness of these critiques differs from country to country. They are usually of a general nature and couched in diplomatic language.
Although the focus of the book is on environmental impact assessment, considerable space is taken up with descriptions of each country's biophysical profile (relief, climate, water resources, vegetation, wildlife) and socio-economic profile (demography, economic activities). A reader attempting to come to grips with the EIA requirements of the countries can, however, safely skip these sections without prejudice to the main theme.
Greatest insight into the difficulties of conducting EIAs in the various countries can best be obtained from the case studies that accompany the situational reports. The adoption of short bulleted paragraph style for the case studies makes for brevity (some cases are too short to be helpful) but unfortunately restricts the authors' freedom to develop and explain the cases that they describe. Nevertheless the cases are generally of sufficient length and depth to be both interesting and meaningful and are often concluded with useful summaries of the lessons that should be learned. These case studies could well become the most useful long-term contribution to sustainable development in southern Africa that this book makes.
Richard Fuggle
President: International Association for Impact Assessment
Professor of Environmental Studies
C/o Department of Environmental and Geographical Science
University of Cape Town
Publisher: Southern African Institute for Environmental Impact Assessment, Windhoek, 2003, 352p.
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 | The Invisible People: How the US has slept through the global AIDS pandemic, the greatest humanitarian catastrophe of our time
by Greg Behrman
Publication date: June 2, 2004
339 pages
Reviewed by Bruce Sheppy
Author Greg Behrman is Coordinator for the Council on Foreign Relations Roundtable on Improving US Global AIDS Policy. He was the primary author of the Roundtable's 25-page report, published by the Council on Foreign Relations in June 2004, which was submitted to the Bush administration, Congress and the media with recommendations for improving US global AIDS policy. All proceeds from the book will be donated to Heartbeat, a non-profit organisation in South Africa that cares for AIDS orphans, for which Mr Behrman serves on the Board of Directors. He currently lives in New York City.
The greatest threats to today's global security are terrorism, war and AIDS. After 25 million deaths, the disease is spreading rapidly in China, Russia, and India, and is poised to decimate populations, crush economies, and leave behind failed states. How did the most powerful nation in the world allow a preventable and treatable disease to reach these proportions?
For the first time, the full story of America's slow awakening to the global AIDS crisis is being told. Moved by a crisis that he calls the Holocaust of our times, Behrman (age 27) set out to write a book that would make a difference. Determined to tell an important story that has not been told, he interviewed over 100 key policymakers and thinkers for the book, including Richard Holbrooke and Donna Shalala. The result is a mind-boggling true story of politics, bureaucracy, and shocking negligence from both sides of the political aisle.
Even as the pandemic exploded, a kaleidoscope of obstacles rendered the US response abysmally slow and feckless: the stigma of the disease made leaders at home and abroad unwilling to discuss it; the latency between infection and death made the pandemic hard to see; neither activists nor African leaders demanded help, and most disturbingly, the US deemed Africa strategically irrelevant and was reluctant to tackle yet another "African problem". The world needed leadership but for twenty years the US repeatedly passed the buck.
All efforts to address global AIDS were wildly out of scale with the catastrophe until the Bush II administration did an about face on its global AIDS policy, and dramatically announced a $15 billion relief plan. But even this step forward is profoundly flawed and fatally inadequate.
The Invisible People paints a devastating portrait of the world's only superpower, as it shrank from its moral obligation and strategic imperative, failing at almost every turn to lead a comprehensive global response to the greatest threat known to mankind. Most importantly, Behrman lays bare the lessons the US must learn from past mistakes in order to slow the spread of a catastrophe that will cause an estimated 100 million infections by 2010 and is only just beginning to wreak ineffable devastation in countries of enormous economic and strategic importance.
M. Fortier
Publisher: The Free Press
Code: 0-7432-5755-3
Email: mfortier@goldbergmcduffie.com
|  Africa at a Glance, Facts and Figures 2001-2002
The new, updated version of Africa at a Glance: Facts and Figures is now available. This is the eleventh version of the volume since it was first published in 1970. The book is an essential reference work, bringing together data, maps, figures and statistics on social, economic and political issues in Africa, as well as a handy country checklist with names of leaders, capital cities and dates of independence. Whether youre looking for information on GDP, literacy rates, elections or languages in Africa, youll find it in this indispensable volume.
Publisher: Africa Institute of South Africa
Code: 0 7983 0156 2
Email: ai@ai.org.za
| Brief Guide to Aid Agencies
South African export managers, business development managers, marketing service managers and even international corporate banking managers need, more than ever, to become familiar with the relevant acronyms and terminology which constitute ""development speak"". This is especially so when one considers that most of their international competitors for projects in Africa already are! This guide constitutes an earnest attempt to assist South African companies fill some of the knowledge gaps on donors and development finance institutions. This will hopefully assist them compete more effectively for government projects financed by these donor agencies, as well as the commercial projects financed by the various international development finance institutions.
Available in printed or CD format
Publisher: Africa Project Access
Code: APA1
Email: afric.projs@pixie.co.za
| Commitment-led Marketing - The Key to Brand Profits is in the Customer's Mind
by Jan Hofmeyr and Butch Rice
Keeping and gaining market share is what most busineses strive for in the race to make brands profitable. In a hugely competitive world, customer loyalty has become a key area for concern. What would happen if you could go one step further and identify not just those customers who are loyal to your brand, but those who are truly committed to your product or service? This book helps you do just that.
From the creators of the "Conversation Model" a technique that analyes the degree of a person's psychological commitment to anything and everything. Marketers will be able to gain a strategic advantage within their market if they implement this thinking, tools and strategies outlined through its use in this book.
320 pages soft cover
Southern African rights
Publisher: Ute Spath
Code: 0702162159
Email: helco@mweb.co.za
| Customer Behaviour: A Southern African Perspective
By MC Cant, A Brink and S Brijball
Customer or "consumer" behaviour is an essential aspect of both marketing and industrial psychology courses - an aspect that needs to be looked at in terms of local contexts. This book has been specifically written to meet the needs of southern African universities, technikons and private colleges. While providing the student with a thorough theoretical grounding, the book moves swiftly into Southern African marketing and business scenarios, and focuses on current and future issues, both naturally and internationally.
Publisher: Hyreath Anderson
Code: 0702158321
Email: helco@mweb.co.za
| Personal Financial Management second edition
by Nico Swart
This book provides a comprehensive and integrated structure for the field of personal finances. For success in personal financial planning, knowledge of the steps in personal financial planning is essential: career planning, income tax planning, estate planning, investment planning, protection planning, credit planning, healthcare planning, retirement planning, emigration planning. These important planning areas all contain elements which can have far reaching positive or negative financial implications for the individual. By following all the steps the individual will be empowered to take informed, personal financial decisions, because as many factors as possible will have been considered during the decision making process. Readers are encouraged to understand the extent to which each of these planning areas can influence their own financial future, as well as their financial independence after retirement.
432 pages soft cover
Publisher: Hyreath Anderson
Code: 0702155144
Email: helco@mweb.co.za
| Professional Communication: how to deliver effective written and spoken messages
A text on communication principles and methods that has been developed from an established handbook prescribed by the Professional Communication Unit of the University of Cape Town. This new expanded book has a more direct approach and has been written for professionals and students in business , industry and tertiary institutions.
Publisher: Juta
Code: 0702156590
Email: helco@mweb.co.za
| South African Human Resource Management: theory and practice - 3rd edition
Ben Swanepoel (editor), Barney Erasmus, Marius van Wyk, Heinz Schenk
This book focusses on the knowledge and skills that managers at all levels need. The authors successfully integrate contemporary international research and implementation with a uniquely South African perspective. From strategic planning and the employment process to staff maintenance and terminating employment relationships, the book examines collective manifestations of the employment relationship, including trade unions and labour relation dynamics.
Publisher: Hyreath Anderson
Code: 0702158453
Email: helco@mweb.co.za
| Starting or Buying Your Own Business or a Franchise
By Nico Swart
An important area of personal financial planning involves the entrepreneurial skill of the investor for starting or acquiring a business. In this short book Nico Swart gives a comprehensive overview of starting your own business, buying an existing business and buying a franchise, and discusses the far-reaching positive or negative financial implications on your financial future.
Publisher: Hyeath Anderson
Code: 0702158410
Email: helco@mweb.co.za
| Subscription to printed version of Traders Journal
Traders Journal is a high quality, quarterly business publication which provides hands-on business intelligence for doing business in Africa.
To receive 4 issues annually, add to your shopping basket!
Publisher: Traders Publications
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Email: editorial@tradersafrica.com
|  Sudan Peace Process Challenges and Future Prospects
This volume is the first of its kind, in terms of documenting the complexities and multi-faceted nature of the mass carnage in Sudan. Apart from the political and economic imbalances between the Northern and Southern regions of the country, which incited the conflict, there are many other issues, stemming from a vibrant history of colonial, African, and Arab rule, which should be factored into the equation. The ethnic and religious divergence has formed a sub-plot in the narrative of political power, the accruement of oil wealth, and the need for security mechanisms in Sudan. Therefore, this volume encapsulates the dichotomy of the Sudan peace process, by incorporating the viewpoints of significant political representatives, academics and international observers, in addition to addressing thematic issues of interest to scholars and activists in the field.
After many decades of civil war in Sudan, and numerous theory-oriented and empirically focused case studies on the subject, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) peace process, currently underway in Nairobi, Kenya, between the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) represents the best hope for the Sudanese people.
Furthermore, this volume examines, not only in a holistic perspective, the prevailing situation and future challenges facing Sudan, but also incorporates the largest part of the agreements and accords signed by the belligerent parties for the last few decades in the same text.
Publisher: Africa Institute of South Africa
Code: 0 7983 0180 5
Email: beth@ai.org.za
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