September 8, 2004. Although its 40 year war has been over for two years, Angola faces an uphill struggle to turn its lucrative diamond industry into a tool for development. That is the message contained in Angola Diamond Industry Annual Review for 2004, released today by Partnership Africa Canada. This first Annual Review of the diamond industry in Angola examines the state of the industry since UN sanctions against the rebel group UNITA were ended in December 2002. It examines the potential for diamonds to serve as an engine of development rather than war. And it spells out some of the challenges that now face a government that has been widely criticized for secrecy, corruption and mismanagement.

June 7, 2004 Partnership Africa Canada (PAC) and Christian Relief and Development Association (CRDA) in Addis Ababa issued a booklet today entitled NEPAD in Perspective in an effort to popularise the New Partnership for Africa's Development. NEPAD in Perspective aims to summarise in plain and accessible language the main concepts, concerns and questions surrounding NEPAD. Both CRDA and PAC see NEPAD as a useful catalyst for Africa's developement. They consider it as an opportunity that may guide continetal recovery and unity. Both civil society organisations and the public at large have been targeted in this booklet to enable them grasp the essential of NEPAD and decide where to go from here. Read on...

June 7, 2004, Nine months after the end of Liberia�s brutal 15 year civil war, a 15,000-strong UN peacekeeping force controls only parts of the country and peace remains fragile. A new report by Partnership Africa Canada (PAC) warns that the United Nations Security Council should not lift its 2001 embargo on Liberian diamonds until the country has an effective diamond control mechanism in place. Diamonds have been at the centre of West Africa�s nightmare for more than a decade. They helped to pay for former President Charles Taylor�s rampage in Liberia and for his military adventures in Sierra Leone, Guinea and C�te d�Ivoire. They were the engine of the Revolutionary United Front�s horrific war in Sierra Leone.

May 17, 2004. A joint report released today by Partnership Africa Canada (PAC) in Ottawa and the Centre National d�Appui au D�veloppement (CENADEP) in Kinshasa contains good news from a country that has suffered for a decade from the ravages of �Blood Diamonds�. According to the Democratic Republic of the Congo Diamond Industry Annual Review for 2004, official diamond exports totaled US$642 million, last year, a major increase over 2002, and double almost any year over the past two decades. The change is remarkable, and suggests hope for a diamond industry - and a country - that has been plagued for generations by theft, corruption, mismanagement and war.