Africa Renewal - Volume 23, Issue 2, 2009
Volume 23, Issue 2, 2009
The Africa Renewal magazine examines the many issues that confront the people of Africa, its leaders and its international partners: sustainable development goals, economic reform, debt, education, health, women's empowerment, conflict and civil strife, democratization, investment, trade, regional integration and many other topics. It tracks policy debates. It provides expert analysis and on-the-spot reporting to show how those policies affect people on the ground. And, it highlights the views of policy-makers, non-governmental leaders and others actively involved in efforts to transform Africa and improve its prospects in the world today. The magazine also reports on and examines the many different aspects of the United Nations’ involvement in Africa, especially within the framework of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).
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Debt relief for post-war rebuilding
Больше МеньшеАвтор: Ernest HarschIn another major stride in Liberia’s postwar rehabilitation, the country eliminated some $1.2 bn in foreign debt in April. President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf hailed the development: “The successful resolution of this inherited debt, which had ballooned through interest and penalty charges during a period when my country was wracked by civil war, is an important step on our road to recovery.”
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Africa begins to tap crisis funds
Больше МеньшеАвтор: Roy LaishleyAfrican countries are beginning to get some of the additional aid and other financing they need to navigate the current economic downturn without lasting damage to vulnerable development programmes. But there is considerable doubt that such funding will be sufficient and timely enough – particularly if and when remains unclear, said the Africa Progress Panel, an advocacy group, in a June report.
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Seeking the ‘shoots’ of economic recovery
Больше МеньшеАвтор: Roy LaishleyHas the economic crisis reached bottom, with slow recovery under way? Or is the world facing continued recession and with it deepening poverty for many Africans? “No one can tell with any degree of certainty whether the worst for the global economy is over,” Donald Kaberuka, president of the African Development Bank (ADB), responded at the opening of the Bank’s annual meeting in Dakar, Senegal, in May. There is consensus among forecasters that global output will decline this year, but they disagree about the depth of the recession and when and how strongly growth will be renewed.
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Setting foreign fighters on the road home
Больше МеньшеАвтор: Ernest HarschInitially in late January, small clusters of haggard Rwandan rebels and refugees started to trickle out of the forests of the Congolese province of North Kivu. Within just a couple of weeks their numbers climbed into the hundreds. By June, more than 8,000 – including about 1,000 former combatants – had been repatriated back to neighbouring Rwanda by United Nations peacekeepers and refugee workers.
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Safeguarding Africa’s fishing waters
Больше МеньшеАвтор: Mary KimaniEvery day hundreds of unlicensed fishing vessels enter African waters and trawl for shrimp, sardines, tuna, and mackerel. According to a study commissioned by the UK’s aid agency, such trawlers are costing Africa some $1 bn every year. But illegal fishing “is not just an African problem,” says Arona Soumare, the West Africa conservation director for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Many countries, even developed states with substantial marine security forces, struggle to keep unlicensed fishing vessels from their waters. However, Mr. Soumare notes, in comparison to developed countries, “the social and economic impact of such losses on Africa are huge.” The funds that African countries lose to illegal fishing are “a potential source of income” that they “can ill afford to be without.”
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Mobilizing money at the grass roots
Больше МеньшеАвтор: Mary KimaniAcross the continent, Africans are saving and investing more of their own money. Such improvements are especially important, as Africa’s prospects for external funding look ever more uncertain at a time of global financial turmoil.
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Snatching up shares in Burkina Faso
Больше МеньшеАвтор: United NationsWhen the management of Burkina Faso’s premier telecommunications company decided in December to offer shares for sale to the general public, the timing did not appear especially favourable. The global financial crisis, which was already slowing down the growth of the domestic economy, led a number of local analysts to wonder whether enough people would be willing to put their limited funds into such a new form of investment. But by the time the sale was over at the end of January, the doubts had been swept away as domestic investors sought to buy more shares than were actually available. “We were the first to be surprised by the number of shareholders, by their eagerness,” admitted Alexis Lourgo, head of the financial services company that managed the sale.
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Emerging economies hold promise for Africa
Больше МеньшеАвтор: Roy LaishleyIn April South Africa’s largest clothing and textile manufacturer, Seardel, announced plans to close its Frame Textiles division. The company blamed competition from cheap imports – threequarters of which come from China – as one of the reasons. The shutdown will add some 1,400 workers to the country’s growing ranks of unemployed, unless government-led efforts for a rescue plan are successful.
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