- Home
- A-Z Publications
- Africa Renewal
- Previous Issues
- Volume 25, Issue 1, 2011
Africa Renewal - Volume 25, Issue 1, 2011
Volume 25, Issue 1, 2011
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).
-
-
Africa’s rising information economy
Author: André-Michel EssoungouFor 48 long hours employees of Senegal’s National Telecommunications Company cut telephone and Internet connections to the rest of the world. That bold action, in August 2010, was meant to force the government to back down on a plan to grant a US company exclusive rights to manage incoming international phone calls.
-
-
-
Climate talks: A faint ray of sunshine in Cancún
Author: Michael FleshmanWhen thousands of ministers, scientists and activists descended on the Mexican resort town of Cancún for another gruelling round of talks on climate change in early December, they brought with them limited expectations. The 2009 meeting in Copenhagen had produced little more than acrimonious disputes between developed and developing countries over financing and strategy, and prospects appeared no better in the run-up to Cancún. But in the end participants were surprised to find themselves in agreement on some key points.
-
-
-
Drop by drop, Kenyans struggle with climate change
Author: Morton SauloIt is still early on a hot and dusty Wednesday morning, but the temperature is already above 35 degrees centigrade. Residents say that it rained just a month ago, although there is no evidence of this. Plants have shed their leaves and all the green vegetation has now changed colour.
-
-
-
Investing in Africa’s farms — and its future
Author: Ernest HarschFor most of the 1990s Sierra Leone was best known for its diamonds — and the devastating civil war that the scramble for those precious gems helped to sustain. But a decade after the end of that conflict, the West African nation is tapping a different kind of wealth: the crops that can grow on its fertile land.
-
-
-
Foreign investors eye African consumers
Author: André-Michel EssoungouIt was an unlikely move greeted with a good measure of disbelief. When the world’s biggest retail company, the US-based Walmart, announced in September 2010 a plan to buy South Africa’s Massmart — also a retail company — for a staggering $4.2 bn, eyebrows were raised. Foreign investors in Africa usually put their money in the riches that lie beneath its soil, where the profits are higher. In fact, the steady growth of foreign direct investment (FDI) flows to the continent during most of the past decade has mostly been concentrated in extractive sectors, especially oil (see Africa Renewal, January 2005).
-
-
-
‘The starting point of development should be the people’ - Interview: Kwasi Adu-Amankwah
Author: Kwasi Adu-AmankwahKwasi Adu-Amankwah, the former head of Ghana’s powerful labour federation, was elected general secretary of the Africa division of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-Africa) in 2007, putting him at the helm of a pan-African labour movement representing 16 million workers in 47 countries. Africa Renewal’s Michael Fleshman spoke with him at the annual gathering of civil society groups for the World Social Forum in Dakar, Senegal, on 8 February, shortly after Mr. Adu-Amankwah led a march to the Egyptian embassy in solidarity with the Egyptian people’s pro-democracy movement.
-
-
-
Information technology super-charging Rwanda’s economy
Author: Masimba TafirenyikaA luxury commuter bus pulls up by the kerb to pick up passengers. A young woman quickly jumps in, retrieves a smart card from her wallet and swipes it against a machine next to the driver. A buzzer approves the swipe and the woman takes a seat by the window. Nothing unusual, something even routine in advanced economies. But this is tiny landlocked Rwanda, one of the world’s poorest countries, which was nearly brought to its knees by genocide in 1994.
-
-
-
Africa wired
Author: Ernest HarschAs hundreds of thousands of Egyptians in Cairo’s Tahrir Square celebrated the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak on 11 February, some held up mobile phones to snap photos of the crowd, others sent Twitter messages to their friends and a few wielded signs proclaiming, “Thank you, Facebook.”
-
-
-
Africa watch
Author: United NationsThe exodus began shortly before the historic January referendum on whether South Sudan would remain part of greater Sudan or become independent. Day after day, thousands of southern Sudanese living in the north started returning home. But with the election producing an overwhelming vote in favour of independence, the stream of humanity flowing south has become a flood. By mid-February, the Office of UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that some 200,000 southerners had returned from the north. At the same time, in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, around 75,000 others had registered to go back. Relief agencies anticipate that as many as 800,000 southerners will return from the north this year. Many of those heading back have been away for decades, a spokesperson for UNHCR said. Others were born and raised in the north and are going to locations that will be entirely new to them, he further remarked. For many southerners concerns about their citizenship status in the north are said to be a major motivation. But many also want to be part of the birth of their new country, set to take place officially in July this year. UNHCR says it needs $53.4 mn to support southerners moving back.
-
-
-
In a turbulent world, diversity vital for African economies
Authors: David Mehdi Hamam and Juliet Wasswa-MugambwaAfrica’s economy has grown rapidly and steadily since 2000, and has shown remarkable resilience in the face of the global financial and economic crisis. But the continent’s dependency on the export of natural resources and primary commodities was bluntly exposed by the crisis. The decline in the demand for and the price of oil and minerals was largely responsible for reducing Africa’s growth rate by about 4 percentage points between 2008 and 2009. This over-reliance on a few commodities and just one or two sectors underscores the need for much greater economic diversification.
-
Most Read This Month
Article
content/journals/25179829
Journal
10
5
false
en