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- Volume 26, Issue 2, 2012
Africa Renewal - Volume 26, Issue 2, 2012
Volume 26, Issue 2, 2012
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Rio summit keeps African hopes alive
Author: Kingsley IghoborAfrican expectations were high for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, the biggest UN summit ever. The conference, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June, was “too important to fail,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the outset. Under the theme of “The Future We Want,” many of the 100 heads of state and more than 40,000 participants demanded ambitious and measurable outcomes to address sustainability issues such as the “green economy,” climate change and so on. Yet when it was over, the “Rio+20” summit, as it was commonly called, left a heated debate over whether those goals had been met.
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‘Green economy’: Empty rhetoric or pathway to future?
Author: Stephen LeahyWith current trends leading the earth to disaster, world leaders and some 40,000 people converged on Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June in the hope of charting a path towards a better, more sustainable future for everyone that many are calling the “green economy.” Underlining the urgency, Sha Zukang, secretary-general of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, said more than a year before the summit began: “If we continue on our current path, we will bequeath material and environmental poverty, not prosperity, to our children and grandchildren.”
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African schools keep an eye on the prize
Author: Jocelyne SambiraA small, dusty, sparsely furnished building of mud bricks serves as a classroom for pupils at a primary school in Buterere, a town on the outskirts of Burundi’s capital. The room is packed with a sea of small bodies in khaki uniforms, some sprawling on the dirt floor trying to balance their notebooks and write at the same time. The lucky few who get desks are tightly squeezed together on the same bench, elbows touching as they scrawl notes while the teacher talks and writes on a chalkboard. The metal sheet that serves as a roof makes the room hot and stuffy.
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Is democracy under threat in West Africa?
Author: Lansana GberieIn May, Said Djinnit, head of the UN Office for West Africa (UNOWA), briefed Security Council members on what he saw as a disquieting trend in West Africa. During the preceding two months, Mr. Djinnit told council members, military coups had aborted preparations for democratic elections in Mali and Guinea-Bissau. Senegal, where his office is based, just managed to escape a violent turn. Electoral violence in Nigeria in April 2011 caused the deaths of more than a thousand people, while terrorist violence — led by an Islamist group called Boko Haram — has since escalated, leading to many more deaths and destruction in the country.
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Building peace from the ground up
Author: Ernest HarschWith peace agreements ending wars across Africa, thousands of local communities have in recent years embarked on the long road of rebuilding and revival. The course is daunting: not only to generate productive livelihoods in difficult economic times, but also to avoid new eruptions of violence.
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African economies capture world attention
Author: Kingsley IghoborYoung men and women chat along the glittering corridors of the sprawling shopping complex. With state-ofthe-art mobile communication gadgets in hand, they go in and out of the mall’s 65 shops, filling shopping bags with expensive items. There is a large and well-equipped children’s playground at the back. Fully air-conditioned, the mall has 20,000 square metres of retail space, a theatre, restaurants, bars and parking for 900 cars. Welcome to the Accra Mall in Ghana, one of West Africa’s best — and comparable to any mall in the world.
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Beyond mining taxes, to development
Author: Efam Awo DoviObuasi, about 200 kilometres northwest of Accra, Ghana’s capital, is home to one of the world’s richest gold mines. For more than a hundred years the precious metal mined there has been taken to jewellers in the West and beyond, earning millions of dollars for mining companies and their shareholders.
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Tourism in Africa is slowly coming of age
Authors: Kingsley Ighobor and Aissata HaidaraJet-lagged, 500 delegates from around the world arrived in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, in May to deliberate on the path to Africa’s tourism future. To unwind, Zimbabwe’s Tourism Authority, host of the congress of the Africa Travel Association (ATA), had organized a fun-filled welcome. The delegates toured Victoria Falls — one of the world’s seven natural wonders — where they participated in bungee jumping, gorge swinging and zip-lining over the Zambezi River. They then went on safari, encountering lions and elephants. Later they savoured local cuisine and danced enthusiastically to traditional music.
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Harnessing African stock exchanges to promote growth
Author: Masimba TafirenyikaDays before Facebook became a public company on 18 May, the hype behind the social network giant went into overdrive. The media proclaimed it the biggest ever stock market flotation by an Internet company. Investors salivated over a rare chance to make quick profits. The 900 million plus fans who had turned Facebook into a global giant wondered publicly what was in it for them. For a while, it wasn’t just seasoned investors eyeing the stock; even the public showed momentary interest.
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Private equity: New cash for expanding business
Author: Bill HinchbergerAfrica is growing, and African companies need cash to expand. Investors want in on the action, especially given low returns in many other parts of the world these days. But with few stocks and bonds, and scant liquidity for those out there, how do investors get a foothold? And how do African firms access much-needed cash?
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Northern Mali’s ‘city of saints’ suffers rebel fury
Author: Jocelyne SambiraHistory dating as far back as the 5th century is literally being chipped away with pick axes and shovels at the hands of an extremist rebel faction in northern Mali. Holy Muslim shrines in the ancient city of Timbuktu have become targets of the Ansar Dine. For the Islamist faction, the Sufishrines are a form of idolatry.
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Africa wired
Author: United NationsIt’s elegant, it’s hip and it’s one of the hottest phones on the African market. Nothing says “I am important” like a man or woman whipping out a BlackBerry smartphone. It’s easily recognizable with its wide screen and trademark keypad. According to Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, editor at Ghananewslink.com, “What is your BB pin?” has become the ultimate sizingup request. To be asked the question, he says, you have to be considered cool enough to own one.
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