Preventing the looting of the public purse will require Africa and the West to work together
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Brazil is one of the world’s leading food-producing nations, topping global export charts for coffee, soy and sugar. Agriculture accounts for about 30% of this South American country’s GDP. It has been a force in the emergence of Brazil’s economy onto the world stage. Now Brazilians are turning their attention to Africa. by Louise Redvers Brazilian Marcos Brandalise was an aviation operations manager when he first flew over Africa’s vast uninhabited countryside in the 1980s. He was based initially in Angola and then later in Kenya where he had his first glimpse of Africa’s untapped agricultural potential. After the airline…
Africa’s intensified effort against corruption has neither prevented billions of dollars from being stolen nor improved its image
Africa has the youngest population in the world, with 200 million people between the ages of 15 and 24. According to the World Bank, youth account for 60% of all unemployed people on the continent, with young women bearing the sting of unemployment as young men are favoured for jobs. Instead of succumbing to fear of these statistics, many young people have taken the entrepreneurship route, turning problems that they encounter in their communities into solution-orientated businesses. Here is a list of top ten young African leaders doing great things to transform their communities and their lives.
South Africa’s citizens are seriously concerned about the state of their national government In most surveys of African governance South Africa appears as one of the best governed countries. Within South Africa, however, the picture is somewhat different. There is a high level of criticism of the executive, complaints that the legislature has been relegated to a minor position and much dispute over the role of the judiciary. In addition many public institutions appear to be in a state of almost permanent crisis. This is true of the public broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corporation; of the National Prosecuting Authority;…
Sudan’s Blue Nile and South Kordofan rebels After losing South Sudan, the country is disintegrating into a series of warring regions The provinces of Blue Nile and South Kordofan in remote southern Sudan are war zones. They are also the scene of an impending health emergency: the government of neighbouring South Sudan confirmed last September the appearance of three cases of polio,a dreaded disease which leaves infected children paralysed. Trying to vaccinate these children and their families is even more difficult as two years of fighting have driven more than a million people from their homes, according to the United…
Land disputes between immigrants and Ivorians incited last year’s devastating post- electoral conflict. As those who fled the violence return, tensions over land ownership are rising. by Monica Mark In his novel “Robert and the Catapilas”, Ivorian writer Venance Konan describes the land disputes that have plagued Côte d’Ivoire for generations. Catapilas refers to the hard-working migrant farmworkers from neighbouring Burkina Faso who are named after the heavy-lifting Caterpillar construction machinery. One Catapilaconvinces Robert, the village layabout, to exchange his ancestral land for money, cattle and wine. But trouble is brewing. While the Catapila sets about tilling his newly-acquired land,…
The continent’s high levels of graft are at the root of its lack of development, and mostly affect the poor
Bad News: Last Journalists in a Dictatorship. By Anjan Sundaram, Bloomsbury, 193 pages
