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Business as Usual Will Only Reinforce Economic Hardship
Viewpoint by Njuguna Ndung’u*
NAIROBI (IDN) – Africa’s low level of economic diversification is a leading factor in the continent’s economic fragility. Further, the COVID-19 pandemic has magnified the risks of countries’ over-dependence on a single natural resource such as oil.
Africa is endowed with abundant natural resources, including minerals, and revenues from their export constitute a major source of income for many countries.
By Kester Kenn Klomegah
MOSCOW (IDN) – Russia not only supported African countries in liberating themselves from the yoke of colonialism and attaining political independence but also facilitated in the UN General Assembly adopting in 1960 the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples. It's a landmark document which states that all people have a right to self-determination and proclaimed that colonialism should be brought to a speedy and unconditional end.
Russia has now embarked on fighting “neo-colonialism” which it considers a fortified barrier on its way to regain Soviet-era multifaceted influence in Africa.
Viewpoint by Bill Dahl
Bill Dahl is an investigative journalist based in Queretaro, Mexico. You can find more of his work at https://www.BillDahl.net
QUERETARO, Mexico (IDN) – As the world moves ahead, Mexico lurches backward.
In June 2020, Mexico dropped out of the top 25 countries for foreign investment for the second time in over 20 years. For the second largest economy in Latin America, this is bad news. What has precipitated this decline in confidence by the global investment community? This article explores the central reasons for this reality.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – A gold mine in Ethiopia's most populous and restive region, Oromia, has been anything but a blessing. Residents claim that contamination from the mine, owned by an Ethiopia-born Saudi tycoon, has led to disastrous health problems.
Locals say chemicals used to process gold at the open-pit mine near Shakiso, 222 miles south of the capital, Addis Ababa, have polluted water streams and the air, causing humans and animals respiratory illnesses, miscarriages, birth defects and disabilities.
By Carla McKirdy
This report by Carla McKirdy first appeared in Africa Renewal, a magazine published by the United Nations in New York. The writer is Associate Information Management Officer at the United Nations, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
ADDIS ABABA (IDN) – As part of a coordinated approach to strengthen developing countries' responses to COVID-19, as well as increase access to lifesaving health technologies, the United Nations has launched a digital hub to circulate much-needed information, fast.
Viewpoint by Camille Rustici
The writer is chief editor of the e-magazine DirectIndustry. This article was first published on the online journal of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung's Brussels office, International Politics and Society on April 28.
MARSEILLE (IDN) – Since the outbreak in China, which led to the closing of a large number of factories in the country in late January, not a single industrial sector in the rest of the world has been spared. The automotive, electronics and textile industries, among others, have suffered and continue to suffer colossal losses unheard of in peacetime.
By J Nastranis
NEW YORK (IDN) – With support from UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations specialized agency for information ((ITU) are set to work with telecommunication companies to text people directly on their mobile phones with vital health messaging to help protect them from COVID-19.
These text messages, as part of the joint 'WHO-ITU Be initiative', will reach billions of people who are not in a position to connect to the internet for information, said a joint statement on April 20.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – A climate justice movement of over 100 major organizations in Africa and abroad has joined hands to press the African Development Bank (AfDB) to drop its support of an "exceptionally high-risk project" that threatens the livelihoods of millions of people in East Africa.
In a letter to the Bank President AfDB president Akinwumi Adesina, leaders of environmental and social groups from Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, and South Africa, among others, warned that the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) posed global climate risks and environmental damage including harm to freshwater supplies and biodiversity in the region.
Viewpoint by Laurie Macfarlane*
This article was originally published on openDemocracy. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of IDN-InDepth News.
LONDON (IDN) – In recent weeks governments around the world have injected extraordinary sums of money into the economy to support businesses and households in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
In the UK, the government has committed to paying up to 80 percent of the wages of workers impacted by the outbreak (subject to a cap of 2,500 pounds per month) and has provided 330 billion pounds of financial support for businesses. Similar measures have been announced across Europe.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – After years of defending dirty extractive industries such as the mining of coal, large mining companies seemed to have switched sides and joined the Greens, or so it seemed at the African Mining Indaba held from February 3-6 in South Africa.
At the Indaba, the continent’s biggest gathering of one of its most vital industries, the companies appeared less combative than in years past. Among the highlights of the conference was a statement by Mark Cutifani, head of Anglo American, a multinational company based in Johannesburg, South Africa and London.
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