Africa

Governments Do Little as West African Countries are Plundered

By Will Fitzgibbon

In the region’s largest-ever journalism collaboration, reporters from 11 countries expose the financial secrets of some of West Africa's most powerful politicians, moguls and corporations. The following article first appeared on the website of International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) on 22 May 2018 with the headline WEST AFRICA LEAKS: How Officials, Businesses and Traffickers Hide Billions from Cash-Starved Governments Offshore. Contributors to this story: Moussa Aksar and Alloycious David. – The Editor.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN | ICIJ) – Government officials, arms merchants and corporations have spirited away millions of dollars from destitute West African nations through offshore tax havens, an investigation by journalists from the region and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has found.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; THE WORLD; Africa; 24 May 2018

Photo: A glimpse of the Continental Conference on Access to Justice for Children in Africa. Credit: The African Child Policy Forum and Defence for Children International.

Conference Calls for Action on Access to Justice for Children in Africa

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK | ADDIS ABABA (IDN) – The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child obliges all members of the world body to respect and ensure the rights of each child "within their jurisdiction without discrimination of any kind". While some progress has been made to fulfil the objectives set out in the Convention, too many commitments remain unfulfilled. This is particularly true for children deprived of liberty, who often remain invisible and forgotten.

Most countries lack data on the number of children deprived of liberty, on the reasons, length and places of detention. Judicial, administrative or other bodies, including the police, military authorities, immigration officials, child protection or welfare bodies, health professionals, and non-state actors, including in situations of armed conflict, decide children's detention.

: J Nastranis; THE WORLD; Africa; 18 May 2018

Photo: UNICEF's youngest Goodwill Ambassador Muzoon Almellehan in Chad. Credit: UNICEF UK.

Africa Committed To Gender Equality, Women's Empowerment

By Jeffrey Moyo

JOHANNESBURG (IDN) – Twenty-nine year old Ruramai Gwata had no reason to celebrate the International Women’s Day observed on March 8 every year. She lay in hospital nursing her wounds following a severe assault by her husband over a domestic dispute.

While licking her wounds two months later, as the world commemorated Mother's Day, Gwata was plagued by agonising memories of how her two children witnessed her abuse by her husband.

Jobless Gwata, though a qualified jobless teacher, is by no means a rare exception in Africa. Because of the fate of women like Gwata the continent’s bid to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5 by accomplishing gender equality and empowering all women and girls by the year 2030, threatens to remain a pipe dream.

: Jeffrey Moyo; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 16 May 2018

Photo: President Buhari. Credit: Premium Times.

Trump Apparently Met His Match in Nigerian President Buhari

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Try as he might, President Trump couldn’t land a deal with Nigerian leader Muhammadu Buhari at their tête-à-tête in Washington end of April 2018.

Deploying his usual tough talk on trade, the U.S. president was shooting for a deal that would open the doors to U.S. farm products by “ripping down” Nigerian trade barriers that protect the fragile state of that country’s agricultural economy.

Nigeria had too many trade barriers, President Trump complained, and should lift those barriers ASAP. He pointed out that Nigeria receives significant aid from the U.S. to fight terrorism and questioned whether the U.S. was getting its money’s worth.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 15 May 2018

Photo credit: The Financial Gazette, Zimbabwe

European Development Fund Comes to Rescue as Backyard Schools Swamp Africa

By Jeffrey Moyo

HARARE (ACP-IDN) – Enrolment in primary education in developing countries has reached 91 per cent but 57 million children remain out of school. More than half of children that have not enrolled in school live in 48 countries from Sub-Saharan Africa, which are members of the 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP). An estimated 50 per cent of out-of-school children of primary school age live in conflict-affected areas.

Sub Saharan Africa is home to 17 of the 33 countries and territories the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group classifies as 'fragile or conflict affected'. The IFC Conflict Affected States in Africa Initiative (CASA) is active in Burundi, the Central African Republic, Cote d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Sierra Leone, and South Sudan.

: Jeffrey Moyo; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 12 May 2018

Access to End-Use Technologies Key to Catalysing Development in Africa

By Joshua Masinde

NAIROBI (IDN) – Productive use of energy holds the key to livelihood transformation in Africa’s rural areas. Small industries could improve their production processes and efficiency if they had better access to electricity and technologies.

Without electricity, rural micro-enterprises make do with labour intensive and time-consuming manual tools, and often pass up many opportunities for value addition or product diversification.

Satisfying the need for power of commercial enterprises presents an opportunity for private sector players such as JUMEME, a Tanzanian company that develops solar-powered mini-grids to connect businesses and households in remote areas.

: Phil Harris; THE WORLD; Africa; 09 May 2018

Photo: Zimbabwe's Thomas Mapfumo. Credit: Goldstar.

Cheers For Zimbabwe's Musical ‘Lion’ Returning From Exile

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | HARARE (IDN) – Welcome home Mukanya! After 14 long years in the U.S. state of Oregon, singer, composer and bandleader Thomas Mapfumo has come home to Zimbabwe. His recent performance, for some 20,000 ticket holders at the open-air Glamis Arena, only slowed down as the sun began to rise.

"I thought maybe I wasn't going to be able to come back here while I was still alive," Mapfumo confessed. "But by the grace of God, I'm here."

After running afoul of former president Robert Mugabe, Mapfumo, known by his totem name Mukanya, took the painful decision to leave the country for the U.S., playing his last show in 2004.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 08 May 2018

Photo: Mmusi Maimane. Credit: CC BY-SA 2.0

Remark About South African 'White Privilege' Sparks Debate

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Members of the opposition Democratic Alliance are reportedly squabbling over a casual remark by the head of the party, Mmusi Maimane, who observed that white privilege and black poverty were critical issues that needed to be addressed.

“I firmly stand by comments I made on Freedom Day,” Maimane tweeted on May 7. “South Africa remains deeply unequal, with black South Africans locked out of opportunities. We must focus on solving the problem. Liberation of one race is not the enslaving of another - all of us, black & white, must come together to build one South Africa for all.”

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 08 May 2018

Photo: The detention cell of Cibitoke, where 38 man and children are captured. Most prisoners are held there up to 2 Years. Credit: prisonphotography.org

Conference on Justice for Child Prisoners in Africa

Viewpoint by Assefa Bequele and Alex Kamarotos*

ADDIS ABABA (IDN) – Let us begin with the positive. Unlike some years back, children are now very much on the political and public agenda in Africa. Every politician loves to talk about them, and the African Union has adopted a charter to protect them and a mechanism to hold governments accountable for the fulfilment of their rights. Even so, the reality on the ground is sombre and sobering.

Take children in prisons. We do not have reliable data but the number of child prisoners in Africa is definitely in the thousands, and some statistical calculations suggest that it could be as high as 28,000.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 06 May 2018

Photo: Mining impacts at least two of the 17 Goals: SDG9 (Infrastructure, Innovation, and Industrialization) and SDG8 (Employment and Economic Growth). Credit: Prossy Nandudu | IDN-INPS.

A Ugandan Brings Home The Value Of Neglected Minerals

By Prossy Nandudu

KAMPALA (ACP-IDN) – With the African population expected to increase by roughly 50 percent over the next 18 years to over 1.8 billion in 2035, demands for mineral resources will also climb sharply to meet the need for additional housing units, roads, energy and other urban infrastructure using development minerals, averred Dr Patrick Gomes, Secretary General of the African, Caribbean, Pacific (ACP) Group of States.

"In most ACP countries, growth rates are recorded due to the construction, mining and transport sectors. Interventions in this sector may be an effective way to help countries achieve the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030," he told a high-level ministerial meeting of the Group at the ACP Secretariat early this year in Brussels.