Africa

Photo: Viwanou Gnassounou, Assistant Secretary General of the ACP Group. Credit: IISD

Local Construction Materials Hold the Key to Jobs Across Southern Africa

By Ronald Joshua

BRUSSELS | MAPUTO, Mozambique (ACP-IDN) - Once neglected minerals and materials may hold the key to millions of jobs across Southern Africa at a time when oil and metal exporting countries are grappling with low commodity prices.

Mega infrastructure projects agreed by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Heads of State are projected to draw in 986 billion dollars in investments over the next ten years, ramping up the demand for construction materials exponentially. Estimates from the African Development Bank indicate that for each billion invested in African infrastructure, between 3-7 million jobs are created.

: Ronald Joshua; THE WORLD; Africa; 04 April 2017

Photo: Dr Richard Munang, Africa Climate Change and Development Policy expert with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). Credit: Ngala Killian Chimtom

‘Innovative Volunteerism’ Key to Africa’s Development Blueprint

By Ngala Killian Chimtom

NAIROBI (ACP-IDN) – Africa’s present is defined by its vast but unexploited potential but the picture could be changed by leveraging catalytic sectors in which the continent holds comparative advantage, through dedicating available resources.

Dr Richard Munang, Africa Climate Change and Development Policy expert with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) believes that these resources – both physical (technological, institutional, financial and demographical, the dividend to be derived from having most of its population under the age of 25) and non-physical (including intellectual, partnerships, policies and networks) – could be utilised for a comparative advantage with a global competitive edge through what he calls “innovative volunteerism”.

: IDN-INPS Middle East & Africa Editor; OPINION; 22 March 2017

Photo: António Guterres (centre) makes his first address on January 10 to the Security Council as Secretary-General, on the issue of conflict prevention and sustaining peace. At right is Margot Wallström of Sweden, President of the Council for the month of January. UN Photo/Rick Bajornas

Sub-Saharan Africans Sceptical About UN’s Conflict Prevention Priority

By Jeffrey Moyo

HARARE (IDN) – Earlier this year, addressing a ministerial-level open debate of the UN Security Council on conflict prevention and sustaining peace, newly-elected UN Secretary-General António Guterres outlined his intention to pursue diplomacy for peace, saying “prevention is not merely a priority, but the priority”.

"The best prevention for conflict and the best prevention for other negative impacts on societies is, of course, sustainable and inclusive development," Guterres said on January 19 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

: Jeffrey Moyo; UN INSIDER; 14 March 2017

Photo: Vice-Chancellor of the Great Zimbabwe University, Prof. Rungano Zvobgo (facing camera) and Prof. Mirjam van Reisen (left) at the book launch. Credit: Klara Smits | IDN-INPS

Digital Era Aids Human Trafficking of Eritrean Refugees

By Klara Smits

LEIDEN, The Netherlands (IDN) – The digital era brings opportunities for international cooperation and development, such as e-health and large-scale data sharing, but it also brings dangers. One of the prime examples of such dangers is the billion-dollar human trafficking business of Eritrean refugees by their own regime.

Modern technologies such as mobile money and mobile phones play a crucial role in this trade, according to a new book titled 'Human Trafficking in the Digital Era: The Ongoing Tragedy of the Trade in Refugees from Eritrea', edited by Prof. Mirjam van Reisen and Prof. Munyaradzi Mawere.

: Klara Smits; THE WORLD; Africa; 14 March 2017

Photo: The AK-47, the most ubiquitous automatic weapon in the world. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Central African Convention on Small Arms Enters into Force

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – A new Convention purported to fight against the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in small arms and light weapons in Central Africa entered into force on March 8, according to the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) / Department of Political Affairs (UNDPA).

Known as the Central African Convention for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons, their Ammunition and all Parts and Components that can be used for their Manufacture, Repair and Assembly (Kinshasa Convention), it complements and reinforces the existing regional and global framework comprising, among others, the Arms Trade Treaty, the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC), and its Firearms Protocol.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; ARMAMENTS; Conventional Arms; 13 March 2017

Photo: 67-year old Meleli Sibanda, a member of the Khoisan tribe in Zimbabwe's Tsholotsho district sits outside her home with her one year old granddaughter who is leaning on the granny's shoulder. The tribe has fallen prey to the blame of fuelling climate change impacts here. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo | IDN-INPS

Southern Africa’s Khoisan Tribe Victimised by War on Climate Change

By Jeffrey Moyo

HARARE (ACP-IDN) – Ndliso-Ndliso Sibanda, a descendant of Southern Africa’s ancient Khoisan tribe, still practises a semi-nomadic life style in Zimbabwe despite his 75 years, and is constantly on the move looking for wood to construct shelter, and wild fruits and tubers when they are in season.

Ndliso-Ndliso, who lives with his family in Tsholotsho, a district in Matabeleland North Province, has continued his life style despite the stringent rules enacted by the government country to protect the environment as it wages war against the impact of climate change.

: Jeffrey Moyo; THE WORLD; Africa; 05 March 2017

Photo: Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe about US President Donald Trump: "When it comes to Donald Trump ... talking of American nationalism, well America for America, America for Americans – on that we agree. Zimbabwe for Zimbabweans; Give him time; Mr Trump might even re-look at the sanctions on Zimbabwe.” Credit: IDN-INPS collage.

Trump in the White House Worries Southern Africa

By Jeffrey Moyo

HARARE, Zimbabwe (IDN) – Sitting in front of a heap of damaged shoes waiting to be mended, 32-year-old Evans Tirivangani, a graduate in accountancy but forced to work as a cobbler because of lack of job opportunities, is anything but convinced that the arrival of a new president in the White House will mark a change in his, and his country’s, prospects.

“We had always had hope since the time Barrack Obama came into power in the United States about a decade ago; we thought he was going to make so much noise about the dictatorship that has damaged our country, but 37 years after our country gained independence, we are still suffering and as you can see, I’m a cobbler even with my degree,” Tirivangani, who plies his trade in a makeshift shed by the roadside in Mabvuku, a high density suburb of Harare, told IDN.

: Jeffrey Moyo; THE WORLD; Africa; 28 February 2017

Photo: Herero prisoners of war, around 1900. Credit: The German Federal Archive | Wikimedia Commons.

UN Experts Censure Germany for 'Crimes Against Africans'

By Jutta Wolf

BERLIN (IDN) – United Nations experts have strongly criticised Germany for "crimes against Africans and people of African descent" adding that they are "deeply concerned about the human rights situation of people of African descent" in the country.

"Germany’s crimes against Africans and people of African descent are overshadowed by its focus on other parts of its history. Germany’s colonial past, the genocide of the Ovaherero and Nama peoples, and the sterilization, incarceration, and murder of Black people during Nazi Germany, is not adequately addressed in the national narrative," said the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent in a statement to the media on February 27.

: Jutta Wolf; UN INSIDER; 27 February 2017

Photo: IFAD nominates new President -Gilbert Fossoun Houngbo on14 February 2017, Credit: IFAD

Second Sub-Saharan African to Head IFAD

By Phil Harris

ROME (IDN) – The Rome-based International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has elected its second president from sub-Saharan Africa, after incumbent Kanayo F. Nwanze from Nigeria.

At the just concluded meeting of the body’s Governing Council (February 14-15), Gilbert Fossoun Houngbo from Togo, a former Prime Minister of his country, was appointed the Fund’s sixth President and will take office on April 1.

Houngbo was one of eight candidates, including three women, competing for the top leadership position in the specialised United Nations agency, which is also an international financial institution that invests in eradicating rural poverty in developing countries around the world.

: Phil Harris; UN INSIDER; 18 February 2017

Photo: Demonstration of maximising resource use. Credit: Kizito Makoye Shigela | IDN-INPS

Tanzanian Schools Turn to Maximising Resource Use

By Kizito Makoye Shigela

DAR ES SALAAM (IDN) – The ringing of the bell marks the end of lessons at Hekima Primary School, and for 10-year-old Leila Kitwana and her classmates it signals time to tend the school’s vegetable gardens where students take turns to water vertical gardens through a drip irrigation system using rainwater stored in giant tanks.

“We grow different types of vegetables, they are an important part of our meal,” says Kitwana.

Until recently, most students at this school in the impoverished Tandale area of Kinonodoni district in Dar es Salaam Region had spent more time looking for water than attending lessons. “We had a borehole but the water there was too salty to drink,” explains Kitwana. “We only used it for cleaning toilets.”