Africa

Photo: In Chad and other countries where it is working, SWEDD-The Swedish Development Aid Organization has already provided professional training to almost 100,000 women so they can pursue income-generating activities. Credit: Vincent Tremeau/The World Bank.

Beijing +25: Overcoming 21st Century Challenges to Deliver for Africa's Women

Beyond legislation, countries must tackle negative social norms and rising bias.

Viewpoint by Angela Lusigi*

NEW YORK (IDN) – The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action signed in 1995 committed the world to end discrimination, promoting women’s rights and advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment.

This Platform for Action remains a guiding framework for realizing women’s rights. African countries have responded by translating commitments to action in twelve critical areas of concern including environment, decision making, the girl child, economy, poverty, violence, human rights, education, institutions, health, media, and armed conflict through continental, regional and national frameworks.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 28 September 2020

Photo: A community meeting. Credit: High Atlas Foundation

Mobilizing Decentralized, Participatory Energy Transition in Morocco

Viewpoint by Kerstin Opfer, Yossef Ben-Meir, Imane Akhezzane & Marine Pouget

Kerstin Opfer is a Policy Advisor with Germanwatch. Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir is President of the High Atlas Foundation (HAF) in Morocco. Imane Akhezzane is a Program Director at HAF. Marine Pouget is a Project Manager at the Climate Action Network in France.

MARRAKECH (IDN) – Humankind faces the unprecedented challenge of existing on the warmest earth we have known. A lack of political will and societal awareness has inhibited the necessary, vigorous change to meet this challenge.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 23 September 2020

Photo: Nigerians troop out to protest the scourge of rape ravaging the country. Credit: town_crierng

A Nigerian State to Test Castration as Punishment for Rapists

By Lisa Vives

Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Is it a welcome development? Or legislative sadism?

Those are the two sides of a debate roiling Nigeria following the passage of an amendment to a law that orders convicted rapists to be surgically castrated if a man, or have their fallopian tubes removed if a woman.

If the victim is under 14, the rapist will have his testicles surgically removed before being executed, under the legislation signed by the governor of Kaduna state.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 22 September 2020

Photo: Makerere University main building burning (PHOTO/PML Daily).

Historic Uganda University Devastated by Overnight Blaze

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – "It is a very dark morning for Makerere University. Our iconic Main Administration Building caught fire and the destruction is unbelievable. But we are determined to restore the building to its historic state in the shortest time possible."

Those were the words of Makerere’s Vice-Chancellor Barnabas Nawangwe as fire officials struggled to extinguish the last embers of a huge fire that appear to have started in the upstairs public relations office of the Main building – also known as the Ivory Tower, spreading to floors below that house the finance and records department. Buildings that housed the classrooms were not damaged, witnesses said.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 21 September 2020

Photo: Stabilising the global food system. Credit: Barilla Center.

Transforming Agriculture for Food, Nutrition and Livelihoods

By Busani Bafana

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe (IDN) – Horticulture farmer Prosper Chikwara, grows cabbages, spinach and kale on the idyllic family farm, 20km north of the city of Bulawayo. Word of mouth is no longer enough to sell his produce.

He now grows on order because it no longer guaranteed there will be buyers at his gate when the crops are ready for harvest.

Six months ago, Chikwara, supplied 20 000 kg of vegetables to wholesalers in the city of Bulawayo. He is now selling less than half of his produce since the Covid-19 coronavirus lockdown was imposed.

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Africa; 21 September 2020

Photo credit: Deutsche Welle: P. Lorgerie

Besides Mali, Russia Keenly Interest in 5-Nation Sahel Group

Viewpoint on By Kester Kenn Klomegah*

MOSCOW (IDN) – Russia’s alleged involvement in the political change on August 18 in Mali, a former French colony with the fractured economy and breeding field for armed Islamic jihadist groups (some of which are reportedly aligned with Al Qaeda and ISIS), demonstrates the first drastic step towards penetrating into the G5 Sahel in West Africa. The G5 Sahel are Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.

Despite this widely published allegation, Moscow officially said it was seriously concerned about the developments in Bamako and further urged “all Malian public and political forces to settle the situation peacefully at the negotiating table”.

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; THE WORLD; Russia; 21 September 2020

Photo: The port at Tema, Ghana. @ Jonathan Ernst / World Bank.

COVID-19 Crisis Underlines the Importance of Economic Diversification in Africa

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.

: Opinion Editor; THE WORLD; Africa; 19 September 2020

The Great Green Wall Is Paving the Way Ahead to 2030

By Rita Joshi

BONN (IDN) – The Great Green Wall (GGW) initiative has over the past 13 years restored close to 20 million hectares of land, according to a report released on September 7 at a virtual meeting of environmental ministers from Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Djibouti together with regional partners, international organizations and development agencies.

The GGW Initiative was launched in 2007 under the leadership of the African Union Commission and Pan-African Agency, and with the financial support from the government of Ireland.

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Forests, desertification, land degradation & biodiversity; 16 September 2020

Photo: U.S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo meets with Ethiopian President Sahle-Work Zewde in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on February 18, 2020. [State Department Photo by Ron Przysucha/ Public Domain]

U.S. Effort to Block Ethiopian Dam Recalls Legacy of British Colonialism

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Based on guidance from President Trump, the State Department is suspending $130 million in security-related aid to Ethiopia over a nearly-completed dam that would lift Ethiopia from poverty and end the shadow of British colonialism that favoured Egypt.

Programs on the chopping block include security assistance, counterterrorism and military education and training, anti-human trafficking programs, and broader development assistance funding, congressional aides said. The cuts would not impact U.S. funding for emergency humanitarian relief, food assistance, or health programs aimed at addressing COVID-19 and HIV/AIDS, they said.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 14 September 2020

Photo: Remnants of an old shipwreck on the outer reef of Mauritius where the MV Wakashio would run aground two years later. Robert Blasiak, Author provided.

An Increasingly Crowded Ocean Calls for a New Role for Transnational Corporations

Viewpoint by Robert Blasiak*

STOCKHOLM (IDN) – The MV Wakashio ran aground on a coral reef in Mauritius in late July 2020, leaking 1,000 tonnes of oil into the crystal blue waters of a lagoon, threatening mangrove, seagrass and mudflat habitats. Since then, dozens of dead dolphins and porpoises have washed ashore. Anger has grown and sadness has deepened.

But this is a different story – it starts two years ago in the same place in Mauritius, and I am walking down a muddy path in a mangrove forest. A guide is telling me about how the community has removed invasive species, cleaned up waste and planted mangroves.