Out of Africa, Part III
Extracts:
"Standing next to a broken drainage pipe, Matador says to me: “It pains me because the people, they’re forced to leave. To build Senegal we need those young people. But how can we keep them here in these conditions?” No wonder Matador has a popular rap lyric, which plays on an alliteration, that describes the choice for too many of his generation: “Barça or Barsak” — either catch a boat to Barcelona or to the beyond — i.e., die."
*****
"When human beings are under stress, he adds, “they will do anything to survive. You live here and you see on TV people having a good life, and democracy [in Europe], and here you are in a poor life, people have to do something — people now are taking any kind of boat to get to Europe. And even if they see people dying, they are still going. They don’t have the tools to survive here. The human being is just a more intelligent animal, and if [he or she] is pushed to the extreme, the animal instinct will come out to survive. Everyone wants a better life.”"
More....
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/27/opini ... ef=opinion
AFRICA
A Mission to Bring STEM Skills, and Robots, to Children in West Africa
DAKAR, Senegal — One robot slammed into some blocks and nearly fell to the floor. Another sideswiped a wall. Yet another spun in dizzying circles.
So when the robot built by students from an all-girls school finally navigated the twists of the maze, flawlessly rounding every corner and touching every required flag, the crowd went nuts.
The girls were among students from 25 schools who gathered in Dakar to compete in the second annual Pan-African Robotics Competition.
For five days, in a city where horses and carts are still fixtures on the many unpaved roads, boys and girls from sixth grade to high school hunched over laptops and tablets at a camp, entering code to guide their small blue robots through a labyrinth meant to test their skills in a competition on the final day.
The event was organized by Sidy Ndao, a Senegalese-born engineering professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, who is on a mission to help further science, technology, engineering and math education, known as STEM skills, in West Africa.
In America, the need for more STEM education has become a stump speech delivered by many economists and business leaders. They emphasize that improving these skills will help the United States create more jobs, compete better globally and increase its economic growth.
The same is true, Dr. Ndao said, in Senegal and across West Africa, where incorporating STEM education can help set a course to improve everything from sanitation systems to agriculture and can create jobs in a place with soaring unemployment.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/30/world ... d=71987722
DAKAR, Senegal — One robot slammed into some blocks and nearly fell to the floor. Another sideswiped a wall. Yet another spun in dizzying circles.
So when the robot built by students from an all-girls school finally navigated the twists of the maze, flawlessly rounding every corner and touching every required flag, the crowd went nuts.
The girls were among students from 25 schools who gathered in Dakar to compete in the second annual Pan-African Robotics Competition.
For five days, in a city where horses and carts are still fixtures on the many unpaved roads, boys and girls from sixth grade to high school hunched over laptops and tablets at a camp, entering code to guide their small blue robots through a labyrinth meant to test their skills in a competition on the final day.
The event was organized by Sidy Ndao, a Senegalese-born engineering professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, who is on a mission to help further science, technology, engineering and math education, known as STEM skills, in West Africa.
In America, the need for more STEM education has become a stump speech delivered by many economists and business leaders. They emphasize that improving these skills will help the United States create more jobs, compete better globally and increase its economic growth.
The same is true, Dr. Ndao said, in Senegal and across West Africa, where incorporating STEM education can help set a course to improve everything from sanitation systems to agriculture and can create jobs in a place with soaring unemployment.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/30/world ... d=71987722
Africa’s Charcoal Economy Is Cooking. The Trees Are Paying.
Extract:
As Africa’s population is expected to swell and urbanize at an even faster rate over the next decades, the continent’s demand for charcoal is likely to double or triple by 2050, according to the United Nations Environment Program.
The charcoal business, along with the expanding use of land for farming, is expected to increase deforestation and worsen the effects of climate change on a continent poorly equipped to adapt to it.
“It’s all interconnected, this long-term trajectory and the long-term effects on climate change,” said Henry Neufeldt, an expert on charcoal and climate change at the World Agroforestry Center in Nairobi, Kenya. “Just imagine transforming all that land into smoke, and not reforesting. In the next 30 years, a lot of forests and landscapes are going to be degraded because of charcoal demand, and because of the lack of policies to counter that effect.”
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/26/world ... 05309&_r=0
Extract:
As Africa’s population is expected to swell and urbanize at an even faster rate over the next decades, the continent’s demand for charcoal is likely to double or triple by 2050, according to the United Nations Environment Program.
The charcoal business, along with the expanding use of land for farming, is expected to increase deforestation and worsen the effects of climate change on a continent poorly equipped to adapt to it.
“It’s all interconnected, this long-term trajectory and the long-term effects on climate change,” said Henry Neufeldt, an expert on charcoal and climate change at the World Agroforestry Center in Nairobi, Kenya. “Just imagine transforming all that land into smoke, and not reforesting. In the next 30 years, a lot of forests and landscapes are going to be degraded because of charcoal demand, and because of the lack of policies to counter that effect.”
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/26/world ... 05309&_r=0
Panama Papers Reveal Wide Use of Shell Companies by African Officials
WASHINGTON — Entrepreneurs and corrupt officials across Africa have used shell companies to hide profits from the sale of natural resources and the bribes paid to gain access to them, according to records leaked from a Panamanian law firm.
Owners of the hidden companies include, from Nigeria alone, three oil ministers, several senior employees of the national oil company and two former state governors who were convicted of laundering ill-gotten money from the oil industry, new reports about Africa based on the Panama Papers show. The owners of diamond mines in Sierra Leone and safari companies in Kenya and Zimbabwe also created shell companies.
Some of the assets cycled through the shell companies were used to buy yachts, private jets, Manhattan penthouses and luxury homes in Beverly Hills, Calif., the law firm documents show.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/25/world ... d=71987722
WASHINGTON — Entrepreneurs and corrupt officials across Africa have used shell companies to hide profits from the sale of natural resources and the bribes paid to gain access to them, according to records leaked from a Panamanian law firm.
Owners of the hidden companies include, from Nigeria alone, three oil ministers, several senior employees of the national oil company and two former state governors who were convicted of laundering ill-gotten money from the oil industry, new reports about Africa based on the Panama Papers show. The owners of diamond mines in Sierra Leone and safari companies in Kenya and Zimbabwe also created shell companies.
Some of the assets cycled through the shell companies were used to buy yachts, private jets, Manhattan penthouses and luxury homes in Beverly Hills, Calif., the law firm documents show.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/25/world ... d=71987722
Poverty, Drought and Felled Trees Imperil Malawi Water Supply
Extract:
"Few places on the continent have been hit as hard by human-led environmental degradation and climate change as Malawi, a poor though politically stable nation in southeastern Africa. The effects of climate change, including shorter rainy seasons and the worst drought in decades, have pushed people into cities looking for jobs or into activities like charcoal burning. These changes have caused water shortages and power blackouts that have merely heightened the demand for ever more trees from the forest."
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/21/world ... d=45305309
Extract:
"Few places on the continent have been hit as hard by human-led environmental degradation and climate change as Malawi, a poor though politically stable nation in southeastern Africa. The effects of climate change, including shorter rainy seasons and the worst drought in decades, have pushed people into cities looking for jobs or into activities like charcoal burning. These changes have caused water shortages and power blackouts that have merely heightened the demand for ever more trees from the forest."
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/21/world ... d=45305309
Inspired by the U.S., West Africans Wield Smartphones to Fight Police Abuse
DAKAR, Senegal — The YouTube video shows a grim scene from Ivory Coast: An unarmed man lies on a street with his arms up. A police officer fires a shot that appears to strike him.
The man, a theft suspect, squirms on the road as the officer kicks and hovers over him, firing his weapon several times near his head, bullets hitting the ground just inches away. The officer then aims directly at the man’s forehead and pulls the trigger, killing him.
The video, recorded by an onlooker using a cellphone camera, spread widely across social media this summer, attracting comments like “What is this horror.”
“Isn’t this what’s happening in the USA right now?” writes one viewer. “We’re killing innocent people.”
Inspired by the videos that have captured police killings and defined the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States, West Africans are increasingly deploying social media in nations where corruption and abuse by security forces sometimes occur with few repercussions.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/17/world ... 87722&_r=0
DAKAR, Senegal — The YouTube video shows a grim scene from Ivory Coast: An unarmed man lies on a street with his arms up. A police officer fires a shot that appears to strike him.
The man, a theft suspect, squirms on the road as the officer kicks and hovers over him, firing his weapon several times near his head, bullets hitting the ground just inches away. The officer then aims directly at the man’s forehead and pulls the trigger, killing him.
The video, recorded by an onlooker using a cellphone camera, spread widely across social media this summer, attracting comments like “What is this horror.”
“Isn’t this what’s happening in the USA right now?” writes one viewer. “We’re killing innocent people.”
Inspired by the videos that have captured police killings and defined the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States, West Africans are increasingly deploying social media in nations where corruption and abuse by security forces sometimes occur with few repercussions.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/17/world ... 87722&_r=0
Watching the Kenyan Wind
The fierce winds blowing around Kenya’s Lake Turkana were long the bane of herders eking out a living in the arid, isolated hills. Now those winds are powering a wind farm whose grand promise and many problems are being closely followed across sub-Saharan Africa, where almost two-thirds of the population still has no access to electricity.
This month, the 155th of the planned 365 turbines went up at the Lake Turkana Wind Power project, which when completed next year will provide 310 megawatts, or about a fifth of Kenya’s generating capacity. The project is as ambitious as it is huge. It is the largest private investment in Kenya’s history, with the wind farm covering 40,000 acres. It is also in one of the most remote corners of Kenya, roughly 750 miles from the main seaport of Mombasa, where the turbines arrive; 375 miles from the capital of Nairobi; and 265 miles from the nearest transmission grid. When construction began last year there were no paved roads anywhere near the lake — in fact, no infrastructure of any sort.
It is what Kenya and other sub-Saharan countries need: abundant power that helps each nation meet its obligations under the Paris climate-change agreement, unleashes economic potential and lights dark homes. Yet the project also demonstrates the huge hurdles in undertaking large projects in a region of poor infrastructure, widespread corruption and weak financial markets. Since the project was proposed, Kenya has had a number of corruption scandals and a contested election that set off a wave of violence. In 2012 the World Bank decided not to support the project based on the argument that it would generate more power than Kenya needs. And local communities have filed a lawsuit, still pending resolution, to nullify the project’s land titles.
Still, the project went ahead. The African Development Bank took the World Bank’s place; the European Investment Bank and various European development agencies joined in; the Kenyan government provided needed assurances; Denmark’s Vestas Wind Systems signed on to provide the turbines; and a year ago Google, which has invested in clean-energy projects around the world, announced it would take a 12.5 percent stake once the project is finished.
There’s a lot riding on those desert winds. If they succeed in powering economic growth in Kenya, they will most likely motivate Kenya’s neighbors and other sub-Saharan countries to invest in wind. That would be good for Africa, and good for global climate.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/21/opini ... ef=opinion
The fierce winds blowing around Kenya’s Lake Turkana were long the bane of herders eking out a living in the arid, isolated hills. Now those winds are powering a wind farm whose grand promise and many problems are being closely followed across sub-Saharan Africa, where almost two-thirds of the population still has no access to electricity.
This month, the 155th of the planned 365 turbines went up at the Lake Turkana Wind Power project, which when completed next year will provide 310 megawatts, or about a fifth of Kenya’s generating capacity. The project is as ambitious as it is huge. It is the largest private investment in Kenya’s history, with the wind farm covering 40,000 acres. It is also in one of the most remote corners of Kenya, roughly 750 miles from the main seaport of Mombasa, where the turbines arrive; 375 miles from the capital of Nairobi; and 265 miles from the nearest transmission grid. When construction began last year there were no paved roads anywhere near the lake — in fact, no infrastructure of any sort.
It is what Kenya and other sub-Saharan countries need: abundant power that helps each nation meet its obligations under the Paris climate-change agreement, unleashes economic potential and lights dark homes. Yet the project also demonstrates the huge hurdles in undertaking large projects in a region of poor infrastructure, widespread corruption and weak financial markets. Since the project was proposed, Kenya has had a number of corruption scandals and a contested election that set off a wave of violence. In 2012 the World Bank decided not to support the project based on the argument that it would generate more power than Kenya needs. And local communities have filed a lawsuit, still pending resolution, to nullify the project’s land titles.
Still, the project went ahead. The African Development Bank took the World Bank’s place; the European Investment Bank and various European development agencies joined in; the Kenyan government provided needed assurances; Denmark’s Vestas Wind Systems signed on to provide the turbines; and a year ago Google, which has invested in clean-energy projects around the world, announced it would take a 12.5 percent stake once the project is finished.
There’s a lot riding on those desert winds. If they succeed in powering economic growth in Kenya, they will most likely motivate Kenya’s neighbors and other sub-Saharan countries to invest in wind. That would be good for Africa, and good for global climate.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/21/opini ... ef=opinion
Windmills or Reactor Cores? Inside South Africa’s Energy Clash
UPINGTON, South Africa — In one of the most sun-drenched corners of the planet, a 670-foot tower rises above a desert dotted with 4,160 mirrors. Tracking the sun throughout the day, the mirrors, called heliostats, redirect the sun’s rays into the tower, where water is heated to generate steam — and electricity.
Since the plant, Khi Solar One, began operating early this year near Upington, it has produced enough power for 65,000 homes during the day, but also, thanks to the latest technology, for a few hours after the sun sets.
South Africa is experiencing a boom in renewable energy, nonexistent here just a few years ago. Now, dozens of solar plants clustered in the country’s northern reaches and wind farms operating along the southern coast are generating 2.2 gigawatts — more than what most African nations can produce.
As the facilities have increased production, they have helped stop the blackouts that plagued South Africa until a year ago. In a country still dependent on coal, the renewable energy industry has been lauded by many energy experts and environmentalists as a model for developing nations.
But South Africa’s utility, Eskom, and some government officials do not see it that way. Criticizing wind and solar energy as costly and unreliable, they are pressing instead for a huge investment in nuclear energy: three power stations with a total of up to nine reactors to generate 9.6 gigawatts.
The battle over South Africa’s energy future has become increasingly fierce, often fought over kilowatts and other technical details, sometimes waged with bitter personal attacks between functionaries and electrical engineers. It is also being fought on South Africa’s larger political landscape, with forces seemingly close to the scandal-ridden administration of President Jacob Zuma pushing hardest for the nuclear deal while others support an expansion of renewables.
“A line of attack is that anyone who wants nuclear is linked to President Zuma and therefore is corrupt,” said Matshela Koko, the head of generation at Eskom. “People aren’t dispassionate about nuclear. People have taken a political view. If you’re dispassionate, and look at the science and engineering of it, you will conclude that you need nuclear.”
Developing nations are closely watching the standoff between nuclear and renewables, two forms of low-carbon energy that they hope will power their growing economies. Countries as diverse as Bangladesh, Belarus, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam are adopting nuclear power.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/14/world ... d=71987722
UPINGTON, South Africa — In one of the most sun-drenched corners of the planet, a 670-foot tower rises above a desert dotted with 4,160 mirrors. Tracking the sun throughout the day, the mirrors, called heliostats, redirect the sun’s rays into the tower, where water is heated to generate steam — and electricity.
Since the plant, Khi Solar One, began operating early this year near Upington, it has produced enough power for 65,000 homes during the day, but also, thanks to the latest technology, for a few hours after the sun sets.
South Africa is experiencing a boom in renewable energy, nonexistent here just a few years ago. Now, dozens of solar plants clustered in the country’s northern reaches and wind farms operating along the southern coast are generating 2.2 gigawatts — more than what most African nations can produce.
As the facilities have increased production, they have helped stop the blackouts that plagued South Africa until a year ago. In a country still dependent on coal, the renewable energy industry has been lauded by many energy experts and environmentalists as a model for developing nations.
But South Africa’s utility, Eskom, and some government officials do not see it that way. Criticizing wind and solar energy as costly and unreliable, they are pressing instead for a huge investment in nuclear energy: three power stations with a total of up to nine reactors to generate 9.6 gigawatts.
The battle over South Africa’s energy future has become increasingly fierce, often fought over kilowatts and other technical details, sometimes waged with bitter personal attacks between functionaries and electrical engineers. It is also being fought on South Africa’s larger political landscape, with forces seemingly close to the scandal-ridden administration of President Jacob Zuma pushing hardest for the nuclear deal while others support an expansion of renewables.
“A line of attack is that anyone who wants nuclear is linked to President Zuma and therefore is corrupt,” said Matshela Koko, the head of generation at Eskom. “People aren’t dispassionate about nuclear. People have taken a political view. If you’re dispassionate, and look at the science and engineering of it, you will conclude that you need nuclear.”
Developing nations are closely watching the standoff between nuclear and renewables, two forms of low-carbon energy that they hope will power their growing economies. Countries as diverse as Bangladesh, Belarus, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam are adopting nuclear power.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/14/world ... d=71987722
The Economist explains
Why Africa’s borders are a mess
ARGUMENTS over parking spaces rarely turn into international incidents. Not so in June last year at Vurra, on the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Young Congolese walked 300 metres beyond the customs post ostensibly to build a parking yard, in what they said was no man’s land. Ugandans demurred, blocking the road with logs. The border was closed for two months. Such confusion is not unusual in Africa. Only a third of its 83,000km of land borders is properly demarcated. The African Union (AU) is helping states to tidy up the situation, but it has repeatedly pushed back the deadline for finishing the job. It was meant to be done in 2012, then 2017, and now, it was announced last month, in 2022. Why is it so hard to demarcate Africa’s borders and why does it matter?
Most pre-colonial borders were fuzzy. Europeans changed that, carving up territory by drawing lines on maps. ‘We have been giving away mountains and rivers and lakes to each other,” mused the British prime minister, Lord Salisbury, in 1890, “only hindered by the small impediments that we never knew where the mountains and rivers and lakes were.” It took 30 years to settle the boundary between Congo and Uganda, for example, after the Belgians twice got their rivers muddled up. In 1964 independent African states, anxious to avoid conflict, agreed to stick with the colonial borders. But they made little effort to mark out frontiers on the ground.
More...
http://www.economist.com/blogs/economis ... lydispatch
Why Africa’s borders are a mess
ARGUMENTS over parking spaces rarely turn into international incidents. Not so in June last year at Vurra, on the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Young Congolese walked 300 metres beyond the customs post ostensibly to build a parking yard, in what they said was no man’s land. Ugandans demurred, blocking the road with logs. The border was closed for two months. Such confusion is not unusual in Africa. Only a third of its 83,000km of land borders is properly demarcated. The African Union (AU) is helping states to tidy up the situation, but it has repeatedly pushed back the deadline for finishing the job. It was meant to be done in 2012, then 2017, and now, it was announced last month, in 2022. Why is it so hard to demarcate Africa’s borders and why does it matter?
Most pre-colonial borders were fuzzy. Europeans changed that, carving up territory by drawing lines on maps. ‘We have been giving away mountains and rivers and lakes to each other,” mused the British prime minister, Lord Salisbury, in 1890, “only hindered by the small impediments that we never knew where the mountains and rivers and lakes were.” It took 30 years to settle the boundary between Congo and Uganda, for example, after the Belgians twice got their rivers muddled up. In 1964 independent African states, anxious to avoid conflict, agreed to stick with the colonial borders. But they made little effort to mark out frontiers on the ground.
More...
http://www.economist.com/blogs/economis ... lydispatch
Amazing Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About Africa
written by Chris R June 2, 2016
Africa is a continent that everyone has an opinion on but nobody really understands. Africa is actually made up of diverse countries that are in several different economic and sociological states. You can’t paint a broad brush of the continent thanks to your opinion on one or two places. So knowing that Africa gets a mixed reputation we decided to dig deep into the archives and pull up some of the most jaw dropping, fascinating facts around about the continent. If you are a tourist willing to hike around the globe then Africa should be on your list and before you put it on your list you should know one or two things about it. Listed below are 12 jaw dropping facts about the continent of Africa.
Africa and Europe are only nine miles apart!
When you talk about Europe and you talk about Africa you tend to think of them as two distinctive worlds, separated not just by culture but also by insane distances. So it should surprise you at least a little bit that Europe and Africa are only a measly nine miles apart, spanning the Strait of Gibralatar. The Strait of Gibraltar is situated in between Spain and Morocco and there have been talks of the two countries working together to create an underwater rail tunnel in order for transportation to be quick and painless. You could go on a routine fishing trip, with a nice car rental cheap enough to drive you between the two continents on a tank of gas if there were an actual rail system there. Next time people talk about Africa, bring this fact up!
Slide show:
http://www.touristate.com/africa/amazin ... now-africa
********
Relations with Africa: In conversation with Canada’s foreign minister
Canada’s Foreign Minister, Stéphane Dion, made his first-visit to sub-Saharan Africa earlier this month. He visited Nigeria, Kenya and Ethiopia. Here, he reflects on his visit to each country, why the one-year-old Justin Trudeau government will continue to be engaged to the continent, on human rights, trade, aid and what he thinks are the biggest challenges of the continent.
Q: You made your first visit to Africa as Foreign Minister. What were some of the highlights?
A: In Abuja, I co-chaired the 5th Canada-Nigeria Binational Conference, with Nigerian Foreign Minister Onyeama. During the conference, we discussed regional and global issues facing Africa, including security and counterterrorism, development and governance, immigration, and trade and investment.
While in Nairobi, I discussed a broad range of shared interests with President Uhuru Kenyatta, and the Principal Secretary for Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Monica Kathina Juma. We also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Aga Khan Council on co-operation during emergencies, and it was a highlight for me to build on the longstanding relationship between Canada and the Aga Khan Council. The Government of Canada announced $19.1 million to improve the technical and vocational education training system, so young Kenyans have the tools they need to access several demand-driven economic sectors.
In Addis Ababa, I met Prime Minister Hailemariam and announced $5 million in new support for the African Union Commission (AUC), to advance African priorities in empowering the most vulnerable, including women and girls, good governance, renewable energy, and intra-African trade. The AU is, more than never, an essential organization and a key interlocutor for Canada. Through our engagement with it, we continue to help empower citizens of this continent to lead their own development.
I raised the importance of continued African participation in the International Criminal Court. Canada was deeply saddened to learn South Africa, Burundi, and Gambia plan to withdraw. We believe engaging African partners on this issue – including the many that support the ICC – is essential to strengthening the ICC and ensuring it continues to respond to the needs of victims of serious international crimes on behalf of the international community.
More...
http://www.cnbcafrica.com/news/special- ... -minister/
written by Chris R June 2, 2016
Africa is a continent that everyone has an opinion on but nobody really understands. Africa is actually made up of diverse countries that are in several different economic and sociological states. You can’t paint a broad brush of the continent thanks to your opinion on one or two places. So knowing that Africa gets a mixed reputation we decided to dig deep into the archives and pull up some of the most jaw dropping, fascinating facts around about the continent. If you are a tourist willing to hike around the globe then Africa should be on your list and before you put it on your list you should know one or two things about it. Listed below are 12 jaw dropping facts about the continent of Africa.
Africa and Europe are only nine miles apart!
When you talk about Europe and you talk about Africa you tend to think of them as two distinctive worlds, separated not just by culture but also by insane distances. So it should surprise you at least a little bit that Europe and Africa are only a measly nine miles apart, spanning the Strait of Gibralatar. The Strait of Gibraltar is situated in between Spain and Morocco and there have been talks of the two countries working together to create an underwater rail tunnel in order for transportation to be quick and painless. You could go on a routine fishing trip, with a nice car rental cheap enough to drive you between the two continents on a tank of gas if there were an actual rail system there. Next time people talk about Africa, bring this fact up!
Slide show:
http://www.touristate.com/africa/amazin ... now-africa
********
Relations with Africa: In conversation with Canada’s foreign minister
Canada’s Foreign Minister, Stéphane Dion, made his first-visit to sub-Saharan Africa earlier this month. He visited Nigeria, Kenya and Ethiopia. Here, he reflects on his visit to each country, why the one-year-old Justin Trudeau government will continue to be engaged to the continent, on human rights, trade, aid and what he thinks are the biggest challenges of the continent.
Q: You made your first visit to Africa as Foreign Minister. What were some of the highlights?
A: In Abuja, I co-chaired the 5th Canada-Nigeria Binational Conference, with Nigerian Foreign Minister Onyeama. During the conference, we discussed regional and global issues facing Africa, including security and counterterrorism, development and governance, immigration, and trade and investment.
While in Nairobi, I discussed a broad range of shared interests with President Uhuru Kenyatta, and the Principal Secretary for Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Monica Kathina Juma. We also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Aga Khan Council on co-operation during emergencies, and it was a highlight for me to build on the longstanding relationship between Canada and the Aga Khan Council. The Government of Canada announced $19.1 million to improve the technical and vocational education training system, so young Kenyans have the tools they need to access several demand-driven economic sectors.
In Addis Ababa, I met Prime Minister Hailemariam and announced $5 million in new support for the African Union Commission (AUC), to advance African priorities in empowering the most vulnerable, including women and girls, good governance, renewable energy, and intra-African trade. The AU is, more than never, an essential organization and a key interlocutor for Canada. Through our engagement with it, we continue to help empower citizens of this continent to lead their own development.
I raised the importance of continued African participation in the International Criminal Court. Canada was deeply saddened to learn South Africa, Burundi, and Gambia plan to withdraw. We believe engaging African partners on this issue – including the many that support the ICC – is essential to strengthening the ICC and ensuring it continues to respond to the needs of victims of serious international crimes on behalf of the international community.
More...
http://www.cnbcafrica.com/news/special- ... -minister/
Gambia Finally Rejects Its Tyrant
The despot Yahya Jammeh once said he was prepared to stay in power for a billion years if that’s how long it took to execute his vision for Gambia, the tiny West African nation he has ruled.
On Thursday, in a stunning upset, voters decided that 22 years had been plenty. They elected as president Adama Barrow, a little-known real estate developer who became the standard-bearer of the opposition after several of its leaders were detained. Mr. Jammeh, who has led the nation since 1994, after he helped stage a coup, briefly considered disavowing the results. But he conceded and has vowed to hand over power, raising the prospect that radical reforms will take root in one of the world’s most authoritarian nations.
Mr. Barrow’s victory was a triumph for democracy on a continent where autocratic rule is the norm and peaceful transitions of power have become increasingly rare.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/07/opini ... dline&te=1
The despot Yahya Jammeh once said he was prepared to stay in power for a billion years if that’s how long it took to execute his vision for Gambia, the tiny West African nation he has ruled.
On Thursday, in a stunning upset, voters decided that 22 years had been plenty. They elected as president Adama Barrow, a little-known real estate developer who became the standard-bearer of the opposition after several of its leaders were detained. Mr. Jammeh, who has led the nation since 1994, after he helped stage a coup, briefly considered disavowing the results. But he conceded and has vowed to hand over power, raising the prospect that radical reforms will take root in one of the world’s most authoritarian nations.
Mr. Barrow’s victory was a triumph for democracy on a continent where autocratic rule is the norm and peaceful transitions of power have become increasingly rare.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/07/opini ... dline&te=1
To Be or Not to Be a Dictator
On Dec. 2, Yahya Jammeh, the dictator of the small West African country Gambia, did something remarkably undictatorial: He agreed to step down after losing an election. But a week later, he reverted to type, appearing live on state television to reject the results.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/13/opini ... ef=opinion
On Dec. 2, Yahya Jammeh, the dictator of the small West African country Gambia, did something remarkably undictatorial: He agreed to step down after losing an election. But a week later, he reverted to type, appearing live on state television to reject the results.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/13/opini ... ef=opinion
Ethiopia opens Africa’s tallest and most controversial dam
The Gibe III dam has the capacity to double the country’s electricity output at the flick of a switch
SUB-Saharan Africa’s largest mass-housing programme; its first metro; its biggest army. Ethiopia’s government likes to deal in superlatives. Last week the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) added another to the list: the tallest dam.
After years of delay, due primarily to funding shortages, the prime minister, Hailemariam Desalegne, at last inaugurated the 243-metre (800ft) Gibe III dam on the Omo River on December 17th. Its hydroelectric plant has the potential to double the country’s measly energy output at the flick of a switch.
Dubbed “the water tower of Africa”, Ethiopia has long sought to harness the power of the rivers that tumble from its highlands. Flagship dam projects were central to the modernisation plans drawn up by the Italian administration of 1936-1941 and by the former emperor, Haile Selassie, in the 1960s. Gibe III is the latest in a series being built along the Omo River by the government, which is also constructing what will be the largest-ever dam in Africa when it opens, in theory, next year: the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile. Together these projects are intended to turn Ethiopia, which has scarce minerals but enormous hydropower potential, into a renewable-energy exporter. Gibe III alone is expected to generate as much electricity as currently produced by the whole of neighbouring Kenya, which has enthusiastically signed up to buy some of its power. The export earnings will help to plug Ethiopia’s gaping current-account deficit, while the cheap power will provide a timely fillip to its nascent manufacturing sector.
Large dams tend to be controversial, wherever they are built. An Oxford University study published in 2014 argued that large-scale hydroelectric projects are almost always damaging to developing economies, saddling them with debt while offering scant benefit for the populations they displace. But Gibe III has been especially contentious since work began in 2006. The African Development Bank, the World Bank and the European Investment Bank all declined to finance the project directly. In the end the Ethiopian government stumped up the cash with the help of a $470m Chinese loan.
More...
http://www.economist.com/news/21712281- ... ity-output
The Gibe III dam has the capacity to double the country’s electricity output at the flick of a switch
SUB-Saharan Africa’s largest mass-housing programme; its first metro; its biggest army. Ethiopia’s government likes to deal in superlatives. Last week the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) added another to the list: the tallest dam.
After years of delay, due primarily to funding shortages, the prime minister, Hailemariam Desalegne, at last inaugurated the 243-metre (800ft) Gibe III dam on the Omo River on December 17th. Its hydroelectric plant has the potential to double the country’s measly energy output at the flick of a switch.
Dubbed “the water tower of Africa”, Ethiopia has long sought to harness the power of the rivers that tumble from its highlands. Flagship dam projects were central to the modernisation plans drawn up by the Italian administration of 1936-1941 and by the former emperor, Haile Selassie, in the 1960s. Gibe III is the latest in a series being built along the Omo River by the government, which is also constructing what will be the largest-ever dam in Africa when it opens, in theory, next year: the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile. Together these projects are intended to turn Ethiopia, which has scarce minerals but enormous hydropower potential, into a renewable-energy exporter. Gibe III alone is expected to generate as much electricity as currently produced by the whole of neighbouring Kenya, which has enthusiastically signed up to buy some of its power. The export earnings will help to plug Ethiopia’s gaping current-account deficit, while the cheap power will provide a timely fillip to its nascent manufacturing sector.
Large dams tend to be controversial, wherever they are built. An Oxford University study published in 2014 argued that large-scale hydroelectric projects are almost always damaging to developing economies, saddling them with debt while offering scant benefit for the populations they displace. But Gibe III has been especially contentious since work began in 2006. The African Development Bank, the World Bank and the European Investment Bank all declined to finance the project directly. In the end the Ethiopian government stumped up the cash with the help of a $470m Chinese loan.
More...
http://www.economist.com/news/21712281- ... ity-output
Congolese pop music
An oddly symbiotic relationship between some of Africa’s best singers and worst politicians
http://www.economist.com/news/middle-ea ... /8589823/n
Extract:
Alas, like the country itself, Congolese music is blighted by corruption. Since Congo has few producers or studios, only a tiny market for sales and a population who almost all live on a few dollars a day, Congolese musicians have to survive from patronage, like Mozart in 18th-century Vienna but with even more flamboyant clothes.
The politicians are happy with this arrangement. In a country where almost nobody reads newspapers and everyone has a radio, music is the easiest way for them to reach potential supporters. Music and politics in Congo are thus entwined. And with an election looming in 2017, the relationship will only grow closer.
[/b]
An oddly symbiotic relationship between some of Africa’s best singers and worst politicians
http://www.economist.com/news/middle-ea ... /8589823/n
Extract:
Alas, like the country itself, Congolese music is blighted by corruption. Since Congo has few producers or studios, only a tiny market for sales and a population who almost all live on a few dollars a day, Congolese musicians have to survive from patronage, like Mozart in 18th-century Vienna but with even more flamboyant clothes.
The politicians are happy with this arrangement. In a country where almost nobody reads newspapers and everyone has a radio, music is the easiest way for them to reach potential supporters. Music and politics in Congo are thus entwined. And with an election looming in 2017, the relationship will only grow closer.
[/b]
Joyous Africans Take to the Rails, With China’s Help
DJIBOUTI — The 10:24 a.m. train out of Djibouti’s capital drew some of the biggest names in the Horn of Africa last month. Serenaded by a chorus of tribal singers, the crush of African leaders, European diplomats and pop icons climbed the stairs of the newly built train station and merrily jostled their way into the pristine, air-conditioned carriages making their inaugural run.
“It is indeed a historic moment, a pride for our nations and peoples,” said Hailemariam Desalegn, the prime minister of Ethiopia, shortly before the train — the first electric transnational railway in Africa — headed toward Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. “This line will change the social and economic landscape of our two countries.”
But perhaps the biggest star of the day was China, which designed the system, supplied the trains and imported hundreds of engineers for the six years it took to plan and build the 466-mile line. And the $4 billion cost? Chinese banks provided nearly all the financing.
Having constructed one of the world’s most extensive and modern rail networks at home, China is taking its prodigious resources and expertise global. Chinese-built subway cars will soon appear in Chicago and Boston, Beijing is building a $5 billion high-speed rail line in Indonesia, and the Chinese government recently christened new rail freight service between London and Beijing. Another ambitious system in the works, the 2,400-mile Pan-Asia Railway Network, would link China to Laos, Thailand and Singapore.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/07/worl ... 87722&_r=0
DJIBOUTI — The 10:24 a.m. train out of Djibouti’s capital drew some of the biggest names in the Horn of Africa last month. Serenaded by a chorus of tribal singers, the crush of African leaders, European diplomats and pop icons climbed the stairs of the newly built train station and merrily jostled their way into the pristine, air-conditioned carriages making their inaugural run.
“It is indeed a historic moment, a pride for our nations and peoples,” said Hailemariam Desalegn, the prime minister of Ethiopia, shortly before the train — the first electric transnational railway in Africa — headed toward Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. “This line will change the social and economic landscape of our two countries.”
But perhaps the biggest star of the day was China, which designed the system, supplied the trains and imported hundreds of engineers for the six years it took to plan and build the 466-mile line. And the $4 billion cost? Chinese banks provided nearly all the financing.
Having constructed one of the world’s most extensive and modern rail networks at home, China is taking its prodigious resources and expertise global. Chinese-built subway cars will soon appear in Chicago and Boston, Beijing is building a $5 billion high-speed rail line in Indonesia, and the Chinese government recently christened new rail freight service between London and Beijing. Another ambitious system in the works, the 2,400-mile Pan-Asia Railway Network, would link China to Laos, Thailand and Singapore.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/07/worl ... 87722&_r=0
An innovative cure for broken water pumps in Africa
New technology uses big data to keep the taps flowing
IN THE mid-2000s Playpumps International, a charity, hit on a photogenic way of providing clean water to rural African villages: a pump powered by children playing on a merry-go-round. International donors and celebrities pledged more than $16m. But the system was more expensive than alternatives and needed so much “playing” it was effectively dependent on child labour. It became a byword for wasteful Western aid, but it is far from the only example.
At any time around a third of the water infrastructure in rural sub-Saharan Africa, from simple hand pumps to pricey solar-powered systems, is broken. Even after spending billions of dollars most international donors still cannot ensure the pumps they pay for are maintained (just 5% of rural sub-Saharan Africa has access to piped water). Many of the village committees responsible for collecting the fees that should cover repairs are dogged by nepotism and corruption. More often, though, villagers simply struggle to gather money, find a mechanic and source spare parts, says Johanna Koehler of Oxford University. Kerr Lien, a village in central Gambia, reverted to using a manual well for nine years after the inhabitants were unable to fix a fault in their solar-powered pump. There are “lots of white elephants everywhere”, says Alison Wedgwood, a founder of eWATER, a British startup that aims to solve many of these problems. Its solar-powered taps, 110 of which have been installed in Kerr Lien and six other Gambian villages, dispense water in response to electronic tags. The tags are topped up by shopkeepers using smartphones; 20 litres of water costs 0.50 dalasi (1 cent), and 85% of the payment is set aside to cover future repairs. The taps are connected to the mobile network, so they can transmit usage data to alert mechanics to problems. EWATER hopes to have 500 taps serving 50,000 people in Gambia and Tanzania by the end of 2017.
There are other benefits too. Whereas other solar-powered pumps often work for just two hours each morning and evening, eWater taps function 24-hours a day. “There is no queue, so we can have water easily without fighting,” says Fatumata Sima, who fills four 20-litre jerry cans every day for her parents and nine siblings. Since they are paying for it, the women and girls who collect the water also take more care now not to spill any, leaving fewer puddles for mosquitos to breed in. Most important, though, is fixing pumps quickly. In Kenya Ms Koehler found villagers were prepared to pay five times as much for water so long as their pumps were fixed within three days, compared with the previous average of 27. FundiFix, the company spawned by her research, also uses mobile-connected taps to alert engineers, but still relies on village committees to collect monthly payments.
Startups like these could transform rural water provision in Africa, just as they are doing with solar-powered electricity. Twelve-year-old Isatou Jallow will still wash her family’s clothes with well water every week. But there will soon be a drinking tap just outside her house. That means more time studying, instead of spending afternoons carrying water back and forth from school. It also means loftier ambitions. “I want to be a government minister,” she says.
http://www.economist.com/news/middle-ea ... n/NA/email
[/b]
New technology uses big data to keep the taps flowing
IN THE mid-2000s Playpumps International, a charity, hit on a photogenic way of providing clean water to rural African villages: a pump powered by children playing on a merry-go-round. International donors and celebrities pledged more than $16m. But the system was more expensive than alternatives and needed so much “playing” it was effectively dependent on child labour. It became a byword for wasteful Western aid, but it is far from the only example.
At any time around a third of the water infrastructure in rural sub-Saharan Africa, from simple hand pumps to pricey solar-powered systems, is broken. Even after spending billions of dollars most international donors still cannot ensure the pumps they pay for are maintained (just 5% of rural sub-Saharan Africa has access to piped water). Many of the village committees responsible for collecting the fees that should cover repairs are dogged by nepotism and corruption. More often, though, villagers simply struggle to gather money, find a mechanic and source spare parts, says Johanna Koehler of Oxford University. Kerr Lien, a village in central Gambia, reverted to using a manual well for nine years after the inhabitants were unable to fix a fault in their solar-powered pump. There are “lots of white elephants everywhere”, says Alison Wedgwood, a founder of eWATER, a British startup that aims to solve many of these problems. Its solar-powered taps, 110 of which have been installed in Kerr Lien and six other Gambian villages, dispense water in response to electronic tags. The tags are topped up by shopkeepers using smartphones; 20 litres of water costs 0.50 dalasi (1 cent), and 85% of the payment is set aside to cover future repairs. The taps are connected to the mobile network, so they can transmit usage data to alert mechanics to problems. EWATER hopes to have 500 taps serving 50,000 people in Gambia and Tanzania by the end of 2017.
There are other benefits too. Whereas other solar-powered pumps often work for just two hours each morning and evening, eWater taps function 24-hours a day. “There is no queue, so we can have water easily without fighting,” says Fatumata Sima, who fills four 20-litre jerry cans every day for her parents and nine siblings. Since they are paying for it, the women and girls who collect the water also take more care now not to spill any, leaving fewer puddles for mosquitos to breed in. Most important, though, is fixing pumps quickly. In Kenya Ms Koehler found villagers were prepared to pay five times as much for water so long as their pumps were fixed within three days, compared with the previous average of 27. FundiFix, the company spawned by her research, also uses mobile-connected taps to alert engineers, but still relies on village committees to collect monthly payments.
Startups like these could transform rural water provision in Africa, just as they are doing with solar-powered electricity. Twelve-year-old Isatou Jallow will still wash her family’s clothes with well water every week. But there will soon be a drinking tap just outside her house. That means more time studying, instead of spending afternoons carrying water back and forth from school. It also means loftier ambitions. “I want to be a government minister,” she says.
http://www.economist.com/news/middle-ea ... n/NA/email
[/b]
Modern African Art Is Being Gentrified
Sotheby’s held its first auction of modern and contemporary African art on Tuesday, where 83 pieces by artists from Cameroon to South Africa sold for a total of nearly $4 million. The star of the sale was the Ghanaian artist El Anatsui’s sculpture made from discarded aluminum bottle caps and copper wire that went for about $950,000.
This was no ordinary event. African art accounts for a very tiny portion of the international art market, and African artists have long been seen as outsiders. But the demand for their work has greatly increased over the past decade.
The sale at Sotheby’s, the granddaddy of auctioneers, most likely signals the beginning of a more serious interest from Western museums, which may finally start to consider such work worthy of inclusion in their permanent collections.
In this inexorable march to the mainstream, I am tempted to think of contemporary African art as akin to an urban neighborhood undergoing gentrification. Now that it is seen as high culture, the art and artists are gaining value, investors are jostling to get a piece of the action, and private collections are growing in Africa and around the world.
This is very good news for the African modernists who will benefit from the increased visibility. They were, some say, the postcolonial avant-garde, who set out to create new art for independent Africa during the mid-20th century. African contemporary artists have also moved beyond nationalism and are more likely to sound off about globalization and complex identities.
But the continent’s masses will be the biggest losers. They will be denied access to artworks that define the age of independence and symbolize the slow process of postcolonial recovery.
That’s because whole countries in Africa cannot boast of a single art museum of any renown. On other continents, you might expect to see at least one public art museum in any city big enough to have a sports team. But good luck trying to find a museum in Lagos, one of the world’s largest cities, that displays the work of a big-name Nigerian artist. A child there is even less likely to learn of the art in the classroom.
This no small problem, given that art is an important resource with which societies imagine their world. It is also doubly significant for Africans who have long encountered the best examples of their art in public spaces, as well as during ritual or festive events.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/20/opin ... ef=opinion
Sotheby’s held its first auction of modern and contemporary African art on Tuesday, where 83 pieces by artists from Cameroon to South Africa sold for a total of nearly $4 million. The star of the sale was the Ghanaian artist El Anatsui’s sculpture made from discarded aluminum bottle caps and copper wire that went for about $950,000.
This was no ordinary event. African art accounts for a very tiny portion of the international art market, and African artists have long been seen as outsiders. But the demand for their work has greatly increased over the past decade.
The sale at Sotheby’s, the granddaddy of auctioneers, most likely signals the beginning of a more serious interest from Western museums, which may finally start to consider such work worthy of inclusion in their permanent collections.
In this inexorable march to the mainstream, I am tempted to think of contemporary African art as akin to an urban neighborhood undergoing gentrification. Now that it is seen as high culture, the art and artists are gaining value, investors are jostling to get a piece of the action, and private collections are growing in Africa and around the world.
This is very good news for the African modernists who will benefit from the increased visibility. They were, some say, the postcolonial avant-garde, who set out to create new art for independent Africa during the mid-20th century. African contemporary artists have also moved beyond nationalism and are more likely to sound off about globalization and complex identities.
But the continent’s masses will be the biggest losers. They will be denied access to artworks that define the age of independence and symbolize the slow process of postcolonial recovery.
That’s because whole countries in Africa cannot boast of a single art museum of any renown. On other continents, you might expect to see at least one public art museum in any city big enough to have a sports team. But good luck trying to find a museum in Lagos, one of the world’s largest cities, that displays the work of a big-name Nigerian artist. A child there is even less likely to learn of the art in the classroom.
This no small problem, given that art is an important resource with which societies imagine their world. It is also doubly significant for Africans who have long encountered the best examples of their art in public spaces, as well as during ritual or festive events.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/20/opin ... ef=opinion
For Ethiopia’s Underemployed Youth, Life Can Center on a Leaf
Excerpt:
Most alarming, the Ethiopian authorities say, is the number of young people in this predominantly young nation now consuming khat. About half of Ethiopia’s youth are thought to chew it. Officials consider the problem an epidemic in all but name.
The country’s government, which rules the economy with a tight grip, is worried that the habit could derail its plans to transform Ethiopia into a middle-income country in less than a decade ― a national undertaking that will require an army of young, capable workers, it says.
Khat is legal and remains so mainly because it is a big source of revenue for the government. But there are mounting concerns about its widespread use.
As many as 1.2 million acres of land are thought to be devoted to khat, nearly three times more than two decades ago. And the amount of money khat generates per acre surpasses all other crops, including coffee, Ethiopia’s biggest export, said Gessesse Dessie, a researcher at the African Studies Center Leiden at Leiden University.
That payoff, and the dwindling availability of land, has pushed thousands of farmers to switch to khat, he said. The changes have come as the government has pushed farmers off land that it has given to foreign investors in recent years.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/22/worl ... 87722&_r=0
Excerpt:
Most alarming, the Ethiopian authorities say, is the number of young people in this predominantly young nation now consuming khat. About half of Ethiopia’s youth are thought to chew it. Officials consider the problem an epidemic in all but name.
The country’s government, which rules the economy with a tight grip, is worried that the habit could derail its plans to transform Ethiopia into a middle-income country in less than a decade ― a national undertaking that will require an army of young, capable workers, it says.
Khat is legal and remains so mainly because it is a big source of revenue for the government. But there are mounting concerns about its widespread use.
As many as 1.2 million acres of land are thought to be devoted to khat, nearly three times more than two decades ago. And the amount of money khat generates per acre surpasses all other crops, including coffee, Ethiopia’s biggest export, said Gessesse Dessie, a researcher at the African Studies Center Leiden at Leiden University.
That payoff, and the dwindling availability of land, has pushed thousands of farmers to switch to khat, he said. The changes have come as the government has pushed farmers off land that it has given to foreign investors in recent years.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/22/worl ... 87722&_r=0
Moving Africa forward with solar
Africa has huge power needs and is making big steps towards meeting growing demands with solar energy. Africa’s sunshine positions it to command a staggering 40% of the world’s solar power generating potential, compared to Asia at 25% and North America at 11%, and Europe at 2%. Growth in solar power generating capacity has increased 10 times over the last four years, and venture capital investment is also up by 10-fold.
More...
https://www.cnbcafrica.com/sponsored/20 ... -216274365
Africa has huge power needs and is making big steps towards meeting growing demands with solar energy. Africa’s sunshine positions it to command a staggering 40% of the world’s solar power generating potential, compared to Asia at 25% and North America at 11%, and Europe at 2%. Growth in solar power generating capacity has increased 10 times over the last four years, and venture capital investment is also up by 10-fold.
More...
https://www.cnbcafrica.com/sponsored/20 ... -216274365
‘Refugee Boats’ and African Capitalism
Extract:
Unable to reach a comprehensive solution, the European Union has taken to piecemeal steps, like an agreement last week to clamp down on the export of inflatable boats and marine motors to Libya — hence their disappearance from Alibaba.
The union’s boat ban is laughable, given the root causes behind the surge of south-north migration: war, unemployment, social unrest, terror, religious oppression, all worsened by Africa’s skyrocketing birthrates. Youth unemployment already stands at around 50 percent. With an average age of 18 years and a population set to double by 2050, the continent needs roughly 20 million new jobs each year, according to the International Monetary Fund.
Europe, though, has a proclivity to blame the wrong things. Especially for the left, the root causes of Africa’s problems include Western exploitation, unfair trade and capitalism itself — a diversion of attention that is welcomed by corrupt African governments, many of which have figured out how to profit off their people’s endless misery.
In fact, Africa does not need less capitalism, but more.
Of course Europe has a historical debt to Africa, and it has a practical interest in helping the continent through aid and a generous migration policy. But unless the prevailing mentalities on both sides — guilt in Europe and victimhood in Africa — change, the 60-year chain of disappointments known as “development aid” will continue.
The main reason Africa is doing so poorly is that many of its leaders are unable or unwilling to provide the fundaments of a market economy: education, property rights, rule of law, reliable tax schemes, a proper banking sector.
Take Egypt. European diplomats in Cairo recently told me they feared the country was on the brink of collapse. Its population (92 million, crammed in an inhabitable space the size of the Netherlands) is growing by 2.5 million a year, while energy and water are in short supply and food prices are rising. Only 74 percent of its citizens are literate, and the country needs an extra 90,000 teachers just to keep up with the population growth.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/27/opin ... dline&te=1
Extract:
Unable to reach a comprehensive solution, the European Union has taken to piecemeal steps, like an agreement last week to clamp down on the export of inflatable boats and marine motors to Libya — hence their disappearance from Alibaba.
The union’s boat ban is laughable, given the root causes behind the surge of south-north migration: war, unemployment, social unrest, terror, religious oppression, all worsened by Africa’s skyrocketing birthrates. Youth unemployment already stands at around 50 percent. With an average age of 18 years and a population set to double by 2050, the continent needs roughly 20 million new jobs each year, according to the International Monetary Fund.
Europe, though, has a proclivity to blame the wrong things. Especially for the left, the root causes of Africa’s problems include Western exploitation, unfair trade and capitalism itself — a diversion of attention that is welcomed by corrupt African governments, many of which have figured out how to profit off their people’s endless misery.
In fact, Africa does not need less capitalism, but more.
Of course Europe has a historical debt to Africa, and it has a practical interest in helping the continent through aid and a generous migration policy. But unless the prevailing mentalities on both sides — guilt in Europe and victimhood in Africa — change, the 60-year chain of disappointments known as “development aid” will continue.
The main reason Africa is doing so poorly is that many of its leaders are unable or unwilling to provide the fundaments of a market economy: education, property rights, rule of law, reliable tax schemes, a proper banking sector.
Take Egypt. European diplomats in Cairo recently told me they feared the country was on the brink of collapse. Its population (92 million, crammed in an inhabitable space the size of the Netherlands) is growing by 2.5 million a year, while energy and water are in short supply and food prices are rising. Only 74 percent of its citizens are literate, and the country needs an extra 90,000 teachers just to keep up with the population growth.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/27/opin ... dline&te=1
Loss of Fertile Land Fuels
‘Looming Crisis’ Across Africa
Climate change, soil degradation and rising wealth are shrinking the amount
of usable land in Africa. But the number of people who need it is rising fast.
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Excerpt:
Kenya has a land problem. Africa itself has a land problem. The continent seems so vast and the land so open. The awesome sense of space is an inextricable part of the beauty here — the unadulterated vistas, the endless land. But in a way, that is an illusion.
Population swells, climate change, soil degradation, erosion, poaching, global food prices and even the benefits of affluence are exerting incredible pressure on African land. They are fueling conflicts across the continent, from Nigeria in the west to Kenya in the east — including here in Laikipia, a wildlife haven and one of Kenya’s most beautiful areas.
Large groups of people are on the move, desperate for usable land. Data from NASA satellites reveals an overwhelming degradation of agricultural land throughout Africa, with one recent study showing that more than 40 million Africans are trying to survive off land whose agricultural potential is declining.
At the same time, high birthrates and lengthening life spans mean that by the end of this century, there could be as many as four billion people on the continent, about 10 times the population 40 years ago.
It is a two-headed problem, scientists and activists say, and it could be one of the gravest challenges Africa faces: The quality of farmland in many areas is getting worse, and the number of people squeezed onto that land is rising fast.
“It’s a looming crisis,” said Odenda Lumumba, head of the Kenya Land Alliance, a group that works on land reform. “We are basically reaching the end of the road.”
More than in any other region of the world, people in Africa live off the land. There are relatively few industrial or service jobs here. Seventy percent of Africa’s population makes a living through agriculture, higher than on any other continent, the World Bank says.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/29/worl ... d=45305309
‘Looming Crisis’ Across Africa
Climate change, soil degradation and rising wealth are shrinking the amount
of usable land in Africa. But the number of people who need it is rising fast.
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Excerpt:
Kenya has a land problem. Africa itself has a land problem. The continent seems so vast and the land so open. The awesome sense of space is an inextricable part of the beauty here — the unadulterated vistas, the endless land. But in a way, that is an illusion.
Population swells, climate change, soil degradation, erosion, poaching, global food prices and even the benefits of affluence are exerting incredible pressure on African land. They are fueling conflicts across the continent, from Nigeria in the west to Kenya in the east — including here in Laikipia, a wildlife haven and one of Kenya’s most beautiful areas.
Large groups of people are on the move, desperate for usable land. Data from NASA satellites reveals an overwhelming degradation of agricultural land throughout Africa, with one recent study showing that more than 40 million Africans are trying to survive off land whose agricultural potential is declining.
At the same time, high birthrates and lengthening life spans mean that by the end of this century, there could be as many as four billion people on the continent, about 10 times the population 40 years ago.
It is a two-headed problem, scientists and activists say, and it could be one of the gravest challenges Africa faces: The quality of farmland in many areas is getting worse, and the number of people squeezed onto that land is rising fast.
“It’s a looming crisis,” said Odenda Lumumba, head of the Kenya Land Alliance, a group that works on land reform. “We are basically reaching the end of the road.”
More than in any other region of the world, people in Africa live off the land. There are relatively few industrial or service jobs here. Seventy percent of Africa’s population makes a living through agriculture, higher than on any other continent, the World Bank says.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/29/worl ... d=45305309
Informal economy not enough to handle Africa’s workforce explosion
https://www.cnbcafrica.com/insights/201 ... -216274365
Unemployment in Nigeria, sub-Saharan Africa’s largest economy, is running at more than 14 percent and climbing; in South Africa, the second largest economy, it is over 27 percent. For youth in both places, it is far more.
This may seem bad enough, but according to International Monetary Fund calculations the sub-Saharan Africa region’s jobs travails are in danger of reaching uncharted territory in less than two decades.
That is, unless the economies can create jobs for their burgeoning, young population.
“By 2035, sub-Saharan Africa will have more working-age people than the rest of the world’s regions combined,” the IMF wrote in a blog post this week. “This growing workforce will have to be met with jobs.”
This has major implications for the region’s economy, its security and wider immigration patterns.
In the past, some of the jobs strain has been taken up by the so-called informal economy which is dominated by street vendors, household workers and off-the-radar cash jobbers.
Typically, these workers pay no tax and do not come under regulation, but they do add to a country’s wealth.
The informal sector in sub-Saharan Africa was around 38 percent of gross domestic product in 2010-14, according to the IMF.
This represented a steady decline from nearly 45 percent in 1991-99, possibly a reflection of more formal growth in some parts of Africa. But up to 90 percent of jobs outside agriculture are still in the informal sector.
https://www.cnbcafrica.com/insights/201 ... -216274365
Unemployment in Nigeria, sub-Saharan Africa’s largest economy, is running at more than 14 percent and climbing; in South Africa, the second largest economy, it is over 27 percent. For youth in both places, it is far more.
This may seem bad enough, but according to International Monetary Fund calculations the sub-Saharan Africa region’s jobs travails are in danger of reaching uncharted territory in less than two decades.
That is, unless the economies can create jobs for their burgeoning, young population.
“By 2035, sub-Saharan Africa will have more working-age people than the rest of the world’s regions combined,” the IMF wrote in a blog post this week. “This growing workforce will have to be met with jobs.”
This has major implications for the region’s economy, its security and wider immigration patterns.
In the past, some of the jobs strain has been taken up by the so-called informal economy which is dominated by street vendors, household workers and off-the-radar cash jobbers.
Typically, these workers pay no tax and do not come under regulation, but they do add to a country’s wealth.
The informal sector in sub-Saharan Africa was around 38 percent of gross domestic product in 2010-14, according to the IMF.
This represented a steady decline from nearly 45 percent in 1991-99, possibly a reflection of more formal growth in some parts of Africa. But up to 90 percent of jobs outside agriculture are still in the informal sector.
Africa could soon be the largest free-trade area in the world
Transport Infrastructure Driving Boost in Africa’s Cross Border Trade
Africa could soon be the largest free-trade area in the world. This is if the African Union’s Continental Free Trade Area (CTFA) stays on track to be operational by the end of this year. Once up and running, the continent-wide free trade zone could lead to a 52 percent ($35 billion) increase in intra-African trade within the next 5 years, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).
The UNECA’s Stephen Karingi, who heads their Regional Integration and Trade Division, says “boosting intra-African trade is the most effective way to speed up Africa’s economic transformation.” Speaking at the recent Africa Session of the Aid for Trade Global Review 2017, Karingi added that “trade contributes towards industrialization and structural transformation.”
Increasing intra-African trade – which reportedly stands at 13 percent – will require the removal of certain barriers in order to improve connectivity, including improvement of custom procedures, reduction of transit and other trade costs, and, importantly, development of reliable transport infrastructure. Here’s a look at some of the inroads that have already been made in the expansion of Africa’s rail, road, and port networks to connect the fragmented African market:
More...
https://www.cnbcafrica.com/zdnl-mc/2017 ... -216274365
Transport Infrastructure Driving Boost in Africa’s Cross Border Trade
Africa could soon be the largest free-trade area in the world. This is if the African Union’s Continental Free Trade Area (CTFA) stays on track to be operational by the end of this year. Once up and running, the continent-wide free trade zone could lead to a 52 percent ($35 billion) increase in intra-African trade within the next 5 years, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).
The UNECA’s Stephen Karingi, who heads their Regional Integration and Trade Division, says “boosting intra-African trade is the most effective way to speed up Africa’s economic transformation.” Speaking at the recent Africa Session of the Aid for Trade Global Review 2017, Karingi added that “trade contributes towards industrialization and structural transformation.”
Increasing intra-African trade – which reportedly stands at 13 percent – will require the removal of certain barriers in order to improve connectivity, including improvement of custom procedures, reduction of transit and other trade costs, and, importantly, development of reliable transport infrastructure. Here’s a look at some of the inroads that have already been made in the expansion of Africa’s rail, road, and port networks to connect the fragmented African market:
More...
https://www.cnbcafrica.com/zdnl-mc/2017 ... -216274365
The gap between consumer protection and sustainability in Africa
Across the globe consumers are increasingly realising their power. In many countries this consumer consciousness, which marries consumer rights to sustainability issues, has been greatly helped by dynamic consumer protection policies.
In Africa, the rise of the middle class is fuelling a consumer economy and countries have begun to beef up their consumer protection policies. But they tend to be disconnected from sustainability issues.
South Africa, which leads the continent in terms of consumer protection regulations, showcases this limitation. The country has a good consumer protection policy regime, benefiting consumers and providing them with rights and redress possibilities. But it’s not linked to sustainability concerns.
The South African situation is not helped by the location of consumer affairs and sustainability in two separate government departments. Consumer protection policy is the responsibility of the Department of Trade and Industry. For its part, sustainability is primarily located in the Department of Environmental Affairs. As a result there’s a disconnect between the two.
South Africa – and other African countries suffering from this disconnection – need to develop a new framework. Our study identifies key areas countries should focus on to get to an integrated approach.
More...
https://www.cnbcafrica.com/insights/201 ... -216274365
Across the globe consumers are increasingly realising their power. In many countries this consumer consciousness, which marries consumer rights to sustainability issues, has been greatly helped by dynamic consumer protection policies.
In Africa, the rise of the middle class is fuelling a consumer economy and countries have begun to beef up their consumer protection policies. But they tend to be disconnected from sustainability issues.
South Africa, which leads the continent in terms of consumer protection regulations, showcases this limitation. The country has a good consumer protection policy regime, benefiting consumers and providing them with rights and redress possibilities. But it’s not linked to sustainability concerns.
The South African situation is not helped by the location of consumer affairs and sustainability in two separate government departments. Consumer protection policy is the responsibility of the Department of Trade and Industry. For its part, sustainability is primarily located in the Department of Environmental Affairs. As a result there’s a disconnect between the two.
South Africa – and other African countries suffering from this disconnection – need to develop a new framework. Our study identifies key areas countries should focus on to get to an integrated approach.
More...
https://www.cnbcafrica.com/insights/201 ... -216274365
How African countries can maximise the benefits AGOA provides
Since the year 2000, the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) has given eligible African countries duty and quota free access to the United States’ markets. This has created an opportunity for African businesses, big or small to meet, trade with new markets and improve the quality of their products. Over the years, it has been described as a catalyst for democracy and a criterion for African countries that want to partake in the AGOA agreement.
The 16th edition of AGOA Forum sought to explore how countries can continue to maximise the benefits AGOA provides. Richard Attias and Associates was in charge of the successful production of the AGOA Forum. This time held in Lomé, Togo’s Capital. Togolese Prime Minister Komi Klassou described the forum as an “opportunity for Sub-Saharan Africa to review the different challenges and point out the challenges of achieving accelerated and inclusive growth”.
“The key matter of the forum is how do we leverage trade for the economic good of our people and see the best way to maximise the opportunities of AGOA?,” added Togolese Minister for Trade Bernadette Legzim-Balouki.
More...
https://www.cnbcafrica.com/sponsored/20 ... -216274365
Since the year 2000, the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) has given eligible African countries duty and quota free access to the United States’ markets. This has created an opportunity for African businesses, big or small to meet, trade with new markets and improve the quality of their products. Over the years, it has been described as a catalyst for democracy and a criterion for African countries that want to partake in the AGOA agreement.
The 16th edition of AGOA Forum sought to explore how countries can continue to maximise the benefits AGOA provides. Richard Attias and Associates was in charge of the successful production of the AGOA Forum. This time held in Lomé, Togo’s Capital. Togolese Prime Minister Komi Klassou described the forum as an “opportunity for Sub-Saharan Africa to review the different challenges and point out the challenges of achieving accelerated and inclusive growth”.
“The key matter of the forum is how do we leverage trade for the economic good of our people and see the best way to maximise the opportunities of AGOA?,” added Togolese Minister for Trade Bernadette Legzim-Balouki.
More...
https://www.cnbcafrica.com/sponsored/20 ... -216274365
Op-Ed: Africa is on the cusp of a wind energy revolution, it’s time to grasp it
There is no shortage of quality wind projects coming to market in Africa right now, and the will, capital and technology are in place to create a wave of wind project development across the continent.
However, amidst all the talk of renewable energy in Africa, not one utility scale wind project reached financial close in 2016. This may come as a surprise to many in the industry given how prominently renewables have factored into recent national government plans, as well as in the plans and projections of transnational organisations on the continent.
To provide some context, IRENA’s ‘Renewable Scenario for Africa’ predicts that the share of renewables in Africa will increase from 17% in 2009 to 50% in 2030, and nearly 75% by 2050. Total installed renewable capacity would grow from 28 GW in 2010 to around 800 GW by 2050, with solar photovoltaic accounting for 245 GW, and wind at 242 GW.
More...
https://www.cnbcafrica.com/insights/ene ... -216274365
There is no shortage of quality wind projects coming to market in Africa right now, and the will, capital and technology are in place to create a wave of wind project development across the continent.
However, amidst all the talk of renewable energy in Africa, not one utility scale wind project reached financial close in 2016. This may come as a surprise to many in the industry given how prominently renewables have factored into recent national government plans, as well as in the plans and projections of transnational organisations on the continent.
To provide some context, IRENA’s ‘Renewable Scenario for Africa’ predicts that the share of renewables in Africa will increase from 17% in 2009 to 50% in 2030, and nearly 75% by 2050. Total installed renewable capacity would grow from 28 GW in 2010 to around 800 GW by 2050, with solar photovoltaic accounting for 245 GW, and wind at 242 GW.
More...
https://www.cnbcafrica.com/insights/ene ... -216274365
Kenya Supreme Court Nullifies Presidential Election
NAIROBI, Kenya — In a historic ruling and a first in Africa, Kenya’s Supreme Court nullified on Friday the re-election of a sitting president, ordering a new vote to be held within 60 days after finding that the outcome last month had been tainted by irregularities.
It was a stunning moment for Kenya, one of Africa’s most populous nations, and for democracy in general. Kenya’s disputed presidential election in 2007 set off bloodshed that left at least 1,300 people dead and 600,000 displaced around the country.
But this time, figures across the Kenyan political landscape, including the president whose victory was wiped away, appeared to accept the decision and called on supporters to do the same.
The ruling also offered a potent display of judicial independence on a continent where courts often come under intense pressure from political leaders, analysts said.
“It’s a historic moment showing the fortitude and courage of the Kenyan judiciary,” said Dickson Omondi, a country director for the National Democratic Institute, a nonpartisan organization that supports democratic institutions and practices worldwide.
He said it was the first example in Africa in which a court nullified the re-election of an incumbent.
The election on Aug. 8 was conducted peacefully and was largely praised by international observers. But David Maraga, the court’s chief justice, declared the result “invalid, null and void” after siding with the opposition, which had argued that the vote had been electronically manipulated to assure a victory for President Uhuru Kenyatta.
More..
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/01/worl ... d=45305309
NAIROBI, Kenya — In a historic ruling and a first in Africa, Kenya’s Supreme Court nullified on Friday the re-election of a sitting president, ordering a new vote to be held within 60 days after finding that the outcome last month had been tainted by irregularities.
It was a stunning moment for Kenya, one of Africa’s most populous nations, and for democracy in general. Kenya’s disputed presidential election in 2007 set off bloodshed that left at least 1,300 people dead and 600,000 displaced around the country.
But this time, figures across the Kenyan political landscape, including the president whose victory was wiped away, appeared to accept the decision and called on supporters to do the same.
The ruling also offered a potent display of judicial independence on a continent where courts often come under intense pressure from political leaders, analysts said.
“It’s a historic moment showing the fortitude and courage of the Kenyan judiciary,” said Dickson Omondi, a country director for the National Democratic Institute, a nonpartisan organization that supports democratic institutions and practices worldwide.
He said it was the first example in Africa in which a court nullified the re-election of an incumbent.
The election on Aug. 8 was conducted peacefully and was largely praised by international observers. But David Maraga, the court’s chief justice, declared the result “invalid, null and void” after siding with the opposition, which had argued that the vote had been electronically manipulated to assure a victory for President Uhuru Kenyatta.
More..
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/01/worl ... d=45305309
Op-Ed: African states don’t prioritise maritime security – here’s why they should
by CNBC Africa 17 hours ago
Piracy off the African coastline has been a headline grabbing phenomenon for more than a decade. For a few years though, Somali pirates appeared to have a quiet spell. Then, recently they had their first successful attack against a merchant vessel since 2012.
Other attacks followed, including one in April that was foiled by Chinese and Indian navies.
On the other side of the continent, attacks against ships in the Gulf of Guinea remain a concern for shipping companies, particularly off the coast of Nigeria.
The State of Maritime Piracy report reiterates that the Nigerian coastline is a dangerous area for seafarers and has been for years.
However, coastal states affected by piracy often have other priorities. Take Somalia for example. The country is battling many issues including the effects of a long drought and frequent Al-Shabaab attacks.
The situation is similar in other countries. The Africa Centre for Strategic Studies points out that national security and economic policies rarely emphasise maritime security. This is due to a lack of awareness, political will and resources.
For years maritime security has been neglected throughout Africa. Recently however, there has been renewed focus on maritime issues. This was highlighted by the African Union’s maritime strategy and the Lomé maritime summit.
These developments show that maritime matters have become more important. But this is still not enough. To develop their blue economycoastal states need to start addressing maritime security issues beyond just piracy.
It should also include factors such as illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. Unfortunately politicians and academics have traditionally framed maritime security in Africa as a purely counter-piracy affair. The debate needs to be broadened significantly to include an appreciation of the economic potential of the seas.
More...
https://www.cnbcafrica.com/news/2017/09 ... -216274365
by CNBC Africa 17 hours ago
Piracy off the African coastline has been a headline grabbing phenomenon for more than a decade. For a few years though, Somali pirates appeared to have a quiet spell. Then, recently they had their first successful attack against a merchant vessel since 2012.
Other attacks followed, including one in April that was foiled by Chinese and Indian navies.
On the other side of the continent, attacks against ships in the Gulf of Guinea remain a concern for shipping companies, particularly off the coast of Nigeria.
The State of Maritime Piracy report reiterates that the Nigerian coastline is a dangerous area for seafarers and has been for years.
However, coastal states affected by piracy often have other priorities. Take Somalia for example. The country is battling many issues including the effects of a long drought and frequent Al-Shabaab attacks.
The situation is similar in other countries. The Africa Centre for Strategic Studies points out that national security and economic policies rarely emphasise maritime security. This is due to a lack of awareness, political will and resources.
For years maritime security has been neglected throughout Africa. Recently however, there has been renewed focus on maritime issues. This was highlighted by the African Union’s maritime strategy and the Lomé maritime summit.
These developments show that maritime matters have become more important. But this is still not enough. To develop their blue economycoastal states need to start addressing maritime security issues beyond just piracy.
It should also include factors such as illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. Unfortunately politicians and academics have traditionally framed maritime security in Africa as a purely counter-piracy affair. The debate needs to be broadened significantly to include an appreciation of the economic potential of the seas.
More...
https://www.cnbcafrica.com/news/2017/09 ... -216274365
Why “affordable housing” in Africa is rarely affordable
The housing ladder remains out of reach for many
ETHIOPIA'S flagship social-housing programme is probably the most ambitious in Africa. But for most locals the houses are still barely affordable. The poor cannot afford the down payment for even the most subsidised units. And those who can often struggle to meet repayments, opting instead to rent out the houses and move elsewhere. In this respect, though, Ethiopia is hardly alone in Africa. Take Angola, where a recent $3.5bn social-housing project on the outskirts of Luanda, the capital, offered apartments from $84,000, in a country where incomes per person are just over $4,000. Or Cameroon, where the government’s social-housing scheme is out of reach to 80% of the population, according to the World Bank. In Ethiopia the state has spent over a decade building cheap homes on an almost unprecedented scale, but supply still fails to match demand. Why?
High costs and expanding populations mostly put an end to the kind of government housing provision that was common in much of Africa during the early post-colonial years. With its state provision, Ethiopia is an outlier. The majority of countries rely instead on a subsidised private sector to deliver cheap homes. But across the continent governments and builders are hobbled by the wider construction industry. This is often underdeveloped and uncompetitive, constrained by poor infrastructure and a lack of both skilled labour and cheap materials. Cement in Africa is typically around three times the world price. Construction can be painfully slow. The largest house-building firm in Ghana claims to have finished a mere 3,500 units in the past decade.
More..
https://www.economist.com/blogs/economi ... lydispatch
The housing ladder remains out of reach for many
ETHIOPIA'S flagship social-housing programme is probably the most ambitious in Africa. But for most locals the houses are still barely affordable. The poor cannot afford the down payment for even the most subsidised units. And those who can often struggle to meet repayments, opting instead to rent out the houses and move elsewhere. In this respect, though, Ethiopia is hardly alone in Africa. Take Angola, where a recent $3.5bn social-housing project on the outskirts of Luanda, the capital, offered apartments from $84,000, in a country where incomes per person are just over $4,000. Or Cameroon, where the government’s social-housing scheme is out of reach to 80% of the population, according to the World Bank. In Ethiopia the state has spent over a decade building cheap homes on an almost unprecedented scale, but supply still fails to match demand. Why?
High costs and expanding populations mostly put an end to the kind of government housing provision that was common in much of Africa during the early post-colonial years. With its state provision, Ethiopia is an outlier. The majority of countries rely instead on a subsidised private sector to deliver cheap homes. But across the continent governments and builders are hobbled by the wider construction industry. This is often underdeveloped and uncompetitive, constrained by poor infrastructure and a lack of both skilled labour and cheap materials. Cement in Africa is typically around three times the world price. Construction can be painfully slow. The largest house-building firm in Ghana claims to have finished a mere 3,500 units in the past decade.
More..
https://www.economist.com/blogs/economi ... lydispatch