January 27, 2023
Africa: The Year of Debt Distress and Damaging Development Trade-Off
As the year 2022 drew to an end, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) warned, "Developing countries face 'impossible trade-off' on debt", that spiralling… Read more »
January 26, 2023
Africa: As the #AfricaClimateCrisis Bites, Soil Needs Doctors Too
In a wiser world, the term 'treating someone like dirt' would be a good thing. After all, 15 of the 18 nutrients essential to plants are supplied by soils and around 95% of the… Read more »
Cape Verde: Cabo Verde Launches Blue Bond on Regional Sustainable Finance Platform
On 20 January, the world's best sailors arrived in Mindelo, Cabo Verde, completing the initial leg of the 2023 edition of The Ocean Race. Coinciding with this stop was the launch… Read more »
January 25, 2023
Africa: 'Disconnected Citizens Are Kept Away From Opportunities'
In 2022, Saudi Arabia "quietly" sentenced Salma al-Shehab to 34 years in prison over her Twitter activity, marking the longest Saudi sentence ever for a peaceful activist. Fast… Read more »
Africa: New Business Technology Transfer Provides Benefits for African Pharmaceutical Industry
A few months after German biotechnology company BioNTech announced the establishment of the first-ever local vaccine manufacturing in Rwanda, experts believe the successful… Read more »
January 24, 2023
Africa: On International Day of Education, We Must Prioritise Girls in Humanitarian Crisis
"Is it a sin to be a girl? We don't want to be at home and illiterate. We want to go to school, study and be intelligent." Read more »
January 23, 2023
South Africa: We Want to Be Legal - We're Not 'Zama Zama' Criminals, Say Artisanal Miners
Mining towns across South Africa have become hostage to a booming but bloody illegal mining economy. Read more »
January 19, 2023
Africa: The People of Africa Need Relief - The Biden Administration Can Provide It
United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is traveling to South Africa, Zambia, and Senegal this week in the hopes of strengthening U.S.-Africa relations at a time of waning… Read more »
January 18, 2023
Africa: The Value of Strong Multilateral Cooperation in a Fractured World
The multilateral system, even in the face of heightened geopolitical tension and big power rivalry, remains the uniquely inclusive vehicle for managing mutual interdependencies in… Read more »
January 17, 2023
Africa: Africa Wants IMF Special Drawing Rights Re-Allocated to Finance Its Development
African countries, many reeling under high debt and experiencing economic recession, could benefit from the reallocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDR), financial instruments of… Read more »
Africa: The UN Keeps Shrinking - Amid Pandemic Lockdowns & Flexible Working Hours
A new variant of Covid-19, spreading across New York city, is forcing businesses, banks and high-powered financial institutions to re-introduce flexible working hours after a brief… Read more »
Africa: The Year of Inflation Exposes Dogma and Class Bias
Inflation worries topped Ipsos's What Worries the World survey in 2022 overtaking COVID concerns. The return of inflation caught major central banks, e.g., the US Federal Reserve… Read more »
January 16, 2023
Africa: Continent's Vast Arable Land Underused for Both Cash and Food Crops - Experts
Concerns are rife that while Africa is growing more crops, these are not for food and that on the current trajectory, present food import costs into Africa, now estimated at 55… Read more »
Africa: African Journalists: More Training & Resources will Boost Climate Change Coverage
At the end of a five-minute newscast from a makeshift studio in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, the venue of COP27, Cotonou-based journalist Ghyslaine Florida Zossoungbo was able to… Read more »
January 11, 2023
Africa: An Oil Tanker Grounded Off Yemen Faces a Potential Humanitarian Disaster
The long-delayed salvaging of an abandoned tanker, the FSO Safer off the Yemeni coast, has been described as a humanitarian disaster waiting to happen. Read more »
January 10, 2023
Zimbabwe: Greening the City Gets Community Treatment in Zimbabwe
It's a typical story in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second-largest city. With the failure to provide services such as refuse collection by the local municipality, township residents dump… Read more »
Africa: Why U.S.-Africa Relations - and Africa - Matter More Now Than Ever
President Biden and leaders of 49 invited African countries and the African Union met in Washington last month for the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit - a meeting that all parties hope… Read more »
January 09, 2023
Malawi: Malawi Suffers Worst Cholera Outbreak in Decades
On March 3, 2022, Malawi declared a cholera outbreak after a district hospital in the southern region reported a case. This was the first case in the 2021 to 2022 cholera season. Read more »
January 06, 2023
Africa: Conflicts, Climate Change Threaten Sprouting of Africa's Great Green Wall #AfricaClimateCrisis
Escalating conflict and climate change threaten the implementation of the Great Green Wall Initiative (GGWI), an ambitious land restoration project across Africa. Read more »
January 03, 2023
Africa: Africa's Maternal Deaths Need Urgent Action to Meet SDG Goals
As the effects of COVID-19 on Africa's health sector become clearer, it looks the continent will need to take urgent steps to overcome the disruptions suffered in the breakdown in… Read more »
January 02, 2023
Africa: Digitizing Africa - Key to Stronger Institutions
The writer is a Senior Economic Affairs Officer and leader of the Policy Analysis and Coordination team in the UN Office of the Special Adviser on Africa (UN - OSAA). Read more »
December 23, 2022
Africa: War, Famine, Disease, Disasters - 2022 - a Year Staring At Apocalypse
A year that started with Russia's invasion of Ukraine and is ending with famine in Africa, while still spreading death and misery through an enduring pandemic and a deteriorating… Read more »
Africa: Security Council Reform - Big Five Are the Heart of the Problem
The UN Charter mandates the Security Council to maintain international peace, but wars rage on and nations arm themselves with ever more lethal weapons. No wonder that the… Read more »
Africa: After 43 Years of Negotiations, Security Council Reforms Move At the Pace of a Paralytic Snail
The reform of the Security Council, the most powerful body at the United Nations, has remained a never-ending political saga. Read more »
December 22, 2022
Africa: Raising the Alarm On the Slow Pace of Family Law Reform
The writer is Campaign Manager - Global Campaign for Equality in Family Law Read more »