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[Pre-thoughts from Blog Admin: Let's be honest, "there are some problems" with World Bank loans and development aid too. While WB "strings" are said to prevent corruption, they are actually about accruing most of the benefits to American and European countries. So while the end goal is the same, it's perhaps the means that differ between WB financiers and China. While African civil society groups have legitimate worries, a WB conference would host and open space for their worried voices only due to their own worries about growing competition with China for Africa's wealth and resources.]
Inter Press Service (Johannesburg)
16 June 2008
By Miriam Mannak
Cape Town
Chinese investment in African countries comes with few strings attached - which is exactly what concerns civil society organisations.
During the Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics (ABCDE) held last week various members of African civil society organisations expressed concern about the terms of China’s increasing activities on the continent.
The World Bank conference, organised with South Africa’s treasury department, ran from June 9 to 11 in Cape Town, South Africa. continue ‘Concerns Over Chinese Investment And Working Conditions’
June 16th, 2008
The East African (Nairobi)
15 June 2008
By John Mbaria
Nairobi
In the absence of a co-ordinated approach, the push for a Green Revolution in Africa will not benefit millions of farmers but will instead severely affect their resiliency even as it realises a boom for big-bucks biotech corporates, a new report says.
“Despite assertions to the contrary, there is a real danger that the Green Revolution will turn into a corporate biotech boom and the destruction of rural resiliency - and diversity - in Africa,” says Green Revolution 2.0 for Africa? This time the ‘”silver bullet’ has a gun.” continue ‘‘Green Revolution’ Comes Under Fire Again’
June 16th, 2008
Business Daily (Nairobi)
11 June 2008
By Abbysinia Lati
A recently launched report by Unep shows Africa is losing four million hectares of forest cover every year and brings vividly to light the impact of development policies, population growth, climate change and conflicts on the environment. continue ‘Continent Losing Massive Forest Cover’
June 16th, 2008
allAfrica.com
16 June 2008
Cape Town
There will be a “sharp increase” in deaths among young children in Africa unless the international community finds a way of stopping the current rise in food prices, warns a top-level review panel set up to monitor whether the world’s leaders are meeting their commitments to Africa. continue ‘Rising Food Prices Will Kill Children, Says Panel’
June 16th, 2008
The Monitor (Kampala)
14 June 2008
Accessed 6/15/08 at allafrica.com
By Peter Nyanzi
Kampala
The government has sought to stimulate the agricultural sector in a move that could see Ugandans reap from the current rising food prices on the local and international markets. continue ‘Govt Targets Agricultural Boom’
June 15th, 2008
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
12 June 2008
Accessed 6/15/08 at allafrica.com
Johannesburg
Africa needs one common strategy on climate change to stand any chance of persuading rich countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions by between 25 to 40 percent by 2020, environment ministers agreed at a meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, this week.
“Africa only emits 3.8 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions, but will suffer the most from the climate threat, so it needs to ensure that its voice is heard,” said Ogunlade Davidson, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) working group on mitigation.
The IPCC has suggested cuts of between 25 and 40 percent by 2020 to avoid a 2-degree Celsius increase in global temperature - the kind of increase that is expected to destroy 30 to 40 percent of all known species, with bigger, fiercer and more frequent heat waves and droughts, and more intense weather events like floods and cyclones.
The impact on Africa will be dire. Food production is expected to halve by 2020, and 250 million people - over 25 percent of Africa’s population - will not have easy access to water.
No delays
“We cannot afford to delay any more. We have agencies like UNEP [United Nations Environment Programme] who have been trying to get one united African voice on board. This process here at AMCEN [the African Ministerial Conference on Environment] is the beginning to get the African Union (AU) to buy in to the process,” said Davidson.
We need to be proactive and engage these funds - but the question is do we have the capacity to receive these technologies?
Namibia’s environment minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah noted, “We have decided that the African Union has to take our position forward at the negotiations [between the developed and developing countries].” Under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, industrialised countries agreed to cut their greenhouse gas emissions and help the developed world reduce theirs.
The ministers meeting in Johannesburg this week have asked the AU to adopt a common African position at its 13th summit in June and July 2009, ahead of the Copenhagen climate change summit in December that year. At Copenhagen a new agreement to cut emissions is expected to be approved before the first commitment phase of the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012.
Talk is cheap
But Africa needs to more than just gear itself up for the negotiations. Under the Bali Roadmap, approved at the last major climate change talks in the Indonesian Island in December 2007, developing countries agreed to put in place “measurable, reportable and verifiable ” steps to tackle their emissions, supported by cleaner technology, financing and skills building, said Davidson. “Most countries in Africa don’t have the capacity to do that.”
Several funds have been announced by rich countries to help Africa adapt and access clean energy technologies. “We need to be proactive and engage these funds - but the question is do we have the capacity to receive these technologies?” pointed out Davidson.
All these strategies will have to be chalked up under an “African roadmap” in the next few months, he said. In the meantime, African countries can mitigate some of the impact of climate change.
“We can save our food production - about 50 percent of our food production is wasted off and on farms every year because we still harvest and market our produce by hand -w e can opt for simple mechanized farming techniques - we can also start harvesting water.”
[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations ]
Copyright © 2008 UN Integrated Regional Information Networks. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).
June 15th, 2008
I am very happy to inform you that we are finally ready to make another bike shipment. First, I would like to thank all of you for your participation, both directly and indirectly, in collecting bicycles over this past year. Without all your individual efforts, we would not have been able to get where we are now with this project. With the help of our stores, representatives, customers and volunteers, we now have over 2000 bicycles. Without your financial support through purchasing Alaffia products, we would not have been able to gather enough funds for the shipping, distribution and ongoing maintenance costs.
I would like to quickly remind you how critical the bike project is to youth in rural Togo. While the majority of girls and boys in Togo complete primary school, attendance drops off rapidly in higher grades. According UNICEF, 90% of girls in rural areas drop out before finishing secondary school. The time and energy required to walk to school are deterrents to continuing school for girls, who have more household chores than boys. We believe that these bicycles will decrease the time and energy required to get to school, and provide an incentive to remain in school.
Togo will not be able to move out of poverty without educating its youth. The lack of education in the female population leads to the continuation of gender and economic inequalities. We feel it is especially important to empower our female students, and for this reason, this shipment will be primarily distributed to female students in 50 different villages. I strongly believe that our communities in West Africa will gain the tools for self-empowerment through projects such as this that encourage respect and gender equality.
If you are close to Olympia, we are welcoming volunteers to prepare bicycles for shipment – sorting bicycles, removing pedals and front tires– from June 27 through July 3, 9 am to 4 pm. We will be loading the shipping containers on July 8th. We are also accepting financial contributions to help with supplies and shipping costs.
Bicycles donated in Summer 2007
I will be in Togo the entire month of September to help with the distribution of bicycles, and will bring a complete update upon my return in October.
Again, we thank you all - friends, volunteers, customers, stores and representatives - very much for your support. Together, we can continue to better our communities.
Peace,
Olowo-n’djo Tchala
June 5th, 2008
[Note from Blog Administrator: In reading articles like this, especially when referring to African countries, where a majority of the population are not just consumers, but agricultural producers, it is important to consider the impacts of food imports on African farming. Reduced prices are a positive for urban consumers, less positive or even negative from the perspective of farmers who will see reduced prices for the agricultural goods, thereby potentially pushing them out of farming, and perpetuating dependence on food imports. Who wins? The global food surplus producers, like U.S. farmers.]
Business Daily (Nairobi)
18 May 2008
By Jim Onyango
Consumers of wheat products are hoping for a reduction in prices after the government opened a window for the importation of duty free wheat flour. continue ‘Imports Set to Ease Rising Prices of Wheat Products’
May 19th, 2008
The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
5 May 2008
By Rodgers Luhwago, Ngorongoro
Controversy surrounds the sale of Sukenya farm in Loliondo division, Ngorongoro district to a private American investor, Thomson Safaris.
A team of journalists who at the weekend toured the area found out that the investor has since blocked the pastoralists from grazing their animals in the farm. continue ‘Villagers Up in Arms Over Sold Farm Sold to US Investors’
May 5th, 2008
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