The welfare of internally displaced people of northern Nigeria continues to worry the international community. The almost perennial struggle between the Nigerian Military and the militant group, Boko Haram, has left many homeless in their homeland. In this brilliant assessment of the situation in Bama, Borno State, Vincent Foucher, Jean-Have, and Nnamdi Obasi of the International Crisis Group provide analysis and guidance. Children are dying in Bama, a town in Borno state, north-east Nigeria, suffering from lack of food, clean water and medical care. They are the most tragic manifestation of the humanitarian fallout of the Boko Haram insurgency and…
Author: CASADE
Tuesday Reitano, Mark Shaw. The international community has reiterated its commitment to supporting the government to rebuild the fractured state of Mali. Despite formidable investments in sponsoring the electoral process, reinforcing the security sector and convening the ongoing peace process, the complex and interwoven challenges of chronic poverty, insurgencies, criminal economies, widespread corruption and impunity and extremist groups have created fissures in the state that are an increasing challenge to resolve. Within this environment, the requirements of international assistance have arguably failed to provide the right incentives to create the foundation for genuine democratic governance, investing in state institutions, promoting…
The latest Africa’s Pulse shows economic slowdown in Sub Saharan Africa, with growth dipping in 2015 to 3.7% from 4.6% in 2014. Fiscal deficits across the region are now larger than they were at the onset of the global financial crisis. Domestic demand generated by consumption, investment, and government spending will boost economic growth to 4.8% in 2017. As difficult global conditions combined with domestic challenges buffet many African countries, Sub-Saharan Africa’s economic growth will continue to slow in 2015 to 3.7 percent from 4.6 percent in 2014, according to new World Bank projections. The end of the commodity price…
By Peter Maass. Reviewd by Steven Mufson. We tend to take for granted the comforts of modern life. Few of us think of underpaid migrant workers when we buy inexpensive imported clothes from China, or of disfigured Appalachian mountain tops when we turn on our coal-powered kitchen lights, or of fouled oil-rich frontiers when we hop in our cars. In his new book, “Crude World,” journalist Peter Maass takes readers on a vivid tour of troubled oil frontiers, voyaging to places like Nigeria’s polluted delta, Equatorial Guinea’s dusty capital, Ecuador’s scarred rain forest and Russia’s corporate boardrooms, where corruption…
Kate Bayliss. South Africa is suffering an electricity crisis. Blackouts have been widespread and the impact disastrous. Electricity supply is predicted to constrain growth for at least the next five years. How could this have occurred when until recently South Africa had a surplus of cheap electricity? This One Pager explores the causes. The origins of the crisis stem from an ambitious electricity restructuring and privatisation programme started in the early 1990s. The process has been protracted, reforms have been difficult to implement and the private sector has failed to respond. Meanwhile, public investment has stalled; this is the main…
Illicit financial flows (IFFs), defined as “money illegally earned, transferred or used”, are increasingly understood as a threat to sustainable development and one of the greatest contemporary global development challenges. They undercut economic growth and legitimate trade, depriving governments of financial resources they might otherwise invest in public goods such as health, education or infrastructure. As they present a significant threat to security, stability and development in many regions of the world, IFFs have increasingly featured on the agenda of leading political initiatives like the G8 and G20. IFFs carry a high price, as they are increasingly concomitant with the…
Steven Livingston. Violent crime represents the most immediate threat to the personal security of most Africans. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 36 percent of all homicides globally occur in Africa. With 17 deaths per 100,000, the homicide rate in Africa is double the global average. Rates of robberies and rape in Africa also exceed global norms. The problem is worse in urban areas, with many of Africa’s urban-dwellers “often” worrying about crime. The risk of violent crime has implications for Africa’s development, governance, and stability. Crime ranks as one of the major inhibitors to investment…
Economic growth across the continent is projected to fall to 1.6% this year, the lowest level in over two decades. Despite this decline, economic growth is showing signs of resilience, particularly in Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Côte d’Ivoire, and Senegal, suggesting that Sub-Saharan Africa is growing at diverging speeds. Increasing agricultural productivity is central to transforming Sub-Saharan African economies and promoting sustained and inclusive growth. The countries of Sub-Saharan Africa present a diversified landscape of economic growth, according to the new Africa’s Pulse, a bi-annual analysis of the state of African economies conducted by the World Bank. While economic growth across…
Good Afternoon Ladies and Gentleman. As is always the case, I am in my elements when discussing the means and ways we may move the African continent from one that is primary-resource and commerce-based to that propelled by industrial productivity, and advanced information technology. As we speak, many African states have solved two of the four major problems all nations must face in their quest for sustained economic growth; by these I mean efficient financial services, telecommunication, road infrastructure, and energy. Nigeria, Ghana, and South Africa have done remarkably well in areas of financial services and telecommunication; what bedevils their…
Professor William Easterly, in his new book “The Tyranny of Experts,” makes compelling arguments on why economic development in poor countries is best achieved when individual liberty and free choice are protected and advanced. In contradistinction, he demonstrates why authoritarianism, ‘benevolent’ dictatorships, and development strategies propagated by presumed experts should be discouraged and discounted as self-serving, and seldom lead to sustained economic development. While there is ample room to disagree with the thrust of his thesis, Easterly leaves no doubt of his mastery of his subject. An excerpt of the book provides sufficient reason to read it. On the…