Making international trade work for the world's poorest
Over the past 25 years, an astounding one billion people have lifted themselves out of extreme poverty, reducing by more than half the number of those living in such deplorable conditions.
This is great work but we can do even better. In the next 15 years, we believe that international trade, which has boosted economic growth and improved access to new technologies and innovations, has played a significant role in reducing extreme poverty in the past, and it can do so in the future.
But while trade can lift economic growth, the poor do not automatically benefit from new trade opportunities. Many people simply face too many obstacles to benefit from increased trade.
Gender inequalities mean that women face a range of constraints that limit their ability to participate in trade. The rural poor are often isolated from markets and lack access to technologies like modern seeds and fertilisers that could boost their incomes. In times of economic downturns, workers in the informal sector often fall into poverty without any type of social safety net. And more than 40% of the extreme poor live in fragile and conflict-affected areas, creating a major hurdle for the poor to reap the gains from trade.
More :
http://www.theguardian.com/business/economics-blog/2015/jun/30/making-international-trade-work-for-the-worlds-poorest
Ending Poverty: There's an App for That!
Rural Africa presents changemakers with intractable challenges across sectors, but one American investor, Grameen Foundation, believes it all comes down to access to information. Grameen Foundation has invested millions to develop mobile-phone applications that leapfrog over a lack of electricity, education, and income.
Building on their legacy of leading-edge ideas, Grameen Foundation has evolved from funding microfinance to designing disruptive solutions to the kind of poverty that's most challenging to reach, in remote rural areas, and to the poorest of the poor. Since more people have access to cell phones than toilets in Africa, Grameen Foundation brings increased agricultural productivity, access to prenatal and infant healthcare, and a portfolio of financial services, to the poor--right into the palm of their hands.
I traveled to Africa with Grameen Foundation to see their real-time impact on the ground.
More :
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/suzanne-skees/ending-poverty-theres-an-_b_7682768.html
Health roundup: Vitamin D linked to healthy immune response to HIV, Penn State-South Africa study says
Already commonly prescribed for elderly men and women to keep their bones strong, vitamin D supplements also could be an easy and affordable way to fight serious infections like HIV, according to a recent study led by a Penn State anthropology professor.
Nina Jablonski, whose research includes skin pigmentation and vitamin D, launched the project and enlisted South African researchers and 100 young adults in Cape Town to study how levels of ultraviolet B radiation, vitamin D in the diet, genetics and skin pigment affect vitamin D in the blood. At the same time they tested whether vitamin D supplements could reverse deficiency and improve resistance to HIV. Results were published this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
In the end, they found that by sorting out other factors of diet, genes and even skin color, personal sun exposure habit was the strongest factor affecting vitamin D levels in the blood of these 18- to 24-year-olds.
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In dispute over Bashir, S. Africa throwns down fresh challenge to criminal court
The International Criminal Court's shaky standing in Africa may have been furthered damaged by S. Africa's refusal to detain the visiting Sudanese president last week – and its move to challenge its own court for trying to prevent him from leaving.
Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir's plane had barely lifted off from a South African military air base earlier this month when the question first surfaced: Was this the beginning of the end for the International Criminal Court?
Mr. Bashir, after all, had arrived in the country with an ICC arrest warrant for war crimes dangling over his head. But South Africa — despite its membership in the ICC — had let him go free, the latest in a line of African countries to snub the court's attempts to prosecute the continent's most nefarious war criminals.
Then, on Monday, the South African government announced that it would bring a challenge to its own high court for attempting to prevent Bashir from leaving. The move came after the government stated last week that it was considering formally withdrawing from the ICC, a heavy blow to the international court's already-wobbling legitimacy on the continent
More :
http://news.yahoo.com/dispute-over-bashir-africa-throwns-down-fresh-challenge-175116197.html
African Economy: Debt On The Rise
Editor's note: As Greece struggles to get through its debt crisis, it is high time we had a look at the African economy. The Naij.com columnist Mawuna Koutonin says the situation with the African debt has worsened, with the IMF warning about the uncontrollable debt rise.
The views expressed in this article are author's own and do not necessarily represent the editorial policy of Naij.com.
Could a country whose debt increased by 13.4% and GDP grew by 12.7% in the same year be considered a fast-growing economy? What if the contracted debt had interest rate at 6%, would the country still be a fast-growing economy?
That is the story of Ethiopia, one of the media-heralded fast-growing African economies.
Now let's take a look at the consolidated 2010 data sets of ten African countries labelled "fastest-growing economies" by the international press.
READ MORE: http://www.naij.com/473679-african-economy-debt-on-the-rise.html
'Poor quality of higher education in Africa threatens AU 2063 Agenda'
The 2063 vision of the African Union, which focuses on building an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, an African-driven and managed by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the international arena, may be a mirage in the long run, if frantic efforts were not made to overhaul the poor quality of higher education in the continent.
This was the main thrust of a lecture delivered by Peter Okebukola, a professor and former executive secretary of National Universities Commission (NUC) at the 10th Convocation Lecture of Covenant University, Otta in Ogun state, adding that aspirations of African Union might be dashed if much emphasis were not laid on education development.
The Chairman of Crawford University's Governing Board, while undertaking surgical analysis of multiple challenges facing higher education on African continent, disclosed that Africa is one of the world's most underdeveloped continents and may remain so as against aspirations of African Union, except there were significant re-orientation of higher education system.
More :
Education matters, but skills matter more
By James Arinaitwe@JamesArinaitwe30 June 2015
When I was 18 years old, full of ambition, zeal and energy, I graduated from high school in Kampala, Uganda, with good grades and a great command of the English language. With my gap year at hand, I combed the streets of Uganda's capital, looking for a job. After being turned down several times for not having the right skills, through a friend's mother I was finally hired at a fruit juice factory where I hauled heavy juice boxes. My strength was the only skill needed and I was thrilled to be earning a meager $1.25 a day.
Almost 90 percent of Uganda's youth aged 15-24 are literate; the country ranks No. 1 in Africa for its English literate population. That statistic pales in comparison to its painful 64 percent youth unemployment rate, a figure that is particularly alarming since young people comprise 80 percent of the population. The mismatch between Uganda's education model and employable skill sets prevents our youth from being relevant to the global market economy. For a population of 37 million, this is a genocide not only of the mind but of the country's future social, economic and political leaders.
More :
https://www.devex.com/news/education-matters-but-skills-matter-more-86427
South Sudan conflict: Army 'raped and torched girls'
South Sudan's army and allied militias "abducted, torched and gang-raped girls" during fighting against rebel forces, a UN report says.
Investigators found that at least 172 women and girls were abducted and subjected to sexual violence, it added.
One woman was "dragged out of her hut and gang-raped in front of her three-year old child", the report said.
The government denies its army has committed atrocities but says it will study the report.
The UN Mission in South Sudan (Unmiss) said abuses during the 18-month civil war had reached a new scale of intensity and horror in recent fighting in the oil-producing Unity State.
More :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-33326869
Fears of new Ebola outbreak in West Africa after 17-year-old boy dies from deadly virus
FEARS of a fresh outbreak of Ebola in western Africa were growing tonight after the body of a 17-year-old boy was discovered riddled with the deadly disease.
Police in Liberia have quarantined two households following the shocking find, which comes just two months after the country was officially declared Ebola-free.
The deadly disease has ravaged huge swathes of the African continent, killing at least 11,000 people in the process.
Worried Liberian deputy health minister Tolbert Nyenswah confirmed tonight: "Liberia has got a re-infection of Ebola."
He said that the teenager had been swiftly buried near his home, close to the country's international airport and around 30 miles south of the capital, Monrovia, to stop the disease spreading.
Teams are now probing how the boy became infected, given that he lived in an area miles from Liberia's borders with Sierra Leone and Guinea, which are still battling Ebola.
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Facebook aims to srengthen link to mobile-first Africa with new office
Facebook is establishing stronger ties to Africa, opening its first office on the continent in order to tailor applications, metrics and ad formats to the needs of customers and advertisers on a continent in which many users only use mobile devices to connect to the Internet.
Based in Johannesburg, South Africa, the office will focus on working out partnerships with governments, telecom companies and other major players initially in anchor countries in the major regions of sub-Saharan Africa: Kenya (East Africa), Nigeria (West Africa), and South Africa (Southern Africa). Other countries to be supported include Senegal, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia, Mozambique and Ethiopia.
The company wants to deliver localized solutions to advertisers and its active user population in Africa, which according to Facebook, has grown by 20 percent to 120 million users today from 100 million last September. More than 80 percent of users in Africa access Facebook from their mobile phones.
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The role of ICT in citizen and government engagements in East Africa
iHub Research, today presented a report on a study they undertook in 2014 to assess how ICT tools are being used, for and in various aspects of governance in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. This study, with an aim to bridge the research and insights gap on ICT use in East Africa, sought to answer the following:
· Which ICT tools are used in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania addressing these four aspects of governance,
o Access to information
o Service delivery
o Tracking corruption
o Citizen participation
More :
http://pctechmag.com/2015/06/the-role-of-ict-in-citizen-and-government-engagements-in-east-africa/
South Sudan army raped, burnt girls alive - UN report
Rights investigators from the UN mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) warned of "widespread human rights abuses" including gang-rape and torture in a report based on 115 victims and eyewitnesses from the northern battleground state of Unity, scene of some of the heaviest recent fighting in the 18-month-long civil war.
The military, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), launched a major offensive against rebel forces in April, with fierce fighting in Unity state's northern Mayom district, once a key oil producing area.
"Survivors of these attacks reported that SPLA and allied militias from Mayom county carried out a campaign against the local population that killed civilians, looted and destroyed villages and displaced over 100 000 people," the UN said.
"Some of the most disturbing allegations compiled by UNMISS human rights officers focused on the abduction and sexual abuse of women and girls, some of whom were reportedly burnt alive in their dwellings."
Investigators said they had collected at least nine separate incidents where "women and girls were burnt in tukuls [huts] after being gang-raped" as well as scores of cases of sexual violence, many the rape of mothers in front of their children.
http://mg.co.za/article/2015-06-30-south-sudan-army-raped-burnt-girls-alive-un-report
Kenya school forcing Muslim girls to attend church
Muslim leaders have expressed their outrage and will raise issue with education minister after t Muslim students at a girls' high school were being forced to attend Christian church services or face expulsion
World Bulletin / News Desk
Muslim leaders in Kenya have voiced outrage over reports that Muslim students at a girls' high school in Mombasa County were being forced to attend Christian church services or face expulsion.
Muslim students at the Bura High School for Girls say they were forced to attend Christian church services, an infringement on their constitutional right to freedom of worship.
Abdulswamad Nassir, an MP for the constituency in which the school is located, said he had received several reports to this effect from concerned parents.
"Parents and schoolchildren have visited my office to protest," Nassir said. "They have explained to me how they were being deprived of their [religious] rights."
More :
http://www.worldbulletin.net/world/161488/kenya-school-forcing-muslim-girls-to-attend-church
Posted by: Africa Realities <africarealities@gmail.com>
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The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.
I have loved justice and hated iniquity: therefore I die in exile.
The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.
When the white man came we had the land and they had the bibles; now they have the land and we have the bibles.
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