Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Internet 'necessary' to Africa's growth

"A professor whose work in spreading information technology in Africa has been awarded by the Internet Society has hit out at critics who say the continent should focus first on basics like water and sanitation." (BBC News)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7149788.stm

Sunday, December 09, 2007

Farmers in Africa, West rethink subsidy

In exchange for foreign aid, debt-saddled African countries agreed to cut subsidies. Less than 4 percent of government spending in sub-Saharan Africa now goes to agriculture.

But without a safety net, a single bad season can bankrupt a farmer, and often does. And without help, African farmers are too poor to pay for the good seed and fertilizer that bring land to life.

There are signs of change. The World Bank is rethinking its stance on subsidies after a scathing internal review last month, and it made agriculture the center of its agenda this year for the first time in more than two decades. About 70 percent of Africans live off the land, and agricultural reform — from seed to market — is the surest way to lift the continent out of poverty.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071209/ap_on_re_af/rethinking_africa_from_the_ground_up



Thursday, December 06, 2007

Jeffrey Sachs

"The development community lacks the required ethical and professional standards. I am not suggesting that developent practitioners are corrupt or unethical: such cases are rare. Rather, the development economics community does not take on its work with the sense of responsibilty that the tasks require. Providing economic advice to others requries a profund committment to search for the right answers, not to settle for superficial approaches."

The End of Poverty