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

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

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

Nigeria: Siemens Bribery Scandal - Indicted Men Face the Music

http://allafrica.com/stories/200711191176.html

I found this story to be particularly relevant after my experience of working for GTZ in Abuja.
The GTZ website states that the EoPSD project in Nigeria is funded by "the Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ)", i.e. the German Government. In fact, I was told that 60% of the funding is coming from the BMZ, the other 40% is from another source (un-identified). It would be very interesting to establish who is providing the rest of the funding, and whether there is any connection to Siemens.


"Companies cooperating with GTZ for the first time tend to be disappointed with the amount of public-sector money on offer. When asked after the measures are concluded, however, the majority report being positively surprised by the quality of the advice they received and the fact that the "development workers" often had excellent contacts useful for helping the companies get into the market and reduce the risk of their engagement."

http://www.inwent.org/E+Z/content/archive-eng/06-2003/foc_art2.html

mobile phones and entrepreneurship in Africa

"This is the Village Phone-model, which provides a business in a box. With loans, budding entrepreneurs can buy a mobile phone, a car battery to charge it, and a booster antenna that can pick up signals from base stations situated up to 25 kilometres away.

The handset is loaded with software that tracks revenues from every call.

The loan providers, so-called microfinance institutions, take on the task of ordering the equipment and transporting it to those who cannot afford to travel long distances."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7071636.stm

HP helps Africa with recycling standards

An estimated 500 containers of used computer scrap enter Nigeria each month,” says a report from the Basel Action Network, a lobby group specialising in e-waste issues.

http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2199600/hp-helps-africa-recycling-3505547

Wind-up lights for African homes

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7072741.stm

"The technology behind the wind-up radio could soon be helping to light up some of the poorest homes in Africa."

The devastating cost of Africa's wars: £150bn and millions of lives

http://www.guardian.co.uk/congo/story/0,,2188340,00.html

"Conflicts in Africa since the end of the cold war have cost the continent £150bn, equivalent to all the foreign aid it has received over the same period, according to a report released by Oxfam today."

UK backs African farmers in battle over imported produce

"The Department for International Development warned only last week that food miles alone do not determine the environmental damage of food and praised organic air freight as a "trade success story" for Africa."

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article2998915.ece

G8 global fund to fight aids, TB, and malaria

"The G8 decided that one way to get treatment to all those who need it would be to triple the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, so that by 2010 it could provide £3bn-£4bn for programmes delivering medical care. Next week in Berlin, members of the G8 will attend a meeting of the fund to deliver on that promise."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2174654,00.html

Mobiles for the 'world's poorest'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6986804.stm

"Nearly half a million people, described by the UN as "the poorest of the poor", will soon be able to make mobile calls.

As part of a UN programme to tackle poverty in rural Africa, 79 villages across 10 African countries will be hooked up to cellular networks."

Exploiting Africa

"A British mining firm linked to abuses around the world is banking huge profits at Africa's expense"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2140854,00.html

"Britain has supported the World Bank-led rewriting of dozens of countries' mining laws, resulting in foreign firms paying much lower corporation tax and royalties to host governments. In Ghana the government gets a minuscule 5% of the value of all minerals exported. No wonder Anglo American was able to make $6bn profits last year."

sharing computer power

A way to share each PC between 5 - 6 people.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/aug/02/guardianweeklytechnologysection.it1

Could be useful for schools and colleges in developing countries ?

Aid to Africa

"Construction work on a 51-mile stretch of road will cost an estimated £2.9bn, twice Britain's yearly aid budget to Africa"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/transport/Story/0,,2138044,00.html

UK Conservative Party volunteers for Africa

http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,,2131500,00.html

44 members of the Conservative Party in the UK have volunteered to work on projects in Rwanda.

"This issue is central to the Conservative party and I think to British politics," said Mr Mitchell. "Our generation is the generation that is going to make a real difference to the enormous discrepancy of wealth that exists between the rich world and the poor world, which is obscene."

Andrew Mitchell is the shadow international development secretary in the British Parliament.

Internet Cooperation

India provides medical help to Africa via the Internet:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6295044.stm

The war on corruption continues

"Disgraced media mogul Conrad Black faces a lengthy stretch in a US jail after a court convicted him of looting millions of pounds from his Hollinger empire by embezzling funds from shareholders."

http://business.guardian.co.uk/conradblacktrial/story/0,,2126307,00.html

African corruption 'on the wane'

"African nations have taken the biggest steps in reducing corruption over the past 10 years, the World Bank has said."

BBC World website

World Bank report shows that Africa is winning the fight against corruption.

postive action from the UK Government

"Treasury plans to shut arms sales department"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/baefiles/story/0,,2122026,00.html

The international arms trade fuels conflict, such as currently happening in Darfur.
The decision that UK taxpayers should stop subsidising this trade is very welcome.