Africa News archive

28.04.2005 Will African governments have the capacity to regulate the use of GM crops in the face of US companies eager to penetrate new markets? The experience of Tanzania and nicotine-free GM tobacco is discouraging.

28.04.2005 Under proposals for UN reform, Japan and Germany are strong candidates for permanent seats on the Security Council. Aid promises may be one way to win valuable votes from African countries. Oxfam is unimpressed that poverty is becoming a political football.

26.04.2005 EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson demonstrates his old mastery of presentation in telling West African cotton producers that the EU cotton trade regime "has no distorting effect on the international market". The response is not recorded.

26.04.2005 Nigeria is in financial crisis and close to default on its international debt. The recent IMF spring meetings provide a reminder that headline promises of debt relief are more selective than they sound. Nigeria does not fulfil IMF conditionality and is excluded from the HIPC debt initiative.

25.04.2005 Hospital equipment in Africa often fails in the simple task of diagnosing malaria. And many fever sufferers choose to make their own diagnosis. On Africa Malaria Day, Daniel Nelson questions the presumption that malaria funds should be targeted on research and treatment.

25.04.2005 90% of global calorie intake is provided by just 30 plant species. Experts meeting in India say that the risks involved in mono-culture will undermine the Millennium Development Goal for hunger.

22.04.2005 Initiatives like the "Africa Season" of programmes to be broadcast by the BBC this summer could be scheduled much more often under proposals in the Green Paper for the future of the BBC. More public support is needed however to ensure that the newly elected government does not tinker with the detail.

21.04.2005 The public relations success of the Make Poverty History campaign runs the ironic risk of creating supporters who can respond only to shallow messages of the mainstream media - comforted by ephemeral slogans and untroubled with learning about the underlying issues. A crucial opportunity for stimulating activism beyond 2005 may have been missed, argues the Director of the Development Education Association.

20.04.2005 As part of the international donor package of aid for Sudan announced last week, the European Commission has agreed to contribute 600 million euros. There appears to be no specific conditionality on the behaviour of the Sudanese government in Darfur.

19.04.2005 Redirecting 2 days of global military spending would create the annual funds necessary to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of universal education. A damning report from the Global Campaign for Education ranks the United States as bottom of a league table which assesses donors for quantity and quality of education aid.

19.04.2005 Eritrea is suffering a 5th consecutive year without adequate rainfall and its people are once again dependent on the World Food Programme for survival. About 50% of young children are underweight.

19.04.2005 Participants at the current meeting of the UN Commission for Sustainable Development will be calling for donor countries to double spending on water and sanitation projects and for Africa to be given higher priority.

18.04.2005 The refrain outside Downing Street at 4.00am on Saturday morning, the time of day at which most people in the world are awake. Here is the full chronology of the events of a challenging but rewarding night for campaigners determined that the message for trade justice will be heard.

18.04.2005 The spring meetings of the World Bank and IMF held this weekend have passed into history like so many before - with barely a hint of the urgency of the issues of world poverty that these institutions are supposed to address.

15.04.2005 The all-night vigil for trade justice is turning into an all-night carnival with no shortage of great entertainment to keep you awake - and get the message across to the politicians to wake up to the issues that really matter.

15.04.2005 The trendy white band symbol for the Make Poverty History campaign will be much in evidence at Sunday's London Marathon. A former Marathon winner from Kenya leads supporters amongst both runners and spectators.

15.04.2005 Earlier this week international donors agreed a substantial aid package for the rebuilding of southern Sudan following the peace agreement. Why was there not more linkage to the crisis in Darfur? Amnesty reports that government-backed atrocities continue.

14.04.2005 The Department for International Development (DFID) has published its objectives for the spring meetings of the World Bank and IMF taking place this weekend. Unmoved by resistance at the recent G7 finance ministers' meeting, DFID lists its entire agenda from gold sales to removal of aid conditionality. Strong tactics or just naive?

14.04.2005 Hard evidence is beginning to emerge that donors have enhausted their interest and funds on the Asian tsunami to the detriment of other crises. Some UN appeals for the neglected emergencies of Africa have raised less than 5% of target.

12.04.2005 Tesco will announce its annual profits today, results which will doubtless satisfy the shareholders. ActionAid reports that these margins are coming not from those of us at the top of the chain in the supermarkets but from casual women labourers on South African farms whose conditions are being squeezed below poverty thresholds.