The IMF’s April 2025 Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa presents a clear warning: regional growth is slowing, debt pressures are mounting, and donor assistance is declining. Yet the report outlines critical opportunities particularly in domestic revenue mobilization, structural reform, and private sector activation that can shape a more resilient …
the 12th Conference of Parties (cop-12) to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (cites), held in Chile between November 3 and November 15, breathed a fresh lease of air into wildlife management. It brought sustainable use and economic incentives back on the agenda. Three African states were allowed …
Mozambique has become the fifteenth African nation to grant fishing rights to the European Union (EU). Under the pact, European vessels will be allowed to catch tuna and shrimp off the country's coast for the next three years. Though EU says it would promote sustainable fishing in the region, conservationists …
INFORMATION FEUDALISM . Peter Drahos with John Braithwaite . Earthscan Publications Limited . London . 2002 . Rs 920 In the last two decades, the intellectual property standards have changed drastically. Today, these rules are set by the global strategies of a small number of companies and business organisations. The …
Keeping tabs: A stiff dose of preventives is set to find its way into the European Union's (EU) prescription for curbing the illegal trade of low-cost antiretroviral drugs. The proposal comes in the face of the recent revelation that shipments of cheaper AIDS drugs intended for Africa were intercepted, flown …
recent investigations reveal that shipments of discounted hiv drugs, worth us $18 million, intended for African countries were, diverted to Europe and sold at the marked price. Drugs of pharmaceutical giant Glaxo SmithKline Beecham were intercepted by profiteers and sent to markets in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the uk …
Philippines joins CNG bandwagon: Yet another country attempting to switch its public transport to compressed natural gas (CNG) mode is Philippines. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has announced that a bus company, will undertake a pilot project by 2003, which will include 100 buses to be fully fuelled by CNG. Devious strategy …
The Oprah Show . ABC Network . September 19 . 2002 The activist rock-star Bono of the band U2 appeared on an extended episode of Oprah Winfrey show to take his campaign against debt in Africa to the US citizen. Bono articulated the vicious spiral between AIDS and mounting debt …
PILE OF PERIL: Toxic waste from piles of unused pesticides in Africa is threatening people's health and the environment. Despite several clean-up measures by the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), less than five per cent of the stockpiles have been disposed till now. IN PROTEST: From October 5 to …
the yellow international vaccination card that most western tourists carry describes malaria as "a serious and sometimes fatal disease, endemic in many tropical and subtropical countries. You cannot be vaccinated against it, but you can protect against mosquito bites, and take antimalaria tablets regularly. If you get a fever within …
Gabon is finally waking up to the significance of protecting its wildlife habitat. This African country, which did not have a single national park till now, has decided to leave aside a full 10 per cent of its land mass for establishing some 13 national parks spread over more than …
after several failed attempts to put into water burning Italian ship Jolly Rubino that had run aground, South African authorities have now decided to pump oil out of its fuel tanks. The vessel wrecked recently near the country's northeast coasts. The crew abandoned the ship after it caught fire, 46 …
A threat to food security looms large over east and central Africa. The insect which causes the cassava mosaic disease is rapidly spreading around the western side of Lake Victoria in Tanzania and parts of Congo. Experts warn that the affliction is threatening the livelihoods of many people whose daily …
three billion years ago, when there was no life on land and no oxygen in the atmosphere, rivers ran with gold. This is the hypothesis of an international team of researchers, who have recently analysed the world's biggest gold deposits
The World Bank (wb) has cleared the construction of a 1,045-kilometre oil pipeline from Chad in central Africa to Cameroon's Atlantic coast. The move flies in the face of environmental concerns raised by experts. The us $3.7 billion project includes the development of 300 oil wells in the Doba Basin …
NEPAD is a long shot but no one has come up with an alternative Together, the new African Union (au) and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (nepad) reflect a new imperative in Africa's international relations. Integration has replaced liberation as the continent's strategic goal. And for average Africans the …
The New Partnership for Africa's Development (nepad) has become something of couture show for political and economic elite across the globe. At an intergovernmental and business level, nepad has guaranteed diplomatic license to those who circumnavigate the world attending summits and conferences in the disguise of addressing Africa's developmental challenges. …
the African continent, rich in its biodiversity, incurs losses worth billions of dollars every year due to ineffective legislations against biopiracy. At the Second South-South Bio-piracy Summit at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (wssd) in Johannesburg recently, it was observed that biopiracy
the polarised and often bitter global debate over genetically modified (gm) food, sparked off by last month's refusal by some nations in southern Africa to accept international donations of gm maize, even cast its shadow on the World Summit on Sustainable Development at Johannesburg. Though the countries, notably Zimbabwe, eventually …
