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 …
IS RATIONALITY a solely human chartersistic ? Perhaps not, contend two evolutionary biologists who applied a decision making model similar to one used for social behaviour of a bird called the white-fronted bee-eater (Merops bulockoides). These birds, common to east and central Africa, live in joint families of five to …
EVER SINCE the Earth Summit last year in Rio de Janeiro, there has been a spate of literature on sustainable development. Suddenly there is money aplenty for seminars, conferences and publications on every aspect of the subject. Suddenly corporations, multilateral agencies and even governments are anxious to fund research or …
Many animal rights activists consider that all research carried out with animals is indefensible. This would apply especially to research with chimpanzees. I assume that chimpanzees are the closest relatives to humans and that they deserve ethical considerations which are similar to those accorded humans. Nevertheless, I believe that it …
BRITISH aid agency Oxfam has flayed the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) for their complacent approach to the problems caused in sub-Saharan Africa because of its huge external debt, which is in excess of $183 billion. "After a decade of structural adjustment programmes implemented under the …
"IT IS A sad reflection on our society that we shall probably have to wait for another series of massive locust plagues before politicians and financiers will take a serious long-term look at the problem," wrote Professor Chapman, a renowned expert on locust control in the 1970s. The truth of …
SUB-SAHARAN Africa's debts have increased three-fold since 1980 and the only prospect is that the arrears will mount as just half the scheduled payments are being met. Solutions being explored range from implementing the so-called Trinidad terms to creating a UN Economic Security Council (ESC), whose 11 permanent members would …
FREE trade in ivory may not be environment-friendly, but neither is a ban, according to a research paper published by economist Timothy Swanson in Economic Policy. He argues that though bans may effectively protect oceanic species, they do not work in the case of elephants. Swanson explains this is because …
FOR AFRICA, by Africa, is the World Bank's new slogan while handling the continent's economic problems. V K Jaycox, vice president for the African region, recently said the Bank would no longer dictate development plans to African nations, would stop "imposing" foreign expertise on the governments and aim at "building …
PRESENTING Africa's first environment-friendly, fodder-efficient, money-saving, low-fat dairy in the dunes -- Laitiere de Mauritanie, which will pasteurise camel's milk in the country's capital, Nouakchott. Camels are clearly close to the heart of British-born Nancy Abeiderrahmane, whose dairy, set up in 1987, went commercial this year, winning for her the …
THE INTERNATIONAL aid organisation, Oxfam, wants Western governments to evolve a Marshall plan to tackle the problem of poverty in sub-Saharan Africa and prevent 9 million people in the region falling below the poverty line each year. The organisation suggests writing off much of the region's external debt, which amounted …
A SERIES of international meetings is attempting to sort out the confusion surrounding the implementation of the biodiversity convention, signed at the Rio Summit amidst much fanfare last June. Increasing scrutiny of the text, whose wording cannot be changed, is proving that the contents are dangerously vague. Key questions have …
IF THE terms of the implementation of the biodiversity convention are to be decided by more than a handful of influential governments, the participation of non-government organisations (NGOs) is vital. But barely a dozen NGOs have attended the biodiversity negotiations. It has been suggested that the African Centre for Technology …
AS THE United Nations labours to clear the mess it has been accused of creating in providing refugee relief in Somalia and in the elections and peace process in Angola, World Health Organisation director-general Hiroshi Nakajima is attempting to pre-empt complaints of still another delay. He called on the international …
FOR THE first time in a decade, developing countries have received more money from developed countries than they returned as interest on debt. But losses caused by declining terms of trade continued to offset the gains in aid. The United Nations secretary general's report, however, cautions this turnaround in resource …
A STUDY has shown community institutions can be an effective way to regulate the use of natural resources. The indigenous knowledge, attitudes and practices of a people have great potential in promoting the management of resources around them. The study by Wendelin Mlenge, project manager for the HASHI project in …
DOCTORS in Africa are debating whether severely anaemic children should be given blood transfusions because of the risk of their getting AIDS-infected blood. Researchers, however, have found ways to reduce the frequency of transfusions by 55 per cent without increasing mortality (The Lancet, Vol 340 No 8818). Severely anaemic children …
Information on the African rainforest elephant, whose survival is threatened, is trickling in now via satellite, thanks to a new technology. Wildlife biologists of the New York Zoological Society have put collars that emit ultra-high-frequency signals on a forest elephant in Korup National Park, Cameroon, and on a savannah elephant …
Thanks to the foresight of an American plant collector 20 years ago, several bean varieties are today resistant to a pest scientists had given up trying to control. During a trip to southern Mexico, H S Gentry recognised a wild vine considered a useless weed was, in fact, a wild …
Scientists have successfully used tiny wasps and an invisible fungus disease to battle pests destroying cassava crops in Africa and South America. Cassava, a starchy root crop native to Latin America, was taken across the Atlantic by Portuguese traders four centuries ago and is now a major food for more …
