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Watch out for Africa, says the World Bank

Africa economic opportunity
 
The World Bank's new report on Africa, published this week, concluded that that continent "could be on the brink of an economic take-off, much like China was 30 years ago, and India 20 years ago".
 
In its draft strategy for Africa, published on Monday, the bank said the continent's steady economic growth, progress on the millennium development goals and good rates of returns on investments give Africa "unprecedented opportunity for transformation and growth". Promoting Africa as an exciting and lucrative investment destination will be crucial to fulfilling this potential, it added.
 
"The emergence of new development partners such as China, the untapped potential of mobilising domestic resources, as well as the rise in private capital flows to Africa, calls for a new approach – Africa as an investment proposition – and points to the need for new partnerships among governments, development partners and the private sector," said the bank.
 
Based on data from the World Development Indicators, private cash flows (remittances and foreign direct investment) to developing countries totalled more than $650bn in 2009, while official development assistance fell to less than $130bn.
 
As the strategy's name – Africa's future and the World Bank's role in it – might suggest, the draft, which comes five years after its last Africa Action Plan, is both an optimistic reading of Africa's development and an assertive defence of the critical role the bank can play in its future. According to some, the emergence of new and very eager investors like China and India has left the bank worried about losing its footing on the continent.
 
Writing in the Nairobi-based Business Daily, Johnstone Ole Turana argued that: "The increased accessibility of grants from the BRIC [Brazil, Russia, India, China] nations, which is being provided with less conditionality compared to the World Bank and the western countries' bilateral aid, has forced sub-Saharan African nations to re-orient their engagement from the west to the east."
 
The draft moves away from a focus on single-issue projects – in an implicit critique of an MDG model of development with separate targets – and instead focuses on systems and structures, giving special attention to closing Africa's "infrastructure gap" and leveraging its investment potential. This means developing a more "attractive" climate for foreign investors, tackling "key constraints" from the regulation of labour and land to the lack of "financial (and overall business) literacy".
 
The bank is, of course, positioning itself as the essential partner for both developing countries and potential investors, willing and ready to exercise its "comparative advantage" in partnerships, knowledge, and financing. "From the reputational perspective, it's absolutely crucial for them to be seen as linchpins to African development, particularly with regard to private sector linkages" , said Soren Ambrose, from Action Aid Kenya, last month.
 
Yesterday, the bank's managing director, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, approached the China Mining Congress, being held in Tianjin, China, with a bid for how "the World Bank can help lay the ground work for larger investments", offering knowledge and guidance to investors and advice to governments on how to marry investment and development priorities. Okonjo-Iweala also advertised the bank's programme of providing "political risk" insurance to investors in case of war, civil unrest or expropriation.
 
Changing perceptions
The draft also sets out the bank's commitment to improve the otherwise poor perceptions of Africa, which can make attracting investors challenging. The paper claims the rate of return on foreign investment in Africa is higher than in any other developing region, but notes that "given its legacy of poverty, slow growth, conflict and disease, not everybody sees Africa as the emerging frontier".
The bank's wants to help change the public mindset, "not just in providing the evidence of the changes on the continent and educating the rest of the world, but also in supporting those, such as the media, who interpret this evidence to the public and thereby shorten the lag between perceptions and reality".
 
The bank also plans a shift in its own communications with the public, moving away from the stand-alone reports aimed at specialist audiences.
 
One early example of this shift is the bank's decision to make public a series of stakeholder consultations on the draft strategy, held in 36 countries between June and September this year, and uploading a promotional video on YouTube.

 

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Now, the bank has launched an online consultation alongside the draft, actively seeking comment from the public to feed into its final strategy for Africa, due early next year.
 
What feedback the bank chooses to incorporate into its strategies and programmes on the continent – if any – is the crucial question. In the past, critics, such as Beatrice Edwards, of the Governance Accountability Project, have come down hard on the bank for showing "transparency about the problem but no accountability or attempt to fix it".
 
But the online consultation does provide an opportunity to tell the bank what you think – and posting a comment isn't too arduous, at least from the UK. Feel free to cross-post your comments here.
(Report from the Guardian, UK)
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Reducing trauma in HIV orphans

uganda orphans
When a child loses a parent to HIV/AIDS, grief counselling helps with the trauma of loss, but when the child is both poor and orphaned, the chances of a fulfilling life are significantly diminished.
Studies have found high levels of psychological distress among such orphans, and suggest interventions to improve their mental wellbeing. Here are some ways to minimize trauma among these children:
Keep them in the family
Most African orphans remain with their extended families, being cared for by either the remaining parent, grandparents or other relatives. Studies show that staying with family is best for children; institutional care should only be a temporary solution or last resort.
Keeping brothers and sisters together also enhances their emotional wellbeing; a 1998 Zambian study found increased emotional distress after sibling separation.
 
In addition, it appears that remaining with closer relatives rather than more distant ones is also better for orphans. A 2003 study in the district of Rakai, central Uganda, found that the more distant the relative, the lower the chances of child survival.
 
Meet their basic needs
Few African parents leave wills, and property grabbing is common when adults die; in a Ugandan survey, 21 percent of orphans aged 13-18 reported property grabbing. The phenomenon undermines the livelihood of families already weakened by the death of parents.
In addition, families who take in orphaned children are often poor themselves; additional mouths to feed often stretch limited resources to breaking point. These families may need economic support to a larger number of dependents.
 
A 2008 study suggested that programmes such as school-feeding schemes, sustainable food and gardening projects, employment initiatives and targeted assistance for grant applications could have positive mental health impacts on AIDS-orphaned children.
 
Provide psycho-social care
Dealing with the loss of a parent is tough enough, but watching a parent die, adjusting to a new family and dealing with stigma and a much worse economic position make counselling all the more important. A 2002 study in Tanzania's commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, found that orphans were significantly more likely than non-orphans to internalize their problems, jeopardizing their long-term mental health.
Grief counselling is important, notably for younger children who do not yet fully grasp the concept of death. Orphans may also need more life-skills training, particularly if they are not living in traditional family set-ups and have little chance of learning, for instance, gender roles and how to make the transition from childhood to adulthood. Peer support groups can be especially helpful in allowing orphans to share their feelings with people who may be going through similar situations.
 
Keep them in school
School drop-out rates tend to be higher among orphaned children; they often quit school to care for sick parents and never make it back into the education system. A 2004 Princeton University study of 10 sub-Saharan African countries found that orphans were at significant risk for lower school enrolment.
"When these orphans are not in school something happens, they refuse to think, but once they get back in school they regain focus on their lives," she told IRIN/PlusNews. "The difference between the child on the first day of farm school and one term later is amazing – they begin to look like any other child."
Free primary education has gone some way to improving overall school attendance, but other factors, such as living with a non-relative, continue to hamper orphans' education.
School-based peer support groups have also been shown to reduce psychological distress of orphaned younger children and teenagers.
 
Caring for the carers
Families taking in orphans face challenges too – a new household structure, additional expenses and the responsibility of caring for psychologically distressed children.
Custodial families may need counselling themselves to adequately respond to the emotional needs of orphans.
Surviving grandparents often step into the role of parent when their children die from AIDS-related causes. A Ugandan study  found that custodial grandparents experienced extreme economic deprivation, felt physically challenged with care-giving and emotionally stretched by concerns for the children under their care.
According to a 2009 South African study, families caring for orphans are not receiving the support they need; the authors found a lack of assistance from social support services and family. They recommended that health workers and home-based caregivers be trained to support orphans' caregivers.
 
Authors of the Ugandan study recommended that grandparents be offered "respite care, child care, parenting support, support groups and skills development and recreational opportunities for the grandchildren".
 
(A UN Study/IRIN)
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Africa Must Feed Itself

by Dr. Akin Adesina, Dr. Wangari Maathai and Dr. Graça Machel

Africa is rising. The 2010 Ibrahim Index of African Governance reveals some very good news: 40 out of 53 African countries have made significant strides in terms of economic and human development indicators. The Millennium Development Goals Report of the United Nations show that the agricultural growth rate has become positive, a first in almost thirty years. Between 1990 and 2005, the proportion of people living on less than $1.25 per day declined from 58% to 51%. The proportion of undernourished people declined from 31% in 1990 to 26% by 2005-2007. The African Development Bank has published an upbeat African Economic Outlook that points to a bright future for the continent.

Yes, our continent is scoring some major victories, but we are far from winning the war against hunger and poverty. Africa still has 300 million people living on less than $1.25 per day – nearly as many people as are living in the entire United States of America. The vast majority are smallholder farmers, about 70% of whom are women.

Africa’s average staple crop yield is still less than one ton per hectare, compared to a global average of 5 tons per hectare. For millions of farmers in Africa, accessing basic technologies to help them raise food production is a major challenge. Leaders have failed to urgently prioritize the challenges facing poor farmers in Africa. Leaders must act on their behalf.

Farmers should be able to at least feed their country’s population. In the USA, farmers represent only 1 % of the population, but they still feed the nation and generate enough surpluses to feed many more people around the world. Yet, in Africa, we see such shocking sights of farmers queuing for food aid. What a paradox! The 70% of our population working in agriculture cannot feed themselves, let alone the 30% that are not in agriculture. Many African countries still rely on food aid and the continent as a whole spends $25 billion every year importing food.

No politician hoping to become President in America dares ignore the American heartland. President Obama kicked off his historic election in Iowa, the breadbasket of America. But in Africa, the political cost of inaction on hunger and poverty has been zero. Our politicians count on constituents in rural areas who engage in farming for a living to keep them in office, yet they largely ignore agriculture.

But change is coming. What matters for millions of Africans is the ‘democracy of the stomach’. The food crisis and social unrest that the continent witnessed during 2007-2008, rekindled by the recent food riots in Mozambique in 2010, are tipping points. Political pressure is building as empty stomachs rumble. A growing number of countries are responding. For example, Mali is now spending 11% of its total budget on agriculture, Burkina Faso 15% and Ethiopia 17%.
But deeper changes are needed. Agriculture in Africa has for far too long been managed as a development program. Agriculture is a business and should be seen and supported as such. With 70% of our people engaged in the sector, African agriculture is a potentially very powerful engine of growth that must be kick-started to generate greater domestic income, savings and investment.
As the globe marks World Food Day, we need to ensure the right to food of every African. Begging for food is not the way to ensure that right. The right to food is only truly meaningful when a nation can feed itself.

Local solutions are working in Africa. Malawi, for example, is now self sufficient in food production, five years after it faced a major food crisis. It achieved this by significantly increasing government support for its farmers. Access to improved seed and fertilizer and the knowledge to use them turned the tide. Malawi fed its 15 million people. It also exported 400,000 tons of maize in 2009.

On the rolling hills of Rwanda an agricultural revolution has begun. The plan is bold and the payoffs substantial. Government support to farmers was provided to help them afford needed farm inputs. The result was an agricultural growth rate of 15% in 2009 and national food security.

What has brought about these emerging agricultural revolutions? The answer is simple: political will and government support for farmers. When leaders do their part, African farmers will stand and deliver.

African farmers are no different from farmers in other parts of the world. Our farmers, the majority of whom are women, are hard working and entrepreneurial. What they need are comprehensive farm support policies that will allow them to produce more food to feed the continent.

An African green revolution – one based on political will and country driven solutions – will help Africa feed itself by raising agricultural productivity in sustainable ways. When we are able to feed ourselves, our freedom will be meaningful. Only then will democracy and the right to food be truly meaningful for the 300 million of our people still living in extreme poverty.

Dr. Akin Adesina, Vice President of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, Dr. Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize Winner and environmental and political activist, and Dr. Graça Machel, former first lady of South Africa and Mozambique and a member of the Group of Elders, were recently appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General to the Millennium Development Goals Advocacy Group.
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Polygamy no fun, Ethiopian polygamist warns

An Ethiopian man with 11 wives and 77 children is urging people not to follow his example and is giving advice on family planning and contraception.
After seeing his fortune disappear under the competing demands of his enormous family, Ayattu Nure, 56, even urges people not to get married.
"I want my children to be farmers but I have no land, I want them to go to school but I have no money," he says.
But his eldest son has not heeded Mr Ayattu's advice and he has three wives

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Seven of Mr Ayattu's wives live in huts around his compound, which are in urgent need of renovation.
Another four live in huts on the other side of the valley in Giwe Abossa village, 300km from the capital, Addis Ababa in Arsi region.
He says he cannot remember all his children's names but tries to work out who they are from their mothers and which huts they live in.
Mr Ayattu says he used to be rich and wanted to share his wealth around, which is why he took so many wives.
But now he struggles to feed them all.
"I feel like killing myself when I see my hungry children whom I cannot help," Mr Ayattu says.
His wives have given birth to more than 100 children but 23
have died.
School photos
However, he blames Ethiopia's government for not doing more to help him look after all his children.
"I know I have done wrong by marrying many wives and begetting many children but I think I deserve help from the government."
But his biggest complaint at the moment is with the authorities of the local school which 40 of his children now attend.
They want photographs for each of his children's files, which will further deplete his meagre resources.
He says that he tries to share his time evenly between his wives and children, adding that although quarrels and squabbles are common, they try to solve their problems amicably.
"People see me as a funny man, but there is no fun in my condition. I am a desperate man struggling to survive," he says.
Although Mr Ayattu's eldest son, Dagne Ayattu, does not have a job, at the age of 33, he has seven children and is about to marry his fourth wife.
But he says he will not have as many children or wives as his father.

By Mohammed Adow
BBC, Ethiopia
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Sex Workers In Ghana Protest Against Nigerian Invasion

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sex workers in ghana protest against younger nigerian girls
Ghanaian girls who offer sex for money at Adum, a suburb of Kumasi in the Ashanti region, have expressed anger over some Nigerians importing younger and prettier girls who are gradually taking over the sex business.

If not for the intervention of the assembly member for the area, Albert Osei-Banahene, the enraged sex workers would have hit the streets in their nakedness and marched from one office building to another, just to get the authorities to come to their aide.

“It is not that they are better than us in bed but as you know, most men prefer younger girls and these Nigerian girls are younger. Some are still in their teens and their agents protect them but we do not have agents who make things easier for us so the conditions of work are not fair.

“We would start attacking any underage ashawo from Nigeria because they are spoiling the market,” one of them noted. Interestingly, though both groups are prostituting, the Ghanaian girls say they are commercial sex workers while the Nigerians are ‘ashawos.’

According to the Ghanaian sex workers, the arrival of sexier girls from Nigeria is making business very competitive and compelling them to lower their rates or lose customers. Not pleased about the development, the disillusioned sex workers have declared their preparedness to hit the streets, should authorities fail to respond to their call and put in place appropriate measures to arrest the worrying situation.

In an interview with NEWS-ONE, the stationed sex workers revealed that some Nigerians living in Kumasi have made it their business of bringing in very pretty sex workers from the oil-rich country to practice their trade in the Ghana.

“Having realized the potential in the business, some Nigerians living in the city have decided to make it their business by bringing sex workers from their country to come and work here,” one of the disgruntled sex workers observed.

“When they bring them, they initially put them in hotels, before hiring rooms for them to practice their trade but we do not have agents or promoters so we are losing the market even in our own country,” another dissatisfied sex worker noted.

According to them, they would do everything within their means to ensure that the practice was stopped, because they believe that as Ghanaians, they have exclusive right to the trade. “We cannot allow

Nigeria to take over everything in the country including the sex trade,” the sex workers emphasized.

The assembly member for the area, Hon Albert Osei-Banahene, who has being appealing to the sex workers to remain calm, appealed to the government to take up the matter and ensure that it is resolved amicably. He noted that it was important for the government to come in strongly because of the ages of the girls who are purported to have been sent into the city for sex trade.

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G20 Leaders Must Renew Their Commitment to Global Development

By Kofi Annan
Ahead of today’s G20 Summit in South Korea, two issues stand out for those of us who take an interest in international development.
First, the concepts of fairness, balance, and the common good have experienced a welcome renaissance as world leaders have had to remind each other of these universal principles to avoid a potentially devastating escalation of their disagreements on currency values and trade imbalances.
Second, while it remains to be seen to what extent it will help to bring countries’ contending economic strategies into line, this rediscovery of basic values comes just as the G20 is beginning to include international development issues in its deliberations. Naturally, it is my profound hope that the principles of fairness, balance and the common good which have become so popular with G20 leaders lately will also inform these discussions — and not only those on issues like undervalued currencies, lopsided trade statistics or skewed consumption patterns however important they may be.
Unfortunately, the signs are decidedly mixed. On the one hand, the global repercussions of the financial and economic crises have clearly nourished an understanding of the true extent and consequences of our interdependence. At least for a moment, there seems to have been a consensus that a world that restricts the benefits of globalization to a few at the expense of many is neither fair nor stable; that one cannot address trade imbalances without addressing the development imbalances that underlie them; and that it is in everyone’s interest to see the developing world graduate out of instability and economic dependence as soon as possible.
However, all these realizations have not yet led to the fundamentally different policies that are so urgently needed. In fact, in many G20 countries the crises, and particularly their effects on the world’s poor, appear already all but forgotten and business and politics have resumed with little regard to the damage caused, the trust destroyed, and the lessons learned. Several G20 members have even used the economic upheavals as an excuse to tighten protectionist policies in direct contrast to their repeated pledges to keep markets open. As so often, developing countries have been among the primary victims.
This is deeply unfortunate as, in my view, the G20 states, both individually and collectively, are the natural drivers of development. They are, by definition, the countries with the capacity, resources, influence and, thus, the moral obligation and responsibility to help those less fortunate.
Many of them have only recently graduated into major economies and their developmental experiences are still fresh. These countries understand that the key to development is not charity but equitable, job creating, and ideally green economic growth fueled by investment in the productive sectors, agriculture, infrastructure, renewable energy, trade, knowledge and technical skills. They also appreciate that the most important sources of development finance must be domestic revenues and private sector investment and that aid’s main value other than in meeting urgent humanitarian needs, is to increase capacities, reduce dependence upon external support, and to lubricate and leverage investment in the sources of growth and good governance.
It is thus encouraging that the development agenda proposed by the South Korean presidency speaks as much to these realities as to a new sense of partnership and genuine mutual accountability. The document, as far as it is known, covers all the right points, including the unblocking of existing initiatives and the need to complement the efforts of other actors such as the G8, the G77 and, of course, the United Nations. If the leaders assembled in Seoul decide to take it on with the same universal values in mind that they now invoke in the areas of trade and exchange rates, we will have gained much.
Having said all this, the implementation of the valuable ideas entailed in the Korean proposal should not be made dependent on the G20 taking them on as a group. While a renewed commitment to development by the world’s most powerful group would certainly be a major step in the right direction and send an important political signal to developing countries, it is of course not enough on its own to overcome the immense challenges that these countries face. Nor does it necessarily invalidate some of the concerns raised regarding the G20’s legitimacy and capacity.
What really counts is that each member of the group internalizes the concepts of fairness, balance, and the common good and adapts its behaviour accordingly. If the G20 setup can help them do so by playing to its unquestionable strengths of composition, reach and sheer economic prowess, this will be all the better and should not only be welcomed, but encouraged.
Kofi Annan is Former UN Secretary General & Chair of the Africa Progress Panel.
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Sex education by wall murals

 If you’ve ever lived in or visited Africa, you know that cheap advertising like subway posters, highway billboards, wall murals are popular as a form of advertising for products such as cosmetics, baby formula and soft drinks. The tradition is now taking a serious turn in Tanzania.  Iva Skoch from globalspost reports that the wall murals are now becoming more provocative, to say the least, all in an attempt to spur up sex education and curb HIV/AIDS.
The fight is such intense that nothing is considered a taboo. A walk through Dar Es Salaam will reveal streets lined with colorful ads that leave nothing to imagination. The message targets condom use, masturbation, teen pregnancy and female genital mutilation.
About 6% of Tanzanian population have HIV/AIDS, while 40 percent of 18-year-old girls are already mothers or currently pregnant.
Officials admit that even though some of the pictures are racy, they are working, and that is what matters.
 
Like malaria, HIV is taking lives of the future generation in most African countries at a rate that is threatening. Shall we complain about the racy wall murals that according to statistics are working? I won’t.
 
 
   
 
 
 
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