Kenya is due to become one of the fastest-growing economies in east Africa, with a growth forecast of 6.0 percent in 2015 and 6.6 percent in 2016, the World Bank said on Thursday, citing falling oil prices and bigger infrastructure investments. Kenya’s economy grew by an estimated 5.4 percent in 2014, the bank said in […]
Category: News
Sierra Leone Sees ‘Sharp Rise’ in Ebola Cases as Medical Funding Goes Missing
by Frances Martel 17 Feb 2015 48 As the number of Ebola cases begin to rise for the first time in 2015, a new audit has uncovered more than $3 million in funding to fight Ebola in Sierra Leone is wholly unaccounted for. The government has vowed a prompt investigation as it begins to quarantine previously […]
UN warned of pitfalls of vague SDG targets
The report was published last week (12 February) by the International Council for Science (ICSU) and the International Social Science Council just ahead of the second session of negotiations on the UN’s post-2015 development agenda. These discussions start today in New York, United States. “As countries are entering the final phase of negotiating a global […]
Austerity advice comes back to Ghana
A policy think tank has called for a law to regulate excessive government borrowing, as Ghana’s public debt stock rose from 48.03 per cent in 2012 to 60.8 per cent in September 2014. The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) has warned that if a law is not passed to control undue government borrowing, the West […]
South African Benefit From Oil Price Decline Seen as Temporary
(Bloomberg) — The benefit from the lower oil costs for South Africa’s economy will probably be temporary as the drop hasn’t passed through to wider prices and crude should increase further, Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago said. “Average wage settlements are still in the realms of 8 percent,” Kganyago said in a speech to a […]
Africa: S&T Investment Needed to Hit Water SDG Targets
Zaragoza — Dedicated investment in science and technology will be needed to have any chance of reaching the proposed water and sanitation-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, delegates at the UN-Water conference in Zaragoza, Spain, heard last week. However, the conference (15-17 January) heard that blockages such as corruption, bad governance, poor pay of […]
Great Lakes region must unite to stamp out armed groups in DR Congo, urges UN envoy
The main road in Beni, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Photo: IRIN/Jessica Hatcher 5 February 2015 – Countries must come together to “neutralize all negative forces” terrorizing the population in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the United Nations Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region urged today following meetings with top […]
Denmark to go after pirates in west Africa
The Danish Foreign Ministry has announced a new three-year strategy for combatting piracy that will see its efforts move to the coast of Nigeria for the first time. Denmark on Thursday announced a new strategy for combating piracy and armed robbery on the high seas that will see the nation expand its into the Gulf […]
Is Mugabe Jeopardizing the African Union’s Credibility?
Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe (seated) waits to address the 66th United Nations General Assembly at the U.N. headquarters in New York, September 22, 2011 (Courtesy Reuters/East). This is a guest post by Nathaniel Glidden, intern for the Council on Foreign Relations Africa Studies program. He is currently pursuing a Master’s in International Affairs with concentrations […]