AU heading for Darfur

The African Union is to raise five battalions of peacekeeping troops to send to Darfur. 70,000 people displaced by the fighting have died since March.

Nigeria: whose globalisation is it anyway?

Interesting opinion piece from Morenike Taire in the Vanguard, which argues that the Nigerian government's top down messages are finding it hard to gain purchase with the wider populace. There are a range of questions that remain to be asked, not simply of the government and the Labour Movement.

With regard to the fuel price crisis: "Should Labour, as the petroleum marketers claim, be more interested in getting government to channel subsidy monies as well as excess crude incomes into infra structural development than in getting the subsidies to remain?"

Rather the Labour movement Taire argues that despite the government's best efforts, the fuel subsidy is the best way to side-step endemic corruption in the government system. But what's really eating ordinary people is:

"In Nigeria where our minimum 7,500naira minimum wage is 5% of Australia's, we are expected to compete in a global economy buying petrol at the same price. What kind of economics is that?"

Ireland's is aid focused on Africa

Interesting pdf document from the OECD, which shows much of Ireland's overseas aid in 2002 was focused mainly on African countries, with Uganda heading the list at $30 million. Ireland contributes .4% of its Gross National Income. This is just under the average country effort for the OECD's Development Assistence Committee's countries; a figure which is exaggerated somewhat by the five big 'payers' of the Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Luxmenburg and Sweden.

Management of resources is key to peace?

"Sustainable management of our natural resources will promote peace". That's the message from Kenya's latest Nobel Lauriate, Wangari Maathai.

Fuel: foreign or national interest?

It looks like the fuel protest in Nigeria is bringing a lot of buried sentiment to the surface, particularly in some quarters of the press, who warn against the danger of taking the action further into a coup against President Obasanjo's civil administration, which was only recently returned for a second term by popular vote.

The action was prompted by a 22 per cent price hike on 23rd September, which itself an attempt to reduce high levels of rate fuel subsidy.

There is some evidence that the tax take from oil is growing. But the perception inside the country is that this is simply a response to pressure from foreign investors in the country's oil dominated economy. However, there are other reasons for a staged withdrawal of subsidy:

"...so much cheap fuel has been smuggled out of Nigeria, for sale at a handsome profit in neighbouring countries, that the government is forced to import more at a higher rate - another drain on the government finances".

Zimbabwe: pricing women out of contraception

Africa Woman carries a report on the enormous price differential between male and female condoms in Zimbabwe:

...a pack of three male condoms sells for ZM$100 (two US cents) while a box of two female condoms costs ZM$7,600, the equivalent of US$1.43.

Terrorism and poverty are linked

As plans were announced at a Microcredit Summit in Jordan for a scheme to provide small loans to individuals, Saudi Prince Talal bin Abdul Aziz, warned that tackling terrorism was key to unlocking poverty:

"Unemployment leads to terrorism. A poor person who cannot eat or earn his bread and butter blows himself up," he said. "The world must combat terrorism (but first) the reasons for terrorism must be understood."

Well meaning, but inept...

Abiola Lapite with a particularly eloquent dismissal of a standard form of western intervention in African agriculture:

Western know-it-all flies in, tells the locals that they're doing it all wrong, suggests new-fangled techniques, is paid no attention, gets the government to push the ignorant locals to obey, crop yields rise for a while, expert flies out in glory, then disaster strikes, as commodity prices plunge, soil yields deteriorate, pests run rampant on introduced monocultures, government-subsidised fertilizer is cut back as deficits mount, etc, etc.

Price of medicine in Swaziland

Mark Weston with a price list of cures.

Geldof meets Blair on Africa's medicine drought

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair is meeing Bob Geldof in Ethiopia tomorrow to discuss the chronic shortage of medicines in the second meeting of Blair's Commission for Africa. Other pressing issues will include corruption.

But there's some scepticism as to how effective such initiatives are at hitting the bottom line:

Possible solutions to poverty have been well-enough rehearsed since the Brandt Report first framed the terms of the debate in 1977. Only a handful of countries have reached the target of 0.7% of GDP transferred in aid to the developing world every year which was recommended in that report.

Despite a doubling of the budget for the Department for International Development since Labour were elected to power in 1997, Britain's contribution is still only at around 0.4% of GDP, while America is at the bottom of the table, at just above 0.1%.