Africa Renewal magazine, published by the United Nations, examines Africa’s development, achievements and challenges. It provides expert analysis and on-the-spot reporting to show how policies affect Africa’s people.
Africa Renewal - Page 2
Climate deal: ‘An essential beginning’ but hard work lies ahead
It was not the agreement that anyone had wanted. But during the night of 18–19 December — as nearly two weeks of contentious talks...
Africa doubts promises after saving Copenhagen climate talks
Far too often, African leaders have been unable to present a united front on the world stage. Not this time around. At the Copenhagen...
No school fees policy challenges: Comparing the Kenyan and Malawian models
While the elimination of school fees is critical in helping achieve the right to education for all, addressing the challenges it poses is key...
Africans reach out in solidarity with Haiti
In the broad international mobilization to help the stricken people of Haiti, Africa is not lagging behind. Government officials, religious leaders, students, artists and...
Police and private security in Africa and dangerous partnerships
With crime on the rise and government police forces ill-equipped and distrusted by many of the people they are supposed to serve, Africa’s well-to-do...
Land grabs in Africa: “The stakes are huge”
The sale or lease of millions of hectares of African farmland to foreigners in recent years has set alarm bells ringing on and off...
Africa: Dealing with human trafficking, forced sex and labour
Grim accounts of African and Asian women trafficked into wealthy countries and kept as virtual slaves are all-too-commonly headlined in Northern newspapers. But far...
International Criminal Court: Justice or racial double standards?
The indictment by the International Criminal Court of Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed by government forces...
Cimate Change: Time for Africa to aggressively engage in negotiations
“For the first time in history,” says Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, “Africa will field a single negotiating team empowered to negotiate on behalf...
Africa: Gunmen for rent
For these fighters, the main reason appears to be economic. Most of those recruited for successive wars lacked jobs and lived in desperate economic...
Kenya: Political risks could kill inspiring local investment models
Across the continent, Africans are saving and investing more of their own money but you won’t find them at the bank. According to the...
Africa: Foreign fishing fleets depleting a potential wealth resource
Africa’s domestic fishing grounds are protected under international law. Why then, do foreign fishing fleets continue to exploit Africa’s waters and cause huge social...
Trade: Africa must play smart with Asia not just submit to partner strategies!
Africa’s success in avoiding the worst of the economic crisis that has swept the industrialized world has been due in large part to the...
Road to recession recovery: What about Africa?
Has the world economic crisis reached bottom or is Africa facing continued recession and deepening poverty? “No one can tell with any degree of...
Africa and the G-20 promises: Deal or wishful thinking?
African countries are beginning to get some of the additional aid they need to survive the current global economic downturn. But there is considerable...
Financing Africa’s greatest resource: Women
Decades after the world officially recognized equality between women and men as a human right, women remain largely excluded from the upper ranks of...
Africa: A brighter future ahead despite global downturn
As evidence mounts that the international economic crisis is provoking a deep and prolonged downturn in the world economy, Africa is feeling more and...
A more transparent mining industry to profit Africans
Mineral-rich countries in Africa enjoyed a mining boom between 2002 and 2007 as metal and oil prices nearly tripled. Companies competed furiously for new...
Dealing with Africa’s abusive Police and Security forces
“Liberia is building a new army and we are very strict regarding its standards,” says Lieutenant Eric Dennis, who teaches international humanitarian law to...
Zimbabwe: The storm is far from over
International humanitarian aid efforts to Zimbabwe to help combat a continuing cholera outbreak and overcome widespread food shortages are intensifying. The International Monetary Fund...
Global economic downturn: Africa walking a tightrope
As the world’s economic woes deepen, Africa’s leaders are delivering a strong message that the international community must help the continent protect the development...
Africa: Banks take a new interest in women
“We are not waiting. We are moving,” says Pilda Modjadji, a founding member of the Pankop Women Farmers Forum in Mpumalanga, South Africa. “We...
Profiting from the global economic meltdown
The Chinese word for “crisis” (wei ji) is made up of two characters, notes Senegalese economist Moustapha Kassé. One means “danger”; the other, “opportunity.”...
Africa: Catching up with the world
From outer space, the vast Cahora Bassa hydroelectric complex on the Zambezi River in Mozambique is easy to see. The dam has huge turbines...
African Trade: From Cairo to Cape Town through Nairobi
In October 2008 leaders from East and Southern Africa agreed on plans to form the largest free trade area in the continent. The new...
Global crisis: African “Fear” and Western doublespeak
In late September, just as the Wall Street crash began spreading worldwide, African leaders used a high-level meeting of the UN’s General Assembly to...
Stopping Piracy in the Gulf of Aden and Gulf of Guinea
Persistent and high-profile acts of piracy off the coast of Somalia prompted no fewer than four meetings of the UN Security Council in the...
African economies more resilient to the global crisis?
When several US investment houses collapsed last September, unleashing a chain of crashes in major markets around the world, brokers at Kenya’s Nairobi Stock...
Africa’s hidden wealth and the Banking challenge
What if wealthy Africans decided to invest their earnings in Africa instead of overseas? What if the 80 per cent of Africans who don’t...
Western influence erodes as Africa looks to Asia
Eager to maintain the growth that has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, Asia’s booming economies are courting cash-poor but resource-rich...