empty sky

Malawi Gets K17 Billion from World Bank

2013-06-07T05:31:00.001+02:00

The World Bank has granted the (struggling) Malawi government Malawi K17 billion to assist with economic recovery. The funds are intended to help the country achieve macroeconomic stability and overcome some of the chronic and seriously disruptive challenges such as foreign exchange shortfalls that regularly lead to fuel, food and medicine shortages. This may be the big chance for a president who

Namibia Facing Food Shortages

2013-05-28T05:51:00.002+02:00

The latest FAO GIEWS Country Briefing for Namibia indicates the country is moving towards serious shortages and rising and widespread food insecurity. The north west is expected to see a 50% fall in cereal production as a result of poor rains and army worm infestation. The north east will produce less than the 2012 flood-affected harvest. Livestock losses have also begun with 4000 livestock

What is the Southern African Customs Union (SACU)?

2013-05-01T08:25:00.001+02:00

SACU has released a new paper explaining what they are and what they do: The Southern African Customs Union is the oldest customs union in the world; having been established in 1910. It consists of five Member States: Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland. SACU plays a key role in Southern Africa, particularly for smaller member states who are (somewhat) dependent on SACU

Things That Are Happening In Southern Africa

2013-04-30T22:13:00.001+02:00

Clippings from Southern African news: 129 cases of Typhoid recorded in Kabwe, Zambia in a week US$1.8 million to strengthen the capacity of Angolan NGOs to fight malaria in the country (in a somewhat garbled story that doesn't seem to identify the donors, unless I'm missing something. Although there is a passing reference to a certain oil company...) Botswana's president had an unfortunate

Masvingo Appeals for Food Aid

2013-04-23T10:30:00.000+02:00

The Herald is reporting that Chiefs and village leaders are appealing to the Government of Zimbabwe to take urgent action to address the severe food shortages in Masvingo where drought last year wiped out 80% of the maize crop. Warning signs emerged months ago that this would be a particularly bad year for the area and would likely push thousands into crisis. 400,000 people are now in urgent need

Oil and Corruption in Southern Africa

2013-04-23T05:26:00.000+02:00

There has been much uproar in recent weeks and months over an alleged oil deal in Zambia involving the former president of the country and various individuals and groups out of Nigeria that now appear somewhat shady. Now the focus has shifted to Malawi where, according to local publications, another dodgy government-to-government oil deal has apparently been uncovered, this time involving the

Land Rights ≠ Productivity

2013-03-30T11:27:00.001+02:00

Land rights remain, unsurprisingly, a hot topic in Southern Africa. One of the arguments I hear again and again is that secure individual land tenure is a prerequisite for farmers (including small-scale and large-scale commercial farmers) to invest in farming activities and avoid exploitative practises that will, for example, cause soil erosion. My sense of it, based on quite a lot of time spent

Emerging themes in food security and small agriculture

2013-03-25T13:57:00.001+02:00

This post (as well as the rest of the series) is important reading for anyone who wishes to have an informed opinion on food security and agriculture. Important points include: Economic efficiency is a desirable characteristic of agricultural livelihoods, but in the absence of safety nets cannot be the organizing principal of food security interventions Remarkably similar themes to those

Interesting Things

2013-03-24T09:50:00.003+02:00

1. Do African researchers and non-African researchers of Africa care about different things? This analysis suggests that African researchers care about jobs, others about institutions and aid: http://www.cgdev.org/blog/african-economists-care-about-jobs-non-africans-care-about-institutions 2. Important analysis from Duncan Green on inequality relating an event in Durban: Brazil v South Africa:

Botswana Refuses to Give Malawi a Ride

2013-03-13T08:49:00.000+02:00

The government of Botswana has refused a request from their counterparts in Malawi for President Banda to fly with Botswana's president to an upcoming African summit in the USA. Banda sold her presidential jet when she came into office in a gesture of solidarity with poor people in the country. On subsequent trips, Malawi has requested the hosting nations to provide transport. Now the Malawian

Southern Africa Appeals Remain Unfunded, 6m Face Hunger

2013-03-07T13:55:00.000+02:00

Six million people in southern Africa are staring serious, severe food insecurity and hunger in the face and repeated appeals appear not to be achieving results. Angola, Lesotho, Malawi and Zimbabwe have lots of problems. Apart from their unique situations - infrastructure and people recovering from civil war in Angola (complete with landmines), the lasting impact of controversial land

Making Change

2013-03-06T09:52:00.001+02:00

Sometimes one reads something that just resonates. That's how I feel about this piece by J at WhyDev? Especially this bit: Whether you’re local or expat, whether you’re on the tail end of the cold chain, injecting babies with live vaccines all day or, or whether you’re sitting in a cubicle editing the notes from life-saving meetings, you need to understand that you’re part of a machine that

Narratives of Africa - Africa Telling its Own Story: Link

2013-03-02T07:09:00.000+02:00

Simon Allison has a great piece up on Good Governance Africa about reporting about Africa. He speaks as a journalist in Africa and identifies some of the reasons why Africa isn't telling its own story. Also some refreshingly practical options to fix the problem, like an Africa desk in national media outlets that can, even if there isn't money to have someone on the ground, edit, localise and

Zim Referendum Set For March

2013-02-26T05:51:00.001+02:00

Zimbabwe will vote on a proposed new constitution in a referendum set for 16 March, after the country mysteriously (miraculously) found the funds to pay for the vote - a few weeks back, there were claims they had just a few hundred dollars in the bank. From the African Elections Project story: The Constitution select Committee (COPAC) of Zimbabwe will officially launch a campaign today to

Cyclone hits Madagascar

2013-02-25T06:28:00.000+02:00

Tropical Cyclone Haruna reached landfall in Madagascar on Friday morning (22 Feb 2013). Since then, it is reported that 13 people have been killed and around 17 000 displaced/affected (via twitter). Initial situation assessments are still underway and reports still coming in from isolated and rural areas but it looks pretty bad. The country is also bracing this year for a serious locust

Things are going on in Zambia

2013-02-14T07:56:00.000+02:00

A few years ago, when he came to power, Sata was the golden boy set to fix the problems caused by his predecessor's regime widely considered to have been riddled with corruption and human rights abuses. Now a coalition of civil society and opposition parties have come together to petition the Commonwealth to investigate human rights abuses, including allegations that the government is using

Narratives of Africa

2013-02-06T06:21:00.001+02:00

Some important and on-going debate has been sparked recently by Oxfam's See Africa Differently campaign. This is Tom Murphy's latest contribution to the debate on Humanosphere. He makes the important point that there is a risk of replacing one simplistic narrative (everyone is starving) with another ("Africa rising" or, in the case of Oxfam, "Africa = pretty"). This isn't really a contribution

Mozambique Floods Jan 2013

2013-01-29T06:41:00.002+02:00

Mozambique is having a flood. By Saturday, there were reports of food and fuel shortages. IRIN is now reporting 150 000 displaced in Gaza province. Aid supplies are being distributed but there are not enough of some supplies. "Last year, we had two cyclones, and we used all the shelters we had in stock. That equipment has not been replaced," Castro [Mozambique Red Cross] told IRIN. "Already

Oxfam, Narrow Definitions and South Africa

2013-01-22T09:42:00.001+02:00

Oxfam is on an inequality mission (see here). This is good. Inequality is a huge, huge development issue. There are, however, some fairly glaring problems in the way they're hyping their cause. Yesterday, I linked to some posts and discussions about the first shock stat of their campaign - that the richest 100 people made enough money last year to end extreme poverty four times over. Now

100 Richest's Wealth Could End Poverty Four Times Over - Explained

2013-01-21T15:52:00.002+02:00

This statement in a BBC report raised my eyebrows when I saw it: The 100 richest people in the world earned enough last year to end extreme poverty suffered by the poorest on the planet four times over, Oxfam has said. Duncan Green explains how Oxfam got to the figure here. It makes a lot more sense now. Because, as he says, the stat may be around for a while, it's probably worth knowing

Zimbabwe Indigenisation Minister Takes On Banks

2013-01-21T06:57:00.000+02:00

Banks appear to be the next target in Zimbabwe's indigenisation process (link). Kasukuwere said last week that "he was targeting the banks namely Barclays, Stanbic and Standard Chartered which are still to comply with the indigenisation law". Reserve Bank Governor, Gideon Gono and Finance Minister, Tendai Biti have both called for caution in dealing with the banking sector. Zimbabwe is still

Zim Maize Forecast Down

2013-01-18T15:00:00.000+02:00

The Commercial Farmers Union in Zimbabwe is forecast maize production down tens of thousands of tons this season. If they're right, Zimbabwe will face a second year of food shortages, after a drought caused serious hardship for farmers and poor households this season. The Commercial Farmers Union claims the drop in production is because farmers lack access to finance. The shortfall will be

SA Making Nice With Angola

2013-01-18T08:00:00.000+02:00

South African President Jacob Zuma is in Angola this week. Zuma's government has been working for the last few of years to strengthen relationships between the two countries as a fuel-hungry South Africa tries to find solutions to its energy needs. Among other things. The two countries are ostensibly working hard together on various treaties and shared priorities (like regional integration). But

No Zambia Foreign Minister for AU Summit

2013-01-18T06:17:00.000+02:00

Zambia's foreign affairs minister, Given Lubinda, will not be representing the country at the AU after the president suspended him from the delegation. His suspension is rumoured to stem from either leaking of confidential information to media outlets or an internal power-struggle within the party (here and here). Meanwhile, in other Zambia news, President Michael Sata has announced his new job

Zambia: Maize Prices "Unaffordable"

2013-01-08T10:58:00.004+02:00

It sounds like (see link) the Zambian government is starting to get really nervous as maize prices stay high in the country after nearly doubling two months ago. Zambia has a Food Reserve Agency which should buffer the ordinary poor from this kind of thing but the subsidies and controls don't appear to be having the desired effect. Sata is talking about fearing riots. "If you don’t remember,