My Beauty Best Teacher

K.Y. Amoako commented on the need for sustainable job growth in Africa "...The creation of decent jobs that can be performed by poor people is the single most effective way to reduce poverty in Africa,' said...According to ECA, some 8 million jobs must be created each year to satisfy the growing number of job seekers..."

Dumisani Nyoni takes issue with the focus on leaders and institutions he states "...You can’t reduce the leadership challenges of Africa to just ‘leaders’ and institutions. Institutions can be manipulated, no matter how strong they are...Good leaders and institutions are important yes. But also understanding the underlying, fundamental issues is important as is having the guts to be fair and objective in dealing with the governance challenges in Africa across the board, not in isolated cases country by country while we pretend that other villains are the “hope for our continent’s future!”..."
Via Global Voices

The position of the Freedom and International Justice Foundation (FINJF) is that "...While the economies of developing states are declining, corruption, nepotism, and tyranny continue to thrive unabated. Meanwhile, billions of stolen taxpayers’ dollars are siphoned to the foreign Bank accounts of despotic leaders on a monthly basis. FINJF cultivates working relationships with international financial institutions to discourage the illegal transfers of stolen funds from developing states, and exposes the individuals involved with such crimes (be it a sitting African President or one of his cohorts). FINJF advocates the return to Africa (and the developing world at large) the stolen assets of past and present dictators..."

Charles Kwalonue Sunwabe writes "...Two observations need to be made about Africa’s leadership preoccupation with making excuses for their actions and the blaming of others for Africa’s dilemmas: first, by blaming outsiders, mainly westerners much needed energy, time and creative resources are wasted unproductively while attention is diverted away from the leadership’s own moral failures. In simple terms, a man who does not address his own shortcomings is incapable of solving his own problems. The vast majority of Africa’s woes are easily attributed to internal causes - the problems lie in Africa and the solutions are internal, not external. Second, it needs to be made clear to African leaders that when the West or the East comes to Africa, it is not because they inherently love Africa; but instead, foreign countries and entities come to Africa to pursue their own interests...."
Via The Perspective

Marian Tupy writes "...It is true that rich countries' protectionism harms some producers in the developing world but trade liberalization in rich countries as a cure for African poverty is often over-emphasized. The main causes of African impoverishment are internal. Africa lacks political stability and economic freedom. Its tariffs are high and private property rights weak. It is hypocritical for African leaders to call for greater access to global markets while avoiding policy reforms, including trade openness, at home...Clearly, free trade is a necessary, but not a sufficient, condition for economic growth in Africa. But trade can play a role in promoting prosperity by increasing domestic competition and changing the dynamic of the political economy that keeps privileged groups protected. Many reforms are needed but a good place to start is with freeing trade at home. African countries should do so regardless of what the rich countries do. India, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Chile, Estonia and many other developing countries undertook unilateral trade liberalization in the past and reaped the benefits..."

Thomas Sowell wrote "...Promoting dependency and irresponsible borrowing is not the way to help the poor internationally any more than these are ways of helping the poor at home. Such policies benefit the bureaucracies that administer foreign aid and enable vain people to see themselves as saviors, even when they are doing more harm than good..."
Via Enviropundit

Wafula Okumu charts a path for democratisation in Africa,"...the building of democratic societies depends on the existence of a leadership that understands and embraces democratic ideals, political institutions that will be repository and guarantor of democratic values, and civil society and international actors playing specific and clearly defined roles. Furthermore, a certain enabling environment must prevail...civil society can act as channels through which citizens articulate their interests, particularly in situations where political parties are weak, disorganized and "represent factional politics rather than competing ideologies". Besides being advocates for alternative policy agenda, civil society can also advocate for social change by exerting pressure on the State to make structural changes and to produce policy outputs that enhance societal interests..."

Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe writes about the dire state of African Journalism "...Overall, there is a general agreement that the quality of journalistic praxis on the African continent, especially in the so-called Sub-Saharan Africa, widely regarded as also the least technologically developed in the region, leaves much to be desired..."In a series Ory Okolloh at Kenyan Pundit asks the question "What is ailing Kenyan journalism?" while Chippla questions the fact checking or lack thereof regarding 'prominent personalities'.

Founded by Kum'a Ndumbe III AfricAvenir articulates the following, "...We believe that a sustainable development of the African continent is unthinkable outside the culture, the language, the history of the African masses – outside the institutions which the people build according to their own needs and which they control internally. AfricAvenir therefore actively participates in the ‘insurrection of subjugated knowledges’ (Foucault), meaning the emancipation and reactivation of local, popular and traditional knowledges. This is not in the least a call for a mere and uncritical return to a mythical past or for the restoration of a historically continuous and allegedly pure pre-colonial heritage, but rather a quest for realism, adequacy and relevance..."

Award winning writer Binyavanga Wainaina gives aspiring journalists 'tips' on 'How to write about Africa' "...In your text, treat Africa as if it were one country. It is hot and dusty with rolling grasslands and huge herds of animals and tall, thin people who are starving. Or it is hot and steamy with very short people who eat primates. Don't get bogged down with precise descriptions. Africa is big: fifty-four countries, 900 million people who are too busy starving and dying and warring and emigrating to read your book. The continent is full of deserts, jungles, highlands, savannahs and many other things, but your reader doesn't care about all that, so keep your descriptions romantic and evocative and unparticular..."

Writing about the African University Donald Ekong stated that"...Emphasis will have to be on the formation of graduates who have the flexibility to respond to changing demands in the economy and who are capable of self-employment. With the rapid advances in knowledge, structures will be required to provide a space in the university as well as encouragement for life-long learning. The implication is that the university should be able to cater for a variety of learners and a variety of learning needs through diversification of its programmes, curriculum contents, and mode of delivery. Currently in much of Africa the university has a virtual monopoly as the source of learning. But this will change and should change as other forms of higher education are developed and have already begun to be developed in some countries. Only through creativity, innovation, and flexibility in catering for diverse learning needs will the university be able to retain a leading position in terms of relevance to the needs of society.
A further challenge for Africa is the danger of new forms of dependence which could be just as devastating as the current forms if not even more so, that is, dependence on knowledge and knowledge application processes from elsewhere. The challenge for the African university is to contribute new useful knowledge and application processes that derive from the African environment and draw from African experience and ingenuity. There is also an urgent need to increase participation in higher education from all sections of the population-currently participation in higher education in Africa is the lowest in the world-with a view to raising the collective capacity and productivity of African society. Both aspects are essential for enhancing African competitiveness in the global market place..."

In response to Paul Theroux's op-ed Hari Chandra writes "...Except in limited and specific circumstances, Africa does not need charity. Africa needs 'more money' in the form of huge amounts of global risk capital, equity and debt, that can build the industrial and manufacturing base that can employ millions and provide even more with the basic tools of prosperity, support the entrepreneurs building a service industry, provide access to global trade markets for many more people, etc. Certainly capital is not the only thing that Africa needs but it can create a virtuous cycle, funding the educational institutions needed for a professional middle class, supporting the civil society that a sizeable middle class engenders, ultimately allowing Africans to take ownership of their resources..."
Via Zoo Station

Paul Theroux in the NYTimes writes "...It seems to have been Africa's fate to become a theater of empty talk and public gestures. But the impression that Africa is fatally troubled and can be saved only by outside help - not to mention celebrities and charity concerts - is a destructive and misleading conceit. Those of us who committed ourselves to being Peace Corps teachers in rural Malawi more than 40 years ago are dismayed by what we see on our return visits and by all the news that has been reported recently from that unlucky, drought-stricken country. But we are more appalled by most of the proposed solutions...Africa is a lovely place - much lovelier, more peaceful and more resilient and, if not prosperous, innately more self-sufficient than it is usually portrayed. But because Africa seems unfinished and so different from the rest of the world, a landscape on which a person can sketch a new personality, it attracts mythomaniacs, people who wish to convince the world of their worth. Such people come in all forms and they loom large...Africa has no real shortage of capable people - or even of money. The patronizing attention of donors has done violence to Africa's belief in itself, but even in the absence of responsible leadership, Africans themselves have proven how resilient they can be - something they never get credit for..."
Analysed at Worldchanging

Franklin Cudjoe writes "...Famine in the fertile climes of southern and eastern Africa, however, seems more shocking. But there's a common thread: centralized state rule -- incompetent at best -- marked by corruption and sustained by aid...more temperate southern and eastern African countries are on the edge of famine, too, with 10 million affected in southern Africa alone. Again, we find the same economic profile: Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Swaziland and Lesotho all lack economic freedom and property rights; all have economies mismanaged by the state; all depend on aid...Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi believes that allowing Ethiopians to own their land would make them sell out to multinationals. He seems to have overlooked a basic market principle: It demands a willing seller and a willing buyer at an agreed price. If that price is worth selling for, the farmer might have some money to reinvest elsewhere; if that price is worth buying for, the purchaser must have plans to make the land profitable. If there is no sale, owners might have an incentive to invest in their own land and future, having, at last, the collateral of the land on which to get a loan.After decades of socialism, Ethiopia's agricultural sector -- the mainstay of the economy -- is less productive per capita than 20 years ago when Band Aid tried to defeat famine. Although 60% of the country is arable, only 10% has been cultivated. Ethiopia is entirely dependent on donations; but instead of grasping reality, Mr. Zenawi, a member of Tony Blair's "Commission for Africa," is forcing resettlement on 2.2 million people..."
Also covered at PSD Blog

In continuation of our theme regarding Africa's women we take a look at how success in one country influences women in another"...We have been motivated by the success stories of women from other countries," says Somali politician Asha Ahmed Abdalla, who cites in particular the example of Kenya, where women such as Millie Odhiambo play an active role in civil society and are at the helms of nongovernmental organizations. "What we have seen in Kenya is a great motivation to us, for we have seen women participating in almost every section of development..."
Also Blogged at AfroMusing

In a recent report(PDF) the Cato institute analysed how the loss of property rights contributed to Zimbabwe's downward spiral "...While in the short term governments may see the expropriation of private property as a viable policy option, in the long term this will only harm the economy. Rational investors will demand a risk premium for investing in developing countries (if rates of return are the same then why invest where your money is not secure?).This risk premium will cause the interest rate to be higher than it would otherwise be, thereby reducing inflows of capital. This causes the opportunity cost of a short term gain to the government to be the loss of investment that would provide jobs, income, improved life expectancy and a plethora of other indicators. Even worse capital could flee the country totally, leaving the economy in ruins..."
Via Globalisation Institute

Ike Anya points the finger of blame at all Nigerians for the recent airplane crash in Nigeria, "...And if perhaps you are thinking- I am abroad, I am not involved- I say to you “It is a lie, you too are culpable” For each time we condoned the kleptomania and corruption of our leaders and our society, for each time we turned our backs on Nigeria, justifying our decisions to ourselves- my children are still young, I need to finish my degree, my family needs the money I’m sending back- we too are responsible. For each time you saved up all year, maxing your credit cards to the limit to go back home and live lavishly for a little while, boosting the asinine materialistic culture that thrives there, ignoring the poverty around, you are culpable..."

"...After decades of centralized “command and control,” government leaders espouse market-led economic growth and community empowerment without a clear understanding of the changes this likely requires in their roles and behavior. After years of operating as what many in their own lands considered “pariahs” and “profiteers,” business leaders are unfamiliar with emerging norms of public-private cooperation and corporate social responsibility. And, eternal advocates for change, civil society leaders often lack a clear understanding of the need for business and government alike to satisfy multiple stakeholders in order to create truly sustainable prosperity and peace. For there to be progress, the next generation of leaders in all three sectors must come together:
• to identify and address their personal strengths and weaknesses as leaders,
• to understand the challenges they face as participants in a rapidly globalizing society,
• to share and refine their respective visions of the society they would like to live in, and
• to lead by example in building this society.
It is for these reasons that The Africa Leadership Initiative has been conceived..."

In a recent speech pulitzer prize winner Dele Olojede stated "...Many Nigerians today continue to deny the obvious—that a potentially wide-ranging transformation is under way, needing only their buy-in for the process to gain momentum. It is undeniable that the Obasanjo government is toying with the idea of a radical transformation. Without a doubt this is the best macro-economic environment we’ve ever had, in which the process has begun to disentangle the government from the economy and, perhaps in time, return it to its best role as a regulatory agency. We can all plainly see the value of deregulation in the telecom sector. And now for the first time in a long time banks will return to being banks. An attempt is being made, unevenly and often unpredictably, to fight corruption. The deal to wipe off Nigeria’s debilitating debt, and spare our children from the pain of our profligacy, is perhaps this government’s most important achievement. But even that, in our poisonous environment, is dismissed by some as insignificant. On account of our long disappointment with politics and government, could it be that we no longer have the capacity to recognize the possibility of progress?..."

Emmanuel Oluwatosin comments on the award winning achievements of Nigeria's Central Bank governor, Charles Soludo. "...Soludo has the strongest success story on banking any where in the world in 2005...",The Banker.The Soludo-inspired and driven consolidation programme is also reputed to be the least-cost industry-wide restructuring of the banking system anywhere in the world...The Soludo-inspired and driven consolidation programme is also reputed to be the least-cost industry-wide restructuring of the banking system anywhere in the world...This has had the double effect of bringing into the formal sector, large funds hitherto were trapped in the infamous informal sector, and further boosting financial and investment awareness among Nigeria’s informal sector operators..."

Chamberlain S. Peterside contends that a pervasive evolving ownership culture is critical to unlocking Africa's potential "...As African countries continue to transform, a key element of their reform agenda should be to legitimize property rights and entrench ownership across the broad spectrum of society. So far the reverse is the case. Unbalanced income distribution has bred severe inequality and abject poverty in Africa...With a potential reserve of wealth hidden in real estate holdings in Africa, unless the laws are updated and home-ownership expanded through broad-based long-term loan programs, it is unlikely that you could nurture a robust middle class or make a serious dent in the living standard of the masses. Effective measures should include standardizing loan underwriting, packaging secondary market instruments and enhancing credit quality through government guarantees..."

Kofi Akosah-Sarpong writes that"...African culture should be hugely factored in in the continent's development process in order to make the continent's development holistic and closer to Africans because of the long-running damages and distortions done by colonialism...Africa's development process should move around the continent's innate cultural values and its mixture both with her colonial legacies and the enabling asparts of the global culture..."

Bhuwan Thapaliya writes "...What is little noticed by the rest of the world is that much of Africa is in the midst of an economic revolution. Though poor by global standards, there is a big chance for Africa to forge its own future...The best thing that America and Europe can do for Africa is not to give it handouts but to reduce trade barriers and buy the products that Africa is capable of producing competitively -- not just agricultural products but also labor-intensive manufactured goods such as textiles...Africa has the trade routes and the potential to industrialize through export-oriented manufactures, but it still faces many formidable difficulties.To join the global economy, for instance, African nations must cut tariffs. These taxes, however, are often a vital source of revenue. In such a situation temporary balance-of-payments support, together with generous debt relief, makes sense..."

The UN's OSAA office reports that "...Remittances from Africans working abroad in the period 2000-2003 averaged about US$17 billion per annum virtually overtaking Foreign Direct Investment flows which averaged about $15 billion per annum during the same period...workers remittances boost disposable incomes, produce multiplier effects, and make education more affordable Private transfers are large and stable sources of foreign exchange for poor countries and are more likely to reach poor households than other capital flows. The average per capita remittance by migrants in developed countries is around US$ 200 per month. In the light of this it is becoming imperative that the cost of transmitting remittances needs to be reduced to allow African countries receive larger private capital flows..."
Via NextBillion

Karen Craggs writes that "...the size and resiliency of the informal or parallel economy in a given country may be related to a critical lack of both accountability and credibility of the state,there are also socio-political, economic and cultural processes at play in African societies that pre-date colonialism, global capitalism and international development. These processes may very well mean that informal economies in some societies are both natural and indispensable. As such, attempts to destroy or co-opt the informal economy and its associated political and socio-cultural phenomena would be counter-productive..."
Via AfricaFiles

John N. Oriji writes "...The Aba Women's Revolt was one of the most significant events that occurred in Nigerian history during colonialism.It was for example, the first major revolt of its type that was organized and led by rural women of Owerri and Calabar Provinces which contained a population of two million people...The revolt helped women to mobilize themselves, and change the existing political order during colonialism. It also enabled some of their leaders who emerged as heroines, to attain a privileged status in Igbo society comparable to those of titled men and warriors. The revolt contributed to the emergence of modern Igbo women who are currently engaged in diverse occupations. It ranks as one of the most outstanding primary resistance movements in Nigerian history..."

Founded by David Lukani Odwar"...TAKS – Through Art Keep Smiling... is an opportunity to enable the people of Northern Uganda to engage in the creative Arts so that they can reaffirm the richness of their culture, reassert their humanity, re-establish the value of their education, take pride in themselves and develop the skills which will help them find new options for their lives and eventually employment..."

Altitude Book Club (ABC)"...is a community of professionals from all walks of life committed, as book lover and book collectors, to the reading and intellectual conversation of great books in order to foster mutual affection/interaction among its members and other stakeholders, and in the process impact the society by putting at its “doorpost” the innovative ideas obtained from the books we have read...Altitude Book Club operates on these three levels: Intellectual, Social & Communal..."
Via NaijaBlog

All African Bazaar reports on the work of awardwinning Virginia Mupanduki, she "...is building up a broad national organization consisting exclusively of previously illiterate women and using the power of that organization to eradicate illiteracy, teach skills development, and create a political voice for them.Virginia Mupanduki has used her previous union experience to read the political climate of Zimbabwe, where, through her powerful organizing elements, she is giving a political voice to women without money or literacy. By combining literacy training and women's empowerment, she encourages their emergence as a new political and economic base, and she is persuading the government that the women represent a constituency that has been ignored and needs to be recognized. Virginia's "bottom-up" approach empowers women to do for themselves, thereby destroying poverty via literacy, even when government has tried and failed. Her project is thus likely to have a higher rate of success than that of adult literacy programs sponsored by the government. Her work is sustainable not only because once obtained, literacy is permanent, but also because it is rooted in the targeted communities..."

Janvier D. Nkurunziza writes "...Africa has the highest level of poverty in the world and is one of the two regions where poverty has not declined in the past twenty years...One reason is that Africa's recent growth rates, while high by international standards, remain too low to have a substantial impact on poverty. Initial conditions are so low that only high and sustained growth levels may have a noticeable impact on poverty reduction. In no year has Africa, as a continent, achieved the 7 percent average growth rate required by the MDGs...most of the observed growth was generated by capital rather than labor-intensive sectors. If the fruit of economic growth reaches the poor through employment creation, growth in capital-intensive sectors has a limited effect on poverty reduction. Indeed, recent growth in Africa appears to have been fueled by increases in oil exports and high oil prices...Africa must strive to increase even further its growth rates and sustain them over a long period. Moreover, there must be greater balance between capital-intensive and labor-intensive activities. But encouraging labor-intensive industries, which create jobs for the poor, must not be at the expense of capital-intensive industries..."
Via SocialPolicy

Another rising star is the Nigerian Minister for Solid Minerals Obi Ezekwesili, described by Naija Blog as "...direct with a practical approach, communication skills etc..."In recent articles she comments on the potential of Nigeria's mineral sector "...It is largely not surprising that the contribution of the sector to the national economy has been quite disappointing. Many would shudder at the fact that despite our seeming huge endowments of solid minerals, revenues generated by the sector in 1999 was a paltry N80.9 million, which slowly grew to N309.2 million in 2002, and N298.5 million in 2004. I am very optimistic that, if properly developed, the sector has the potential to rival oil as a major revenue earner for the country..."

Times of India characterizes the countries Labour movement as 'Labour Aristocrats' a term that may well be appropriate for Labour Movements across Africa from Nigeria's NLC to South Africa's COSATU . "...India’s unionised labour is a tiny, entrenched labour aristocracy which when not forcing lock-outs and shutdowns, hikes pay and perks for their own members and makes it extremely tough for poorer, lower-wage workers to enter the job market.This raises costs and makes industry less competitive and jobs tougher to come by. Unions also militate against the interests of employees or job-seekers who are not members. India’s total workforce is about 500 million today..."
Via Indian Economy Blog

Dora Akunyili Director of Nigeria's NAFDAC "...has defied death threats and assasination attempts while tackling corrupt practices in the manufacturing, import and export of drugs, cosmetics and food products. Since taking up her position in April 2001, Dr Akunyili has earned nationwide respect for her persistence in prosecuting illegal drug traders and in imposing strict standards on multinational companies. In particular, she has pursued manufacturers and importers of counterfeit drugs, deemed to be a leading cause of deaths by stroke and heart failure in Nigeria...",Transparency.

A. M. Akiwumi analyses the independence of the judiciary in Africa and proffers solutions on acheiving this goal. "...Constitutional provisions may not .by themselves ensure the independence of the judiciary. The role of the Chief Justices and Presidents of Constitutional Courts is to ensure the independence of the judiciary. This role, however, requires someone who is eminently independent and who can put his mark on the image of the judiciary and the legal system...Generally, the position of judges of African Commonwealth countries, who are not treated as civil servants, and whose emoluments are protected by being charged on the Consolidated Fund, have been specifically safeguarded by the constitutions of some of these countries...so long as judges are appointed, paid, promoted, or removed from office by persons or institutions controlled directly or indirectly by the Executive, the judiciary's independence may be more theoretical than real...The lack of executive interference in the proceeding for the removal of a judge from office and which reinforces the doctrine of separation of powers, is more clearly expressed in the Constitution of Kenya. The President has no independent power to remove judges which can only be done by a tribunal composed of retired or active judges and senior legal practitioners, appointed by the President, and which the President can only do, if the Chief Justice represents to the President that the question of removing a judge from office, should be investigated..."

Wafula Okumu writes that any anti-corruption strategy must be bottom-up for it to have a chance of success "...Such a strategy would entail strengthening national legislation, tightening procedures and audit systems, improving public service performance, developing a culture of outrage, positively encouraging public service integrity, and strengthening institutions of governance.13 Good governance, based on effective mechanisms of public financial management and institutions of political accountability, would exterminate corruption by dismantling patron-client institutions in African political systems..."

Daniel Kauffman outlines 10 Myths About Governance and Corruption they include:
Myth #1: Governance and anticorruption are one and the same. We define governance as the traditions and institutions by which authority in a country is exercised for the common good. This includes the process by which those in authority are selected, monitored, and replaced (the political dimension); the government’s capacity to effectively manage its resources and implement sound policies (the economic dimension); and the respect of citizens and the state for the country’s institutions (the institutional respect dimension). By contrast, corruption is defined more narrowly as the "abuse of public office for private gain...
Myth #5: It takes generations for governance to improve. While it is true that institutions often change only gradually, in some countries there has been a sharp improvement in the short term. This defies the view that while governance may deteriorate quickly, improvements are always slow and incremental. For instance, there has been a significant improvement since 1996 in the "voice and accountability" indicator in countries ranging from Bosnia, Croatia, and Ghana, to Indonesia, Serbia, and Sierra Leone. And the improvements exhibited by some African countries in a short period of time challenge the "Afro-pessimists." Even so, it is sobering that, on average, there has not been a worldwide improvement in overall governance during this period—and in a number of countries, including the Ivory Coast, Nepal, and Zimbabwe, there has been a sharp deterioration..."

Johann Wingard writes "...East Africa is now actively shedding the yoke of their postcolonial nation statehood - they have experienced first hand that those artificial nation states would never survive without the social glue. For their own unique reasons it was impossible for colonies, arbitrarily lumped together, to survive the rigors of national statehood in a globalizing world, where states group together for economic survival and growth on a geographic basis...The current prospect of an African Union of nation states has an even smaller chance of survival as the real problem is not addressed. The world should now realize that the Africa project has failed and should be scrapped. The world community should join hands with the East African Federation and encourage the rest of Africa to follow their example soon.The philosophy of 'small is beautiful' is the common sense political model to pull the continent away from the abyss of famine, disease and violence it is currently facing...the truth lies in inherent structural faults. The real problem lies in the concept of artificial nation states where egotistical politicians try to convert the population into faceless social zombies and instill an artificial geographic patriotism for their nation state..."
Via The African Executive

Kabasubabu Katulondi writes "...The onus remains on African leaders at all levels. The “blame it on imperialists and colonisers” excuse has lost credibility. My deepest conviction is that democracy is a system and democratisation is a process: the way to build both is by using local ingenuity and drawing on the universal heritage, without altering the essence of democracy as a humanist project. Almost a half-century after independence, sub-Saharan Africans still face the tremendous challenge of building industrial societies and creating democracy as their superstructure..."

AllAfrica reported via the Champion the welcome establishment of Nigeria's 1st commodity exchange(The Abuja commodity exchange)."...ASCE which would trade in spot transactions for high quality grains such as white and yellow maize, soyabeans, cowpea, benniseed and millet, as well as cassava and sorghum.In the light of the development the exchange has invited commodity brokers and warehouse and assaying firms to partner with it in the areas of dealership and warehousing..."The Nigerian SEC should take note of the success deregulation has brought the derivatives industry in India .Broader based competition and demutualisation is needed in the exchange industry as a whole,private industry should be encouraged to step in and begin the process of establishing more regional exchanges in markets across the board. Whither the Aba stock exchange, Ibaden Cocoa exchange, Abakaliki Yam exchange et. al ?

Tostan News reports on the evolution of local democracy, "...Respondents very much wanted to expand on the issue of human rights and to examine the conditions, even the kind of society, in which these could be more durably ensured. The term “democracy” surfaced on a number of occasions, overheard from national political discourse, but no one was too sure exactly what it meant. Staff resolved therefore to try out a training sequence that would use “democracy” as a cover term for the kind of social arrangements under which human rights could be effectively guaranteed and people of all groups and ages could play an active role in determining their own destiny. The module that resulted from these months of effort included information, discussion, role-playing and applied activities all focusing on what human rights society must protect, how individual and group values are balanced, by what means those who have been deprived of rights can assert them, how conflict is healed, and the sort of governance strategies such goals require. Organizers found it worthwhile to go back to the root meaning of “democracy” (in Greek: government by the people) and to facilitate widespread discussion of just what this implied and how it related to the assertion of human rights and the resolution of conflict..."

"...UNESCO's UNISPAR-Africa programme, as part of the overall UNISPAR programme, supports the endogenous development of technologies that can readily be adopted in countries across the region. Industry in Africa consists mainly of small- and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs), so university-industry co-operation initiatives need to focus at this level...UNISPAR-Africa has been using interest from the Fund to support case studies in university-industry co-operation that develop sustainable technologies relevant to Africa's economic development..."

Newsweek reports on the emergence of Vietnam as a formidable competitor to China."...In many ways, Vietnam is a throwback to Asia's export-driven tiger economies, which thrived until China emerged as a world-beating manufacturer in the 1990s. Yet its emergence illustrates how China itself has become vulnerable to cut-rate competitors. Unlike other Asian economies, which sought to align themselves with the juggernaut in their midst, Vietnam has instead become a giant-killer. Much of its growth now comes in industries China still dominates, like textiles, footwear and toys. It competes against China in key Western markets but exports comparatively little to its northern neighbor..."African countries particularly with regard to textiles have thrown their hands up in horror and desperation at the onset of what they view as unstoppable Chinese competition. Vietnam's pugnacity illustrates the importance of a logically executed policy and the caliber of their nascent private sector. The victimist handwringing stance of African goverments when it comes to trade is a derivative of opaque and often clueless reactive thinking. The adoption of a constructive dynamic approach as evidenced by the success of the Vietnamese is something that needs to be embarked upon by the African private-public sector.

Commenting on the dearth of creative thinking in Africa Taban Lo Liyong stated "...In West Africa, the first age of African creativity also went away. We were brave in fighting against colonialism. You could be as brave as you wanted. But after independence, you would know that the African president was there. African writers had to find a new way of dealing with African issues. We need a new literary movement of extra-decolonisation of Africa from African dictators.Let’s produce that ideology first and it will have its activists. We have been running away from African culture into European culture for so long. No philosopher in Africa can claim to say “I am a philosopher of African philosophy..."

James Shikwati writes about Intellectual Property Rights "...The West have always sought systematic knowledge that can be replicated and refer to that knowledge as 'science'. It is for this reason that they have moved from focusing on natural resources such as 'land' to resources such as transistors, radios, fiber optic cables from sand. Most third world countries on the other hand have focused only on the 'visible wealth' and 'tribal organization'. This structure instead of fostering wealth, promotes war over resources.The list of inventions and innovations rarely indicates participation from Africa, falsely creating an impression that Africans are not creative and innovative. On the contrary however, long before the colonialist came to Africa, the African people had started ventures in medicine, iron smelting, arts, music, house building, and bead making and curving. The power of innovation was also exhibited in the way they preserved fire for later use, stored foodstuffs and the very fact that they could light a fire by rubbing two sticks together.
However the lack of systematic recording and beyond a collective level of property right recognition(PDF), robbed many innovators in Africa the ability to have their ideas improved upon and made economically viable. More so, the lack of a property rights regime that could measure to the countries that later colonized Africa made it easier for both physical and intellectual property to be seized by the occupying powers..."

Judi Wakhungu stated that"...the poor are actually a source of opportunity because they are often willing to work much harder than the rich, are more adaptable, physically often stronger, more resilient and often more industrious and innovative in the face of challenges. What they do lack is access to credit, technology and markets. They are the creative underclass waiting to burst out. Poor people too have talent and intelligence, and it is African society's responsibility to discover talents and develop them...We need to redesign products for poor countries around their needs. The poor need technologies to tap their unrecognised talents and convert their arid land to food-producing, the trash to art, and their voluminous labour to capital..."

Fredrik Erixon writes "...Countries are not poor because they lack roads, schools or health clinics. They lack these things because they are poor – and they are poor because they lack the institutions of the free society, which create the underlying conditions for economic development. Aid has it upside down... Botswana chose to empower its people with inclusive economic institutions instead of pursuing socialism like many of its African counterparts. As a result, it has experienced the world’s highest rates of economic growth in the past 30 years, and its people are far better off – with per capita incomes of around $8000 per year, compared with less than $1000 in many African countries..."
Via Global Growth

George Ayittey stated that "...the solutions to Africa’s problems lie in Africa itself. It involves Africa going back to its roots and building upon its own indigenous institutions. Indigenous institutions of freedom, free markets in Africa, free enterprise and free trade. Some of us may not know these indigenous institutions, and this is why people like us have to talk about it in this book(Indigenous African Institutions)..."

"...OSIWA is dedicated to supporting the creation of open societies in West Africa marked by functioning democracy, good governance, the rule of law, basic freedoms, and widespread civic participation. OSIWA believes that it best serves by sustaining catalytic and innovative initiatives that add value to the efforts of West Africa's civil society. OSIWA seeks to collaborate with advocacy groups, like-minded foundations, governments and donors..." OSIWA recently launched the West Africa Democracy Radio (WADR)"...conceived to be the hub of a West African network of public, private and community radio stations, creating an avenue for networking between the radio stations and a channel for dialogue among the peoples of the respective countries they serve...",Pambazuka.

The Timbuktu Educational Foundation was "...founded for the sole purpose of preserving, restoring, and disseminating the important intellectual contributions of the early African scholars from the famous Timbuktu Universities of Mali, West Africa...its goals include to restore preserve translate and publish the manuscripts of Timbuktu.Restore the historical buildings which house the University of Timbuktu and to reopen the University with its classical methods of teaching..."

Yebo Gogo writes about the critical nature of the Zuma trial "...This trial is important to South Africa for three main reasons. First, the country needs to show that no one public official is above the law. Second, it needs to promote a culture where corruption won't be tolerated. And three, it appears one of Zuma's tactics is to agitate tribal hatred, which could split the country...what would threaten South African democracy is Zuma getting off of his charges because he's popular. He might not be guilty, but South Africa needs to send a message that he'll be tried, just like any other citizen..."

Franklin Cudjoe writes "...Globalization can hardly be blamed for the fact that only 10 percent of Africa’s trade takes place among African countries themselves. With 750 million people living on the continent, the potential for the expansion of trade must be enormous. Very little trade has been allowed in this poorest of continents where tariffs are almost as high as 50 percent and where highway robbers dressed as customs officials block free exchange...Capital is a cowardly bird. It flies to safer places where it expects to earn better returns. 40 percent of Africa’s private investment takes place outside of the continent, while only 3 percent of Asia’s investment takes place overseas...If there is to be any hope for long term prosperity in Africa, Africans must be given the predictability that comes with the rule of law, the protection of private property and free markets, and decentralized management of resources. This will harness local knowledge along with the creativity, diligence, and thrift that is natural to Africans..."
Via PsdBlog

In a recent interview development expert William Easterly stated "...Securing pledges for more aid is not going to make poverty history. What we should be examining is the aid industry’s plans to spend this new money because it has a track record of failure dating back to the 1940s and 50s. There’s been numerous and diverse attempts to buy the poor out of poverty but none of them have been particularly successful. So in 2005 we found ourselves ostensibly throwing more good money after bad. Above all, this is tragic for the poor...“There might be one billion people living on a dollar day but they are not a political constituency - they have no voice. They are effectively customers of this multi-billion dollar aid industry but lack the ability to give feedback and influence the type of aid they receive...At the same time, aid industry investors – rich country tax payers and the politicians writing the cheques – are ill-informed and far removed from the lives and daily challenges of the world’s poor. Therefore the disconnect that resides at either end of the development supply chain mitigates against change and reform to deliver the type of development the poor so desperately want and need..."
Via NextBillion

The CS monitor comments on the rise of Africa's women."...In fact, Africa has long been "extremely progressive when it comes to women in politics," says Gisela Geisler, author of a book on the subject. And now there's a further "jelling" of women in power, she says, partly because 10 years after a major wave of democracy swept across Africa, voters see that "not much has changed in terms of corruption." These days, Dr. Geisler says, "people have greater hope in women..." The BBC reports "..."It's a historical phenomenon, which is going to be an example to other African countries... I could scream my heart out," Nigerian politician Sarah Jubril told the BBC's World Today programme. So is Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf's apparent victory the start of a trend?..."

Nigeria's Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is representative of a new type of African leader.A reformer and technocrat commenting on Nigeria's Oil based economy she stated "...The fact also that you have a natural resource-based economy that is highly dependent on one commodity - oil. I think that is not the best thing that has happened to us as a country because it is difficult to apply the resources that come from this natural resource in a way that takes into account this complexity or groups, religion and so on. And I don't think that the country can really move forward until a good formula is worked out to be able to apply the country's human and natural resources in the best way possible that can be accepted by everybody as being fair...any development in the country has to take into account the need to diversify from oil. I don't think the country can really move forward unless we are able to find a way to develop other sources of income or find other sources of growth for the economy apart from oil...Thus there are two issues - one, applying the resources that we have appropriately and secondly finding means to diversify the economy, which is very vital. And part of managing the resources that we have appropriately is also trying to deal with the enormous burden of debt which the country has, that amounts to $28 billion..."In a paper presented at the The Global Economic Governance Programme she listed the continuing challenges facing Nigeria they include Sustainability,Vested interests,Quick results and Globalization.

Abraham Mclaughlin of CSMonitor writes "...are 'donor darlings' stifling democracy?... In Africa's decade-plus experiment with multiparty democracy, there appears to be significant backsliding, ironically, among some heads of state once heralded as the next generation of great leaders on the continent. And the slippage, observers say, is sometimes being abetted by the US and other rich-nation donors - in part because of the war on terror.The most current example is Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who was a member of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Commission for Africa and is an important partner in America's terror war. After a disputed election in May, he's mounted a brass-knuckles crackdown on opponents in which at least 76 people have died. He's also edging toward restarting one of Africa's most deadly wars..."
Via Friends of Ethiopia

Commenting on the African Diaspora Wangari Maathai stated "...I commend the African diaspora for believing in small and medium-sized enterprises, which are key to enabling Africans to fulfil their aspirations for jobs and economic security. The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (Unido) reports that 90% of all businesses in Africa are small and medium-sized. We must support this sector and ensure that it thrives.The diaspora can ensure that this sector grows in the home countries. Africans in the diaspora are estimated to send back some $200 billion to Africa each year. This money assists both their families and the national economy. We need to encourage and sustain this interest and commitment. We need initiatives that are simple, attainable and able to generate visible success in a short time. This creates momentum, trust, excitement and goodwill around solutions that ordinary people themselves own and believe in..."

John Mukum Mbaku writes that "...The real obstacle to development in Africa, then, is the absence of institutional arrangements that effectively constrain the state and prevent its agents (civil servants and politicians) from engaging in opportunism; enhance indigenous entrepreneurship and the creation of wealth; and improve the ability of all individuals within each country to participate fully and effectively in national development. In order to prepare each African country for sustainable development in the new century, citizens must engage in reconstruction of the state through proper constitution making to provide governance and resource allocation systems that minimize political opportunism; enhance indigenous entrepreneurship; maximize wealth creation; promote peaceful coexistence of population groups; and generally increase the national welfare. In the following sections, we take a more detailed look at parts of this transition program..."

"...The Barefoot College came up with the idea of a Children ’s Parliament so that children could learn how a democracy functions,the importance of the vote, standing up for your rights and not letting yourself be exploited because you are poor. The children elect their own Parliament and their own Ministers. They can make decisions about the running of their schools and dismiss teachers who neglect their duties. The children can also have their say in matters concerning their villages,such as the supply of water and electricity..."

Worldwrite has produced a "...film that will challenge the belief that fair trade is a panacea for poverty in the developing world. It claims that western consumers have been duped into thinking that fair trade is an effective poverty-alleviation tool, when in fact it does nothing to address the root causes of poverty...",ThirdSector."...The Bitter Aftertaste casts huge doubts on the capacity of chocoholics and shopaholics to transform the lives of farmers in the developing world through their supermarket trolleys. Shot in Ghana and the UK this hard-hitting documentary is sure to stir more than coffee and leave a bitter taste in the mouths of those who espouse fair trade as a mechanism for development. The film asks the questions often thought but never asked, does fair trade really change anything or just make Western consumers feel good? A must-see for everyone who believes the developing world deserves better..."
Via Loneliest Jukebox

"...Fahamu uses information communication technologies to conduct pan-African campaigns for human rights and social justice.Fahamu (a word meaning 'consciousness' or 'comprehension' in Kiswahili) fields digital publishing and communications -- CD-ROMs, the web, e-newsletters, and now, mobile phone text messaging -- in diverse ways that let the group, "pack a punch larger than our weight" to support progressive social change in Africa, empower Africans to control their own economies and political systems -- and stave off a repeat of the tragedies that hang over the heads of African social justice activists..."
Via Worldchanging

Eddie Cross of Zimbabwe Pundit speculates that Africa may well be experiencing an equivalent of the European Dark Ages. However within ""...any "Dark Age" you have your islands of enlightenment and hope. And so it is in Africa and in places like Zimbabwe. You can find such places by visiting our private schools where dedicated teachers and administrators are maintaining a small but effective system of education that continues to produce outstanding athletes, sportsmen and women and fine academics. Above all they produce achievers - men and women who go out into the world and succeed wherever they go. You can find them by visiting certain business organisations - I have a friend here who runs a globally competitive clothing factory - he exports the great majority of his output to the most sophisticated markets in the world. Another friend manufacturers fruit drinks and chemicals - walk through the doors of his business and you are in a clean, modern environment, which is comparable to any in the world. Staff are motivated and work hard and their product is expensive, but always good quality..."

John Lonsdale critiques the thinking of Africa as an enduring victim, he suggests the rebuilding of African higher education as a necessary first step.
"...How far are the professed “friends of Africa” – scholars, students, activists – to blame for the mix of everyday indifference and latent fear, tempered now and again by pity? What can we do to repair our failures in representation? Perhaps it would be to do what best serves our own professional interest: regard African colleagues as allies in a common cause, and repair the failures in African higher education that so diminish the African ability to speak to the rest of the world as intellectual equals, expert witnesses in their own cause, full citizens of our one world...Why do we need celebrities to enlist our attention? What Bob Geldof and Bono have done is marvellous (the Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen tells me that Geldof proved to be a sharp student of development economics in the telephone tutorials Sen gave at the popstar’s request in 2004). But there are also two dangers in the “celebritisation” of Africa’s needs:

• the sense of guilt that Geldof and Bono arouse in their audiences may prove fleeting and ineffective – when it is important that the G8 and the European Union need to be subjected to intellectually sustained and politically creative scrutiny
• the image of the secular saint flatters the self-regarding, even racist, European image as the heroic dragon-slayer riding to the rescue of a voiceless and helpless African continent, trapped by poverty, ignorance and disease