WEST AFRICA: Remittances set to fall in 2009
DAKAR, 11 November 2008 (IRIN) - For the first time in over a decade remittances to sub-Saharan Africa are set to fall in 2009, increasing people’s vulnerability to poverty, officials at the World Bank say. Remittance income in developing countries is expected to decline by about 1 percent from 2008 to 2009.
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WEST AFRICA: Taking on climate change as a region
COTONOU, 23 October 2008 (IRIN) - Climate experts and ministers in West Africa have committed to coordinating national efforts to fight climate change, at the conclusion of an Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) meeting in Benin’s economic capital, Cotonou, on 22 October.
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WEST AFRICA: Train the soldiers, protect the children
DAKAR, 17 October 2008 (IRIN) - An international NGO is using cartoons to spell out to African soldiers the rights and wrongs of how to treat a child.
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WEST AFRICA: Region among the world’s hungriest
DAKAR, 14 October 2008 (IRIN) - The 2008 Global Hunger Index (GHI) says sub-Saharan African countries have the highest level of hunger in the world, with Niger, Sierra Leone and Liberia experiencing “extremely alarming levels of hunger,” however, this is still an improvement over 1990 levels.
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WEST AFRICA: Voices from exile
DAKAR, 13 October 2008 (IRIN) - The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, has appealed to international donors not to cut back on aid to humanitarian programmes amid a global financial crisis that has shuttered financial institutions in rich countries. At the conclusion of UNHCR’s annual meeting in Geneva from 6-10 October, Guterres said refugees remain the most vulnerable victims of the global economic fallout.
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TOGO: School year reopens with free primary schools
LOME, 6 October 2008 (IRIN) - For the first time in recent years, primary school students started a new school year on 6 October in Togo without paying enrolment fees. The government has waived primary school fees as part of a more than US$80 million investment in the education system. While parents celebrated the extra fees they will not have to pay for primary school students, administrators are taken aback by the surprise announcement worry how they will pay for school operations the fees had helped fund.
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TOGO: 17,000 poultry killed in latest flu outbreak
LOME, 30 September 2008 (IRIN) - Some 17,000 birds died or have been culled since the outbreak of the H5N1 avian flu virus on 9 September on three poultry farms in Agbata, located 10km east of Lome, according to the country’s livestock director, Komla Batawui.
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TOGO: Truth and reconciliation process underway
LOME, 26 September 2008 (IRIN) - Almost 23,000 people responded to a UN-funded survey that is the first step in establishing what will be the country’s first truth and reconciliation commission. They were asked how to design a truth and reconciliation commission capable of confronting culprits who brutalised tens of thousands into exile.
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WEST AFRICA: Mixed report card in 2008 corruption index
DAKAR, 23 September 2008 (IRIN) - Nine West African countries shot up while nine others sank lower in the 2008 Transparency International (TI) ranking of perceptions of corruption in 180 countries.
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TOGO: Mixed reactions to H5N1 flu confirmation
LOME, 18 September 2008 (IRIN) - Togo’s government has confirmed the H5N1 bird flu virus is responsible for the 10 September outbreak that killed 3,500 birds and led to the culling of an additional 1,500 others on three farms in Agbata, about 10km east of the capital.
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