Major Topic Areas

Health Go to full list on this topic
Dec 5 2012  Africa: Towards the End of AIDS http://www.africafocus.org/docs12/aids1212.php
    "[Despite significant advances} the epidemic of HIV/AIDS is far from over. According to the most recent statistics from UNAIDS, there are still 2.5 million new HIV infections worldwide and 1.7 million deaths annually from this disease. Globally, there are 34 million people living with HIV and half do not know their HIV status. Nearly half of the people in need of antiretroviral treatment (6.8 million) do not have access to these lifesaving medications ... Sub-Saharan Africa continues to carry a disproportionate burden of disease, representing 69 percent of all people infected with the virus worldwide." - Susan Blumenthal, M.D. and Melissa Shive

Peace and Security Go to full list on this topic
Mar 26, 2013  Mali: Listening without Drones http://www.africafocus.org/docs13/mali1303.php
    "Mali is neither Somalia, nor Afghanistan, nor an 'Africanistan.' ... We hope President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry are wise enough not to let analogy do the work of analysis. ... The problems bedeviling Mali are long-running and multi-faceted. They cannot be droned out of existence. The best way the U.S. government can help Malians realize their aspiration for substantive-- not just formal--democracy is to listen carefully, and let them take the lead." - Gregory Mann and Bruce Whitehouse

Politcs and Human Rights Go to full list on this topic
May 8, 2013  USA/Africa: Immigration Reform Needs Fixing http://www.africafocus.org/docs13/migr1305.php
    "The recently released Senate immigration reform bill had a mix of carrot and stick approaches to providing the long-awaited path to citizenship for millions of undocumented people living under repressive conditions. While the bill has several good features, it weighs heavily toward very bad and very ugly provisions that will leave out millions of people and will continue the mass detentions and deportations that have become normalized in U.S. society." - Gerald Lenoir, Black Alliance for Just Immigration

Special Topics

Aid, Poverty & Public Investment Go to full list on this topic
May 13, 2013  Africa: Rise of the Global South http://www.africafocus.org/docs13/hdr1305.php
    "Although most developing countries have done well, a large number of countries have done particularly well -- what can be called the 'rise of the South'. Some of the largest countries have made rapid advances, notably Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa and Turkey. But there has also been substantial progress in smaller economies, such as Bangladesh, Chile, Ghana, Mauritius, Rwanda and Tunisia. ... For the first time in 150 years, the combined output of the developing world's three leading economies -- Brazil, China and India -- is about equal to the combined GDP of the longstanding industrial powers of the North -- Canada, France, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom and the United States." - UNDP Human Development Report, 2013

Culture & the Media Go to full list on this topic
Jan 31, 2013  Africa: Press Freedom Index http://www.africafocus.org/docs13/rsf1301.php
    Reporters Without Borders has just published their Press Freedom Index for 2013, with a brief review and ratings of conditions for journalists in 179 countries around the world. While some African countries rank at the bottom of the list (notably Somalia at 175 and Eritrea at 179), other African countries fall in the middle or even close to the top. Namibia (19) ranks above Canada (20). Cape Verde (25) ranks above Australia (26), and Ghana (30) above the United States (32).

Debt Go to full list on this topic
Apr 11, 2013  Nigeria: #Offshoreleaks http://www.africafocus.org/docs13/tax1304.php
    The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has begun publication of stories from a vast trove of documents revealing transactions in the "offshore world" of tax havens. The data, from an Australian investigation of offshore financial shelters and fraud, held more than 2.5 million records, which are being investigated by dozens of journalists. The total size of the files, measured in gigabytes, is more than 160 times larger than the leak of U.S. State Department documents by Wikileaks in 2010.

Education Go to full list on this topic
Sep 21, 2010  Africa: Primary Education Pays Off http://www.africafocus.org/docs10/educ1009.php
    "Simply getting all children into school has a direct positive impact on economic growth. Then once children are in school, ensuring that the education they receive is good quality multiplies the impact ... A recently completed study from 50 countries established that every extra year of schooling provided to the whole population can increase average annual GDP growth by 0.37%. Where the education is good quality, the improvement of cognitive skills increases the impact to 1%." - Global Campaign for Education

Environment & Climate Change Go to full list on this topic
Mar 10, 2013  Africa/Global: Fossil-Fuel Divestment http://www.africafocus.org/docs13/div1303.php
    The fossil-fuel divestment movement now gaining momentum on college campuses to fight climate change frequently evokes the precedent of the anti-apartheid divestment campaigns of the 1970s and 1980s. But there are other Africa connections that are also beginning to be made. Africa is the continent most vulnerable to climate change and extreme weather events. American and other multinational companies have a long history of environmental destruction in areas such as the Niger Delta. And while many African countries look to fossilfuel exploitation to fund their development, the experience of the "resource curse" shows that the profits may fuel gross inequality and capital flight rather than development.

Information & Communication Technology Go to full list on this topic
Feb 15, 2012  Africa: Social Media Updates http://www.africafocus.org/docs12/mob1202.php
    Although the #OccupyNigeria protests failed to gain a complete rollback of the price increase in petrol last month, they clearly had significant impact. In addition to a partial rollback in the price, they spurred the beginning of new government action against corruption in the oil sector, including the appointment of former anti-corruption official Nuhu Ribadu to head a task force focused on the sector. The outcome is of course uncertain, but the protests clearly mark the emergence of African social media to political prominence beyond North Africa.

Migration Go to full list on this topic
May 8, 2013  USA/Africa: Immigration Reform Needs Fixing http://www.africafocus.org/docs13/migr1305.php
    "The recently released Senate immigration reform bill had a mix of carrot and stick approaches to providing the long-awaited path to citizenship for millions of undocumented people living under repressive conditions. While the bill has several good features, it weighs heavily toward very bad and very ugly provisions that will leave out millions of people and will continue the mass detentions and deportations that have become normalized in U.S. society." - Gerald Lenoir, Black Alliance for Just Immigration

Trade Go to full list on this topic
Apr 2, 2013  Africa: The Industrialization Agenda http://www.africafocus.org/docs13/eca1304.php
    It seems to be the season for economic reports and meetings, with the IMF issuing a critique of subsidies for fossil fuels, the UNDP's Human Development Report focusing on the "Rise of the South," the BRICS summit in South Africa, meetings of the Pan African Parliament and civil society on "Structural Transformation," and more. That's far too much to even provide links for in one AfricaFocus Bulletin, so I'm beginning a series today with a policy paper from the Economic Commission for Africa on the critical importance of new industrialization strategies.