News and Analysis

Thursday, July 02, 2009

Africa on the Brink of Disintegration

Tetteh Hormeku (Third World Network-Africa)--Pressures in the negotiations for the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the European Union have, over the past two weeks, pushed two more regional economic groupings in Africa to the brink of disintegration. This adds to the two other regions, which have already been under stress since the beginning of 2008. On June 4 in Brussels, the EU signed an interim economic partnership agreement with Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique and Swaziland against the wishes of Angola, Namibia, and South Africa. This has made imminent an acrimonious break-up of Africa’s oldest customs union, the Southern African Customs Union (SACU).   

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Thursday, June 25, 2009

Propping up Africa’s Dictators

Khadija Sharife (Foreign Policy In Focus)--‘We cannot assure our development on our own,’ stated France’s pet dictator and Africa’s longest-serving ruler, Omar Bongo. The Gabonese leader was talking about national economic development, but he might just as well have been talking about his own personal economic development.

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Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Brazilian President Invited to AU Summit

(APA)--Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will participate at the 13th ordinary session of the assembly of heads of State and government of the African Union scheduled to take place in Sirte, Libya, from 1 to 3 July 2009.

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Tuesday, June 16, 2009

The Governance of the APRM Lacks Transparency

(Pacweb)--It’s not surprising that mixed messages are being received from and about the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). In fact, it would be unusual if anything as ambitious and wide-ranging as the APRM were to be implemented without obstacles and disappointments. Problems are therefore bound to occur as governments take on the challenge of establishing a new dialogue with civil society in order to reach consensus around priority governance areas and agree on improvements to be made. The important thing is to be open and honest about the difficulties.

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