Pambazuka News is produced by a pan-African community of some 2,600 citizens and organisations - academics, policy makers, social activists, women's organisations, civil society organisations, writers, artists, poets, bloggers, and commentators who together produce insightful, sharp and thoughtful analyses and make it one of the largest and most innovative and influential web forums for social justice in Africa. 
debt
What banks can do to a nation's spirit
Cameron Duodu
2010-11-25, Issue 507
cc S T B‘African countries that walk into the credit vaults of banks must be aware that if the plug can be pulled on Ireland or Greece, it can be pulled on them too. Only, in Africa's case, there will be no European Central Bank or friendly neighbours like Britain, to come to their assistance,’ writes Cameron Duodu.
Competitive devaluation and financial warfare
Horace Campbell
2010-11-11, Issue 504
cc Downing StreetAs G20 leaders mull the global consequence of quantitative easing in the US, Horace Campbell highlights the need for a democratised international body that can hold major powers accountable. ‘Without such a body, the kind of competitive devaluation that has been initiated by the US could be a recipe for full-blown warfare.’
Haiti's 'odious debt' must be completely and unconditionally cancelled
Eric Toussaint and Sophie Perchellet
2010-01-28, Issue 467
cc Haiti EarthquakeEric Toussaint and Sophie Perchellet criticise mainstream commentary on Haiti for failing to look beyond the earthquake and to ask where Haiti's poverty is rooted. They depict the historical passage of political and economic exploitation and individual greed that has led Haiti into a hole of crippling debt. Haiti, they argue, 'needs to be rebuilt because it has been stripped of its means to rebuild itself'. Toussaint and Perchellet note that 'All current financial aid announced following the earthquake is already lost to the debt repayment!' They conclude that those most responsible for systematically exploiting Haiti, namely France and the US, must pay their compensation through a fund for the country's reconstruction.
G8 and Africa: Some give, plenty of take
Why we shouldn't hitch our wagon to the G8 engine
Yash Tandon
2009-07-16, Issue 442
cc H D SThe media has presented the G8’s L’Alqila summit promise of US$20 billion for food security and agricultural development in Africa as good news, but a closer look at the figures shows that G8 countries actually take much more out than they put into the continent, writes Yash Tandon.
Who owns the rain on Rodrigues island?
Alain Leveque
2009-06-11, Issue 437
cc BaejaarWith the inhabitants of the island of Rodrigues forced to purchase their water from the Rodrigues Water Company (RWC), Alain Leveque laments the commoditisation of the country's natural resource. The privately-run yet government-owned RWC has installed water meters under a user-pay system without being obliged to consult the Rodriguan population. Leveque argues that not only does the RWC's monopoly inhibit innovation and threaten price hikes, it also indicates a trend towards privatisation in direct opposition to locals' rights and representation.
China and India in Africa: challenging the status quo?
Sanusha Naidu and Hayley Herman
2008-09-03, Issue 394
‘Equality and mutual benefit’ are reflected today in Chinese leaders’ frequent emphasis on aid as a partnership, not a one way transfer of charity, -quoted in Deborah Brautigam’s, China’s African Aid: Transatlantic Challenges\...
European Development Fund: The illusion of assistance
Mouhamet Lamine Ndiaye
2008-09-03, Issue 394
Equitable and sustainable structural transformation of African economies is a prerequisite for improving livelihoods across the continent. Despite decades of reform often led under structural adjustment programmes, and a very high level of openness, ...
The destruction of African agriculture
Walden Bello
2008-08-05, Issue 392
Biofuel production is certainly one of the culprits in the current global food crisis. But while the diversion of corn from food to biofuel feedstock has been a factor in food prices shooting up, the more primordial problem has been the conversion of economies that are largely food-self-sufficient into chronic food importers. Here the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Trade Organization (WTO) figure as much more important villains....
Meeting the Abuja promise goes beyond the 15% target
Rene Loewenson and Di McIntyre
2008-07-09, Issue 387
When the African Union (AU) Heads of State committed to allocating at least 15% of annual government budgets to their health sectors In Abuja, Nigeria in 2001, they also called on high income countries to fulfil their own commitment to devote at least 0.7% of their GNP as ODA to developing countries and to cancel Africa’s external debt in favour of increased investment in the social sector, write Rene Loewenson and Di McIntyre.
The oil crisis in global context
John Samuel
2008-06-23, Issue 383
We could be on the threshold of a new phase of globalisation, one where there will be a new protectionism, more regional trade and regional economic activism and where governments will be forced to address the problems of the vulnerable middle class and poor, argues John Samuel.
AGRA, bio-piracy and food as social justice
Mariam Mayet speaks to Pambazuka News
Mariam Mayet
2008-04-10, Issue 361
In this wide ranging Pambazuka News interview, Mariam Mayet, the director of the African Center Biosafety speaks about biopiracy, which she calls "the last frontier", the Alliance for a Green Revolution and its impact on Africa, and food and agriculture as social justice justice.
China still a small player in Africa
Firoze Manji
2008-03-27, Issue 357
Firoze Manji argues that in comparison to Europe and the US, China in Africa is still a small player. While keeping an eye out on China, Africans should not be distracted from paying attention to the West's continued exploitation of the continent including the use of military might to protect its economic interests.