Rotimi Sankore

The main factors behind Africa’s health tragedy are the lack of foresight and political will required to ensure sustainable health development, financing and universal primary health care, argues Rotimi Sankore. Through exploring comparative statistics for African and Western health systems and by underlining the effects of institutional under-funding and the brain drain, the author contends that future generations of Africans may yet look back and conclude such policy to be the equivalent of...read more

Through exploring the importance of sustainable and long-term health financing, Rotimi Sankore argues that effective primary health care will only be achieved when key obstacles in the shape of a lack of clear policies and Africa’s critical health workforce shortage are addressed. He stresses the debate around ‘health systems versus disease specific interventions’ to be a phantom one akin to asking whether food is more important than water to human life, arguing that the real challenge for th...read more

1. AU MEMBER STATES MUST STRENGTHEN CAPACITY OF THE AU COMMISSION AND ASSEMBLY OF HEADS OF STATES TO COPE SIMULTANEOUSLY WITH LONG-TERM DEVELOPMENT GOALS, AND ‘EMERGENCY’ ISSUES SUCH AS ZIMBABWE:

The dominance of Zimbabwe’s governance and human rights challenges at the recently concluded 2008 African Union midyear summit in Egypt highlights that AU member states urgently need to strengthen their capacity to follow through on details of, and implementation of commitments to key African ...read more

First, a statement of principles; Every African is obliged to stand up for equality, democracy, human rights and social justice - not just for ourselves as individuals or only in our villages, cities, countries and regions - but for all Africans across Africa regardless of gender, ethnicity, race, political or religious beliefs. These must be the bedrock of genuine Pan-Africanism. All of Africa's anti slavery, anti colonial and liberation struggles regardless of their shortcomings [and yes ...read more

From the 1-3 July 2007, African leaders will meet in Accra, Ghana at the 9th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union. The major agenda item is the proposal and plans for the United States of Africa. Africa’s underdevelopment as manifested in its public health catastrophe is not on the AU summit agenda. This raises the crucial question of the kind of unity African leaders wish to achieve. Significantly the debate about the proposed union has revolved mainly around political issue...read more

In its 2006 annual report, the WHO reports that out of 57 countries, 36 countries in sub-Saharan Africa suffer from a severe shortage of health workers, such as doctors, nurses, pharmacists, lab technologists, radiographers and other frontline or support staff. Rotimi Sankore argues that the ‘brain drain’ is slowly and indirectly killing the continent.

In times of crisis and epidemics, diplomacy is a luxury the dying cannot afford, especially when millions of Africans know that an over...read more

Part 1 [Nov 1995]

The charade is over
The masquerades
are on parade

Ribbons on heavy chests
One for every life
they have taken

The charade
- Is over
The Ogoni 9
were hung today

Injustice has triumphed
[But only for a day]

On the night of long knives
And wicked jibes
-starched uniforms and corporate suits gloated
as the bodies lay bloated

WHERE?
- they bellowed -
was the inte...read more

In a world where graphic pictures of starving children are used by development agencies to raise funds from the public in the rich world, ROTIMI SANKORE critiques the phenomenon of ‘development pornograpy’ and argues that it has contributed towards deeper prejudice. New ways must be found to reach the public and more clearly explain the real reasons behind poverty in Africa, he states.

For decades, development and aid charities in the western world have believed the best way to raise f...read more

A tsunami of the sort that hit Asia will hit Africa sooner or later. It's just a question of how much sooner or later: one year, 10 years, a 100 or a 1000 years, and if it will be bigger or smaller. The impact it will largely depend on how prepared the continent, individual countries and governments will be for its consequences.

Tectonic plates on which all continents rest are continuously shifting - triggering underwater quakes and volcanoes. Global warming and melting of polar caps ...read more

The 120th anniversary of Africa's partition passed largely unmarked in November 2004. While some no doubt would wonder what the significance of this is today those that are aware of the partition and its implications will be able to see its negative implication for Africa's development and parallels with cold war era balkanisation of the world into east versus west spheres of influence. Some would even argue that Hitler's brazen land grab or policy of "Lebensraum " in which the Nazis claimed...read more

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