Over one hundred organisations have issued a statement addressed to World Bank president, Jim Kim, questioning the Bank’s support for a multinational chain of low-fee, profit-making private primary schools targeting poor families, which Kim recently praised as a means to alleviate poverty.

The NGOs are concerned that not enough is being done throughout the continent to promote the rights of women enshrined in domestic laws and in African Union protocols and policy documents.

‘African solutions to African problems’ is a popular adage among the ruling classes on the continent. Africa is old enough to deal with its own issues. Yet leaders in the 15-member SADC bloc are in the process of dismantling their own regional court to shield governments, heads of state and other powerful people from justice.

Key challenges include how to support genuinely addressing the root causes of many intractable conflicts, which often involve deeply entrenched inequalities of wealth and power, while often having to meet headquarter demands for short term, quantifiable results rooted in linear and problematic assumptions about how change manifests.

The African Academy of Languages invites Africa scholars in the continent and the Diaspora to submit contribution for publication in a special edition of KUWALA (ACALAN’s Journal), which will explore the academic, conceptual and practical elements on the contribution of African languages to Agenda 20163.