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Africa Up Close

Africa Up Close is the blog of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars' Africa Up Close.
Showing posts from category Southern Voices. Show all posts
  • Southern Voices:

    The African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement and Xenophobia: Is Africa at a Crossroads?

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    By George Boateng & Beatrice Oforiwaa Dankyi  // Wednesday, December 4, 2019

    Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Hon Lindiwe Sisulu, attending the meeting of the PRC and the 18th Extraordinary Session of the Executive Council in Kigali, Rwanda. Speaking to African Union Commissioner of Peace and Security Ambassador Smail Chergui. Picture byline: Jacoline Schoonees 18 March 2018 Public engagements for Minister Sisulu, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, from 19-27 March 2018 The Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Hon Lindiwe Sisulu, will over the next few days embark on a number of continental and local engagements aimed at building and strengthening relations between South Africa and other countries. These engagements include accompanying HE President Cyril Ramaphosa to the Extraordinary Summit of the Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU) Summit in Rwanda, Minister’s first meeting with Heads of Diplomatic Mission in South Africa, hosting Ubuntu Awards and the SADC Council of Ministers. The Summit in Kigali is expected to consider and conclude issues related to the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) and adopt the Agreement on the Establishment of the CFTA whilst the SADC Council of Ministers, scheduled to take place in Tshwane, is expected to discuss and take decisions relating to the functioning of the SADC Secretariat and the implementation of decisions taken at the last SADC Summit. On Thursday, 22 March 2018, Minister Sisulu will host the fourth Annual Ubuntu Awards in Cape Town. The Awards will be held under the theme: “Honouring Madiba: A Global Champion of Human Rights, Peace and Reconciliation”. The Ubuntu Awards were launched in 2015 to celebrate South African citizens who play an active role in projecting a positive image of South Africa internationally through diligent service in their respective fields. South Africa prides itself on these global ambassadors. The details for Minister’s engagements for the next few days are as follows: 1. Ex

    On March 21, 2018, close to 50 African Union (AU) Member States signed the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement during the 10th Extraordinary Summit of the AU Assembly of Heads of State and Government in Kigali, Rwanda. Photo courtesy of the Government of South Africa via Flickr Commons.

    The operational phase of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement was launched in July 2019 amidst excitement and a sense of hope, and rightly so. AfCFTA, which is on course to become the largest free trade area in the world is an agreement among 54 African nations for the creation of a single continental market for goods and services, in addition to the free movement of persons, labor, and investment geared towards a customs union. Its purpose is expanding intra-African trade through harmonized and well-coordinated trade facilitation regimes. It also aims to harmonize trade instruments across the Regional Economic Communities (RECs).

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    Topics: Peacebuilding, Development and the New Economic Paradigm, Southern Voices
  • Southern Voices:

    Lake Victoria’s Migingo Island: A Test for Peacebuilding in East Africa

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    By Fredrick Ogenga  // Monday, December 2, 2019

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    Local fishermen at Lake Victoria, Kenya. Photo courtesy of Ryan Harvey via Flickr Commons. 

    Migingo, an island roughly the size of a football pitch on Lake Victoria, has been a site of contention between Kenya and Uganda, due to the large fish population found in the surrounding freshwaters. As populations increase, environmental degradation and pollution put pressure on the flora and fauna in the lake basin, creating a natural resource conflict time bomb. East African countries, especially Kenya and Uganda, are witnessing diminishing returns in fish and related products, leading to rising competition for the increasingly scarce natural resources.

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    Topics: Eastern Africa, Governance and Emerging Global Challenges, Peacebuilding, Development and the New Economic Paradigm, Southern Voices
  • Southern Voices:

    Agricultural and Rural Extension Models for Fragile Societies

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    By Paterne Mombe  // Friday, November 22, 2019

    Lushoto. .Site 1.Farmer's name: Iddi Seif.Farmers Group: Individual farmer.Location: Kwekangaga.Crop(s): Tomato greenhouse

    Tomato farmers from USAID’s Tanzania Agriculture Productivity Program in Tanzania. Photo courtesy of USAID via Flickr Commons. 

    There are some 40 countries that can easily enter in the category of fragile states today, and a good number of them are found in Sub-Saharan Africa. These are countries with weak governance or institutional incapacity. They fail to carry out some critical governance functions such as ensuring the security of their populations and territory, maintaining the rule of law, and delivering key public services. Life in fragile or weak states is marked by endemic corruption, bad governance, political instability, insecurity, rampant poverty, hunger, high (child) mortality rates, social and political unrest, etc. As time goes by in such an environment, populations and communities tend to have their resilience eroded. They become particularly vulnerable to a range of shocks without the ability to face them adequately. Violence, conflicts, and sometimes the breakdown of institutions start to factor in.

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    Topics: Central Africa, Eastern Africa, Peacebuilding, Development and the New Economic Paradigm, Southern Africa, Southern Voices, Western Africa
  • Southern Voices:

    Satisfaction or Resignation? Interrogating the Perceptions of Africans working in Chinese Firms

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    By Emmanuel Matambo  // Thursday, November 21, 2019

    Dignity factory workers producing shirts for overseas clients, in Accra, Ghana on October 13, 2015. Photo © Dominic Chavez/World Bank

    Factory workers produce shirts for overseas clients. Photo courtesy of the World Bank via Flickr Commons.

    What are the perceptions of African workers in Chinese firms? How do these perceptions relate to media criticism of Chinese labor practices and the spirited defense of African leadership and Chinese investors against such criticism? For employees that extol Chinese employment, is their position informed by genuine satisfaction, or is it a case of ‘either this or nothing’? These questions inspired me to interview a group of workers in a Chinese-owned retail firm in Kamwala Market in Lusaka—Zambia’s capital city. I also interviewed representatives of workers in a Chinese-run ceramics plant in Kenya. I will test my findings against a 2011 Human Rights Watch (HRW) report about China’s labor practices in Zambia.

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    Topics: Governance and Emerging Global Challenges, Southern Africa, Southern Voices
  • Southern Voices:

    The Prospects of Ethiopia’s 2020 General Election

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    By Getachew Zeru Gebrekidan  // Monday, September 30, 2019

    640px-Abiy_Ahmed_parade_2019

    Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed alongside military commanders. Photo courtesy of the Office of the Prime Minister of Ethiopia via Wikipedia Commons. 

    Ethiopia has undergone some crucial political development since the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) coalition elected a new prime minister. Among other achievements, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ended a 20-year conflict with neighboring Eritrea, freed thousands of political prisoners, unfettered the media, and appointed women to 50 percent of cabinet positions. In addition to that, Parliament accepted his female nominees for president and head of the Supreme Court.

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    Topics: Eastern Africa, Governance and Emerging Global Challenges, Southern Voices
  • Southern Voices:

    The Fragile Peace: What is the Fate of South Sudan’s Transitional Government of National Unity?

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    By Getachew Zeru Gebrekidan  // Thursday, September 19, 2019

    A historic revitalized peace agreement has been signed by the warring factions in South Sudan. The leader of opposition armed forces, Riek Machar, who has been in exile since civil war erupted travelled to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia to meet with his bitter foe, South Sudan's President Salva Kiir, for a special signing ceremony. All parties signed the agreement, committing to ending hostilities in the conflict-affected country and creating joint governance and security structures that will lift the people of South Sudan out of extreme poverty and begin a journey towards fresh development and prosperity.

    President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar at the signing of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ACRSS). Photo courtesy of UNMISS via Flickr Commons.

    The signing of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ACRSS) on September 12, 2018, has led to relative peace in South Sudan. Mediated by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD)—a regional economic and security bloc—South Sudanese policymakers recently extended the ‘pre-transitional’ period until November 2019 before forming the transitional government of national unity. Given the few months remaining before this new deadline, there are serious concerns that many key tasks remain to be addressed: namely, the issue of the number and boundaries of provinces/states, violent conflicts, a single national army, and securing the funding necessary for implementing the peace agreement. These cumulative factors hamper the peace process, foreshadowing future outbreaks of violence.

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    Topics: Eastern Africa, Governance and Emerging Global Challenges, Southern Voices
  • Southern Voices:

    Dying from Hunger on Fertile Land

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    By Paterne Mombe  // Friday, September 6, 2019

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    A farmer harvesting goods in a farm in Bouar, a town in the Central African Republic. Photo courtesy of the United Nations via Flickr Commons.

    The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2019 released on July 15th is quite alarming. The joint annual report finds that the number of people suffering from hunger or undernourishment continues to increase. This increase has occurred for the past three consecutive years, putting an end to a decade of progress in the global battle against hunger.

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    Topics: Central Africa, Peacebuilding, Development and the New Economic Paradigm, Southern Voices
  • Southern Voices:

    The Importance of Learning Chinese in Zambia

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    By Emmanuel Matambo  // Thursday, September 5, 2019

    confuscious

    A sign display for a Confucius Institute. Photo courtesy of Mark Morgan via Flickr Creative Commons. 

    Zambians who have the opportunity should learn Mandarin, fast. In 2019, the Zambian government announced that beginning in 2020, Mandarin Chinese will form part of the Zambian high school curriculum. This move has provoked criticism from those who deem it a sycophantic move by the Zambian government. The accusation finds merit, in part, because the Zambian government is not seen to be introducing Mandarin in good faith, but rather to mollify China, a country to which it is deeply indebted. According to the Jubilee Debt Campaign, a UK-based charity, by 2017 Zambia owed a third of its $9.4bn foreign debt to China. This figure was conservative compared to the $6.4bn established by the China Africa Research Initiative (CARI), of Johns Hopkins University. According to CARI statistics, 73.5 percent of Zambia’s $8.7bn debt is owed to China. These figures do not bode well for perceptions of Sino-Zambian relations, especially among civil society organizations leery of China’s growing presence in Zambia.

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    Topics: Peacebuilding, Development and the New Economic Paradigm, Southern Africa, Southern Voices
  • Southern Voices:

    A New Approach to Africa’s Maritime Security

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    By Francis A. Kornegay, Jr.  // Thursday, December 13, 2018

    maritime

    The Atlantic Ocean along a shoreline in Ifni, Morrocco. Picture courtesy of mbohl via Flickr Commons. 

    African peace and security challenges in relation to the continent’s wider maritime scope and its interplay with external political actors receive little attention. Yet, much of the internal politics that affect peacebuilding in Africa involve interregional actors, such as Europe and the Mideast. This lack of attention is not seen in the South Atlantic where the Zone of Peace and Cooperation in the South Atlantic (ZPCSA), operates as a multilateral platform between some African and South American nations. The ZPCSA’s goal is preserving regional peace and a nuclear-free-zone in regions where documented illegal trafficking flows link South America, West Africa, and Europe, and security challenges plague the Gulf of Guinea, a transport nexus in the Afro-Atlantic oil trade.

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    Topics: Governance and Emerging Global Challenges, Southern Voices
  • Southern Voices:

    How Can South Africa Champion Peacekeeping in the UN Security Council?

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    By Gustavo de Carvalho  // Thursday, November 8, 2018

    DSG meeting AM Plenary General DebateHis His Excellency Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa, President, Republic of South Africa

    H.E. Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa, President of the Republic of South Africa, addresses the General Assembly’s seventy-third session. Photo courtesy of the United Nations. 

    South Africa was elected to join the UN Security Council (UNSC) as a non-permanent member on June 8, 2018 for the 2019-2020 term, replacing Ethiopia as the third African Council member and joining Equatorial Guinea and Ivory Coast. This is the country’s third UNSC membership, following its prior roles in 2007-2008 and 2011-2012.

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    Topics: Peacebuilding, Development and the New Economic Paradigm, Southern Africa, Southern Voices
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