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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:

    COVID-19 and Impending Cold War in a Fractious World: What Could be Africa’s Fate?

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    By Emmanuel Matambo  // Thursday, September 17, 2020

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    The provenance of the coronavirus pandemic (the COVID-19 virus) has been traced to Wuhan, the capital of China’s Hubei Province. To China’s rivals and detractors, this fact is an effective tool in their efforts to undermine China’s growing global influence and its expectations of being a leader in providing public goods and combating disease. The COVID-19 virus presents the world’s most threatening health crisis in more than a century. Due to the rapid spread and severity of the pandemic in the first quarter of 2020, in March the World Health Organization characterized COVID-19 as a pandemic.

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

    Sustaining Peacebuilding Efforts in Africa Amid COVID-19

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    By Maame Esi Eshun & Eric Oteng-Abayie  // Wednesday, July 29, 2020

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    The COVID-19 pandemic is hitting African countries recently emerging from violent conflicts, already struggling with violent conflicts, or transitioning from conflict to peace. The initial impact of COVID-19 in these countries is on health and the economy. As a result, response measures have significant socio-economic impact that may hinder these countries’ attainment of the UN Strategic Development Goals on poverty, food security, inequality, and peace.

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

    Elections, Peace, and Managing the COVID-19 Pandemic in Africa

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    By Richmond Commodore  // Monday, July 27, 2020

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    The year 2020 will live in infamy as the global economy reels under the deadly COVID-19 pandemic that has seriously impacted lives, jobs, and trade. The virus has so far claimed 582,125 lives and infected more than thirteen million people globally. African countries are already challenged in stemming the spread of the virus, but the task is even more complicated for countries that are constitutionally mandated to hold elections during this unprecedented time. COVID-19 mitigation measures during elections have massive implications for peace and security in these countries, as the measures have the potential to upend the electoral process, lead to bans on campaigning, and abuse by incumbents.

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

    Gender Dimensions of Responses to the COVID-19 Crisis in West Africa: A Reflection

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    By Osei Baffour Frimpong  // Friday, July 24, 2020

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    The outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has devastated the global human security landscape. Currently, there are 7,068,144 confirmed cases and 400,857 deaths worldwide, while 3,496,290 persons have recovered.[1] Beyond the human toll, the pandemic is projected to contract the global economy by 5.7 percent in 2020, with severe consequences on economic development in countries across the world. In Africa, 194,141 confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been recorded as of June 7, with 5,304 deaths and 85,447 recoveries. In West Africa, the pandemic has spread across the 15-member states of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), with 42,206 confirmed cases and 882 deaths. Although recorded cases in West African states are relatively low for now, their governments have nonetheless introduced a suite of responses including restriction on movements to mitigate the spread of the pandemic. In addition to the health aspect of West African states’ responses, measures have also been taken to mitigate the acute economic impact of the pandemic. Notwithstanding this, the region’s responses to the COVID-19 pandemic appear to be generalized, with relatively less attention devoted to the specific vulnerabilities of women. This inattention to the gender aspect has heightened the impact of the pandemic on West Africa’s health and economic security. Given the significant role women play in socio-economic development in West Africa, disregarding the gender gap in COVID-19 responses has the potential to exacerbate the already entrenched gender inequalities in the socio-economic sphere of societies in the region.

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

    A Double Emergency: The COVID-19 Outbreak Exacerbates Humanitarian Crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

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    By Rigobert Minani  // Wednesday, July 22, 2020

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    The May 7, 2020 United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) report on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is alarming: “An estimated 12.8 people are in need of humanitarian assistance (…) This figure represents 10 percent of the total worldwide humanitarian caseload. Those affected by this complex and widespread crisis remain exposed to (…) chronic malnutrition and epidemics, notably cholera, measles, and the Ebola virus.” The majority of people affected are in the eastern DRC’s volatile Kivu region. This situation in Kivu, according to the UN OCHA, is the consequence of a long period of insecurity and the result of continuing fighting between the Congolese Army and non-state armed groups. The region’s long-standing fragility and instability are now facilitating the spread of yet another humanitarian emergency in the DRC: the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus. In short, one health emergency (COVID-19) is exacerbating another (Ebola, cholera, and measles).

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    Topics: Central Africa, Governance and Emerging Global Challenges, Human Security, Southern Voices, Uncategorized
  • Articles in Focus / In the News / Southern Voices:

    Why Libya Will Struggle to Fight Coronavirus

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    By Anas El Gomati  // Wednesday, May 6, 2020

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    Libya Citizens along the Libyan-Tunisian border. Photo courtesy of the EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations Department via Flickr Commons.

    World leaders met in Berlin on January 20 to enforce an arms embargo and ceasefire to end the long-running civil war in Libya. A little over two months later, the fighting restarted and intensified as the world’s attention turned to the global fight against coronavirus. In Libya, the Government of National Accord (GNA) announced emergency measures and restrictions in recent weeks, urging citizens to self-isolate to stop the spread of the virus. Meanwhile, residents in Tripoli described the resumption of Khalifa Hafter’s self-styled Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF) offensive on Tripoli and resulting fear as the “worst since 2011,” with the attackers shelling homes, killing six civilians, and injuring six more.

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    Topics: Articles in Focus, Governance and Emerging Global Challenges, Human Security, In the News, Northern Africa, Southern Voices
  • Southern Voices:

    Remittances to Fragile States in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Double-Edged Sword?

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    By Richmond Commodore  // Monday, May 4, 2020

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    A Somali man photographed after receiving remittances in Mogadishu, Somalia. Photo courtesy of AMISOM Public Information via Flickr Commons. 

    The increasing importance of remittances in global financial flows has elicited calls by experts in the development community for Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries to harness the enormous potential of remittances for development. In response to these calls, migration and remittances featured extensively in deliberations on financing implementation of the post-2015 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

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

    How Lack of Regional Cooperation Aides Criminals in the Horn of Africa?

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    By Messay Asgedom Gobena  // Thursday, April 23, 2020

    SOMALIA, Garsale: In a handout photograph dated 22 September and released by the African Union-United Nations Information Support Team 23 September, members of the Al Qaeda-affiliated militant group Al Shabaab stand after giving themselves up to forces of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) in Garsale, approximately 10km from the town of Jowhar, 80km north of the capital Mogadishu. Over 200 militants disengaged following in-fighting between militants in the region in which 8 Al Shabaab were killed, including 2 senior commanders. The former fighters were peacefully taken into AMISOM's protection handing in over 80 weapons in the process, in a further indication that the once-feared militant group is now divided and being defeated across Somalia. Deputy Force Commander of AMISOM Operations, Brigadier Michael Ondoga said a number of militants have contacted the AU force indicating their wish to cease fighting and that they their safety is assured if they give themselves up peacefully to AMISOM forces. AU-UN IST PHOTO / ABUKAR ALBADRI.

    Members of al-Shabaab disengage and lay down arms in Somalia. Photo courtesy of  AMISOM via Flickr Commons. 

    Globalization and information technology have increased the free movement of people, goods, and information from one territory to another, highlighting the interdependence and interconnectedness of the world’s people and economies. However, the world’s increasing interconnectedness, while generally a boon for society, also benefits criminals. They exploit the blue sky of globalization by increasingly becoming transnational and borderless. One of the manifestations of this is the existence of illicit networks in the Horn of Africa and their linkages to the global criminal world.

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

    After Two Years of Transition, Ethiopia Still Has a Difficult Path Ahead

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    By Messay Asgedom Gobena  // Wednesday, April 22, 2020

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    Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed during the 11th Extraordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union. Credit: Office of the Prime Minister – Ethiopia. Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/145325932@N03/45946932812. License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/.

    The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) has ruled the country since 1991. Since then, the party has brought commendable economic growth and development including improvements in health, education, electricity, road, telecommunication, and other infrastructures. The same cannot be said on the governance front where the party has demonstrated shortfalls. Over the years, there have been problems associated with human rights abuses, corruption, narrowing of the political space, and unfair distribution of resources and power. In combination, these led to political protests across the country in 2016, 2017, and 2018.

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

    Fiscal Social Contracts and Domestic Resource Mobilization in Sub-Saharan Africa

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    By Richmond Commodore  // Monday, April 6, 2020

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    Ebrié port in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

    “We went through, just in the last 20 years, this big debt forgiveness for a lot of African countries……now all of a sudden are we going to go through another cycle of that?” These were the remarks of U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Tibor Nagy at a press conference in Pretoria, South Africa in June 2019. He was, of course, referring to the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative that was rolled out by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 1996 with the noble mission of ensuring that “no poor country faces a debt burden it cannot manage.” The initiative resulted in billions [i] of dollars in debt relief for the world’s poorest countries—mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa.

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