Digital Archive....

Go to Africa on an egg Baobab EVERY trend has its cliches. Africa's growing resource wealth (see this week's Economist ) is invariably called a "scramble". Publishers seem to find it impossible to put out a book on growing oil wealth and burgeoning mineral extraction in the once colonised continent without prominent reference the tussle, scurry, dogfight—choose your synonym—for Africa by European nations (which followed the Conference of Berlin in 1884-1885, which regulated trade and colonisation in Africa, is proving another increasingly popular reference point in academic literature). So here is your choice of scrambles (add your own egg): The New Scramble for Africa by Padraig Carmody Untapped: The Scramble for Africa's Oil by John Ghazvinian A New Scramble for Africa?: Imperialism, Investment and Development by Roger Southall and Henning Melber The New Scramble for Africa by Guy Arnold Scramble for Africa: Darfur—Intervention and th...

Stop the global land grab | Gisele Henriques Global development news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk Land is now one of the hottest commodities in the world market. Time to stand up for small farmers dismissed as 'inefficient' "NGOs don't mobilise people, desperation mobilises people," said a Cambodian land activist as he related the experience of Boeung Kak villagers who were driven off their land by their own government to make way for corporate profiteering. Such stories were abundant from all corners of the world this week at the World Social Forum in Dakar, Senegal. The forum, which celebrated its 10th anniversary this year, attracted representatives from civil society organisations, social movements and unions from more than 123 countries. Present among them were land rights activists and small farmers, who came to relate and decry the unfettered grabbing of their land. Land grabbing emerged as the hot topic in this year'...

One Acre Fund in State of the World 2011 One Acre Fund Blog The Worldwatch Institute recently published State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet . The book is the culmination of an ambitious research trip that covered twenty-five countries and more than two hundred projects in sub-Saharan Africa. It is a great resource for anyone who is interested in agriculture development in Africa, and One Acre Fund is proud to be included among the many innovations in the book. Though the book is out, the researchers continue to highlight new findings and innovations on the Nourishing the Planet blog . A few of our favorite blog posts include: - The grain teff, indigenous to Ethiopia, is a great source of fiber and minerals . The blog has a regular series highlighting African indigenous crops. - The policy network FARNPAN, based in South Africa, is helping African women smallholder farmers learn about agriculture policy in their countries. They use th...

The view from Seattle Baobab IN THE past five years, Bill and Melinda Gates have given more money and ideas to Africa than most European countries. They discovered early on that the problem with philanthropy in Africa was finding partners "on the ground" reliable enough to do the work and not just suckle on the milksome teat of Seattle. In response, they have sought to make the most of their giving by focusing on measurable technologies. In this guest post for Baobab, Mr Gates argues that the focus of the Gates Foundation should be health and agriculture. Medicine, especially, is the very hardware of development. He reports that since 1980 vaccines have cut polio in Africa by 99%, diptheria and measles by 93%, and measles by 85%. Even so, the "wise government investments" on health and agriculture Mr Gates points to have mostly been designed and paid for by donors. While giving all credit to unparalleled generosity of wallet and spirit, Baoba...

Africa will not put up with a colonialist China | Sanou Mbaye Global development news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk A strategy of striking deals with corrupt leaders and seizing control of African industries will ultimately backfire China's sacred text is not a holy book like the Torah, the Bible, or the Qur'an. Instead, it is The Art of War by Sun Tzu . Sun's core belief is that the "ultimate excellence lies not in winning every battle but in defeating the enemy without ever fighting." Nowadays, we are witnessing the application of Sun's ideas in Africa, where China's prime objectives are to secure energy and mineral supplies to fuel its breakneck economic expansion, open up new markets, curtail Taiwan's influence on the continent, consolidate its burgeoning global authority, and clinch for itself African-allocated export quotas. (The Chinese takeovers of South African and Nigerian textile industries are good examples ...

China's economic invasion of Africa Global development news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk A million Chinese people, from engineers to chefs, have moved to work in Africa in the past decade. How has the trade boom changed their lives? In December 1999, a 24-year-old Chinese man called Zhang Hao left behind the freezing winter of his native Shenyang city to fly to Uganda. Zhang was nervous. He spoke no English. The journey was not even his idea, but that of his father, who had worked in Uganda a few years before on a fishing project involving the Chinese government. "If you want to start something – and be the boss – Africa is the place to do it," Zhang's father had told him when he asked for business advice. Zhang had quit university to travel to east Africa, but he did not need a degree to spot easy money-making opportunities as soon as he set foot in Kampala: goods that were available cheaply in every city in China were either expensi...

"To Blame Wall Street For the Financial Meltdown Is Absurd" The Baseline Scenario By Simon Johnson At the heart of the Treasury Department's strategy for refloating our largest financial institutions is an important assumption – decision-makers at our largest institutions have "learnt their lesson" and will be more careful going forward. The latest string of pronouncements from the top of Wall Street suggests that this assumption is badly flawed. In a column now running on Bloomberg , I review the recent statements of Robert Benmosche (AIG) and Bob Diamond (Barclays).  Their views are not encouraging.  They want to run bigger, more global and extremely complex financial institutions.  They also appear to favor a great deal of leverage (high debt relative to equity) wherever possible. Steve Eckhaus – a top Wall Street compensation lawyer (he will get you your bonus) – articulated the underlying view with great clarity to Saturday'...

A Danish film offers a long-overdue reality check on microfinance | Madeleine Bunting Global development news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk A new film about the Grameen bank will fuel the current crisis of faith in microfinance. But it would be a disaster if the backlash swept away all microfinance projects Having been hailed as a magic solution to poverty for more than a decade, the enemies and sceptics of microfinance are now having a field day. I blogged before Christmas about the crisis in the microfinance sector in Andhra Pradesh . That story of indebtedness and high rates of defaulting was extensively reported in the west and shook the reputation of the entire sector; my colleague in India filed a moving report of the fall-out on poor families earlier this week. Similar reports were on the BBC, bringing unusual attention to what has been, up until now, largely a passion of development policy wonks. But now it looks as if the crisis of faith in mi...