Browsing: AfDB President

• An ongoing diplomatic row in Addis Ababa has prompted the AfDB to withdraw its international expatriates from Ethiopia.
• At the same time, fears of a possible shift of the African Union’s (AU) headquarters from Addis Ababa to Nairobi have been voiced in response to the worsening political situation and growing violence in Ethiopia.
• The current scenario in Ethiopia presents significant obstacles for international organizations that operate within the country. 

Circumstances surrounding the AfDB’s withdrawal from Ethiopia

A roiling diplomatic crisis pitting the African Development Bank (AfDB) against authorities in Addis Ababa—the seat of the African Union—has prompted the pan-African lender to relocate its international personnel from Ethiopia in a huff. This hasty decision announced on Wednesday comes months after Ethiopian security forces reportedly mistreated two AfDB staff members in Addis Ababa on October 31, 2023.

Under the direction of a newly designated Officer-in-Charge, the Bank’s Ethiopian office will continue to …

The reason farmers are forced to buy seeds is that projects like AGRA take away traditional organic seeds by giving subsidized GMO seeds, which cannot be replanted hence after harvest, the farmers must buy new batches of seeds to replant the next season.

In effect, forcing the farmers to rely on new purchases of seeds every year means the peasants are unwittingly caught in a cycle of dependency and poverty, for that matter.

Worse still, projects like AGRA that claims to introduce ‘modern agriculture technologies’ focus on using chemical-based fertilizers and pesticides and also push for monoculture, which locks the farmers in the dependency cycle; they have to buy more fertilizers to keep their lands productive, and they have to buy the same pesticides because of monoculture.

It is for such reasons that last year, AFSA released an open letter with over 200 signatories alleging that AGRA did not increase …

By mid this year, a lot was going on in Africa especially with the covid-19 pandemic which was eclipsing many other issues on the continent no matter the importance.…

The African Development Bank (AfDB) ‘2020 African Economic Outlook’ report is very optimistic about East Africa’s economic performance, despite the setbacks of Covid-19. The report shows that on average, the region registered growth of 5 percent throughout all of last year.

Once again, it is the small landlocked Rwanda that booked the highest growth rate reporting an impressive 8.7 per cent. However, worth noting is that Rwanda’s annual economic growth did take a hit from the global pandemic and slowed to 3.6% in the first quarter of 2020.

Second runners up was none other than Ethiopia which brought home 7.4 per cent in economic growth last year says the 2020 report. Next in line is Tanzania which garnered a 6.8 per cent growth, much higher than the rest of world by all standards.

The report say, despite the global pandemic and the economic burdens thereof, Tanzania’s growth is expected to …