Browsing: African leaders

Steven Gruzd who heads the Russia-Africa Research Programme at SAIIA in South Africa. He says Africa is a busy geopolitical arena, with many players operating. www.theexchange.africa

Africa is a busy geopolitical arena, with many players operating.
Russia has to compete against them, and distinctively remain focused its efforts. Russia welcomes diplomatic support from African countries, and unlike the West, it does not demand good governance or advocate for human rights reforms.
Russia likes to portray itself as not interfering in local politics or judging African countries, even though there is mounting evidence that it has been involved in meddling in elections in Africa through disinformation, fake news and attempting to exploit fault lines in societies through social media.…

africa gig economysource jumia group

A survey conducted in 34 African countries between 2016 and 2018 shows that people are chiefly concerned about the future of work, be it job availability, quality, or growth. The gig economy is essential for the people of Africa because of its ability to provide a source of income to the inexperienced and unemployed majority. Formal jobs are only available to a few, while most people work in the informal sector as subsistence farmers, vendors, small-scale traders and numerous other roles. 

Africa has a growing youth population that will need to be absorbed into the productive sector. An estimated 122 million new entrants are expected to join the labour market in the next two years, and it is impossible for an equal number of formal jobs to be created for these people. 

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Dr Connie Keung (AMPATH Surgery Team Lead) and Dr Kyle Carpenter (Global Surgery Fellow and IU Surgery Resident) conducting a surgery in conjunction with Kenyan surgical counterparts in Eldoret, Kenya. Kenya’s ailing health sector has received a boost with the partnership between Boehringer Ingelheim and AMPATH for Universal Health Care (UHC) www.exchange.co.tz

For decades, African leaders have remained detached from the realities of life for the majority leading to neglect of key and essential infrastructure like healthcare.

With the covid-19 coronavirus outbreak, the systems that have been neglected for as long are starting to show signs of breaking even with the enormity of the virus still way below what some individual countries have suffered.

Most of these leaders have always sought treatment abroad, even for basic illnesses and conditions that can be taken care of at home. But with the distrust in the local systems, they have chosen to always fly out and then come back once they have stabilised to continue with the same cycle of plunder and ignorance of what needs to be done.

See: Coronavirus shakes economies, world forced to change perspective on Africa

The latest cases have been those of Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria who spent the better …