Browsing: Oxfam

Oxfam warns of famine in Somalia: In May last year, the African Development Bank (AfDB) Board of Directors approved $1.5 billion in funding for what the bank called the African Emergency Food Production Facility; one year down the road, has the funding achieved its purpose? Photo/UNStuartPrice
  • AfDB announces US$ 1.5 billion funding for emergency food responce
  • AfDB pledges seeds & fertilizers for 20 million smallholder farmers
  • Oxfam warns of famine in Somalia

In May 2022, the African Development Bank (AfDB) Board of Directors approved $1.5 billion in funding for what the bank called the African Emergency Food Production Facility; one year down the road, has the funding achieved its purpose?

AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina described the facility as a necessary support for Africa’s emergency food response in the face of shortages caused by the Russia-Ukraine war.

The bank’s President said the funding will help to significantly increase food production in Africa and avert what he at the time described as ‘the looming food crisis caused by the Russia-Ukraine war.’

Making the announcement at the Summit of G7 leaders last year in Washington, Mr. Adesina announced that the African Development Bank (AfDB) would out of its own …

Extreme Poverty in Africa

Global poverty is not only the current threat to the progression of humanity. Inequality is yet another block that spikes the fire.

According to Oxfam, even after the pandemic threw higher costs of life to communities worldwide, the wealth billionaires own risen sharply compared to 14 years ago.

In this case, South Africa presents an exciting take to analyze. South Africa is an unequal country in the world.

In the second top economy in Africa, race plays a crucial factor in fueling inequality, where 10 per cent of the population owns more than 80 per cent of the wealth, according to information from Aljazeera.

On the governmental level, complications may arise when handling mass starvation and social cohesion for millions of people in locked nations in East Africa, Yemen, Syria and the Sahel.…

President Sahle-Work Zewde with PM Abiy Ahmed in Nairobi, Kenya. It is hoped that Ethiopia’s first female President and the youthful PM will catapult country’s economy to greatness www.exchange.co.tz

Since November 2020, Tigray’s rebel forces have been fighting Ethiopia’s military forces, leaving hundreds in humanitarian crises and with countless deaths. This poses a threat to the rest of the region and to Ethiopia’s development initiatives. Ethiopia’s two neighbouring countries, South Sudan and Somalia, are also in deep civil conflict.
The World Bank (WB), one of Ethiopia’s close development partners, argues that its location gives this nation of more than 112 million people a strategic dominance as a “jumping-off” point in the Horn of Africa, close to the Middle East and its markets.
The second most populous country with the fastest growing economy in the region has impressed the globe with its development pace, from enhancing its aviation power to increasing infrastructure to make the country more accessible and up to speed. …

Inequality in Africa

If the world is unfair was a fact, then this statement would establish the truth without a doubt as, “there are more than twenty-one hundred billionaires across the world who own more than half of the world’s wealth” — Oxfam. 

As the number of billionaires doubles over the last decade, Oxfam argues that the richest one per cent have piled up wealth twice as much as the world population. At this moment in history, inequality has worsened. 

World Economic Forum (WEF) pins socio-economic inequality to be more than unequal distribution of income,  but views it from a large lens, arguing, “it is critical to take into consideration multidimensional factors such as social mobility, gender equality, livelihood infrastructure, technology access, the voice of civil society, privacy, social and environmental protections, progressive tax laws and labour rights when examining how societies perform on reducing inequality and serving public interest.”  

With this reality

The Southern Africa region. The region’s economy is projected to grow slower than others on the continent due to high inflation, increasing government debt, and slow growth in South Africa. theexchange.africa

With more than 14 million people in Southern Africa facing acute hunger, non-governmental organisations are calling on the AU Heads of State to address the issue threatening lives in the region.

The NGOs comprising of Oxfam, CARE, Plan International and World Vision are also calling for the implementation of agricultural policies that will enable people to feed themselves in line with the AU’s Malabo Declaration’s commitment of investing 10 per cent of national budgets in agriculture.

In addition, Southern African leaders are being urged to increase investments in early warnings and early action systems on natural hazards and promote agroecological approaches to transition towards more just and sustainable food systems.

14.4 million people facing acute hunger

Severe food insecurity rates across 9 southern African countries are 140 per cent higher now than in 2018 primarily because people are being hit by weather extremes driven by climate change.

Across the Southern …

Oil Rig in Nigeria

Ahead of this week’s African Union meeting (Feb 9-10), more than 25 organisations, networks and community resistance groups from Africa and around the world have called on African governments to prevent the proliferation of coal, oil and gas in Africa and to ensure efforts to address fossil fuels match those which have helped reduce the danger from nuclear weapons, Power Shift statement reveals.

According to the statement, the communique signed by the group criticized the deliberate proliferation of coal, oil, and gas in Africa, contrary to scientific evidence and highlighted the contradiction between planned fossil fuel expansion and globally agreed climate targets.

They also condemned the way some African governments were avoiding scrutiny from civil society groups and even violently targeting environmental activists and human rights defenders in some places.

Representatives from the different NGO groups who attended an Africa Energy Leaders Summit on Climate Change, Energy, and Energy Finance …