Drills smash through rock. Machines hiss in the heat. A child cries out, clutching his hand after burning it on the metal casing of a generator. These are the sounds of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In the mines of the DRC, you are a long way from the tranquility of the African savanna […]
Last month’s Commonwealth summit in Samoa was not supposed to be about the past. But despite Downing Street’s pledge that the issue would be off the biennial summit’s agenda, the topic of reparations inevitably stole the headlines. All 56 of the bloc’s heads of government, including Keir Starmer, signed a document acknowledging calls for ‘discussions […]
It’s no secret that development aid has a paltry level of success in terms of bringing about long-term growth. For years, critics of aid like Professor William Easterly and Lady Dambisa Moyo have repeatedly argued that aid can often do more harm than good, enabling corrupt actors to stay in power while very little assistance […]
In May 1963, leaders from 32 newly independent African states gathered in Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa to create the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), an intergovernmental initiative dedicated to furthering “African Socialism”. Kwame Nkrumah, the first leader of Ghana and the driving force behind the OAU, had a simple message: a “united socialist Africa” was […]
African leaders are gathering in Paris today for a summit hosted by President Macron. On the agenda: supporting the economic recovery of the world’s fastest growing continent. The French President has pledged to explore creative solutions, including debt relief and even debt cancellation, as well as financial support to the African private sector. Macron’s grand […]
This Sunday, the people of Benin will vote in a general election. This country of 11 million, squeezed between Togo and Nigeria, has a history of strong democratic institutions and elections. However, since 2016, when President Patrice Talon was elected, it has dropped 14 points in the Freedom House ratings, and is no longer classed […]
When she was just fourteen years old, Leah Sharibu was abducted by Africa’s deadliest terrorist group, Boko Haram. Leah is one of Nigeria’s ‘luckier’ victims, by virtue of the mere fact that she is still alive, and in May this year she will become an adult. For girls her age around the world, this time […]
You really don’t want to get arrested by Nigeria’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad. Detainees are tortured by hanging, shooting in the legs and mock executions, according to Amnesty International. The brutality has been escalating, despite numerous attempts to disband and restructure the unit and weeks of peaceful protests demanding police reform. Last week tensions exploded into […]
Classical liberalism, as the economist Deirdre McCloskey argued in her trilogy The Bourgeois Era, was chiefly responsible for the Great Enrichment in Western Europe and North America. However its main tenets – including limited government, equality before the law, free trade and fiscal probity – are not the exclusive preserve of the West. Just look […]
Announcing last week that the Department for International Development will be folded into the Foreign Office, Boris Johnson noted that “distinctions between diplomacy and overseas development are artificial and outdated”. “They are,” he added, “one and the same endeavour, designed to achieve the same goals, which are right in themselves and serve our national interest”. The […]
If you travel in sub-Saharan Africa, and talk especially to policymakers and NGOs, it won’t take long to get a sense of how greatly admired in the region is a former US president. I’m not talking about Barack Obama, despite his Kenyan heritage, or even JFK, for backing decolonisation. I mean George W Bush. In […]
These are uncertain times, for Africa as much as for Britain. Will they prove each others’ friend in need? Or will circumstances pull the UK and African countries apart? It will all depend on what priority each gives to the other. For many years following the independence of its former African colonies after the second […]
In late March, most African countries copied the approach taken elsewhere and implemented a mass lockdown that saw schools close, curfews put in place and people largely confined to their homes. While this approach makes sense and has been, for the most part, feasible in other parts of the world, in Sub-Saharan Africa—the world’s poorest […]
As the IMF and World Bank prepare for their virtual spring meetings, the economic impact of COVID-19 on developing countries is the dominant issue. It is important that the world’s rich countries come together with a Marshall-type plan to help these countries, many in Africa, to kickstart their recoveries. The Jubilee Debt Relief campaign, which […]
Across Africa, a quiet revolution is taking place. It is lifting people out of poverty, seeing the private sector grow and a burgeoning middle class emerge. The revolution is a digital one in which advanced technology is fundamentally changing the socio-economic fabric of the continent. It is setting the course for the African economy for […]
Are we paying too much in aid? Too little? Do we spend it wisely? Could we do more? Our international aid budget provides a rich seam of debate amongst politicians, advisors and commentators – but all too rarely do those who have led HM Government’s work overseas get a role in the conversation. I have […]
