NextBillion - A WDI Publication

Uganda: Bona Bagaggawale: Co-Operatives Would More Effectively Serve the Poverty Eradication Purpose

Abstract: After dabbling in microfinance, Uganda, under the leadership of a new finance minister, is reintroducing the cooperative system as the core of its rural development program. This article also includes interesting commentary on microfinance. As Dr. Augustus Nuwagaba notes about Uganda’s experience wiht microfinance, Uganda’s poverty eradication programmes are usually implemented in a poor way and during time of electioneering. In the end, people per...

Source

The Monitor (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were a Utopian, feel-good scheme bound to fail because no single aid agency was held responsible for anything. That was the word from New York University economics professor, William Easterly, speaking at the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa in Cape Town this week . Easterly described the MDGs as the worst designed incentive scheme for public policy seen in my lifetime. The MDGs are a set o...

Source

Cape Times (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

African leaders are seeking Iqbal Surv?s counsel ? his company, Sekunjalo Investments, has been central to the facilitation of a yet to be announced $20bn infrastructure project in a neighbouring country. Walk out of a one-and-a-half hour discussion with Dr Iqbal Surv?, who describes himself as a ?medical doctor, philanthropist and social entrepreneur? and you will disregard all the skeptics and believe that there is hope for Africa to eradicate poverty, and not in our grandchildren...

Source

Business in Africa (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Excerpt:? PAHF aims to provide long-term solutions by helping establish local African production facilities for essential medical products, to increase their availability and affordability. It selects vital medical technologies, such as AD syringes and ITNs, which are identified by the WHO as effective at preventing or treating one of Africa’s major diseases. It targets cost-effective medical supplies which can be manufactured from raw materials available in Africa. PAHF wor...

Source

Vanguard (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Connecting developing nations

A pregnant woman at home alone in her remote village in Sierra Leone unexpectedly went into a difficult labor and, with no access to a doctor or medical facilities, a minor medical emergency could have taken a tragic turn. But the woman, Emma Sesay, managed to use one of the few cellphones in the village of Port Loko and called her husband, who borrowed a car and rushed home from his job, picking up a midwife along the way. They arrived in tim...

Source

International Herald Tribune (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Celtel International BV, Africa’s third-largest mobile-services provider, has agreed to buy 65% of Nigeria’s Vmobile for just over $1 billion, Celtel’s Kuwaiti parent said. Mobile Telecommunications Co. said in a statement on the Kuwaiti stock-exchange Web site that the deal includes an option for the purchase of the remaining 35% of Nigeria’s third-largest mobile-phone operator. The deal would be the latest for fast-expanding MT...

Source

Wall Street Journal (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

City Poor Can’t Afford Electricity

A FEASIBILITY study has found that the majority of around 14 000 households in Windhoek’s informal settlements will not be able to pay for either electricity connections or consumption if this were to be provided to them. The study commissioned by the City in 46 informal settlements found that the residents wanted a high level of electrical infrastructure, which was beyond their means to pay for. The analysis of the households’ income revealed that most households...

Source

The Namibian (Windhoek), Lindsay Dentlinger (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Fair Trade program helps small farmers benefit from global markets.

Thousands of Africans can escape poverty without a penny being given to charity, industry experts were told yesterday. Surging demand for organic cotton is giving farmers in the developing world the chance to enter into fair trade arrangements with western companies. Farmers in Tanzania are supplying cotton for Abaca, an organic mattress and bed specialist based in T Croes, near Ammanford. The relationship will allow farmers who have previously battled poverty ...

Source

IC Wales (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa