The International Finance Corporation (IFC) - a member of the World Bank Group, has signed an agreement to invest $100 million in the Africa Infrastructure Investment Fund 2, an equity fund that will promote the development of basic infrastructure in Africa. The equity fund plans to raise $600 million to $1 billion to invest in unlisted equity and equity-like infrastructure investments in Sub-Saharan Africa. The fund will take significant stakes in a range of infrastructure projects including toll roads, wind power farms, and other renewable energy projects, ports, water and sewerage utilities, and social infrastructure. The fund, known as AIIF2, was established by African Infrastructure Investment Managers Proprietary Ltd, a joint venture between Macquarie Africa Pty Ltd, part of the Macquarie Group, and the Old Mutual Investment Group (South Africa) Pty Ltd, which will advise the fund on investment matters.
Africa currently supplies about twelve-percent of the world's oil, boasts significant untapped reserves and has surpassed the Middle East as the largest regional supplier of crude oil to the US. Chinese interest in African oil is rapidly increasing because, after the UNOCAL debacle of 2005, it realized the open-market is too risky a place to secure national resources. However, foreign oil interests in Africa often serve controversial governments and labor practices. India and South Korea are also joining the African oil grab...More
Two-hundred delegates attended the 6th CAADP Partnership Platform meeting in Johannesburg on 23-24 April. They included representatives of the African Union Commission, NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency, Regional Economic Communities, farmers organisations, civil society organisations, Pan-African organisations and representatives of eight development partner agencies. In reviewing progress towards ensuring food security and reducing poverty on the African continent, recent trends across regions and individual countries showed that 10 countries had met the 6% agricultural growth rate in 2008. The decline in the average malnutrition rate was encouraging but was still high at 29%.
The World Bank Institute launches new Climate Change Learning Products. The new new learning platform on managing agricultural water to access simulations and case studies that illustrate cutting edge-concepts and tested practices, comprises of six learning modules which are self-paced, with exercises, tests, and audiovisual presentations. More...
The six biggest banks in the United States continue to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to lobby Washington policymakers. The lobbyists have connections with federal agencies through both previous and current employment, creating a conflict of interest and hampering checks-and-balances. This shadow bank lobby is playing a big role in shaping the current financial reforms so as to weaken consumer protection and bank regulation. Without transparency, the "Big Six" army will be difficult to stop and the pattern of fiscal irresponsibility that led to the financial crisis will continue...More
Inter have been crowned champions of Europe after they emerged victorious against Bayern Munich in the Champions League final. Diego Milito scored twice either side of half time. The Nerazzurri started on the front foot, trying to take the game to the Germans, but the danger of FCB was evident when Arjen Robben led a counter-attack in the third minute and was quickly brought down by Walter Samuel. The Argentine then had to make an excellent defensive header to keep Ivica Olic from heading in from close range, before the Italians went on the counter-attack but Wesley Sneijder's through ball crept away from Goran Pandev...More
Inter Milan reached the summit of European soccer for the first time in 45 years when Diego Milito scored two superb goals to give them a 2-0 win over Bayern Munich in the Champions League final on Saturday. The 30-year-old Argentine struck after 35 and 70 minutes to seal a deserved victory for Inter at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium and complete an unprecedented treble for a Serie A club following their Italian league and Cup double. It was also a personal triumph for Inter’s Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho who became only the third man to win the European Cup with two clubs...More
Since the global financial crisis, even the IMF has acknowledged that capital controls are a legitimate part of a country's toolkit to ensure economic stability. The United States and other major economies around the world have also realized that the financial stability of their trading partners is in their own interest. Despite this, capital controls stand in violation of the bilateral investment treaties and free trade agreements the US and the WTO have forged in the last two decades. This paper analyzes the flawed economic theory and history of these trade regimes, and offers a range of policy options more consistent with the realities of the 21st century...More
New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2009, 162 pp. Cloth $25.00 ISBN 978-0-465-00946-6
By Peter Wuteh Vakunta (Reviewer)
Ngugi’s 172-page nonfictional text traces the trajectory of the post-Berlin fragmentation of Africa and its aftermath. A quest for Africa’s Renaissance or Rebirth is the thread that holds the narrative intact in this thought-provoking book. Ngugi posits that colonialism conditioned Africans to live in a state of collective amnesia, or memory loss, characterized by a split personhood. As he puts it: “This contact is characterized by dismemberment. An act of absolute social engineering…” (5). African Renaissance harbors “the central idea of rebirth and the spring of a new vision of being” (88).
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