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Published 13th May 2005

Vol 46 No 10


The big push comes to shove

Whitehall's sweeping African aid and trade agenda isn't winning enough friends to change policies

Two months ahead of the Group of Eight (G8) summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, Britain is making little headway in winning support for its agenda for Africa - the 'big push' laid out in the Commission for Africa report (AC Vol 46 No 4). The case for the big push - also made in Jeffrey Sachs's United Nations' task force report is that only a massive and sustained transfer of resources to poor countries can launch the economic growth they need. Yet the other members of the G8's rich-country club are chary of massive new aid commitments to Africa called for by the Commission: initially a doubling of aid to US$25 billion a year over the next three to five years, then another doubling after a review in 2010, by which time most of the subscribing governments will be out of office.


The dam bursts

Image courtesy of Panos Pictures

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Bankruptcy and looming starvation force the government to reverse its land policy

Economic logic is biting back faster even than the government's opponents predicted. Zimbabwe is fast running out of fuel and maize-meal. Before the elections (AC Vol 46 Nos 6 &...


What is the MDC for?

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After the opposition Movement for Democratic Change's third election defeat, some blame the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front for skilful rigging and also clan...


Seizing the day in the South

To succeed, the new government must be more than a triumphant army

The Government of South Sudan (GOSS) is waiting to be born. Its formidable task is to build a country from scratch and according to January's Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) (A...


Faure's French friends

West African presidents and the Elysée Palace endorse Gnassingbé's election

The army had crushed the opposition uprising and the Constitutional Court had rejected claims of electoral irregularities well before Faure Gnassingbé was sworn in on 4 May....


Running the South

As the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement negotiates for a new Government of South Sudan and a power-sharing role in a new national government, its own leadership is opaque an...


Storm warning

The national presidency seems safe for Kikwete but Zanzibar remains uneasy

By a surprisingly wide margin, the ever governing Chama Cha Mapinduzi last week picked its candidate for October's presidential election: Foreign Minister Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete. No...


From the ground up

Along the old front line in Western Equatoria, the bush and the birds had taken over. Now people are beginning to return, some selling bananas by the roadside. Towns near the borde...


Ship ahoy!

A legal and political row is brewing over an expensive new warship

Assurances to the Treasury by the Chief of General Staff, General Joe Kibwana, about a 4.1 billion Kenya Shilling (US$53.5 million) deal to buy a new patrol boat for the Navy have ...



Pointers

Britain's man in Africa

Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and International Development Secretary Hilary Benn stay in their posts after the Labour Party's victory in Britain's elections on 5 May but ...


Belgium's man in Africa

Little did a royal Belgian foundation expect that by bestowing a prize on Mali's shy, soft-spoken former Territorial Administration Minister, it would reignite controversy over the...


Moyo makes mischief

No stranger to self-parody, the government's sacked spin-doctor Jonathan Moyo told Africa Confidential: 'I am a voice for resolution'. He enjoys making mischief, in the ruling Zimb...