Wade: hear no evil, see no evil

From AfricAsia:

Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade said Monday there was neither famine nor hunger riots in the west African country, blaming a recent rally on opposition groups.

"There is no famine in Senegal. There are no hunger riots in Senegal," Wade said while inaugurating an agricultural project in this village 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Dakar.

Wade's comments followed an article in the French daily Le Parisien, widely commented upon in Senegal's private media, about the rise in food prices in Senegal and a March 30 rally against them.

Police cracked down hard on the rally, banned by the authorities, using batons and teargas and arresting some two dozen people.

Wade blamed the rally on opposition groups looking to gain attention and journalists seeking "sensation."

The Senegalese government has moved to soften the blow of rising food prices, which it blames on cost increases in the international market, by cutting taxes and increasing subsidies on staples.

The tomato can kids: When an army of young beggars comes knocking, what to do?

The Associated Press recently ran a story about a young boy from Guinea-Bissau named Coli, whose parents sent him to live in Senegal with a marabout, an Islamic teacher, where he spends his day begging for food and money and his evenings learning Koranic verses. Coli eventually tires of spending his days on the street as a talibé and attempts to make the journey home to find his family.

As IRIN reported a few months back, this West African tradition of talibés sprung out of people giving alms to beggars (one of the five tenants of Islam), which expanded into a way to pay for religious teaching. In today’s tougher economic times, the cultural practice has been mostly stripped of value and has become a form of institutional begging. A Senegalse NGO simply refers to it as child exploitation. Other supporters claim that walking a few years as a beggar will provide a person with proper appreciative outlook as an adult.

These kids are seen everywhere, known throughout West Africa for carrying around large tomato paste cans on string.

The rub for most people is that for the marabouts, having an army of youngsters begging for you has become big business. From the Associated Press:

There are 1.2 million Colis in the world today, children trafficked to work for the benefit of others. Those who lure them into servitude make US$15 billion (€9.5 billion) annually, according to the International Labor Organization.

It's big business in Senegal. In the capital of Dakar alone, at least 7,600 child beggars work the streets, according to a study released in February by the ILO, the United Nations Children's Fund and the World Bank. The children collect an average of 300 African francs a day, just 72 US cents (45 euro cents), reaping their keepers US$2 million (€1.3 million) a year.

Most of the boys — 90 percent, the study found — are sent out to beg under the cover of Islam, placing the problem at the complicated intersection of greed and tradition. For among the cruelest facts of Coli's life is that he was not stolen from his family. He was brought to Dakar with their blessing to learn Islam's holy book.

In the name of religion, Coli spent two hours a day memorizing verses from the Quran and over nine hours begging to pad the pockets of the man he called his teacher.

Another IRIN story explains that breaking this tradition – at least in Senegal – has proved very difficult. First, the twin issues of poverty and large families helps keep the tradition alive. (Coli was sent away because his parents could basically no longer afford him.)Also, marabouts hold extensive social and religious influence in society, and many of them do not have much to do with talibés. Thus, the government of Senegal is very reluctant to regulate these informal Koranic schools. (You can often see the talibés – called garabouts in Burkina Faso – sitting around their marabout, singing Koranic verses at night. It’s quite a sight.)

In a weird piece of personal history, I once taught at an engineering school in Ouagadougou that accepted students from all over West Africa. A former student of mine came from Senegal and spent three years as a talibé, an incredible biography not the least because he was about to earn a higher degree in engineering and become a very high wage earner. He looked back on the experience as being mostly positive, but admitted his parents had him live with a nearby uncle instead of being at the home of the marabout.

Tostan, the Senegalese NGO mentioned above, is lobbying Senegal’s government to regulate the Koranic schools, providing these Talibés with a stronger curriculum and reducing the need to beg.

A place at the table: What value for fertilizer in Africa’s green revolution?

From the Guardian:

The underinvestment and neglect of African farming go back to colonial times, but became increasingly apparent as the western development agenda gathered force. In the 60s and 70s agriculture was squeezed to pay for industrial development. But with the arrival of structural adjustment packages - deregulation, trade liberalisation and sharp cuts in state expenditure - imposed by the west in the 80s, the damage began to bite. The Washington consensus ruled that, freed from state intervention, the market would stimulate African agriculture, explains Steve Wiggins, a research fellow at the Overseas Development Institute. State funding was stripped out of state agricultural extension services, research and development, and farmers' marketing and credit facilities - all elements critical to Asia's green revolution.

The effect was catastrophic. Without improved seeds and availability of credit for fertiliser, productivity limped along. At every turn, farmers were knocked back. Kevin Watkins, of Oxford University, points out that where they did manage to improve yields, they faced exorbitant costs for transporting goods to market because of inadequate rural roads. Often when they got to market, they found it flooded with imports dumped by the west.

Through the 90s, aid flows began to increase as anxiety grew about how African development had stagnated. But the orthodoxy that the state had a role only in health and education - not in fostering economic growth - persisted. Donors were hostile to investment in agriculture: between 1990-02 and 2000-02 aid was rising but the amount going into developing agriculture dropped by 43%. It currently amounts to only 4% of all development assistance to the continent. Malawi in 2006 was the case study that proved the orthodoxy wrong: to avert famine after a catastrophic harvest, the government subsidised seed and fertiliser. The results were a good harvest, thousands of lives saved, and continuing economic stability.

One of the untold stories about Malawi’s now infamous move to reintroduce fertilizer subsidies is the fact that small farmers were being slowly squeezed out because global fertilizer prices were slowly, but steadily increasing for most of the decade. By at least one account, in 2007 alone, prices skyrocketed 200 percent.

Fertilizer, our friend
African farmers use much lower levels of chemical fertilizers than farmers elsewhere, even though the continent’s fertilizer use has doubled since 1970. According to a study by Oumou Camara and Ed Heinemann, up through the mid-1980s, national governments delivered fertilizer inputs, often as loans, which farmers repaid at harvest time. To increase farm productivity, governments also began subsidizing these crop inputs. As pointed out above, when structural adjustment policies went into effect across sub-Saharan Africa, governments were forced out of the fertilizer business – subsidy programs were thrown aside as well as state-run distribution systems. However, the private sector could only pick up fertilizer input distribution chains in a number of states, resulting in the overall decline of the crop manures.

Today, the situation is different. Each country more or less has its own sector that purchases and distributes products depending on weather conditions, credit availability, etc. In some more urban countries, farmers can strike deals directly with producers and sellers. However, small farmers in remote areas remain under served by the free market system.

With population density increasing and many of Africa's farmers continuing to farm single cash crops, much of Africa’s soils today lack the nutrients they once had, degrading farmland and further depleting agriculture production – all in the face of increasing population.

What keeps prices high? Up to 90 percent of potash and nitrogen fertilizer sprayed on African crops is imported; although six African countries produce phosphate fertilizers. We can blame high transport costs and increased production costs, which have lead to African farmers running deficits to pay for fertilizers while crop yields have stagnated.

Another problem, until recently, was falling world food prices. When prices do increase, fertilizer use rises, creating demand and further augmenting costs. The problem remains that many countries have a limited number of suppliers, which keeps supply low and prices high, especially when factoring in transportation costs farmers must pay to go and find the products.

Is prodigious Nigeria's influence felt too much on African Movie Academy Awards?

From Ameyaw Debrah in ModernGhana.Com

I have always had a problem accepting the [African Movie Academy Awards] to be a truly African award scheme due to its overabundant Nigerian influence. A lot has changed since the inception of the awards including a change in the size and design of the award trophy but one thing that hasn’t changed from day one to date is the undeniable fact that most of the nominees and eventual winners are Nigerian. As the countdown to the 2008 edition heats up, Nigerian actors and movies AGAIN seem more favoured to win the major categories.

According to a recent press release, top contenders for the Best Actor nod include Nkem Owoh (Stronger than Pain); St. Obi (Check Point); Kenneth Okonkwo (African Soldier); Kanayo .O. Kanayo (Across the Niger) and O.C Ukeje (White Water). The rest are Van Vicker (Return of Beyoncé) and Kofi Buknor (Run Baby Run). Those gunning for the Best Actress are Stella Damasus Aboderin (Widow); Kate Henshaw-Nuttal (Stronger than Pain/Rivals); Dakore Egbosan (Caught in the Middle); Genevieve Nnaji (30 Days/Keep My Will); Rakiya Atta(Across the Niger) and Jackie Appiah (Princess Tyra). So where are the actors from Kenya, Uganda, Zambia or South Africa?

…

I am sure you get the drift and direction of the awards. Most of the non-Nigerian nominations seem to be from Ghana. Quite frankly I don’t think the awards qualify to be even called a West African Movie Academy Awards let only the grand African awards it purports to be.

Liberian refugees in Ghana to be repatriated in six months?

From The Inquirer:

Latest reports from Accra, Ghana say the Government of that country and Liberia in collaboration with the UNHCR have signed a tripartite agreement for the repatriation of Liberian refugees from that country within six months.

The tripartite agreement was signed last Wednesday at the Ghanaian Interior Ministry, following discussions between the three sides.

According to Deputy Information Minister, Gabriel Williams, who is currently in Accra, Ghana, he told this paper yesterday that the agreement spelt out that the repatriation process began as of April 15, 2008.

Mr. Williams, who spoke to this paper when he was contacted on the issue to provide details of the agreement, said the Ghanaian Minister of Interior, Mr. Kwanena Dartels, signed on behalf of his country while the Deputy Internal Affairs Minister of Liberia, Madam Estelle Liberty who is heading the Liberian delegation to the talks signed on behalf of Liberia.

…

In a related development, a court in Ghana is expected to rule next Friday on whether the Ghanaian government acted correctly or wrongly over the issue concerning the repatriation of the refugees.

The court's ruling comes against the backdrop of a petition filed with the court by some human rights groups who contended that the Ghanaian authority acted wrongly and reportedly mal-handled the refugees.

As oil prices climb, what future for Africa's rail system?

Just a half decade ago, the freight rail industry in the United States was teetering on the edge of relevance. Its infrastructure was shoddy. People where moving goods by other transport. Major railroads laid off nearly 5,000 workers in 2002. Today, many of those jobs have been rehired. New tracks have been added for the first time in 80 years. Further upgrades to rail infrastructure has also been completed, increasing train speeds and delivery times. As the Washington Post points out, trains are much more efficient than trucks: A train can transport a ton of freight on just one gallon of diesel fuel, three times more energy economical than a semi.

Blame it on the combination of growing global trade, high gasoline prices and environmental marketing: freight rail is back in the United States.

On the rails in Africa
What about Africa? Although catching up, business on the continent still suffers from high transport costs and a host of other infrastructure issues, which keeps it in the lower tier of world trade.

It’s not that Africans don’t acknowledge the bonus of having a good rail system. They merely have to hark back at their history to find that reliable, efficient transport is a necessary ingredient of trade. “All new countries must remain ‘savage’ as long as the lack a means of transport,” began a 1904 New York Times article on railways in colonial Africa. It’s true. Africa’s colonial masters exploited the continent’s people and resources through a relatively vast network of railroad lines, mostly built with forced labor. Following independence, some of those railways expanded; in many places, however, they fell victim of neglect due to financial reasons or war and chaos.

A widespread argument today claims that better transport infrastructure means easier movement of people, and possibly more important, goods. It will allow landlocked countries like Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali with better access to ports in Lome, Abidjan and Tema, Ghana. Also, efficient rail service will decrease distances of the supply chain. All this will boost trade and economic opportunity, of course. A World Bank program has been launched to develop all forms of African transport, including rail.

Other factors exist: A smooth running railway is much less dangerous than a hundred thousand trucks – many of questionable repair – on the roads. Railways, if planned correctly, will also decrease traffic in clogged urban areas.

Hot Links
How to bring this about? The African Union – along with national transport ministers – is currently toying with the idea of “linking” African countries via a number of key corridors to create a continental-wide rail system. However, hurdles exist in this scheme, argues Jeff Radebe, South Africa’s minister of transport. First, there are a good number of missing links, especially in underdeveloped African countries. Also, in some countries it remains difficult to bring the private sector on board in government schemes (more on this later); funding commitments are hard to come by; and, cross border issues remain.

Regardless, Radebe points out that the following projects are already underway:

• Linking the lines of South Africa, Botswana and Namibia
• Strengthening ties between South Africa and Mozambique and Lesotho and ports in South Africa;
• Increasing regulatory ties in east Africa also, between Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia and Swaziland.

In the dream stage remains a plan to link the rails of West Africa and South Africa. Also, to create a rail/pedestrian/auto bridge over the Congo river to connect Brazzaville and Kinshasa.

Don’t call it privatization
The World Bank would like shift of the responsibility of Africa’s transport infrastructure from a primarily government function to one involving the private sector. These partnerships will most likely come in the form of national governments working alongside international concerns, but the World Bank also envisions small- and medium-sized entrepreneurs getting on board. This web of public/private partnerships will help create adequate legal, regulatory – and most importantly – financial framework to build better transport across the continent, increasing trade, competition, access to rural areas, etc. More than ten years ago, the World Bank argued that throughout Africa problems remain liberalizing the transport sector, where partnerships like these are not only difficult to initiate – but illegal. (They didn’t say which ones.)

Yet, the approval of the private sector is vital to build the continent’s necessary transport infrastructure, because: 1) let’s be honest, transport is primarily used by commercial entities; 2) national governments have a long history of backing away from regulatory and financial responsibilities in the transport domain, especially equipment heavy physical infrastructure like railways; 3) the private sector can provide a large amount of funding, which can be hard for governments to accumulate. (A point I don’t really agree with, unless you are talking of “international private sector.”); finally, 4) providing the public sector with a voice will increase service.

Could this mother’s little helper work in Africa?

From the Guardian:

Mothers should be paid to stay at home if they want to when their children are young, according to a report to be launched by the Conservatives' shadow minister for the family tomorrow.

State help for families has been channelled under Labour into tax credits to pay for nurseries and childminders but what most mothers want is to work part-time or not at all, particularly when their children are under five, the controversial review by two leading academics for the think-tank Policy Exchange argues.

It argues mothers should be paid an allowance to spend either on formal childcare such as nurseries, informal care like grandparents helping out, or on subsidising a parent to stay at home. It argues the current free nursery places for three- and four-year-olds could be scrapped to fund the new allowance.

Worries about their children's welfare are a bigger deterrent to women working than childcare costs, the report concludes, suggesting that making childcare cheaper will not solve their dilemma.