NEWSAFRICA

By Sasha Kinney and Abubakar El-Amudy

The community of Lamu is fighting to have its voice heard in the development of a massive new infrastructure project, which threatens to destroy their idyllic and historic island off the coast of Kenya.  Corporations and the Kenyan government are pushing forward with plans to develop the large port and a host of related infrastructure.  Despite its dire environmental consequences, the project has gained momentum due to significant profit prospects and vague promises of economic development.

Although almost 40 million children returned to school this September in the United States, around the world nearly 70 million children are still denied access to quality education – and more than half of them are girls. Investing in the future of these children is a down payment on a more robust global economy, improved global health outcomes, and a more secure world. Consider that:

Worldwide, 700,000 HIV cases could be prevented each year if all children receive a primary education.

Each additional year of schooling reduces a young man’s risk of becoming involved in conflict by 20%.

Education increases a person’s wages approximately 10%.  For girls, the rate of return for one additional year of primary education is as high as 15%.

The United States has supported Education for All by agreeing to two international development frameworks that focus on education. In 2000, the United States signed-on to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which are eight international development goals agreed upon by 193 countries at the United Nations Millennium Summit.  These goals aim to end extreme poverty by 2015. Two of these goals, MDGs 2 and 3 deal with education: MDG 2 calls for ALL children to receive a primary education, and MDG 3 calls for the elimination of gender disparity in both primary and secondary education at all levels.

It began with individuals, spread to campuses, was taken up by cities, and last Friday California became the very first U.S. state to take action on conflict minerals from Congo.

By a vote of 67 to 11, the California state assembly passed a bill that prohibits state agencies from signing contracts with companies that fail to comply with federal regulations aimed at deterring business with armed groups in eastern Congo. The California bill builds off the momentum of the Dodd-Frank bill passed by the U.S. Congress last year, by further incentivizing companies to help build a legitimate mining industry in Congo.

While Congo’s corrupt mining industry isn’t the source of the country’s decade-long conflict in the east, militias and even soldiers in the national army exploit its mineral wealth to fund the war they are largely waging against civilians. Those minerals end up in electronics. As the major success in California demonstrates, a growing number of U.S. consumers are mobilizing to demand reforms that would ultimately enable Congolese to benefit from their mineral resources – not continue to see them as a curse.

The following post comes from Jamie Drummond, the Executive Director of ONE.

It’s over a month since famine was declared in Somalia and alarm bells clearly rung about serious food shortages across Northern Kenya and Southern Ethiopia. 12 million people in the Horn of Africa are in desperate need of food, clean water and basic sanitation and we are all asking: how can this be happening again? In this past month we have seen differing responses locally, regionally and globally to the crisis. Already there are lessons we must learn about how to stop famine happening again.

As Richard Dowden noted previously on this blog there are many political factors that complicate the situation in Somalia. Any lasting solution will require a regional roadmap out of the Somali cycle of failed statism. Eritrea and others must be brought around a table with other regional governments, and representatives from wide cross section of Somali civil society. Maybe this famine will reenergise the too often stalled process. However politics is not the only factor here and there are other lessons to learn.

Contrary to the view expressed in a recent OpEd in the New York Times by David Aaronson, the conflict mineral provision in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act has not caused or exacerbated the dire economic and social situation in eastern Congo. It is over fifteen years of conflict, decades of governmental mismanagement and neglect, a legacy of corruption and exploitation, and lack of impunity, all in the face of a multimillion dollar minerals trade financing armed groups and perpetuating violence that has terrorized the population for decades.

Rather, Dodd-Frank offers real opportunity for reform in eastern Congo by confronting the key economic driver of conflict – the trade in conflict minerals. This momentum must be seized, and your voice can help ensure these critical steps are taken.

The well-documented connection between the minerals trade and violence - from the money made by commanders to the proximity of attacks to mining communities - is absolutely impossible to ignore, and one can literally see it without even looking. Just spend a day in Goma, look at the “coltan” houses – mansions sprouting up in the middle of some of the poorest shanty towns in the city, and ask who lives there and why. The answer? People like Bosco Ntaganda, a general in the Congolese Army who is also wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. He and others like him reap daily the economic benefits of some of the largest mines in the region.

This has been occurring long before Dodd-Frank, but the bill’s passage has provided a necessary jolt to this status quo. In fact, there is much local support for the legislation because it has already set in motion what is needed for change in not only the mining sector itself but also for a broader set of reforms, as reported by the United Nations. Dodd-Frank has proven to be a first step to squeeze out armed groups, to cut their millions in funding, and, with further support, will help create the space for a legitimate mining sector to emerge that actually leads to development and a better life for people in eastern Congo. This momentum must be seized, and there are clear, tangible steps forward for which the United States can and should be a leader.

To start, these systems need to be strengthened and expanded, and brought together under the umbrella of a credible, international certification system that ensures minerals on the market from eastern Congo or surrounding areas are not financing armed groups. Traceability, transparency, independent monitoring – it’s all beginning to happen, but requires full buy-in and follow through to achieve the highest impact.

The United States must not back down now. We have an obligation to follow through on what was started with Dodd-Frank because it has the ability to improve the lives of millions of people today and for future generations. In a conflict as complicated as Congo, it is rare to have such momentum and opportunity for real change. What we can do now as citizens is demonstrate to our leaders that there is a real political demand here in the United States for their action on Congo.

Join us in calling on Secretary Clinton to be a leader for certification of the region’s minerals, and encourage her to take the next step needed for peace in Congo. This is a real opportunity for peace in Congo. Take action for that.

Photo Credit: Julien Harneis

Malawi is often referred to as "the warm heart of Africa," but concerned citizens who are calling for changes to the country's economic conditions have been met with violent cruelty by the country's security forces. At the end of July, 19 people were killed in protests across the country.

Facing a deteriorating economy, trade unions and civil society organizations presented Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika with proposals for addressing the country's rising fuel costs, electricity shortages, foreign exchange shortages, corruption, financial mismanagement, problems with higher education, attacks on freedom of the press and other issues. Joining together under the theme "Uniting for Peaceful Resistance Against Poor Economic and Democratic Governance: A Better Malawi is Possible," citizens rallied across the country on July 20th. While the demonstrations were peaceful, security forces violently repressed demonstrations, killed 19 people, arrested around 500 individuals and assaulted and arrested several members of the press.

In response to growing repression on behalf of Mutharika's government, the US has frozen $350 million in aid to the country. Britain froze aid earlier in the year due to a diplomatic dispute. Civil society organizations had originally planned to hold vigils across the country this week in order to honor those who were killed during the demonstrations and to continue to put pressure on the government to address their concerns. However, government officials obtained a court injunction to prevent these events and organizations leading the movement decided to postpone the vigils.

The vigils were postponed amid growing tension in the country as the President continued to publicly demonize human rights organizations. According to Amnesty International, Mutharika called the July demonstrations "the work of Satan" and he threatened to "smoke out the organizers" while some prominent advocates received death threats. Currently, civil society organizations are working to establish a dialogue with the government that is being mediated by the United Nations. However, even though demonstrations have been postponed, a heightened police presence on the day when protests were previously scheduled to occur was evident across the country.

The Malawi Congress of Trade Unions has started a petition on Change.org calling on President Mutharika to cease attacks on civil society organizations, begin a genuine dialogue around citizens' concerns and to respect freedom of association and expression. You can show your solidarity with these brave human rights advocates facing extraordinary risks for their efforts to exercise their rights by signing the petition here.

Photo credit: tlupic

Peter Biro writes for the International Rescue Committee from the Dadaab Refugee Camp in Kenya where he saw first hand refugees seeking aid in the face of the famine in the horn of Africa. All photos by Peter Biro.

Our car is skidding across the deep sand tracks that cut through Hagadera, one of three sites that make up the sprawling Dadaab refugee camp near the Kenya-Somalia border. More than 1,300 refugees, fleeing drought and famine in southern Somalia, are arriving every day in the already overcrowded camp. Under such conditions infectious disease can spread quickly.

This morning, I’m traveling with an IRC medical team that is vaccinating refugee children against polio and measles, part of a mass immunization campaign that aid groups are conducting in Dadaab. All told, some 120,000 refugee children under the age of five will be inoculated over the next five days, a quarter of them by the IRC’s medical teams.

“The Somali refugees are malnourished and very weak,” says Antonia Kamore, the IRC’s community health program officer, who is sitting beside me. “This makes them even more susceptible to disease.”

This is a post by Erin Hohlfhelder cross-posted ONE Blog.

The good news in development often gets buried, deep below wars and debt and disaster. But yesterday, world leaders made bold new pledges to the GAVI Alliance (Global Aliance for Vaccines and Immunisations) in support of child vaccines, making the choice clear for reporters, press secretaries and live-tweeters alike: today was going to be a good news day.

In fact, in spite of tough economic times, donors collectively pledged $4.3 billion between now and 2015 — surpassing GAVI’s $3.7 billion funding gap — setting GAVI and its partners on the path toward saving nearly 4 million children’s lives in the next five years.