Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos
The PhD and MPA programmes in Public Management and Public Policy respond to a national demand for policy administrators and educators and to conduct policy-relevant research on the challenges and opportunities of the public and private sectors and provide evidence-based policy recommendations to pressing economic, political, social and public management challenges.
Phone: Tel +251 (11) 551 1224 Office, Fax +251 (11) 551 3851, Cell +251 (91) 121 2084
Address: Costantinos BT Costantinos, PhD
African Union Board on the Convention to Prevent and Combat Corruption
Professor of Public Policy, School of Graduate Studies, AAU
AHA, Africa Avenue, PB 13309, Addis Abeba, Ethiopia
costy@costantinos.net, www.costantinos.net
blogs and current publications: https://sites.google.com/site/doncosty/, https://sites.google.com/site/respublicaliterariacostantinos/
Phone: Tel +251 (11) 551 1224 Office, Fax +251 (11) 551 3851, Cell +251 (91) 121 2084
Address: Costantinos BT Costantinos, PhD
African Union Board on the Convention to Prevent and Combat Corruption
Professor of Public Policy, School of Graduate Studies, AAU
AHA, Africa Avenue, PB 13309, Addis Abeba, Ethiopia
costy@costantinos.net, www.costantinos.net
blogs and current publications: https://sites.google.com/site/doncosty/, https://sites.google.com/site/respublicaliterariacostantinos/
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Articles & teaching docs by Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos
Coming amid the emergence of a new Cold War, the Brics Summit in South Afri-ca is making not only headlines but also history in signalling new multipolar geopolitics and geoeconomics by expanding its remit to Africa and the Gulf monarchies. Standing tall for buttressing global cooperation under the rubrics of political, security, economic, and people-to-people arenas, it is destined to fortifying multilateralism and interna-tional law, including those enshrined in the consecrated articles of the UN Charter.
Blessed with copious natural and human resources, and a shared vision for multi-lateral cooperation, Brics could play a pivotal role in international geopolitical and geoeconomic dynamics, epitomising how cultural and historical diversities can fuse into a shared global goal, evidenced by the creation of the New Development Bank to fi-nance development in poor countries. While the financial evolution of the powerhouse Brics nations signal a new era in global economics, a common currency is one of the key themes that was expected to be discussed at the Brics 2023 summit, but the issue of the feasibility of this R5 project is frail. While de-dollarisation is not an explicit objective, Brics nations find themselves at a strategic crossroads: should they introduce a joint central banks digital currency or devise a cross-national payment system harnessing blockchain and crypto technology?
Key words: Brics expansion, multilateralism, de-dollarisation, 5R currency
.
History teaches us is that any society, which is not based on strong institutional pillars and a robust meritocracy in its distribution of social and economic benefits, is bound to fail. Hence, the chapter deals with the need to increase farm productivity by merit-based publics and businesses.
Keywords: food security, nutrition, food waste, commercial farms, farmer productivity, technology, welfare benefits, preparedness, preconditions, participatory and wise decision-making, resources availability
The fundamental mission of the paper is to address the issue of resilience-focused development within the remit of popular participation within the context of using it as a strategy, as a project design tool, as a means for development and as an end in itself - a vehicle for self-assertion and citizenship. The paper utilis-es case studies from the Timbaro Highlands, with a participatory tool, community-based technical pro-gramme used to promote local development. The case study will help us arrive at conclusions by stating the fact that the kaleidoscope of coercive to self-empowered participation are complex processes involving na-tional and international factors, strategies, the socio-political and cultural environment, the organisational structures and organisational processes within which the programme is set.
Key words: resilience, participation, ownership of development, human freedom, Community Based Technical Pro-gramme, Peasant Associations, Service Cooperatives, Global Hunger Index
Updated for publication 22 Aug 2019
Conflicts, human poverty, and biological wealth are eternally locked in a tragic embrace in Africa. Continuing human interaction in civil strife, degradation in biological wealth and climate change amid global financial crises have become commonplace. Africa heralded a birth of a new consciousness, a kind of non-nationality that wasn’t based on borders and census data but on community bonding as a result of determined acts of human beings and historical societal formations.
Almost three thousand years ago, the Axumites united into an Abyssinian kingdom, not by foreswearing their identity but by exalting and merging it in the new one, until of course colonial powers and the military-cum-aristocratic governments that replaced them started dismantling the very essence of nationalism. (Costantinos, 1996)
A key peculiarity, which runs through much of in the account of political theory, is between the custodianship and steering culpabilities of the state. These images i.e. the shepherd and the helmsman-have been at the core of governance controversies, but neither can be met effectively in isolation. Classical-liberalists augur their argument on the fact that interests of the state and the market diverge. That the public sector is inefficient as state employees have little incentive to make an impact as their outputs have no direct link to their personal interest. In fact, notwithstanding the level of public sector corruption that detract national development, the theory submits for the development to take place there is need to remove all forms of limitations that are caused by state intervention. Neo-liberal theory buttresses these views by accentuating liberalisation measures. In spite of the attractiveness of these theories, they are not immune from economic and political condemnations. Based on the weaknesses of the above theories, public choice theory submits that there are two types of goods in the society-public goods (education, health and security) to be provided by the state and private goods (profits to be provided by the market forces).
Evidence from a wide range of experiences with capitalist accumulation suggests that the emergence of a national bourgeoisie is fostered or even planned by the state. The measures required include liberalisation and stimulation of citizens to invest in new and competing activities. Full or partial liberalisation of units providing services results in a competitive, multi-channel environment and citizen involvement in the delivery of major infrastructure concession arrangements that will provide more employment. The relevance is not only augured on the revenue it generates, it must be seen from the alloca-tive and productive efficiency. The announcement of divesti-ture will delineate options of divestiture (majority or minority equity, convert into cooperatives, management/employee buy-outs, etc.) that achieves improvement in microeconomic efficiency. the purpose of liberalisation is to achieve higher allocative and productive efficiency, a normative rationale relating to microeconomic perspective to increase allocative efficiency in increasing aggregate surplus, lowering prices and efficient use of resources; it is to strengthen the role of the private sector, a normative rationale-the creation of well-functioning markets and an investor-friendly environment in the economy; it will improve the public sector's financial health to free resources for allocation in priority areas in social policy, public sector finance, the reduction of borrowing requirements and reallocation of expenditure towards social policy areas.
The prospect for a scheme to survive on the umbilical cord of food aid, foreign grants and repulsive debts and subsist on an ideologically loaded borrowed epoch is untenable any longer. Africa must position itself on an irreversible trajectory to open up for 21st-century knowledge-based economic and business governance. In a globalised world, not a single nation can obstruct an idea whose time has come - citizen deliverance. Right-sizing the state and liberalising the economy is an imperative long overdue.
Keywords: Somalia, al Shabaab, Amisom, martial guardianship, diplomacy, alternative conflict management
"I was only 17 when I met him. I knew he wanted to marry me and that he would take me back to school. After I found out he was an al-Shabaab fighter, I realised my life had been ruined. I knew he'd lied to me ... but I had nowhere to go, so I decided to stay with him," says Fatuma. After her husband had disappeared fighting in Somalia, Fatuma managed to escape and returned home to Kenya" (Al Jazeera. Daughters of al-Shabaab (2018)
Keywords: climate change, carbon footprint, reducing emissions, Green New Deal, Roosevelt Conservation Caucus, Climate Change Adaptation
Key words: Ebola, Africa Humanitarian Action, state fragility, inequality, poverty, ethnic tensions, political leadership, poverty, stalled development, public health, and infrastructure
Key words: citizenship, civil society, culture, gender, naïve realism, social action, social citizenship rights, legal empowerment
Cheap, unorganised labour is the preferred form of slave trade in the Middle East today. Africans are also willingly paying human traffickers to go to Europe for better life and prosperity for luck of opportunities and conflicts in Africa. The case of slavery in Libya is unique in that this is happening in the 21 st century at the gates of and the deterrence policy of Europe, where Libyan warlords intercept boats as part of a divisive deal that has seen migrant arrivals down nearly 70%, only for migrant to be sold as slaves in Libya. UN leaders said they are horrified, the international community cannot continue to turn a blind eye to the horrors endured by migrants in Libya (AFP, 2017). African migrants who are unable to pay their Bedouin smugglers' demands for large amounts of cash to take them into Israel have their organs stolen by Egyptian doctors in the Sinai Peninsula. For those who make it to the Gulf, many commit suicide-at least 35 Ugandans killed themselves in the UAE-because of unpaid wages and abuse (Palet, 2018). The key political question in recent months has been how to reduce the number of unauthorised migrants to Europe's shores in rickety vessels from the unstable North Africa. Italy seems to have found a solution for reducing these numbers. Of course, the decrease in numbers does not mean that the people stopped fleeing persecution, violence, or poverty, but simply means they do not arrive in Italian shores. This raises the question: where are they? The unfolding human tragedy, its impact on human development and its consequences on politics are indeed too ghastly to contemplate. African nations must develop clear-cut youth and employment policies that match young people to the labour market and financing policies that would ensure production of viable skilled work force. They must put in place policies on science, technology, research and innovation that improve educational curricula to respond to real needs and train human power that are competitive at all levels in the labour market. The world has to work towards a new understanding of sharing in which those who have been marginalised in the struggle for justice and human dignity in society. These demand common tasks to build a community and the momentum for radical citizen's participation: realism of what it means to be human means vision, shared values and shared resources.
Key words: migration, trafficking, slavery, labour market, unemployment, organ stealing, the Gulf, Libya, EU,
River Congo can generate 52,000 megawatts of electricity. Titanic water resource, a benign climate, rich soil and beneath the soil abundant deposits of copper, gold, diamonds, cobalt, Coltan… worth 34 trillion USD are some that should make it one of the world's richest countries. It supplied Uranium used to construct the atomic bomb. DRC can employ African economic migrants that otherwise crowd European borders but colonial corruption have turned it into the world's bloodiest conflict, still rumbling on today
Some of the challenges in the GLR, which relate to the above-mentioned emerging trends in natural resource management, include the need for effective coordination within and between states. Moreover, efficient and effective information sharing, conducting on-going awareness campaigns, and the need to provide targeted education and training programmes, in order to ensure effective implementation of compliance regimes. Hence, a Pact encompassing eleven countries of the GLR with a population of close to three hundred million people has been designed. Towards this end, this article outlines programmes developed in peace and security, democracy and good governance, economic development and regional integration, humanitarian action and social development and cross cutting issues in gender, human rights, diseases and environment and climate change. The strategies in the programme documents address the multi-dimensional, multi-sectoral and multi-track input that are required to create the holism enshrined in social and economic development that can only be achieved through the sustainable livelihoods synergy - resilience, economic efficiency, social equitability and ecological stability.
Key words: Great Lakes Region of Africa, gender, violence, peace, security, democracy, good governance, infrastructure, regional integration, economic development, humanitarian action
----------------------------------------------------------
The magnitude of violence against women will never be known, what is well known, however, are the horrifying stories told by the sufferers. Sexual violence know no boundaries, in both conflict and non-conflict situations, culprits are within families and among those mandated with the protection of the vulnerable - police, military, peace keepers, etc.
Addis Abeba has witnessed a sea change in the recent-past stemming from the appointment of a new leadership and staging enabling policies that have been set in motion by the Government. In short, Addis is much cleaner, has one of the highest growth rates in terms of urban reconstruction in the continent and the road grid has seen an overhaul unprecedented in its one century old history. The condos that are under completion have given hopes to the emerging 'middle class'. Finally, there is hope to own a roof above one's head even in Addis, where real estate prices have gone grotesquely strange. Addis is faced with (unemployment, pollution, water stress, sewerage facilities, gender-based violence, housing, road infrastructure, schools, health facilities…) that the Cabinet needs to sort out what can be done in terms of Urban Governance. Indubitably, this will herald the transition from urban government to urban governance: two diametrically opposite approaches in urban administration and decision-making systems. Urban Government comprises city management on official state authorities. Urban governance, on the contrary, is a process based on the interaction between official organisations and authorities , which lead city development and of the civil society or the public domain. As we move to another administration that will be concocted soon by the legislature, and in advancing the necessity for continuity, Addis Abeba as a political capital of Africa, must portend the imperative to front-load reasoned strategies to provide hospitable conditions to its 'citizenry'. The bottom line is we must launch Urban Governance-a process based on the interaction between official organisations and authorities, which lead city development on the one hand, and of the civil society or the public domain on the other.
Key words: Addis Abeba, civil society, urban administration, urban government, urban governance, : policy, strategy, structure, process, participation, partnership
The heart of Transformative Social Change is the intimate connection between the outer work of strategizing, organising, and campaigning, and the inner work of who we are as human beings. Transformative change asserts that our success in creating a more just and sustainable world requires our ability to connect with the deepest longings of people. We ought to develop our emotional intelligence as well as our political analysis, that we live and practice justice and sustainability in the way we do social change, and ultimately, that we be spiritual as well as political leaders. Hence, the lecture deals with social capital - youth-led society - freedom from fear (democracy); economic transformation -freedom from want (development), wrestling corruption, youth-led society & the media. It also dwells on youth-led society peace-building framework; strengthen civic education in primary schools adult civic education & popular participation in citizenship and premises of alternative conflict management
Key words: African youth, Africa Day, transformative social change, peace, human security, development.
An earlier generation, 70 years ago, fashioned the values of peace and international cooperation from the ashes of war; a supreme embodiment of the Charter of the United Nations. Today, we resolve to build a better future for all people, the millions who have been denied the chance to lead decent, dignified and rewarding lives and to achieve their full human potential. We can be the first generation to succeed in ending poverty, just as we may be the last to have a chance of saving the planet. The world will be a better place if we succeed in our objectives. What we are announcing today is a Charter for people and planet in the 21 century. We will find in the new Goals a platform to channel our infinite capacities for activism into the creation of a better world. It is "We the Peoples"-the celebrated opening words of the UN Charter-who are embarking today on this road (SDGs)
Coming amid the emergence of a new Cold War, the Brics Summit in South Afri-ca is making not only headlines but also history in signalling new multipolar geopolitics and geoeconomics by expanding its remit to Africa and the Gulf monarchies. Standing tall for buttressing global cooperation under the rubrics of political, security, economic, and people-to-people arenas, it is destined to fortifying multilateralism and interna-tional law, including those enshrined in the consecrated articles of the UN Charter.
Blessed with copious natural and human resources, and a shared vision for multi-lateral cooperation, Brics could play a pivotal role in international geopolitical and geoeconomic dynamics, epitomising how cultural and historical diversities can fuse into a shared global goal, evidenced by the creation of the New Development Bank to fi-nance development in poor countries. While the financial evolution of the powerhouse Brics nations signal a new era in global economics, a common currency is one of the key themes that was expected to be discussed at the Brics 2023 summit, but the issue of the feasibility of this R5 project is frail. While de-dollarisation is not an explicit objective, Brics nations find themselves at a strategic crossroads: should they introduce a joint central banks digital currency or devise a cross-national payment system harnessing blockchain and crypto technology?
Key words: Brics expansion, multilateralism, de-dollarisation, 5R currency
.
History teaches us is that any society, which is not based on strong institutional pillars and a robust meritocracy in its distribution of social and economic benefits, is bound to fail. Hence, the chapter deals with the need to increase farm productivity by merit-based publics and businesses.
Keywords: food security, nutrition, food waste, commercial farms, farmer productivity, technology, welfare benefits, preparedness, preconditions, participatory and wise decision-making, resources availability
The fundamental mission of the paper is to address the issue of resilience-focused development within the remit of popular participation within the context of using it as a strategy, as a project design tool, as a means for development and as an end in itself - a vehicle for self-assertion and citizenship. The paper utilis-es case studies from the Timbaro Highlands, with a participatory tool, community-based technical pro-gramme used to promote local development. The case study will help us arrive at conclusions by stating the fact that the kaleidoscope of coercive to self-empowered participation are complex processes involving na-tional and international factors, strategies, the socio-political and cultural environment, the organisational structures and organisational processes within which the programme is set.
Key words: resilience, participation, ownership of development, human freedom, Community Based Technical Pro-gramme, Peasant Associations, Service Cooperatives, Global Hunger Index
Updated for publication 22 Aug 2019
Conflicts, human poverty, and biological wealth are eternally locked in a tragic embrace in Africa. Continuing human interaction in civil strife, degradation in biological wealth and climate change amid global financial crises have become commonplace. Africa heralded a birth of a new consciousness, a kind of non-nationality that wasn’t based on borders and census data but on community bonding as a result of determined acts of human beings and historical societal formations.
Almost three thousand years ago, the Axumites united into an Abyssinian kingdom, not by foreswearing their identity but by exalting and merging it in the new one, until of course colonial powers and the military-cum-aristocratic governments that replaced them started dismantling the very essence of nationalism. (Costantinos, 1996)
A key peculiarity, which runs through much of in the account of political theory, is between the custodianship and steering culpabilities of the state. These images i.e. the shepherd and the helmsman-have been at the core of governance controversies, but neither can be met effectively in isolation. Classical-liberalists augur their argument on the fact that interests of the state and the market diverge. That the public sector is inefficient as state employees have little incentive to make an impact as their outputs have no direct link to their personal interest. In fact, notwithstanding the level of public sector corruption that detract national development, the theory submits for the development to take place there is need to remove all forms of limitations that are caused by state intervention. Neo-liberal theory buttresses these views by accentuating liberalisation measures. In spite of the attractiveness of these theories, they are not immune from economic and political condemnations. Based on the weaknesses of the above theories, public choice theory submits that there are two types of goods in the society-public goods (education, health and security) to be provided by the state and private goods (profits to be provided by the market forces).
Evidence from a wide range of experiences with capitalist accumulation suggests that the emergence of a national bourgeoisie is fostered or even planned by the state. The measures required include liberalisation and stimulation of citizens to invest in new and competing activities. Full or partial liberalisation of units providing services results in a competitive, multi-channel environment and citizen involvement in the delivery of major infrastructure concession arrangements that will provide more employment. The relevance is not only augured on the revenue it generates, it must be seen from the alloca-tive and productive efficiency. The announcement of divesti-ture will delineate options of divestiture (majority or minority equity, convert into cooperatives, management/employee buy-outs, etc.) that achieves improvement in microeconomic efficiency. the purpose of liberalisation is to achieve higher allocative and productive efficiency, a normative rationale relating to microeconomic perspective to increase allocative efficiency in increasing aggregate surplus, lowering prices and efficient use of resources; it is to strengthen the role of the private sector, a normative rationale-the creation of well-functioning markets and an investor-friendly environment in the economy; it will improve the public sector's financial health to free resources for allocation in priority areas in social policy, public sector finance, the reduction of borrowing requirements and reallocation of expenditure towards social policy areas.
The prospect for a scheme to survive on the umbilical cord of food aid, foreign grants and repulsive debts and subsist on an ideologically loaded borrowed epoch is untenable any longer. Africa must position itself on an irreversible trajectory to open up for 21st-century knowledge-based economic and business governance. In a globalised world, not a single nation can obstruct an idea whose time has come - citizen deliverance. Right-sizing the state and liberalising the economy is an imperative long overdue.
Keywords: Somalia, al Shabaab, Amisom, martial guardianship, diplomacy, alternative conflict management
"I was only 17 when I met him. I knew he wanted to marry me and that he would take me back to school. After I found out he was an al-Shabaab fighter, I realised my life had been ruined. I knew he'd lied to me ... but I had nowhere to go, so I decided to stay with him," says Fatuma. After her husband had disappeared fighting in Somalia, Fatuma managed to escape and returned home to Kenya" (Al Jazeera. Daughters of al-Shabaab (2018)
Keywords: climate change, carbon footprint, reducing emissions, Green New Deal, Roosevelt Conservation Caucus, Climate Change Adaptation
Key words: Ebola, Africa Humanitarian Action, state fragility, inequality, poverty, ethnic tensions, political leadership, poverty, stalled development, public health, and infrastructure
Key words: citizenship, civil society, culture, gender, naïve realism, social action, social citizenship rights, legal empowerment
Cheap, unorganised labour is the preferred form of slave trade in the Middle East today. Africans are also willingly paying human traffickers to go to Europe for better life and prosperity for luck of opportunities and conflicts in Africa. The case of slavery in Libya is unique in that this is happening in the 21 st century at the gates of and the deterrence policy of Europe, where Libyan warlords intercept boats as part of a divisive deal that has seen migrant arrivals down nearly 70%, only for migrant to be sold as slaves in Libya. UN leaders said they are horrified, the international community cannot continue to turn a blind eye to the horrors endured by migrants in Libya (AFP, 2017). African migrants who are unable to pay their Bedouin smugglers' demands for large amounts of cash to take them into Israel have their organs stolen by Egyptian doctors in the Sinai Peninsula. For those who make it to the Gulf, many commit suicide-at least 35 Ugandans killed themselves in the UAE-because of unpaid wages and abuse (Palet, 2018). The key political question in recent months has been how to reduce the number of unauthorised migrants to Europe's shores in rickety vessels from the unstable North Africa. Italy seems to have found a solution for reducing these numbers. Of course, the decrease in numbers does not mean that the people stopped fleeing persecution, violence, or poverty, but simply means they do not arrive in Italian shores. This raises the question: where are they? The unfolding human tragedy, its impact on human development and its consequences on politics are indeed too ghastly to contemplate. African nations must develop clear-cut youth and employment policies that match young people to the labour market and financing policies that would ensure production of viable skilled work force. They must put in place policies on science, technology, research and innovation that improve educational curricula to respond to real needs and train human power that are competitive at all levels in the labour market. The world has to work towards a new understanding of sharing in which those who have been marginalised in the struggle for justice and human dignity in society. These demand common tasks to build a community and the momentum for radical citizen's participation: realism of what it means to be human means vision, shared values and shared resources.
Key words: migration, trafficking, slavery, labour market, unemployment, organ stealing, the Gulf, Libya, EU,
River Congo can generate 52,000 megawatts of electricity. Titanic water resource, a benign climate, rich soil and beneath the soil abundant deposits of copper, gold, diamonds, cobalt, Coltan… worth 34 trillion USD are some that should make it one of the world's richest countries. It supplied Uranium used to construct the atomic bomb. DRC can employ African economic migrants that otherwise crowd European borders but colonial corruption have turned it into the world's bloodiest conflict, still rumbling on today
Some of the challenges in the GLR, which relate to the above-mentioned emerging trends in natural resource management, include the need for effective coordination within and between states. Moreover, efficient and effective information sharing, conducting on-going awareness campaigns, and the need to provide targeted education and training programmes, in order to ensure effective implementation of compliance regimes. Hence, a Pact encompassing eleven countries of the GLR with a population of close to three hundred million people has been designed. Towards this end, this article outlines programmes developed in peace and security, democracy and good governance, economic development and regional integration, humanitarian action and social development and cross cutting issues in gender, human rights, diseases and environment and climate change. The strategies in the programme documents address the multi-dimensional, multi-sectoral and multi-track input that are required to create the holism enshrined in social and economic development that can only be achieved through the sustainable livelihoods synergy - resilience, economic efficiency, social equitability and ecological stability.
Key words: Great Lakes Region of Africa, gender, violence, peace, security, democracy, good governance, infrastructure, regional integration, economic development, humanitarian action
----------------------------------------------------------
The magnitude of violence against women will never be known, what is well known, however, are the horrifying stories told by the sufferers. Sexual violence know no boundaries, in both conflict and non-conflict situations, culprits are within families and among those mandated with the protection of the vulnerable - police, military, peace keepers, etc.
Addis Abeba has witnessed a sea change in the recent-past stemming from the appointment of a new leadership and staging enabling policies that have been set in motion by the Government. In short, Addis is much cleaner, has one of the highest growth rates in terms of urban reconstruction in the continent and the road grid has seen an overhaul unprecedented in its one century old history. The condos that are under completion have given hopes to the emerging 'middle class'. Finally, there is hope to own a roof above one's head even in Addis, where real estate prices have gone grotesquely strange. Addis is faced with (unemployment, pollution, water stress, sewerage facilities, gender-based violence, housing, road infrastructure, schools, health facilities…) that the Cabinet needs to sort out what can be done in terms of Urban Governance. Indubitably, this will herald the transition from urban government to urban governance: two diametrically opposite approaches in urban administration and decision-making systems. Urban Government comprises city management on official state authorities. Urban governance, on the contrary, is a process based on the interaction between official organisations and authorities , which lead city development and of the civil society or the public domain. As we move to another administration that will be concocted soon by the legislature, and in advancing the necessity for continuity, Addis Abeba as a political capital of Africa, must portend the imperative to front-load reasoned strategies to provide hospitable conditions to its 'citizenry'. The bottom line is we must launch Urban Governance-a process based on the interaction between official organisations and authorities, which lead city development on the one hand, and of the civil society or the public domain on the other.
Key words: Addis Abeba, civil society, urban administration, urban government, urban governance, : policy, strategy, structure, process, participation, partnership
The heart of Transformative Social Change is the intimate connection between the outer work of strategizing, organising, and campaigning, and the inner work of who we are as human beings. Transformative change asserts that our success in creating a more just and sustainable world requires our ability to connect with the deepest longings of people. We ought to develop our emotional intelligence as well as our political analysis, that we live and practice justice and sustainability in the way we do social change, and ultimately, that we be spiritual as well as political leaders. Hence, the lecture deals with social capital - youth-led society - freedom from fear (democracy); economic transformation -freedom from want (development), wrestling corruption, youth-led society & the media. It also dwells on youth-led society peace-building framework; strengthen civic education in primary schools adult civic education & popular participation in citizenship and premises of alternative conflict management
Key words: African youth, Africa Day, transformative social change, peace, human security, development.
An earlier generation, 70 years ago, fashioned the values of peace and international cooperation from the ashes of war; a supreme embodiment of the Charter of the United Nations. Today, we resolve to build a better future for all people, the millions who have been denied the chance to lead decent, dignified and rewarding lives and to achieve their full human potential. We can be the first generation to succeed in ending poverty, just as we may be the last to have a chance of saving the planet. The world will be a better place if we succeed in our objectives. What we are announcing today is a Charter for people and planet in the 21 century. We will find in the new Goals a platform to channel our infinite capacities for activism into the creation of a better world. It is "We the Peoples"-the celebrated opening words of the UN Charter-who are embarking today on this road (SDGs)
Conflicts in the Sahelian belt are fetching far and more serious implications than what previous generations have had to contend with, mainly due to economic and social constraints, destroying the social fabric that has helped shape the Sahelian belt, and have a strong capacity to etch permanent scars due to their inherent ability to erase progress. The central hypothesis is that the rise of non-state weaponised insurgents is caused by the relative weakness of political organisations that mould the rules of the political games installed. Stymieing the rise of non-state weaponised insurgents requires a plural set of political organisations, which promote and protect rules of peaceful political participation and dialogue.
The chapter proposes non-legal means of conflict management approaches to the conflicts in the Sahel. It derives from several basic premises about the nature of conflict, change and power. First, while attitudes about conflict can differ radically from one cultural context to another, it is assumed that conflict is a normal process in society; that is, it is a given. Conflict, in itself, is not the basic problem that people face; the problem lies rather in how conflict is managed.
Key words: Sahel, conflict, non-legal means of conflict management, dialogue, peace
Keywords: war finance, disruption of trade, inflation, capital flight, devaluation, corruption, livelihood insecurity, human capital, infrastructure, institutions and investment, fiscal sustainability, taxation,
For all the talk about the “weaponisation of finance,” the financial sanctions will not lead to any fundamental changes in the world’s monetary or financial order. Removing Russia from SWIFT could be exactly what Russia, China and India desire. The 'System for Transfer of Financial Messages' developed by the Central Bank of Russia and the Cross-Border Inter-bank Payment System backed by the People's Bank of China have been developed to replace the western dominated dollar transfer. ‘Rublegas’ the world’s new resource-based reserve currency, is to be paid at Gazprombank in Russia, in its currency of choice, and not at a Gazprom account in any banking institution in western capitals. The main victim in all this is globalisation, which has lifted billions out of poverty, but is now unequivocally under threat. Hence, the hypothesis of this inquiry rests with the analytical limitations of the insolvency global governance agencies on stemming deglobalisation. Preventing deglobalisation will most likely succeed when initiatives emanate from civil society to turn the tide of this global conflict rather than from regimes where state elite have routinely violated the rule of law with impunity
Keywords: Ukraine, Russia, China, the West, deglobalisation, CIPS, SFMS, SWIFT, Rublegas
Now, in 2022, as the nation’s leaders announced the setting up of credit and capital markets and opening the financial sector, the article hones on gleaning best practices in to really transform the economy of this ancient nation. Hence, the objective is to eliminate ‘financial repression’ and promote the role of the market and right size the role of the state in determining who gets and gives credit and at what price. The research inquiry augurs on what has decades of state finance yielded and what are the strategic options for economic governance to carve an ideal role of the state? As Ethiopia liberalises its financial sector, it is vital to cement financial laws and regulations of the commercial banking, insurance, derivatives markets, capital markets and investment management sectors. Moreover, it is necessary to set up financial regulation and supervision regimes, which subjects financial institutions to certain requirements, restrictions and guidelines, aims to maintain the stability and integrity of the financial system. To cap this all a merit based governance of the central bank is imperative learning form the U.K. when Mark Carney, a Canadian citizen, was the only non-Briton to have been Governor of the Bank of England since its conception.
Keywords: Ethiopia, financial intermediation, financial liberalisation, credit and capital markets
The research questions augur on the post-WWII global governance architecture’s elusive mechanism, constructing and deploying its concepts in sterile abstraction from national security priorities. The methodology employed seeks an independent analytical assessment of trajecto-ries with a view to assist in the design of innovations in global governance. The article asserts the fact that there is a tendency to narrow global governance thought and practice to the terms and categories of immediate, not very well considered political, economic and social action. As a way of lessening of these difficulties, I theorise global governance as the dynamic interaction of strategy and process. The articulation of democratising global governance can be seen dialec-tically as a unity and struggle of opposites or as a negation of negation of particular depictions of elité ideologies on the one hand and generic forms where systemic categories and institutional mechanisms that objectively mediate and generalise the consensual representations, on the oth-er. Within current projects of reform, human enlightenment and shared values are either con-ventionalised or sterilised on terrain of theory and often vacuously formalised on the ground of practice and enter nations in relatively abstract, syncretic and plain form, yet are expected to land on immediate and vital polity's socio-political experience. It evokes itself and seems with-in reach; only to elude, and appears readily practicable only to resist realisation.
Keywords: Global Governance, Cold War II, Ukraine, Eurasia, Eastern Block, NATO
“On the global arena, while it is legitimate to make a realist case, for tempering Ukrainian demands and accommodating reasonable Russian security concerns, the inability of some to reject the moral equivalence of Ukraine and Russia was glaring. What lies behind this bizarre empathy to-ward a thuggish regime? There is a vital disconnect between right-wing populists and their audience. Populist elites compete with mainstream intellectual elites, yearning for an overarching meta-theory to rival progressive liberalism or libertarianism. Many desire a modicum of politically correct re-spectability; they pretend they are motivated by a desire to speak for the downtrodden” (Kaufmann, 2022).
This lecture article drawn from a forthcoming book hypothesises that the massive flows of illicit capital from Africa represent diversions of resources from their most efficient uses and are likely to adversely encumber meeting the UN SDGs. Reining in this flow of illicit capital can abet Africa wither the surge in commodity prices hailing from Eurasia. Africa is often characterised as a conti-nent of civil conflict, of refugee and displaced populations of economic crisis, but, gradually, African countries are shaking off the shackles of poverty and conflict, and realising rapid growth rates. However, where there have been improvements, they have not impacted the community levels. Instead of its renaissance, a stung Africa has seen her vital spark drained: her scholars migrating to rich nations and her natural resources and finance plundered at will by the same; breast-feeding their capital markets and industries. This outflow of vital forces and resources has left Africa vulnerable to corrupt governance, conflict and diseases of poverty. Could tempering these capital outflows wither Africa from the commodity crises predicted?
Keywords: Ukraine, Russia, Africa, commodity prices, sovereignty,
Market vendor Beatrice Atieno summed up the current situation: "Sometimes, we go to bed hungry because life has become so expensive...Bread, especially, is something I can no longer afford to buy. We eat potatoes for breakfast instead.
The purpose of the study is to sensitise African states on issues that are pertinent to the establishment of credit and capital markets. The dismal pace of human development in Africa can be attributed to policies of regimes where deliberately antagonistic to the evolution of a viable private sector, which was not intended to bring about the social and economic devel-opment and hence, did not encourage the development and strengthening of capital markets. This study is predicated by the rationale that credit and capital markets can make positive contributions to the sustained and sustainable development of African countries. The aims of this study are to explore the feasibility of comprehensively developing and strengthening the capacity of financial and capital markets in Africa in order to promote entrepreneurship. The objectives of the study are to advance explicit clarification of the role of the private and public sectors in view of the interactive role of these sectors and the implications for capital markets development.
Key words: credit, capital, markets, finance, intermediation, banks, insurance, unions,
Eco-friendly proficient investments push the frontier of human development. The restructuring of economies by strengthening of the private sector through liberalisation and establishment of capital markets coupled with sustainable institutional reforms are the requisite basis to achieve the SDGs.
Current discussions and analyses of stemming nuclear war triggered civilisational apocalypse is generally are marked by a tendency to narrow ‘natonisation’ scenario fore¬casting thought and practice to the terms and categories of immediate, not very well considered, political action, a naïve pragmatism, as it were. It is also a nearly exclusive concern in certain institutional perspectives on ‘natonisation’ with generic attributes of the martial alliances and consequent neglect of analysis of specific safeties and strategies of states in point.
The tragedy, which took such a heavy toll of life over the two World Wars, has highlighted the fundamental weakness of global governance institutions in coping with such crises that has created the need for changes very much imperative in so many quarters. Within current projects of ‘natonisation’, conflict is either conventionalised or sterilized on terrain of theory and often vacuously formalised on the ground of practice. It enters regional and coalitional politics in relatively abstract and plain form, yet is expected to land itself to immediate and vital coalitional polity's socio-political experience. It suggests itself, seems within reach only to elude, and appears readily practicable only to resist realisation.
Keywords: Eurasia, nuclear war, civilisational apocalypse, global governance institutions, global public policy, diagnostic limitations, effective states and engaged societies
Today, Russia has undertaken “military-technical” measures by unilaterally challenging NATO’s open door to Ukraine, after years of European security negotiations that produced many pacts. For Russia, this is tantamount to a new Cold War, a reminder of 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when the world teetered on the brink of a nuclear war. Russia is discernibly alarmed by the expansion of NATO right to Russia’s frontiers in contravention of the post-Cold War order. Russia’s diplomatic and martial foray to support Donetsk and Luhansk separatist regions in Donbas, eastern Ukraine will definitely test European tenacity. While it can mount a full-scale invasion on Ukraine; nevertheless, the cost of doing so may be too ghastly to contemplate even at the reward of transmuting the post-Cold War security architecture.
Moreover, a Russian invasion has turn turtled the norms of global security that have been in place since WWII. In the immediate term, sanctions will not have a devastating bearing to thwart it from invading its neighbours; indeed, Russia has amassed enough capital to resist embargoes. How-ever, Russian actions have unsettled the West and NATO’s broadcast of allegiance to mutual de-fence may have comforted weaker allies in the front line. Russia’s conduct could also fret its main ally, China, which will be wary of associating with such conflict at a time when it BRI is in full swing globally. A protracted conflict and swelling fatalities would also ensemble drain the Russian economy and ferment popular anger back home, but, unfortunately, these threats do not seem to have dwarfed the Slavic geopolitical gains of shaking-up the Western alliance. To stem the tide of a blood bath, the discourse must hone in at the nucleus of the confluence of the persistence of the wars that engulfed Ukraine for centuries and the narratives that immersed global governance architecture since the founding of the League of Nations.
Keywords: collective helplessness, unlearning helplessness, New Cold War, Ukraine, Russia, NATO, Cuban Missile Crisis, Minsk, Helsinki 2.0
Publisher: Xlibris, Corp. (September 7, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1465351418
ISBN-13: 978-1465351418
Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.5 inches
Concisely, a favourable outcome in CoP29, whose main agenda is climate fi-nance, can help unlock a safer, more prosperous and more equal future for everyone. Massive investment will be needed for the energy transition - 3.5tn-$5tn a year between now and 2050, sums that are currently being spent every year on the fossil fuel-based economy. Developed countries can achieve this by switching into low-carbon technologies, but for the developing world, without climate finance support the problem looks much harder. Africa’s GDP stands at $2.8 trillion, DRC's cumulative mineral wealth is estimated at over 24 trillion (USD), mineral and petroleum rich nations earn a quarter trillion USD annually. Do African states need foreign aid to save the life of own citizens, who ‘voted’ to put them there? Africans must and can only rely on appropriate use of their human and natural re-sources.
Keywords: Africa, CoP29, climate finance, developing & vulnerable nations, self-reliance, corruption, good governance…
But, current analyses of the Pact’s SDGs, STI, Climate Change and Global Govern-ance are generally are marked by limitations that may escape the requisite discourse on the Pact. These include a tendency to narrow the Pact’s thought and practice to categories of immediate, not very well considered political, economic and social action; coupled with the inattention to problems of articulation or production of the Pact within real politics rather than simply as abstract possibilities. Moreover, the ambiguity as to whether civil society is the agent or object of the Pact and inadequate treatment of global governance agencies blurs op-erationalisation.
The aim of this think piece (draft) is to frontload geopolitical, strategic and analytical challenges of its operationalisation that will certainly be met in the complex objectives that Pact must address to be of utility for the future. These analytical challenges stem from governing elite backed by international agencies that lead The Pact of the Future by deploying specific strategies and organisational mechanisms. Yet they often fail to identify their specific goals, policies and programmes with the governance of the Pact. As against this must be maintained the problems and potential of operationalisation of the Pact must distinguish between strategic and processual dimensions of the change. In engaging in such strategic activities, participants are likely to be motivated by specific concerns and objectives quite apart from a general commitment to the ideals of the Pact.
Keywords: SDGs, STI, climate change and global governance, The Pact of the Future, UN, Geopolitical, Strategic and Analytical Limitations
Hence, it reviews paradigmatic discourse in employment generation and human security, employment and human security, freedom from fear vs. freedom from want. The discussion hones on the state’s responsibility that are priming human qualities, real-time state strategy development, supporting the private sector through economic liberalisation (productive and allocative efficiency), entrepreneurship development, credit and capital markets and mainstreaming entrepreneurial employment. Legal empowerment of the poor seeks to generate new policy recommendations that will reduce poverty. Indeed, there is no more compelling raison d'être nor a mission-objective so utterly entrenched in the preservation and, even advancement of human-kind, than good governance and leadership that can lead a social league to relate cogently to an epidemic of ignorance and hence under-employment that has spun out of control.
Key words: industrial parks, unemployment, entrepreneurship rights, capital, property rights, access to justice, labour rights
DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.10572.01929
Key words: El Niño, La Niña, Disaster, Preparedness, Response, Prevention
The big diplomatic win dominating CoP27 news was the creation of the loss and damage fund to compensate vulnerable countries for climate impacts. Certainly, this was important, both morally and to maintain the legitimacy of the Paris Agreement, which is partly rooted in meaningful global consensus. Vulnerable developing countries deserve financial support from those who got them into this vulnerable situation through centuries of industrial pollution in the first place. In a debt-for-adaptation swap, countries who borrowed money from other nations or the multilateral development banks could have that debt forgiven, if the money that was to be spent on repayment was instead diverted to climate adaptation and resilience projects. The policy recommendations augur on the rich nations moving the ball forward on debt-for-adaptation swaps.
Keywords: Paris Agreement, loss and damage fund, climate adaptation and resilience, odious debt distress, inflation, borrowing costs,
This think-piece augurs on the need to focus on an African public policy and commitment for urgent actions within the SDG priorities: goals aligned with poverty alleviation and climate change adaptation within the remit of maximizing the value of resources and technological innovation to address stresses on global public goods. Some of the largest tropical rainforests in the world are in the Congo basin. Using nature-based sequestration alone, these forests can provide up to a third of the world’s sequestration needs. For Africa, the urgency is to focus on transforming political, economic and social governance milieu. By controlling grand corruption, illegal exploitation of mineral resources and a commitment to address poverty and diseases from the billions saved in illicit capital flows, Africans can fulfill the promise of a livable continent as heralded in the recent Nairobi Climate Summit Declaration.
Keywords: Africa, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), CoPs, political governance, economic governance and social governance
True, African countries had set themselves the attainment of practices that have been the basic ingredients of the Western democratic tradition. Nevertheless, keen observers have not been oblivious to the threats imposed by the lack of political culture on these parachuted ‘electoral’ pseudo-democracies. Indeed; neo patrimonial life-time dictates, religion, and ethnic self-determination have come to be espoused as principal political agencies often leading to deadly internal strife. Hence, short of sanctions, the Union must focus to look beyond the ACDEG into the trajectories that are the harbingers of coups in Africa. As such, it is to probe the second scramble for independence, the objective conditions for African coups, why are coups popular in Africa and the new cold war, the curse of natural resource, bulging civilian support for military coups and the domino effect of Libya’s collapse.
Keywords: ACDEG, UCG, kleptocracy, coup d’états, AUC Reform, civic action
African civic pundits opine that the current military coups reflect the Global South's keenness to lift their populace from odious debts, conflicts and poverty and herald the emergence of a multipolar world against the backdrop of a new Cold War and geoeconomic and geopolitical conflict between the West and the East. Unconstitutional power grab must not be condoned if it indeed is a people's constitution and not some parachuted 'democratic exercise'.
This raises the fundamental question of what do we mean by African integration in the first place and does African integration has indigenous roots. Lurking in the background of all these questions is the rather disturbing one: is perhaps all this talk of African unification and development an academic or a public relations exercise? If African leaders want an AU that is relevant to the ordinary Africans, the next term of office must be a ‘term of implemen-tation” not another term of norm-setting”. The African Renaissance will very much depend on free expression of diverse ideas and beliefs, emergence of supportive set of rules and political institutions and financing peace in Africa. Ultimately, the Constitutive Act of the African Union must migrate from “We, Heads of State and Government of the Member States” to, “We the People of the African Union”.
The 2023 theme The African Union theme of the year 2023 is “The Year of AfCFTA: Acceleration of the African Continental Free Trade Area Implementation” is timely and apposite. The paper discusses the options and scenarios that Africa has in order to promote African trade and integration
Key words: Africa Union, AfCFTA, Integration, Peace, Security, Trade, Development
Ethiopia’s financial sector was ranked at the bottom end in east Africa, swamped by a monopolistic state and bond markets as yet lack the institutional mechanisms to facilitate and safeguard foreign capital flows. Hence, liberalisation can achieve economic efficiency with explicit objectives to achieve higher allocative and productive efficiency. It fortifies the economy, improves the public sector's financial health, and frees resources for allocation in areas related to social policy and public sector finance. Entry to propagated sources of foreign capital minimises opaque dependence on aid and odious debts, as local security market risks can be shared internationally under financial globalisation. Ironically, naïve realism within perspectives of economic reform emphasises the immediacies of political activity to the neglect of the constitutive concepts and norms that define and validate finance institutions. It attempts to establish a direct relation to ideology, largely bypassing the intangible, yet no less significant, terrain of critical thought. When it is not dissolved into partisan activity, liberalisation is likely to be represented as pure principle that needs only proper application, but foreign investible funds will surge capital available and facilitate debt-equity swaps and other debt conversion schemes.
Food for thought: Ethiopia’s imports for 2022 was $23.23 billion, taking a five-day workweek, this means it pays close to $90 million every day for its imports. One wonders why it is unable to pay the $33 million on the eurobond, but the nations finance leaders may have strategic and pre-emptive stance as a leverage to the eurobond negotiations, augured in their own terms.
Keywords: Ethiopia, eurobond, debt, default, DSSI, Common Framework for Debt Treatment, liberalisation, allocative efficiency, productive efficiency
In 1991, Manmohan Singh told the Indian parliament that, "the room for manoeuvre, to live on borrowed money or time, does not exist anymore. No power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come." He succeeded in opening the door to FDI.
Besides raising the question why Africa is not willing and able to address climate induced vul-nerability of its citizens, one can legitimately submit the fact that its governments have squandered hundreds of billions, colluding in the exploitation of natural resources (coltan, lithium, timber, etc.), while grand corruption, theft of national and aid resources, illicit financial flows, conflicts, and pay-ing for weapons to silence citizens that ignite violent regime changes. Consequently, it is logical to ask if these lost resources could have been used to promote resilience of their citizens to climate change stress and shocks. The author argues, yes, they could have. Africa could finance resilience initiatives to climate change induced shocks of its citizens. With its vast natural resource reserves, good governance can bring about sustainable livelihoods, if governments can be weaned from the umbilical cord of corporate odious debts and an aid machinery that sustains them, while bent on silencing civil society, by those entities that loot its natural resources, abductio ad absurdum.
Furthermore, natural resources governance and stemming the tide of corruption and conflicts can advance the climate agenda by curbing Africa’s minute share of pollutants while conserving its flora and fauna ecosystems to their historic natural habitats. The wildlife and forest wealth of Africa is testimony to one of the last frontiers to save global floral and faunal biodiversity. The need for collective learning about climate hazards, and the responsibility to those whose suffering provided the basis for that awareness will never be more urgent than it is now. The climate crisis couldn’t be even more pressing; but while the need for action by African states is more urgent, the bliss of governance ignorance becomes more pungent.
Keywords: climate change, Conference of the Parties, Africa, climate finance, loss & damage, grand corruption, illicit financial flows, conflicts, governance changes, indigenous adaptive strategies,
Key words: Cold War, nuclear war, ‘the West’, China, Russia, security-cum-economic alliances, Ukraine war, Taiwan Strait, Korean Peninsula,
Keywords: Africa, coups, new Cold War, democracy, poverty, conflicts, odious debts, democracy
Key words: climate change, climate change adaptation, climate finance,
Across the African continent, the relentless spread of networks, sensors, AI and automation is driving a revolution to an unknown destination in a 21st century that will be dominated by algorithms, arguably the single most important concept in our era. Natural algorithms have ruled every century with life in it since Darwin discovered the fundamental algorithm of evolution. Out of that dumb process-logic, arises all the intelligence and complexity of all living systems. Algorithmic forces exist and exert their powers in systemic and relational ways; they are not driven by isolatable and intrinsic traits. They require sequential steps, built from iterative if-then-else logic, driven by richer information processes than physical forces. Singularity is dawning of an era in which intelligence becomes increasingly non-biological and more powerful, where humans transcend their biological limitations amplifying their creativity, emerging from AI that denotes disembodied entities, which exhibit intelligence. Welcome to the Metaverse - a network of visually three-dimensional online spaces, where people interact in real time. Machine-learning systems excel at prediction and governments have much to gain from applying algorithms to public policy, but controversies loom.
The requisite pedestal for the emerging metaverse have to do with public policy - a legal and ethical dispensation by the government. Africa is not expected to benefit most from AI to usher in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). Is the leadership ready for this?
Key words: African transformation, critical thinking, algorithm, singularity, artificial intelligence, metaverse, public policy,
Youth entrepreneurs globally are innovating to face the challenges of redundancy. They are tapping fintech; the financial industry that is undergoing is undergoing rapid technological change, as a vehicle for change. Traditional banks face competition from online start-ups with no physical branches. Banking, investing, or cryptocurrency over the last ten years have used “blockchain,” the record-keeping technology behind bitcoin, to generate fungible pecuniary innovation. Similarly, in the venture capital industry, uni-corn startups are transforming businesses. Wave’s billion-dollar valuation makes it Africa’s newest unicorn and the third startup to reach the mark in 2021, following Flutterwave, and OPay. Moreover, among the manifold ingenuities to combat climate change by managing to lower the carbon footprint, surface a cubicle slice designated as the green bonds that can be used to finance environmentally friendly projects in Africa.
The policy imperatives focus on for Africa are augured on the role of African states in promoting entrepreneurial participation, policies supporting disruptive entrepreneurship and measures to promote informal sector disruptive entrepreneurship. This must be coupled with legal empowerment of citizens that seeks to generate new policy recommendations that will secure enforceable property and labour rights, within an enabling environment that expands legal business opportunity and access to justice. This paper discusses Public Policy requisites for Startup Unicorn Entrepreneurial and Technology driven Financial Service Ecosystems in Africa (focus on Ethiopia)
Keywords: unemployment and underemployment, Youth entrepreneurs, fintech, start-ups, cryptocurrency, blockchain, pecuniary innovation, unicorns, green bonds, policy imperatives, legal empowerment
The hypothesis hones on the fact that the partnership demands intelligent states and engaged civil societies for a meaningful alliance. Hence, the issue of inquiry augur on the objectives of the AU-EU partnership based on the unique relationship between our two continents in all sectors. What is Africa-EU partnership? What are the challenges to cement mutual respect, sovereignty, solidarity, security, sustainability, transparency and multilateralism in the future Africa and Europe partnership? What are on the agenda of the Africa-EU 2022 Summit on the table to promote prosperity and sustainable growth in Africa and Europe through transformative projects? What kind of code of practice should be on the table for the partnership? ‘
Africa is a rising global force... Without sidestepping the difficulties, we must focus on achieving concrete, rapid results. Africa does not need charity or media stunts. It needs cooperation and partnerships that can actually deliver for its people (Borrell, 2022). It suggests itself seems within reach only to elude and appears readily practicable only to resist realisation. It submits itself, seems within grasp only to elude, and appears readily doable only to resist fulfilment. The proposed Code of Practice is a statement of institutional principles and ethics for practice, designed as a reference document for global partnerships, to enhance knowledge sharing at intra organisational and inter organisational levels. It is aimed at encouraging qualitative improvement in global partnerships with local constituencies. As such, its objectives are to contribute to on going efforts towards a more meaningful international partnership commitment to the use of critical thinking practices.
Keywords: Africa, Europe, African Union, European Union, partnerships, Code of Practice, leadership, intelligent states, engaged civil societies
The multiple coups d’états have led to growing regional instability. Overthrowing the ‘elected’ government opened up a power vacuum that violent extremist groups exploited. All coup d’états were preceded by months of nonviolent protests by civil society, which, had led to democratic, but fleeting, change. Regional efforts to stabilise African countries have focused too much on security, neglecting decades of state failure. The regional bodies in Africa have tried to intervene between protesters and governments, but these crises have exposed the challenge of fostering democratic norms beyond elections. Africans demand for change remains far from fulfilled, whose current leaders remain a symbol of corruption and inaction, of ongoing instability, and of the lack of human development and failures of governance that has led to huge losses of life leading to disenchantment and objective conditions for coups. Armies cannot carry out a coup without popular discontent. Coups can be prevented by altering incentives as the networks that typically support coups are usually based on bonds of ethnicity and patronage ties that rise above loyalty to a fragile state.
Key word: coup d’état, malgovernance, poverty, unemployment, corruption, democracy,
The objectives of the ACDEG Charter are to promote adherence, by each State Party, to the universal values and principles of democracy, respect for human rights, and the rule of law premised upon the respect for, and the supremacy of, the Constitution and holding of regular free and fair elections and institutionalise legitimate authority of representative governments. ACDEG, 2000
In this world of instantaneous social media where leaders proclaim positions on international matters without even telling their emissaries, old-style diplomats struggle to sustain their relevance. Hence, fundamental forces that demand change include revolution in information technology, prolif-eration of new media, knowledge on globalisation of business and finance, public participation in complex issues that transcend national boundaries. Diplomacy must be overhauled to make it more accessible, participatory, technology driven in deliberations and implementation. Ending the culture of secrecy and exclusivity is a requirement for developing a collaborative relationship with the public. Further, it is to adopt a disciplined coordination model for the conduct of diplomacy. Another im-mediate need is a renaissance of professionalism. The potential solution scenarios discussed in the paper are strategies for new branding of nations, governance and leadership capacity, founding inde-pendent private sector think tanks and a renewed role for embassies.
Key words: public policy, diplomacy, information age, globalisation, metaverse, nation brand-ing, public diplomacy cultural diplomacy
The article also discusses the impact of a spread growing over time between the official, parallel and black market exchange rates, coupled with what happens when it is eliminated by a move to a market-clearing rate as a result of stresses and shocks in the economy. Black markets can supply forex that banks cannot avail or goods, while illegal, arguably improve quality of life, and provide forex supplies that are in short supply. Nonetheless, black market goods are unregulated businesses that are appropriated from legitimate markets or are used to fund violence inherent in black markets. Hence, the issues of inquiry focuses on what are parallel and black currency markets, when do and why do central banks use parallel markets and why do black markets arise in any nation? What are the experiences in fight black markets and illicit financial flows?
The articles concludes by sharing empirical evidences on experiences and lessons on exchange rate regimes in sub-Saharan Africa and advances the role of independent think tanks that provide information, which will enable civil society leaders and policy makers to identify the institutional gaps that inhibit their ability to manage development. Think tanks continually remodel, expand, advance, renovate and cultivate highly developed economies albeit even when their models are doing well. It is the fundamental assertion of this dialogue starter think piece that in the interminable faculty of independently funded think tanks to innovate and unquenchable desire to reinvent; functional economies reap the benefits of an exceedingly proactive and skilled entrepreneurial leadership well informed by think tanks. Why is Africa not doing it? Indeed, it can!
Keywords: central banks, green banking, addressing inequality, liquidity, devaluation, inflation, official exchange rate, and parallel exchange rate and black economy currency markets
DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.31874.20164
Global marine and terrestrial ecosystems are in a tragic embrace with human-generated climate change. The world will meet again for the 26th time to discuss what can be done to avert the calamity humanity is facing. The devastating consequences of heat waves and floods have become all too familiar occurrences in the 21st century. The human toll is equally alarming with costal settlements becoming out of commission in the present generation. The CoP26 meeting in Glasgow (Oct 31 to Nov 12), is being billed as “the world’s best last chance to get runaway climate change under control.” The prospect to live in borrowed industrial revolutions is not tenable anymore. Hence, the issues of inquiry of the article augur on the following. What is the story behind the ever-increasing concern on climate change? What are global governance institutions doing to prevent climate catastrophe? What are the implications for Africa on climate change adaptation?
The hypothesis we looks at in regards climate change adaptation is, “Climate change adapta-tion under plural dispensation where states and the international community are expected to be accountable to African citizens can be explained with reference to individual incentives and the policies that inform and influence the resilient production systems to climate change. A vital issue is the relative strength of institutions that determine the policies that are installed whose requisite foundation is a plural set of social and political agencies that promote participation in adaptation to climate change.” Using studies undertaken in Africa on the impact of climate change and adaptive strategies of indigenous peoples, the article provides arenas for discussion on the imminent horror humanity has burdened the planet.
The G20 account for 80% of emissions, while Africa is the one highly impacted by climate change. Hence, while Africans must make every effort to tackle climate change earnestly, rich nations must honour their pledge to boost financial and non-financial efforts in climate change adaptation, globally; what is the meaning of wealth if it cannot save the only planet we all live in.
Keywords: global warming, climate change, CoP26, The Paris Accord, The Kyoto Protocol, climate change adaptation,
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The G20 account for 80% of emissions, but Africa is highly impacted by climate change. Hence, while Africans must tackle climate change earnestly, rich nations must honour their pledge to boost climate change adaptation. What is the value of wealth if it cannot save the only planet we all live in (Costantinos, 2021).
Addis is much cleaner, has one of the highest growth rates in terms of urban reconstruction in the continent and the road grid has seen an overhaul unprecedented in its one century old history. For many Addis Abebans the real estate market has been the latest get-rich-quick in-thing. Indeed, a multitude pack of homeowners and investors have become wealthier as they watched their estate values increase or their in-vestment properties sell for multiples of what they paid for them just a few years ago. But the run-up in real estate especially office buildings may be ending and the housing market's "extraordinary boom" may collapse as it has historically done in the in-famous Florida Real Estate Craze
The major constraints to the natural resources in general are absence of a clearly defined policy, lack of strong and stable institution responsible for the eco-system sector, lack of the past government's recognition of the seriousness of the situation and lack of a participatory approach in the implementation of social eco-system programmes. Unless the above listed constraints are solved, there will be little hope for the eco-system sector to bring about a significant and positive impact on the development and conservation of the country's forest resources. Mainstreaming de¬mographic and environmental concerns in stemming global warming will augur on developing a working knowledge on demographic variables, population dynamics, and environmental develop¬ment. Analyses and managing rational policies that have demographic impacts and the requisite social, cultural, political, spiritual, and human capital and corporate social responsibility are required.
Policy dialogue on this timely and apposite issue will legitimately enhance the leadership capacity to effect change; however constrained by political doctrine, ideological leanings, and agen¬cies they derive their power from. They are expected to develop the capacity, through their state¬ments and actions, to shape debate, dialogue, and morality, to determine what is socially accepta¬ble, culturally sound, and politically uplifting. Indeed, leadership is a calling and policy leadership requires intimate knowledge of public policy analysis, formulation, management and strategic plans and implementing them
Keywords: environmental and demographic challenges, natural resources demographic var¬iables, population dynamics, and environmental development. eco-system programmes, Policy dialogue
Keywords: unemployment, entrepreneurship rights, capital, property rights, access to justice,
Keywords: financial crises. Derivatives, globalisation, financial shenanigans
Keywords: debt, debt relief, Africa, HIPC, IMF, World Bank, G20
Keywords: Covid-19 pandemic, stimulus package, SMEs, political stability & institutional capacity, economic liberalisation, enterprise-level support
While the hope and strong desire for the epidemic are to flatten the curve and for everything to go back to normal, there is, a sense in me that tells me that humanity needs to change our super-consumption driven life. The ozone layer repairing itself and satellite images showing reduced emissions in Asia and Europe is nature's way of telling us enough is enough
Protectionism refers to government actions and policies that restrict or restrain international trade, whose merits are the subject of fierce debate. Critics argue that over the long term, protectionism often hurts the people it is intended to protect by slowing economic growth and pushing up prices, making free trade a better alternative. Proponents of protectionism argue that the policies provide competitive advantages and create jobs. The three pillars of the 'America First'- isolationism, protectionism and restricting immigration-were gaining popularity long before president Trump and may outlast his tenure.
In international relations, unilateralism is any canon that nations take as a parochial action, a neologism that is already in common use; it was coined to be an antonym for multilateralism, a doctrine, which asserts the benefits of participation from as many parties as possible. With the advent of Global Governance Institutions after the catastrophic World War II, multilateralism flourished to maintain world order, economic prosperity and human rights. The Breton Woods institutions were founded as the financial agencies of the world, the WTO to regulate world trade and the UN Security Council to maintain world order. Others were formed to undertake human and structural development across the globe. Hence, one can assert multilateralism will survive trade wars and the Covid-19 pandemic. While China engages proactively in Africa, the U.S. has designed the 'Prosper Africa' programme.
Keywords: Africa, China, US, trade wars, multilateralism, Securitisation
Public policy is the principled guide to action taken by the administrative executive branches of the state with regard to a class of issues in a manner consistent with law and institutional customs. Collection of sufficient resources from the economy in an appropriate manner along with allocating and use of these resources efficiently and effectively constitute good financial management. As public administrators of agencies build scenarios and forecasts, the implications for each uncertainty are extrapolated into the future to project different outcomes, and the combination of those outcomes becomes the basis for scenarios. Properly executed, scenario planning and probabilistic forecasting prompt participants to convert abstract hypotheses about uncertainties into narratives about tangible realities. From a policy angle, the greatest challenge to forecasts is that although they can clarify slices of the future, they do not necessarily provide enough information to inform decision-making. Indeed, making a decision based on one specific forecast would be a mistake. Forecasting is the exact opposite of the problem with scenarios: if the latter often provide too panoramic a view of the future to be useful, the former pro-vides too narrow a glimpse.
Keywords: public policy, scenario planning, probabilistic forecasting
The action plan zero’s on the state’s essential task: participatory policy & strategy development; governance and administration refinement; kitchen cabinet think tank to support the Executive and liberalisation of SoEs with IPOs sold domestically and internationally. The private sector’s essential task hinges on technology transfer and development, investment promotion, employment generation and management and marketing research. Investment and the full or partial liberalisation of the huge parastatals through IPOs and reform of party endowments will advance structural transformation. The civil society agenda stems from a need for a politically assertive civil society in a democratic dispensation. The Academia’s essential task hones on think tanks that continually remodel, expand, advance, renovate, cultivate and develop mighty economies even when their models are doing well. It is focused on policy & strategy research and nation branding. Sen’s claim that no famine has occurred in history in a functioning democracy is not only a “Western” desire to impose good governance, it is a basic human right. Let this stand as a testimony to an open invitation of a renewed commitment to contribute to stemming the tide of famine, displacement and human distress but it suggests itself seems within reach only to elude and appears readily practicable only to resist realisation.
Keywords: peace, economy, investment, liberalisation, civil society, private sector, kitchen cabinet
We must have the intensity of purpose, the ability to unite in a common mission and the patience to put these together and you have geniuses born that can spur achievement and project our nation to the 21st Century, beyond satisfying our desire for change by through cynicism and animosity.
See resource papers for this think piece are at https://addisababa.academia.edu/Costantinos,
Keywords: sharp power, soft power, populism, democracy
Keywords: China, US, EU, Pacific Rim, decoupling, trade supply chains
Africa has one of the fastest growing demographics in the world. Deep changes, which all have had an impact on the constitution of its human capital, are affecting nations. A fast growing young population could be an asset for change, progress and dynamism, but also a threat to peace and security. One of the major challenges for the nation in the upcoming years and decades will be to absorb the ever-growing young population by sustainably creating new jobs. AIIB membership would go a long way to get this done as it has spear its wings globally. China as a nation has lifted close to a billion people out of poverty. It is now dedicated to transform that success globally. China is widely regarded as the single largest creditor to Africa. Around 20 percent of all African government debt is owed to China. China has promised to manage these debts in a way that African nations can stay afloat in their economies. This will benefit humanity in general and developing nations in particular. China is also keen to support the African Continental Free Trade Area through the BRI. On the other hand, the dominance of the US currency has made other countries dependent on the sanctions that the West has deployed at will that has crippled their economies (Sudan is a great example). In the end, those who pay the price are ordinary poor people and not the tyrants (former president Bashir of Sudan held millions in forex at his home)
Keywords: AIIB, Africa, China, Finance, Poverty alleviation, Infrastructure,
African leadership means to become a centre of inspiration. Embracing people together is critical matter and charged with great accountability that requires greatness of spirit, consistency, and strength to effect change; however constrained they are by ideologies and agencies that inform the political parties they derive their power. Notwithstanding the influence of the political environment in Africa, and the nature of their constituency and political organisation, there is the dire need for an understanding of both their agency and structure, because each determines the other. Leadership is especially important in Africa where nations eternally dependent on international charity.
Thus, to fight pandemics, leaders are on the one hand responsible for breaking the boundaries of inward bound wisdom, of "common sense", of patterns of thinking and behaving, which, over the years, have built themselves into routines, which pacify people to dormancy. On the other hand, they also have to maintain continuity whilst simultaneously promoting change; such is the nature of leadership ambiguity and contradiction that comes as part of the same deal. Leadership expected from leaders is above all about responsibility; requiring acceptance of the importance of one's motives self-coupled with an appreciation of the greater importance of others over oneself. Therefore, leadership entails liability for those who are led - whereby, leadership becomes a discipline in its own right. Africa’s leaders are expected to develop the capacity, through their statements and actions, including symbolic actions, to shape debate and dialogue. An inspiring ‘job description’ of leaders must be not only the power over discourse but also their ability to shape morality, to determine what is socially acceptable, culturally sound and politically uplifting.
Keywords: leadership, pandemics, South-South Co-operation, ACM
Key word: climate emergency, multilateralism,
Key words: global governance, trade, trade wars, institutions, analytical limitations
Hence, the article asks does gender responsive budgeting enter processes in Africa as an external ideology, constructing and deploying its concepts in sterile abstraction from the immediacies of indige-nous traditions, beliefs and values. Do such ideas come into play in total opposition to, or in co-operation with, historic national values and sentiments? In the struggle over the establishment of gender responsive budgeting rules, do leading parties equate their partisan agenda with the produc-tion of broad-based concepts, norms and goals that should govern national gender responsive budget-ing processes? Do such processes signify change in terms of the transformation of the immediate stuff of partisan politics into a new kind of political activity - an activity mediated and guided by objective and critical gender responsive budgeting standards, rules and principles?
Keywords: Economic Empowerment of Women, Legislative Action on Gender Sensitive National Budgets addressing Feminisation of Poverty and Women’s Empowerment
Keywords: Africa, Adwa, Ethiopianism, Pan-Africanism, the League of Nations, illicit financial flows, exploitation of mineral resources, financial management, certification of natural resources, AUC, civil society
Seventy-seven years ago, the UN Charter proclaimed a bold and revolutionary vision of the future; where the youth will engage collectively as result of the responsible action of politically mature citizens acting in the framework of a free society. As we stand on the watershed of the old and new Millennia, demands for greater democratic space and youth participation have increased the accountability of state actors. While awareness has improved over the past few years, the tendency to treat these challenges as yet another routine issue that needs to be tackled through five-year development plans is tantalising.
The African Youth Charter outlines a number of responsibilities for the African Union Commission and Youth. The recommendations augur on policies focused on youth livelihood security at home. These inter alia encompass sustainable macroeconomic stability and growth, mechanised agriculture and strategic information systems. These should be coupled with increasing the social resilience focused on protecting lives when shocks occur, augured on climate change adaptation, environmental awareness and care, mainstreaming of gender and the rights based approach, functioning credit and capital markets and inclusive banking systems. Indeed, there is no more compelling raison d'être nor a mission-objective so utterly entrenched in the preservation and, even advancement of human-kind, than good governance and leadership that can lead a social league to relate cogently to an epidemic of ignorance that has spun out of control.
Key words: Kafala, marginalisation, poverty, diasporisation, macroeconomic stability and growth
"The millions of African Diaspora offer an exceptional synergy beyond the billions they remit annually. This is problem-solving perspective that comes with distance coupled with the intense commitment that comes with a sense of belongingness and world-class competence in their respective fields."
The issues of inquiry on the participation of civil society in the APRM are grounded on the protocols necessary to develop CSO participation in the APRM, Codes of Practice are required for a mutual accountability Peer-review Mechanism and how the APR Secretariat and APR Panel can support the participation of CSOs. The article posits that the requisite basis for CSO participation in the APRM are a Code of Practice for a mutual accountability in APRM, Knowledge management and Communities of Practice and the Theory of Change Approach to participate in the various phases in the APRM review process. The main objective of such a collaborative effort is the development of an organic network that will cement the APRM ideals in every CSO network, members, facilitators, networkers, community of persons and institutions we network with. This intended to build a true African regional APR grassroots that would unite the national programmes into a continent-wide network that would facilitate linkages and exchange of activities. The discussion focuses on political culture development, leadership, governance implications of capacity building of fragile state CSOs and support of the APR Secretariat and APR Panel
Keywords: Africa, fragile states, APRM, CSOs, political culture development, leadership, governance, capacity building, knowledge management, Communities of Practice, Theory of Change
"The underlying principle for the peer review is the fact that African Governments that are by and large the springs of human underdevelopment and human insecurity are not able or willing to discern their own governance flaws. This is not because they lack the capacity to do so, but for the simple reason that an opportunity for improvement may stand out only to civil society who at the receiving end of the impact and have the competence and motive force to transform society."
The use of the exchange rate as an external anchor for domestic price stability resulted in a steep rise in the real effective exchange rate undermining the competitiveness of exports and of im-port-competing production. Setting aside a set of macroeconomic measures to be undertaken in the fiscal policy outside the realm of monetary policy, devaluing the birr alone might prove disappoint-ing in terms of boosting exports. This article focuses on the modern monetary theory, narrative eco-nomics on export promotion, opportunities in crypto currency’s turnaround, new public policy and management, devaluation and inflationary growth. An efficient private sector provide the nour-ishment, which markets require to grow and function effectively. Markets themselves provide the credit ingredients, which the private sector requires to grow and contribute to national development. The lecture concludes by ideas for discussion focused on amending the fiscal-monetary policy blend; enhance manufacturing capability, slashing trade expenditures, auxiliary supporting measures and managing economic and financial reforms. The conclusion hones on increasing supply, corporate discipline and social responsibility, reforms to secure demand and supply equilibrium, real-time strategy development, broad financial sector reform and monetary policy mix, opening up the finan-cial system that remains closed, increasing industrial capacity and reducing trade cost, and a merit based and metric civil service
Keywords: AfCFTA, agri-production, devaluation, export, import, industry, trade balance, trade elasticities, MMT, NPM,
"As far as economic matters are concerned, in one sense or other, profits are evil, and that the search for profits involves, in one form or another, the exploitation of the rest of society. Things done in the public sector tended ipso facto to be viewed in a positive light; those done in the private sector were correspondingly viewed with suspicion. The idea that market forces could be trusted to bring about a socially desirable outcome is given almost no credibility at all" (Harberger, 2014)
As part of the global coalition for peace and human security, our vision must be inspired to create an Africa that is free of authoritarianism and where every African can enjoy the full benefits of the right to life in peace, harmony and meaningful livelihood security. Innovative actions that ensure support for people running away from conflicts include inter alia, building the capacity of primary responders, changing the status quo ante of humanitarian action, developing humanitarian think tanks and innovative humanitarian partnership with local humanitarian groups and communities. The value of such partnership should embrace a set of common ideals and principles based on strong local leadership and commitment as the basis for effective action. Hence, conflict early warning information, capacity assessment of potential host communities and CSOs based on the early warning, establishing humanitarian emergency fund and using community adaptive strategies to build sustainable livelihoods: integrated packages of policy, technology, investment and appropriate decision-making tools. This brings up conceptualising crisis-affected societies’ engagement as a working process, which balanced against strategy, determines what makes for real, as opposed to vacuously formulated slogans, that suggests itself, seems within grasp only to elude, and appears readily operable only to resist fulfilment.
Keywords: humanitarian crisis, primary responders, humanitarian action, partnership, humanitarian emergency fund, engagement of crisis-affected societies
Keywords: Africa, abject poverty, food security. Ukraine, grain exports. SGDs Goal 2, commercial agriculture, foreign investment laws,
The financial, economic and for many, the livelihood, crisis that erupted in 2008 showed a cliffy downward freefall of economic trajectories unheard of in recent memory. The outbreak of the financial crisis provoked a broad liquidation of investments, substantial loss in wealth worldwide, a tightening of lending conditions, and a widespread increase in uncertainty. Higher borrowing costs and tighter credit conditions, coupled with the increase in uncertainty provoked a global flight to quality, caused firms to cut back on investment expenditures, and households to delay purchases of big-ticket items. Unemployment is on the rise, bringing with it a substantial deterioration in conditions for the most vulnerable. The sharp rise in commodity prices eventually resulted in widespread rebellion in the Arab world – The Arab Spring.
While the plundering of public wealth directly hampers development and undermines trust in public institutions, there is a reasonable chance that the Afro-Arab region will survive the recurrent financial crisis less bruised and battered, because of the fact that the very factors that damaged the continent in the past may now be working in its favour.
The World Bank’s response to the current stresses and shocks has been ineffective, due to the lack of direction on how to deal with the crises more flexibly; as their existing instruments are designed to react and not to respond in a flexible and timely manner provided appropriate in its support to LICs, let alone protecting the most vulnerable. Breaking the Cycle of Famine in the Greater Horn of Africa requires a viable human security and human development framework. Human security, a post-Cold War concept, is a multi-disciplinary understanding of security involving a number of research fields, which equates security with people’s wellness; ensuring freedom from want, freedom from fear and addressing national and the global concerns of human security through a new paradigm of SHD, capturing the potential peace dividend, a new form of development cooperation and a restructured system of global institutions; with the scope of global security expanded to include threats in economic, food, health, environmental, personal and com-munity securities. Such radical human security transformation can be explained with reference to two: political organisations and political rules. The central hypothesis of the research is that the relative strength of political organisations determines the rules of the political game that are installed that require a plural set of Political Organisations and Rules, which promote and protect rules of peaceful political participation and competition.
Key words: middle income, human security, pluralism
Structural adjustments, multinationals exploiting Africa’s mineral resources and rising ethnic tensions characterised the eighties and continue to haunt much of Africa. Lack of political will and weak governance has tended to contribute to the bourgeoning illegal exploitation of natural resources in the Great Lakes region. Historically, the illegal exploitation of natural resources has played a key role in triggering and financing conflict in many parts of the Great Lakes Region. These tendencies interact causally.
Using cases from African countries, the research delves into the political transition process in Africa since independence, military coups that haunted the continent and presents the analytical limitations in current perspectives of the transition to sustainable democracy in Africa; with the distinction between concepts and processes of political openness and political participation. It draws conceptual distinction between political openness and democracy and the political agencies and ideologies at play; distinguishing between strategic and processual dimensions of the political change.
Key words: coup d’etat, democratic experiments, SAPs, resource plunders,
Key words: Coltan, Resource Wars, illegal exploitation, natural resources, minerals
Key words: civil service, governance, impartiality, leadership, objectivity
In composing an enlightenment strategy for African unity, the main trajectories are the philosophical entrenchment of an African renaissance, democratic citizenship, culture, arts and music, education for critical thinking, women’s equality and empowerment, paradigmatic shifts on the role of rules and institutions towards an era of new public management for an African enlightenment. The central hypothesis is that the relative strength of thinkers and organisations determines the rules of the political game that are installed. Enlightenment requires a plural set of rules, which ensure critical thinking, promotes and protects rules of peaceful participation and competition. The concern here is not so much the diversity of ideas, values and opinions allowed to gain currency during enlightenment as modes of their competitive and co-operative articulation, which raises the questions, does enlightenment enter Africa as an external ideology, constructing and deploying its concepts in sterile abstraction from national beliefs and values?
Key words: philosophical entrenchment, enlightenment African renaissance
Key words: Coltan, Resource Wars, illegal exploitation, natural resources, minerals
Key words: coup d’etat, adjustments, corruption, political rules and institutions
political tensions are rising as a general resistance to pauperization by increasingly coercive states negligent of their basic welfare responsibilities. Using case studies, the research delves into the political transition processes that have haunted the continent and presents the analytical limitations in
current perspectives of the transition to sustainable democracy, with the distinction between concepts and processes of political openness and political participation. It analyses the objective of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (ACDEG) that seeks to promote adherence to the universal values and principles of democracy, respect for human rights, the rule
of law premised upon the respect for and the supremacy of the Constitution and prohibits unconstitutional regime change. Hence, the nuclear thesis of the paper asks: Is the endowment of institutions in civil society and state conducive to democratic transition in Africa as a requisite foundation for implementation of the ACDEG?
Nonetheless, the ability of states to strip people of their rights to livelihoods security, behind the thin veneer ‘non interference in each other’s internal affairs’ is increasingly being challenged. While the African Union’s political evolution may allow such novelties, how do the responsibility to pro-tect (R2P) and right to assistance (R2A) projects pursue their goals consistently in varying contexts, but do so without resorting to a self-defeating, overly scripted and stage-managed political ‘play’?. Transitions from humanitarian crises to effective and capable states can be explained with reference to two institutional factors: institutions and rules. Hence, new global donor strategies should focus on the different stages of humanitarian capacity building of crises states: conflict prevention, containment and peace-building and post-conflict reconstruction in the social, political and economic spheres. Strate-gies need to be simultaneously ‘objective’, dealing with substantive issues and the institutional mechanisms for response, and ‘subjective’, in developing the awareness, understanding and expectations at all levels.
Key words: humanitarianism, innovation, local capacities, ownership, global partnership,
The Nile is a river shared by ten poor riparian States and poverty, which necessitate the development of the Nile Water resources by all riparian States. The “treaty for the full utilisation of the Nile”, concluded between Egypt and the Sudan in 1959, divides the entire flow of the Nile between the two countries. Other riparian countries, notably Ethiopia - a country that contributes about 86% of the annual discharge of the Nile - to date use only less than 1% of it.
On the other hand, plans to build the world’s second highest dam, GG III, have been a source of frustration for Ethiopia. It is claimed that Lake Turkana, the world’s largest desert lake and lifeline for more than 300,000 Kenyans and Ethiopians, has lost several metres of its water in the last five years. GG III will drastically reduce the inflow into the lake, increase the lake’s salinity and severely alter the lives of thousands of people and millions of animals dependent on the lake, increase the lake’s salinity and severely alter the lives of thousands of people and animals dependent on the lake for survival in this drought-stricken area.
The paper outlines strategies and processes for Ethiopia to use it vast water resources potential and at the same time minimise the claimed impact of the GGIII"
There is simply no alternative to defining the scope of the state and the establishment of sound institutional capacity for real-time strategy development, sensitivity analysis, policy coordination, and attention to the details of implementation of entrepreneurial employment. Hence, public and private sector employment generation schemes underpin the need for community commitment (targeting, rationalising and effecting public works schemes) to the success of public works initiated. Participation implies local commitment, decisions, innovativeness, resource contribution and legitimate social capital to preside on the collective will and decisions of community, who, at the end, determine the requisite basis that participation to happen. The foci of the initiative are grounded on a firm conceptual base for remunerated safety nets in developing methodology for comprehensive self-assessment of the population and analyses of the operational capabilities: objectives, inputs, outputs, effects and impact of employment-support projects. In addition, it concerns outlining proposals for capacity development on mechanism for participation that can assure sustainability including building the rules and institutions of finance and the market and legal empowerment of the poor that seeks to generate new policy recommendations that will reduce poverty through secure, enforceable property and labour rights, within an enabling environment that expands legal business opportunity and access to justice.
The World Bank’s response to the current stresses and shocks has been ineffective, due to the lack of direction on how to deal with the crises more flexibly; as their existing instruments are designed to react and not to respond in a flexible and timely manner provided appropriate in its support to LICs, let alone protecting the most vulnerable. Breaking the Cycle of Famine in the Greater Horn of Africa requires a viable human security and human development framework. Human security, a post-Cold War concept, is a multi-disciplinary understanding of security involving a number of research fields, which equates security with people’s wellness; ensuring freedom from want, freedom from fear and addressing national and the global concerns of human security through a new paradigm of SHD, capturing the potential peace dividend, a new form of development cooperation and a restructured system of global institutions; with the scope of global security expanded to include threats in economic, food, health, environmental, personal and com-munity securities. Such radical human security transformation can be explained with reference to two: political organisations and political rules. The central hypothesis of the research is that the relative strength of political organisations determines the rules of the political game that are installed that require a plural set of Political Organisations and Rules, which promote and protect rules of peaceful political participation and competition.
Key words: middle income, human security, pluralism
There is simply no alternative to defining the scope of the state and the establishment of sound institutional capacity for real-time strategy development, sensitivity analysis, policy coordination, and attention to the details of implementation of entrepreneurial employment. Hence, public and private sector employment generation schemes underpin the need for community commitment (targeting, rationalising and effecting public works schemes) to the success of public works initiated. Participation implies local commitment, decisions, innovativeness, resource contribution and legitimate social capital to preside on the collective will and decisions of community, who, at the end, determine the requisite basis that participation to happen. The foci of the initiative are grounded on a firm conceptual base for remunerated safety nets in developing methodology for comprehensive self-assessment of the population and analyses of the operational capabilities: objectives, inputs, outputs, effects and impact of employment-support projects. In addition, it concerns outlining proposals for capacity development on mechanism for participation that can assure sustainability including building the rules and institutions of finance and the market and legal empowerment of the poor that seeks to generate new policy recommendations that will reduce poverty through secure, enforceable property and labour rights, within an enabling environment that expands legal business opportunity and access to justice.
Key words: employment, entrepreneurship, human security
More than millennia, the Axumites united into an Abyssinian kingdom, not by vouching their uniqueness but by exalting it and merging it in the new one. Today, of course, plaguing guerrilla-
cum-military dictators, that openly deny and denounce the value of the rational dialogic, have isolated themselves, choosing to suppress Afro-Arab Springs that have risen against deceit,
betrayal and even treason. They shattered multiethnic human formations and replaced it with a series of war hawk ethnic regimes; spawning in the end, irredentist splinter groups.
Philosophers from Marx and Adam Smith to contemporary pundits including Croce, McIlwain, Crowther, Azar Gat, Inglehart, Welzel, Avineri, Birdsall and Fukuyama have argued intelligently and scripted road maps for political change. This think piece is predicated on the microscopic analysis of the developmentalism promoted by regimes and their Nobel Prize flaunting patriarchs, as against real politic in currency today that has effectively promoted
human security: freedom from fear and want. It delves into the penury of ideological narratives of post-colonial African regimes: developmentalism, which neither conformed to the delusionary neo-liberal camp nor the insipid venom of African Socialism. In combination with the vacuum in development theories and the resultant paradigmatic gridlock, the ills of governmentality were predicated upon the perpetuation of unbridled power.
Key words: democracy, developmentalism, neo-liberalism, poverty,
Using qualitative methods and secondary review, the paper highlights the stated national vision, policy framework and challenges on attaining the aspirations by different groups and points to the need to assess citizens’ well-being in various aspects including social and economic development, peace and security, governance and environmental sustainability, existing and emerging opportunities and challenges to reach to the development vision and aspirations in reference to the 2000 Millennium Declaration & the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Actions: The ability of states to strip people of their rights to livelihoods security, behind the thin veneer 'non-interference in each other's internal affairs' is increasingly being challenged. Nevertheless, while the AU’s political evolution may allow such novelties, how do the responsibility to protect projects in Africa pursue their goals consistently in varying contexts, but do so without resorting to a self - defeating, overly scripted and stage- managed political "play"?. Strategies should focus on the different stages of conflict - conflict prevention, containment and peace-building and post-conflict reconstruction in the social, political, and economic spheres. Strategies need to be simultaneously `objective', dealing with substantive issues and the institutional mechanisms for response, and `subjective', in developing the awareness, understanding, and expectations at all levels.
Conclusion: Notwithstanding the need to move beyond military definitions of security to a more comprehensive and strategic human security visions; the central hypothesis augurs on the strategic necessity for the relative strength of political organisations determines the rules of the political game that are installed; requiring a plural set of political organisations which promote and protect rules of peaceful political participation and competition. In this light, state hood building in Africa can be understood as a dynamic two-way operation, of generic forms on particular contents and particular contents on generic forms, in which the deployment of the conceptual and institutional machinery of democracy is at the same time the representation of specific needs, interests, motivations, claims, rights, and obligations by individuals and groups. Going beyond structuring or rearranging African political actors and institutional activities in their spontaneous, often turbid reality, this operation should result in their transformation into forms of transparent agency and practice within an effective political system.
Africa has experienced multiple elections since the 1990s. Elections were relatively free and fair in 23 African countries. In others, all almost all are uncontested single party rule. There is no simple or immediate identification of democratic transition problems as they actually are; there is only a definition of them from a certain perspective and towards a certain resolution. Recognition of this fact would represent a significant improvement in Africa’s democratic consciousness and practice. What are important in the politics of democratization are not so much the problems of transition themselves as what various, competing groups conceive them to be, in comparison to how the organizations settle their conceptual differences.
What is presented in this study represents an analytical endeavor in an effort to identify oppor-tunities for the evolution of pluralist political culture in Africa. These include naïve realism in the articulation of democratic systems, ambiguity as to whether civil society is the agent or object of democratic change and sustaining livelihoods, the stress on institutional perspectives on pluralism and inadequate treatment of the role of foreign agencies. The lecture concludes by submitting the impediments for sustaining livelihoods and the consolidation of democracy to build democratic rules and institutions.
International peace-building interventions are increasingly focused on rebuilding and re-configuring the state as a central feature in peace and development interventions, further consolidated by the growing international concern about weak, fragile, or failing states that also threaten global security. in a post-Washington Consensus era, the crucial role states has made state-building a priority, focused on social consensus, in which citizens sanction the legitimacy of the state. Structural Functionalism offers concepts of manifest functions (recognized and intended consequences of a social system) and latent functions (unintended consequences of a social system) of the state.
Nevertheless, what is to be done to build states? The presentation aims to direct IAR actions to work synergistically towards research in building democratic rules and institutions, coupled with public policy transformation, community based conflict management, leadership training and mentoring, diplomacy & martial action, alternatives framework for economic management, certification of natural resources & stemming resource plunder. The conclusion underpins the fact that in political reforms, state building is either conventionalised or sterilized on terrain of theory and often vacuously formalized on the ground of practice. It enters African society in relatively abstract and plain form, yet is expected to land itself to immediate and vital socio-political experience. It suggests itself, seems within reach only to elude, and appears readily practicable only to resist realization.
Key words: state building, conflict management, democratic rules & institutions, resilience
The region is rich with resources with DRC minerals values at 21 trillion USD. The Inga Dam alone can produce 42,000 megawatts of electricity, enough to supply the region. The challenge for investors is the peace and security situation. To challenge this, the following projects have been designed. Disarmament and repatriation of all armed groups in eastern DRC is a priority. Disarmament of armed pastoralists and promotion of sustainable development with a comprehensive environment and climate change program needs to be set up. Mine-Action in the GLR is a priority. Fight the proliferation of SALW, transnational crime and terrorism crimes against humanity, war crimes and rape as a weapon of war, and the fight against impunity and development of border zones and promotion of human security are all prerequisites for foreign direct investment. The proposed modalities of resources mobilization are selling bonds and securities by development banks in Africa to oil and mineral rich nations.
See presentation at http://prezi.com/5gg1uvhwwkr8/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share
Key words: preparedness, prevention, mitigation, policy, strategy, operations
This proposal defines the areas of policy objectives, statements and action programmes in the context of sustainable land use. An option incorporating policy reforms for a holistic environmental rehabilitation that forge strong alliances with refugees, local communities, Government and the private sector in forest management is proposed. In this regard, refugee and indigenous community organisations would plan, organise, direct, co-ordinate and control the development and conservation of natural resources and environmental protection programmes. It aims at the empowerment of refugee and host communities to carry out conservation for sustainable livelihood security.
The main elements of the programme are Component I delas with natural resources conservation and development: ecosystem management and strategic land use plan; soil/water conservation; physical, biological, extension and training; farm forestry, community wood lots, forestry and land use, extension and training; and biodiversity conservation and conservation education/awareness. Component II alternative environmental resources; alternative energy resources; non-timber construction material development - mud technology; environmental education. Component III environmental resources income generation: purchase of seedlings from the refugees and local artisans; sales of non-timber construction material from the refugees and local artisans; sales of fuel-efficient wood stoves from the refugees and local artisans; sales of wood (thinned, pruned) the refugees and local artisans
The main strategy of the programme is to involve the refugees and local communities in a people-based, people-centred development. These include inter alia promotion of awareness in soil conservation at the community level primarily through existing social organisations and developing standards and specifications for conservation measures that are appropriate for varying situations and climates, soil, slope and farming systems. It entails promotion of soil conservation measures that focus on food security, promote biological conservation measures and promote establishment of perennial crops for better vegetation cover of soil. It is to develop an incentive scheme for establishment of vegetative cover in schools, churchyards, riverbanks, market places, and the commons in general; develop preventive soil conservation schemes such as protection of woodlands and forests. The idea is to promote improved farming systems that accommodate conservation and "bottom-up" approach to enhance farmer’s active participation.