The persistence of the tax havens allows billions of dollars of profit to be siphoned out of Africa, untaxed, every year. Stemming this flow a vital part of African countries' efforts to become less reliant on foreign aid and the vagaries of external capital, says a report by the Tax Justice Network.
The total illicit outflow of money from Africa far exceeds the inflow of development aid. Staunching this drain on public finance is essential for poverty alleviation and economic development across the continent, says a report by Global Financial Integrity.
The peace keeping agenda in Africa is ineffective because it focuses on controlling violence through military force - rather than addressing the causes of conflict such as climate change, competition over resources and marginalisation of
the poor. A report by the Oxford Research Group.
In light of the current humanitarian disaster in the Congo, powerful governments continue to ignore the bloody nexus of mineral extraction and civil war. However, a series of UN documents lay bare the influence of external intervention and multinational corporations in the country. By Jooneed Khan.
The food crisis is threatening to "destroy years, if not decades, of
economic progress" as "100 million people are being pushed back into
absolute poverty", according to former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan.
Africa has risen steadily in importance to the United States in recent years. Traditionally, Africa has been thought of primarily as an object of humanitarian concern. That perception has been highlighted by popular figures, such as Bono, Bob Geldof, George Clooney and others, focusing public attention on Africa's poverty, conflicts and major diseases. Africa has further captured worldwide attention due to the conflict in Darfur. Because the United States has judged the Sudanese government's campaign in the region to be genocide, the conflict has taken on enormous moral importance.
A report released by the Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) of the IMF criticises the role of the IMF in managing aid inflows to Sub-Saharan Africa, but fails to address more fundamental questions about the Fund’s role in low-income countries.
