The western ‘free trade’ model has been of no benefit to Africa. Prosperity for African nations requires protecting industries, control of food production and banking, progressive tax structures, and strong regulation to ensure trade and investment really benefits people, writes Nick Dearden.
African leaders are increasingly worried about the adverse effects of trade agreements that the European Commission is asking them to sign. The implications for food and economic security are serious and other options need to be explored, say analysts at the South Centre.
African countries should be wary of the European Partnership Agreements being pushed by the European Union. Trade conditions such as the removal of tariffs and subsidies could harm regional integration and South-South cooperation, argues Yash Tandon.
USAID and the Gates Foundation continue to push market-driven and technologically intensive "solutions" for African agriculture, despite growing resistance from local farmers. Traditional practices offer a more sustainable and empowering route to ending hunger, argues Richard Jonasse.
By blaming the persistent poverty in Africa on ‘quiet corruption’, the World Bank is attempting to exonerate itself from its own role in the continent's mal-development. It is the ‘grand corruption’ of international donors and African leaders that is really to blame, argues Yash Tandon.
Growing unemployment across sub-Saharan Africa is linked to the free market restructuring of national economies over recent decades. Governments must embrace an alternative paradigm of development that prioritises social needs above short-term profit, says Adam Parsons in an interview with Uwana Archibong.
In December 2009, the Gates Foundation joined the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. Concern is growing among civil society groups that this alliance may benefit agribusiness at the expense of the needs of Africa’s poor, writes Yojana Sharma.
