Strategic vision and results transforming Africa

For the past ten years, Africa has recorded some of the world’s strongest rates of economic growth. At the same time, many African economies continue to function at well below their full potential. Structural transformation is needed to create more jobs, reduce poverty and accomplish sustainable development objectives. The African Development Bank’s High 5 priority […]

Declining trends in global peace operations

While the number of United Nations and non-UN multilateral peace operations increased slightly in 2019, the number of personnel deployed in them decreased, according to new data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Although sub-Saharan Africa maintained the highest number of operations and personnel, two new operations in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) […]

Liberia: State of emergency and freedom of expression

By Atty. Urias Teh Pour The surge of the global COVID-19 pandemic has provided compelling reason for states to impose restrictive measures, some in the form of health protocols to beat back the spread of the deadly disease. These measures have provoked debate, essentially around the nature and scope of these restrictions vis a vis […]

Integration is relevant for African economies

The second Africa Regional Integration Index (APII 2019) was launched Friday by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the African Development Bank and the African Union Commission (AUC), with a call to action to African economies to deepen their integration. The 2019 Index, which builds on the first edition published in 2016, provides up-to-date data […]

Africa must boost spending on agriculture

African countries need to urgently expand food reserves, keep food supply flowing and boost their agriculture budgets to avert a possible hunger pandemic, partly caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, delegates at a two-day webinar in Abidjan, Ivory Coast hosted by the African Development Institute (ADI) urged on Tuesday. Africa must now, more than ever, develop […]

Liberia’s state of emergency: Role of security officers

By Atty. Bowoulo T. Kelley The novel coronavirus plagued the world so swiftly that it was described by the head of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as ‘an unprecedented outbreak that had met an unprecedented response’, as the virus continued to spread around the globe with an increase in the number of confirmed cases […]

Africa: Call for mobile apps for the disabled

Africa’s first Assistive Technology Accelerator is seeking applications from innovators across the African continent who are dedicated to developing mobile based technologies designed to assist people living with disabilities. The UK Aid-funded program, which is run by Global Disability Innovation (GDI) Hub and Amref Enterprises Limited, hopes to accelerate 12 start-ups in its second cohort, […]

Raising funds to help fight coronavirus in Liberia

United Kingdom-based Akoi Massayan Bazzie-Give Hope Humanitarian Foundation (AMB-G2HF) is leading the Union of Liberian Organisations in the United Kingdom (ULOUK) fundraising appeal to support some of the most vulnerable people in COVID-19 (coronavirus) lockdown across Liberia. The foundation joins with individual Liberians, Liberian community organisations and friends of Liberia to forge coordinated, strategic humanitarian […]

Electronic sales rekindle African businesses

Imagine using one second to sell three thousand (3000) bags of a coffee produce which lay fallow hitherto in storehouses in Rwanda for months due to freighting stand-stills caused by the COVID-19 global lockdown. This is what happened on Thursday 14 during a livestream coordinated by the Alibaba Business Group to position small-scale world brands on the Electronic […]

Book review: a scholar, activist and adventurer

By Nvasekie N. Konneh To write a memoir is a brave act. It simply means to bare your soul to the world. To lay it all out there about you, your family and friends, some of your inner most secrets. If you decide to write a memoir, you will be confronted with question as which part […]