Payputt: Changing the game for crowdfunding in Africa
Payputt is an instant, transparent and convenient way for Ghanaian individuals, groups and organisations to raise funds for causes that are close to their heart, whether it be social or economic. It is a purely donation-based platform allowing donors from any part of the world to support local causes while giving Ghanaians the power to […]
Search for African solutions to African problems
How can the African Union (AU) work to better prevent violent conflicts on the continent and resolve existing conflicts? What support should the outside world give to the AU peace work? Those questions were discussed by over 90 participants at a conference, or research and policy dialogue as we chose to call it, that AU […]
Human rights key to Norway’s foreign policy
Minister of Foreign Affairs Ine Eriksen Søreide’s opening address at a seminar on freedom of speech and freedom of the press – a collaboration between Fritt Ord, The Norwegian Union of Journalists, Article 19 and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Ladies and gentlemen, On this day in 2013, the French journalists Ghislaine Verlon and […]
Speech: Mr. President, Liberians cannot wait
It is an honor and I am grateful for the opportunity we were given to speak to you on this special occasion. I am humbled by your preferment to serve as your keynote speaker tonight. I stand before you today, not only as a proud citizen of Lofa county; but also, a grandson of a […]
How international justice can go local
In his recent diatribe against the International Criminal Court, U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton might have given some the impression that the International Criminal Court had somehow conjured up international law, writes Eric Witte. That is not the case. Instead, the court is the keystone of a nascent system of institutions enforcing already-existing laws: […]
Liberians should not cry for secularism
It is bad enough that secularism is a growing problem in the Liberian culture. Given the rebellious spirit that is prevalent in our homeland, it frightens me when some of my friends downplay the relevance of religion in all strata of society. They debate that our country must entrust discussions of national interest to secularism; […]
Preventing election violence in West Africa
During 2018, elections will be held in 23 African states – at local, regional or national level. Democratic elections have become more common on the African continent. At the same time, an increase in electoral violence is reported, writes Emma Skeppström. According to a study by Stephanie M. Burchard, more than half of Africa’s states […]
Language lessons of the 2014 Ebola epidemic
August 2014 was a scary time in West Africa. Ebola was spreading rapidly and the international community was waking up to a disaster that ultimately killed more than 11,000 people, writes Aimee Ansari. In the midst of the epidemic, UNICEF and Catholic Relief Services published ominous survey results: In Sierra Leone, one of the hardest-hit […]
Djibouti faces dark days ahead
Djibouti has been landlocked Ethiopia’s only access to the sea and depends on port taxes paid by Ethiopia for most of its income and with the Eritrean ports of Massawa and Assab on the Red Sea about to open finds itself faced with losing most of the Ethiopian trade it has enjoyed a monopoly on […]
Liberia: Why the trials of perpetrators matter to me
Sometime in early 1989, I was visiting three of my childhood friends. I was working as a reporter with the Ministry of Information as the only female in the newsroom in Monrovia, Liberia. Together we decided to form an organization that would meet once a month and work with the less fortunate in the Liberian […]
