Africa has great potential to climb many value chains and create thousands of new jobs. It is time to test a new approach to realising this potential.

Why is it that Tanzania exports raw cashew nuts and imports processed cashew nuts, the ones they actually sell in stores? And why does Senegal’s largest juice processor import mango pulp, when mangos are rotting by the tonne a few miles down the road? Processing raw materials into market-ready products would create more jobs, capture more value locally, and reduce the tremendous post-harvest losses affecting farmers and traders.

Many attempts at converting raw materials that are in abundant supply into consumer products have gone wrong. Africa has many examples of so-called ‘White Elephants’ – expensive factories that have never been fully operational because the business concept was flawed. A recent study by the World Bank reports that 60 percent of 87 failed agribusiness projects reviewed were brought down due to a flawed business case. The fact that you have a tomato surplus does not mean you can enter the ketchup market.

So we have learned that we need to start with the market. In the Tanzania and Senegal cases, the market is there and the customer requirements are clear. As an aside, it is notable that ‘the market’ in these cases means Tanzania and Senegal and their surrounding regions rather than Europe and the US, where the barriers to entry are higher. Projections show that most increases in food demand will come from urban markets in developing countries. Perhaps it is time to devote more attention to growing in these markets first.

Leaving the product destination aside, from a development perspective, advancing the processing segment of the value chain is an excellent investment in jobs and incomes. If a company processes fruit pulp, jobs are created, farmers get income from produce that would otherwise be lost, suppliers of packaging material and trucks experience increased demand, and so forth. The multiplier effect is significant.

How do we unlock market opportunities? Policymakers must invest in infrastructure – roads, electricity and irrigation – and regulators must at least remove disincentives for entrepreneurs, industry and financiers to invest. We also need to ensure productivity and consistent quantity and quality at the farm level.

Read on here

Source: This is Africa

fuckyeahmozambique:

No Reservations Anthony Bourdain - Mozambique

(Full episode)

OOOOOO!!!!!!!

(via dynamicafrica)

China has denied allegations that it has been exporting huge amounts of counterfeit medication to Africa, threatening public health in east Africa, five days after the Guardian published a front page exposé on the phenomenon.

The official Xinhua news agency said a foreign ministry spokeswoman rejected the accusation, but “called on foreign traders to procure medicines from legitimate companies through standardised channels”.

“Spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a daily press briefing that the accusations are unfounded, noting that co-operation between the Chinese government and African countries has played an important role in improving the healthcare environment for people in Africa,”Xinhua reported on Thursday night.

The Guardian article cited experts and NGO reports as saying that up to a third of anti-malarial drugs inUganda and Tanzania may be fake or substandard, and that the majority of themare manufactured in China and India. The drugs look identical to real ones, and can only be distinguished with lab testing. Aside from malaria drugs, analysis of antibiotics and contraceptives have also turned up fakes. “Some pills contain no active ingredients, some are partial strength and some the wrong formulation entirely,” said the article.

The fake medications have led to deaths, prolonged illness and increased drug resistance in areas of east Africa, the article said.

Read on here 

Source: The Guardian

Three radio DJs in Kenya are going six days without food while broadcasting non-stop to promote peaceful voting in a country that was nearly torn apart after its last election five years ago.

Ghetto Radio presenters Mbusii, Solloo and Essie have been locked inside a “glass house” in central Nairobi since Wednesday, as part of the station’s annual Serious Request Kenya event.

This year’s theme is “Vote4Peace Vote4Kenya,” ahead of the East African country’s elections on March 4 2013. The vote will be the first since ethnic violence engulfed the country after disputed elections in December 2007, leaving more than 1,000 people dead and 350,000 displaced, according to the Kenya Red Cross.

Read on here

Source: CNN

Meanwhile….Dozens killed in raid on village in Kenya

I realize that the raid should have been the main story in the post, but I just can’t.  The ever unfolding tale in eastern DRC, the stories developing in Wau and in CAR and of course Sandy Hook here in the States. It is important to always confront the things you hope to change, but sometimes, though cowardly, I guess I want to look away and focus on the small things people are doing to raise even the slightest bit of awareness. *Shrug*

A UN war crimes court has sentenced a key organiser of the 1994 Rwandan genocide to 35 years in prison.

The sentence was imposed on Augustin Ngirabatware, a former government minister in Rwanda.

He is the last person to be tried by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), which will now only hear appeals.

About 800,000 people - ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus - were killed in 100 days in Rwanda in 1994.

The ICTR convicted Ngirabatware of genocide, incitement to commit genocide and rape as a crime against humanity, the AFP news agency reports.

“For these crimes the court sentences you to 35 years in prison,” Judge William Hussein Sekule told Ngirabatware.

He was planning minister in the militant Hutu-led government at the time of the genocide.

Ngirabatware was arrested in Germany in September 2007 and was transferred more than a year later to the ICTR in Arusha, Tanzania.

The ICTR says on its website that it has completed 71 cases since it was set up under a UN Security Council resolution in November 1994 to try the ringleaders of the genocide.

Ten accused were acquitted while 32 convicts are serving sentences, it says.

It is due to close in 2014 after it has finalised 16 appeal cases.

Source: BBC

From next month (January 2013), Tanzania will start restricting the size of land that single large-scale foreign and local investors can “lease” for agricultural use.

The decision follows both local and international criticism that major investors are grabbing large chunks of land here, often displacing small-scale farmers and local communities.

The Permanent Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office Peniel Lyimo confirmed that the government would limit the amount of land leased to investors in this East African nation. Previously, there were no limits.

Read on here

Source: allAfrica

dynamicafrica:

In order to help those who continuously ask me for particular posts on specific topics, I’ve compiled a list of some of the most used tags that I add to the posts on this blog - both ‘original’ and reblogged.

Here they are in alphabetical order.

A

• African…

Since I follow dynamicafrica like it’s my job, I thought this might be helpful for others looking for a well rounded Africa blog. 

Eritrea has said Thursday’s attack by its southern neighbour Ethiopia on its military bases is meant to divert attention from Ethiopia’s illegal occupation of Eritrean territories.

“The objective of the attack … is to divert attention from the central issue of the regime’s flagrant violation of international law and illegal occupation of sovereign Eritrean territories,” a statement from Eritrea’s foreign ministry said on Friday.

“Eritrea … will not be entrapped by such deceitful ploys that are aimed at derailing and eclipsing the underlying fundamental issues.”

Ethiopia said on Thursday its troops raided three military bases in the Red Sea state which it said were used by Ethiopian rebels.

The assaults were the first on Eritrean soil that Addis Ababa has admitted to since the end of a 1998-2000 war that killed 70,000 people. Eritrea claims there have been others.

‘Hostile provocation’

The statement came a day after Eritrea’s information minister said his country was not ready to be sucked into renewed hostilities.

“It is those who do not know the price of war who are hungry to go to war,” Ali Abdu told the AFP news agency.

“We fought enough for 30 years, and we will never be dragged into war through such hostile provocations as this.”

He continued: “We do not support such groups, as these are the products of Ethiopia’s own internal crisis and the result of a policy of exclusion and marginalisation.”

A vicious row over the position of Eritrea and Ethiopia’s shared border remains unresolved since the end of the 1998-2000 war.

The Hague-based Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission ruled in 2002 that the border village of Badme belonged to Eritrea.

Proxy war

But the village remains in Ethiopia and Eritrea blames the international community, and the United Nations in particular, for not forcing Ethiopia to accept the border.

Analysts say Eritrea has launched a proxy war in lawless Somalia to weaken Ethiopia as it cannot match it militarily.

President Isaias Afewerki’s government has been slapped with sanctions for links with Somalia’s al-Shabab rebels.

“I suspect there is little fallout to expect from the raid, unless Eritrea chooses to unleash one of its proxies, perhaps in Somalia,” said J Peter Pham, director of the Michael S Ansari Africa Centre at the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think tank.

“Of course, if that happens, it would give the lie to Asmara’s hitherto denials of linkages with groups like al-Shabab.”

Restraint urged

Concerned that tensions between the two counties could escalate, the US and France urged Ethiopia and Eritrea to show restraint and to find a negotiated solution to their differences.

“We have heard the government’s reports that its forces struck military posts inside Eritrea today,” Victoria Nuland, the state department spokeswoman, told reporters on Thursday.

“We are obviously calling on both sides to exercise restraint and to avoid any further military action.”

Bernard Valero, the French foreign ministry spokesman, said in a statement: “France urges both states to avoid military escalation and, more broadly, to avoid raising tension. France believes the only way of resolving the dispute between the two countries is through dialogue and negotiation.”  

Valero said the incursion had targeted camps “which Addis Abeba accuses Asmara of using to train rebel groups operating on Ethiopian territory”.

Eritrea has dismissed these claims saying that it will not retaliate against its neighbour. It termed the allegations that it harbours armed groups against Addis Ababa as a “baseless and bogus lie”.

Source: Al Jazeera

theatlantic:

In Focus: The Maasai Cricket Warriors

In Kenya, a group of young Maasai warriors from the Laikipia region formed a cricket team with big hopes: to promote healthy living, to spread awareness about HIV/AIDS and women’s issues, and ultimately to become role models in their community and ambassadors for both the Maasai and Kenya. The Maasai Cricket Warriors have been training hard, having recently left their village for the city of Mombasa to attend the Legends Cricket Nursery for further coaching. Their next goal is to travel to South Africa to take part in the Last Man Stands World Championships. The team has an open invitation and is now raising funds to make the trip.

See more. [Images: AFP/Getty]

Turkish Airlines says it has started twice-weekly flights to Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, which because of civil war and insurgency has not had passenger service from an international carrier in more than 20 years. Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag of Turkey announced the development on Tuesday after arriving in Mogadishu on a flight from Istanbul Ataturk Airport. Somalis can now travel the world again, he said.

Source: NYT 

This is great, but I’m gunna give it a side eye for right now. Maybe I’m underestimating the economic capabilities of the average Somali individual, but I don’t really think buying plane tickets is really in the cards right now. 

Related: Turkey in Somalia: A Welcome Ally 

Army General Carter Ham told the United States house armed services committee that leading figures in al-Shabaab in Somalia, Boko Haram in Nigeria and North Africa’s al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) were discussing ways to synchronise their actions.

If successful in their efforts to link up, the Commander of US Africa Command (AFRICOM) said that the terrorist networks would pose a “real challenge” to the United States.

The four-star General, who commanded the US military intervention in Libya, had earlier expressed concern about the “stated intent” of the groups to work together, voiced most strongly by Boko Haram and AQIM.

Boko Haram – a militant Islamist group whose campaign of terror in northern Nigeria has left hundreds dead – has reportedly received weapons and training from al-Qaeda’s North African wing.

And some analysts have pointed to the sophistication of its bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Nigeria’s capital Abuja last year, in which 23 died, as evidence of strengthened ties to other terrorist groups.

“Boko Haram has definitely taken inspiration from groups like al-Shabaab and AQIM, but current evidence for actual linkages isn’t compelling,” Alex Vines, head of the Africa programme at the Chatham House think tank, told The Daily Telegraph.

“While we see increasing sophistication in Boko Haram’s techniques, including the use of suicide bombings, much of Boko Haram’s agenda is still to do with Nigerian issues and not a broader radical Islamist agenda.”

Al-Shabaab demonstrated its chilling capacity to carry out attacks further afield in July 2010, when twin suicide bombings killed 74 football fans watching the World Cup Final in Uganda’s capital Kampala.

Within Somalia, the group is battling on many fronts, including against Kenyan and Ethiopian forces, and an African Union offensive in Mogadishu that has taken back much of the capital.

But an announcement by al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri formally welcoming al-Shabaab to its ranks has provoked concerns that the group is committed to exporting its terror tactics to the region and beyond.

Africa is an increasingly important arena for US counterterrorism efforts, as concern mounts that al-Qaeda affiliates are extending into unstable parts of Africa. An expeditionary base in the Horn of Africa and extensive military training and intelligence-gathering operations across the continent are just some of America’s counterterrorism strategies in the region.

“One of the key lenses that the United States looks at Africa through is counterterrorism,” added Vines. “Paradoxically, we’ve seen a deepening of the security relationship between the United States and Africa under President Barack Obama, whereas President George W. Bush is remembered more for his humanitarian activities on the continent.”

inaa-abdalle:

outside the London conference..

(Source: irathersmiile, via misshamdi)

pata-caliente:

Maasai Warriors Jumping | Nkama Village, Kenya (by Eric Lafforgue)

(Source: Flickr / mytripsmypics)

The United Nations resolution passed on Wednesday allowing increase of AU troops in Somalia will see the number of Ugandan forces in Mogadishu rise from 5,160 to 6,860.

The resolution also admits Kenya as the fourth African troop-contributing country with 4,700, while Burundi will add 1,000 troops.

Djibouti, the third country, which deployed one battalion last year, will add 850 combatants.

The spokesperson of the AU forces in Somalia, Lt. Col. Paddy Ankunda, said the boost will allow them start the second phase of the mission-expanding the military offensive outside Mogadishu.

“We will now launch Phase Two - which is expansion into South West of Mogadishu. We are targeting Gedo and lower Juba, central regions of Bay and Bakool and also some parts of Hiiraan. The idea is to chase al- Shabaab and capture the key towns as quickly as possible,” he said.

Read on here

Source: AllAfrica