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African Agenda 20.1 ISSUE Vol. 20 No.1 2017 US$5.00 GB£3.00 €5.00 • HOW LONG WILL BARROW’S HONEYMOON LAST? Find out what's on the African Agenda To subscribe, please fill in the form and post it to the address shown ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION RATES (INDIVIDUALS) Africa & Global South $35.00 North America & Australia $55.00 Europe €55.00 The African continent is mostly reported as a land of poverty, civil strife and end- U.K £35.00 less lines of begging hands. Problems facing the continent are portrayed and communicated mostly by foreign eyes through the monopoly-controlled news Ghana GH¢9.00 media. Rarely are Africans themselves given a forum to highlight what they see as press- INSTITUTIONAL/ CORPORATE ing problems, and offer analyses and solutions to tackle the challenges. By pub- lishing African Agenda, Third World Network Africa aims to provide exactly that Africa & Global South $45.00 forum. 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West Africa Telephone +233 -302- 511189 fax 233-302-511188 Email: [email protected] /[email protected] Contents COVER: GHANA ELECTIONS AND AFTER Aftershocks of peaceful transition……..................................... page 5 Can the NPP deliver on its promises?....................................... page 9 Female head of Electoral Commission boosted by elections…................................................................. page 12 How long will Barrow’s honeymoon last?................................ page 14 DEVELOPMENT UN report finds 48 countries in a poverty trap….................. page 16 Bond to happen?............................................................................ page 18 UN: diminishing power of small-scale cocoa farmers…...... page 20 New OECD measure for SDGs highly problematic…….... page 24 TRADE Global services agreement poses risk to workers page 5 photo: President Akufo-Addo and customers…............................................................................ page 27 Commodity prices crash hits Africa……................................. page 29 Trade deals threaten peasant farmers' stewardship of seed biodiversity…................................................................... page 32 African Agenda WOMEN Published by TWN Africa Farmer field schools help women lead on climate change…........................................................................... page 34 Editor-in-Chief: Yao Graham INTERNATIONAL Editor: Cornelius Adedze Design: David Roy Quashie US trade hawks and the China bogey…….............................. page 36 EDITORIAL, SUBSCRIPTIONS AND ADVERTISING: SHORT STORY TWN-Africa Oh Mama……............................................................................... page 36 P.O. Box 19452 Accra-North Ghana, West Africa Tel: (233) 302 511189/503669/500419 Fax: (233) 302 511188 Email: [email protected] Website: www.twnafrica.org Note to subscribers As part of efforts to improve our data management all TWN INTERNATIONAL SECRETARIAT subscribers have been allocated identification numbers. You will always find them on your address labels. Please President: Mohammed Iddris quote these numbers in all correspondence regarding Director: Martin Khor your subscription. 131 Jalan Macalister 10400 Penang Malaysia The material in this magazine may be freely reproduced and distributed without prior permission, provided that the source of the material is attributed to African Agenda ISSN 0855-3378. African Agenda is published six times a year by Third World Network (TWN) Africa. TWN is an international network of groups and individuals who seek greater articulation of the needs and rights of the peoples of the Third World, especially marginalised social groups, a fair distribution of the world’s resources and forms of development which are ecologically sustainable and fulfil human needs. TWN Africa is grateful to Development and Peace, InterPares (Canada), TrustAfrika and Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Post election billboard 4 AFRICAN AGENDA VOL.20 NO.1 COVER: GHANA ELECTIONS AND AFTER President Akufo-Addo Aftershocks of peaceful transition From the wholesale purging of heads of public institutions by the new government to NPP militants forcibly taking over public toilets, there are many reminders that Ghana's much applauded peaceful transfer of power still has some way to go to escape the legacies of regime change through coups d'etat, writes *Cornelius Adedze. t the January 7 inauguration of Nana present queued to congratulate Ghana's of his route to power and continued uncer- Akufo-Addo as the 5th President of new President and in the process offered a tainties in his country. There was Teodoro AGhana's Fourth Republic there was kaleidoscope of the worthy, the dubious, Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial an important yet unintended illustration of the troubling and the illegitimate founda- Guinea, in power since he ousted his uncle why the fuss about Ghana's peaceful transi- tions of the power of African governments. in 1979 and who runs the country like a tion. After Akufo-Addo's swearing in and The guest of honour Cote d'Ivoire's family business and tolerates no dissent. the speeches, various African Presidents Alassane Ouattara attended despite a Also in the queue were Ali Bongo of Gabon, and leaders of government delegations mutiny by soldiers which offered reminders Faure Gnassingbe of Togo, disputed AFRICAN AGENDA VOL.20 NO.1 5 COVER: GHANA ELECTIONS AND AFTER Who is afraid of free elections? : some of the African heads of state at Akufo-Addo’s inauguration successors to their autocratic fathers. At the expectations of better performance from The government itself at the higher lev- other end of the spectrum were Senegal's the new government. High among these are els continued with the sacking of heads and Macky Sall and Nigeria's Muhammadu jobs and improvements in economic condi- other high level staff of public and state Buhari. tions, free secondary school education, institutions, replacing them with party stal- On the home front, the euphoria of reduced taxes, lower electricity tariffs, and a warts or cronies. Among those sacked electoral victory by the opposition New government ready, willing and able to deal include head of the National Patriotic Party, NPP, for the second time ruthlessly with corruption. These are but Communications Authority, the Ghana since Ghana's return to multiparty rule in some of the promises made before the elec- Investment Promotion Authority, COCO- 1992 seems to have, momentarily, masked tions by then opposition NPP. BOD (the marketing board of the country's the many challenges the country faces. It The smooth transition of power has highest export earner, cocoa) and some was a great sigh of relief when the elections been marred somewhat by suspected grass- security heads. This has become a pattern of not only successfully came off but also roots supporters of the party who have been post- elections political dividends payoff ended peacefully despite the numerous at their rampaging best driving out man- where every electoral cycle change of gov- challenges and near escalation of violence agers
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