Jobs for Young Africans
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Formerly ‘Africa Recovery’ United Nations Department of Public Information Vol. 20 No. 3 October 2006 Wanted: jobs for young Africans Reducing Africa’s oil dependence Darfur faces even greater horror Peter Arnold, Inc. / Ron Giling NEPAD in Action African expatriates look homeward Highways link West Africa Promoting ‘responsible tourism’ Solar power: cheap energy for Africa United Nations Vol. 20 No. 3 October 2006 FRI UE ENOUVEAU contentsCover article Wanted: jobs for Africa’s youth ......... .6 Unemployment threatens peace and security . 7 Also in this Issue Darfur facing even greater horror ............ 3 Ghana takes African governance exam ....... 4 Panos / Sven Torfinn What alternatives to oil in Africa?............ 17 NEPAD in action A young auto mechanic in Kenya: Creating jobs for Solar power: women poses particular challenges. cheap energy source for Africa ............ 10 African expatriates look homeward ......... 12 Departments Kenya promotes ‘responsible tourism’ ....... 13 Agenda. .22 Books. 22 Highways link 15 West African countries ................... 14 Briefs. .23 Watch. 24 Cover Photo: Ghanaian worker carries sheets of wood veneer. 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Darfur facing even greater horror With Sudan crisis sharpening, UN sees no time for “half measures” By Ernest Harsch After intense negotiations, the AU A staggering toll s fighting in Sudan’s western region agreed to extend its African Mission in The crisis in Darfur, which has complex of Darfur escalates once again, the Sudan (AMIS) by another three months, political and social roots, erupted on a ma- A world’s biggest humanitarian catas- to the end of the year, with additional jor scale in early 2003, when rebel move- trophe is poised to become an even worse troops from African countries and more ments launched attacks on government disaster. Aerial bombardments by the financial and logistical support from the forces. In response, the regular Sudanese government and ground fighting with rebel forces are displacing yet more villagers and preventing An African aid workers from getting relief Union soldier to people in the most insecure in Darfur: The African areas. “If the humanitarian opera- peacekeeping tion were to collapse, we could see mission is too hundreds of thousands of deaths small to halt and a man-made catastrophe of an the violence, unprecedented scale in Darfur,” but is getting UN Under-Secretary-General for more troops Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland and equipment, warned in late August. Getty Images / AFP / Ramzi Haidar while the UN “I’m 85 years old and nothing presses for like this has ever happened to me,” a strong UN Mohamed Abdulai Saleh, who fled peacekeeping his village in North Darfur, told force to IRIN, a UN humanitarian news ser- protect vice. “We need help.” civilians. The overall rise in violence has also brought an increase in sexual assaults. Reports of rape have soared in the giant Kalma camp for dis- Arab League and the UN. But even a military carried out major military opera- placed people near Nyala, in South Darfur moderately stronger African force, AU tions and encouraged parallel actions by — surpassing more than 200 instances in officials acknowledge, will not be able to an irregular militia force known as the just a five-week period. In the same prov- protect so many displaced civilians over Janjaweed. Many of the government and ince, reports the Office of the UN High such a large territory. The extension of Janjaweed attacks were directed against Commissioner for Human Rights, “In the AMIS mandate therefore buys media- the Fur, Masaalit and Zaghawa ethnic Gereida, women were exposed to attacks tors only a few more months in which groups, from which the rebels draw much by armed militias as [the women] con- to convince the Sudanese government of their support. ducted income-generating activities.” to accept a UN mission and to pressure The toll on civilians has been enormous. During much of September, UN offi- the contending factions in Darfur to stop According to estimates by UN and other cials, aid agencies and human rights obstructing relief operations. relief personnel, some 200,000 or more groups raised an especially urgent alarm UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, people have been killed since the start of as a sharp deterioration of the situation addressing the Security Council on 11 the conflict, either as a direct result of the appeared imminent. The mandate of a September, underlined the urgency of act- fighting or indirectly because the disrup- 7,000-troop peacekeeping mission of the ing to save Darfur. “Can the international tion of farming and health services has African Union (AU) was set to expire at community, having not done enough for seriously worsened hunger and disease. the end of the month, while the govern- the people of Rwanda in their time of Within Darfur, about 3 million people ment of Sudan continued to reject the need, just watch as this tragedy deepens? depend on relief aid to survive. Out of establishment of a new, much stronger . Lessons are either learned or not; those, about 1.9 million have been forced UN mission. This threatened to leave a principles are either upheld or scorned. from their homes and live in squalid, over- complete peacekeeping vacuum, in which This is no time for the middle ground of many more Darfurians could perish. half measures or further debate.” see page 20 OCTOBER 2006 Ghana takes African governance exam “Peer review” highlights progress, need for more reforms By Ernest Harsch nance, peace, economic and social devel- ganize a “self-assessment” in which Gha- hile Ghana is an “oasis of peace and opment and closer cooperation among naians from all walks of life would identify tranquility” in West Africa and is African countries. issues they considered important. None of W moving increasingly towards con- According to Mr. Abdoulie Janneh, the seven members was in government, solidating democracy, its progress remains executive secretary of the UN Economic coming instead from academia, the legal “fragile,” concludes a comprehensive Commission for Africa, completion of profession, business and other sectors. African review of the country. The analy- this first review has been significant not Despite the council’s formal inde- sis, released publicly in mid-2006, was the only for Ghana, but for the continent as a pendence, civil society groups were initially skeptical and demanded more input into its consultations, reports Mr. Steven Gruzd, a researcher at the South Ghana African Institute of International Affairs. is con- In response to such pressure, he finds, solidating its “government ceded considerable space to democracy, civil society, and a more transparent and with three credible review resulted.” national Much of the practical work in gathering elections public views about the strengths and weak- since 1992 nesses of Ghana’s system was conducted and a by four reputable and independent local smooth research institutes, including the Centre for transition Democratic Development (CDD), which between focused specifically on democratic politi- presidents cal governance. The three others looked at and parties. economic management, corporate gover- AP / George Osodi nance and socio-economic development. They conducted opinion surveys and pro- duced reports totaling 1,200 pages. These first one completed under the African Peer whole. “The peer review of Ghana is an studies, along with the results of other con- Review Mechanism (APRM), a scheme important milestone for the improvement sultations, fed into the governing council’s through which African states voluntarily of governance in African countries,” he self-assessment report. assess each other’s political and economic said in January in Khartoum, Sudan, where A member of the APRM’s panel of management, or “governance.” Ghanaian President John Kufuor underwent eminent persons, Mr. Chris Stals, for- The mechanism is an outgrowth of the four hours of questioning by other African mer governor of South Africa’s Reserve New Partnership for Africa’s Development heads of state as part of the process. Bank, then led a 16-member mission to (NEPAD), adopted by African leaders Ghana’s review, seen as the first indi- Ghana for further discussions. The mem- in 2001 as the continent’s development cator of the seriousness and credibility of bers, from 12 different African coun- framework. The APRM is open to all the APRM process, provoked interest far tries, toured all 10 regions of Ghana and members of the African Union (AU) and beyond the country’s own borders. Many spoke with members of the government, so far about half (25) have joined.