News highlights, late October 2015

Aid and cash:

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/09/welfare-reform-direct-cash-poor/407236/?utm_source=SFFB

Problem with aid to local agencies:

http://www.irinnews.org/report/102029/emergency-aid-obstacles-to-going-local

ODI report on UN SDGs:

http://www.developmentprogress.org/sites/developmentprogress.org/files/scorecard_report.pdf

Angus Deaton, Nobel Prize winner:

https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/10/12/why-angus-deaton-deserved-the-nobel-prize-in-economics/?utm_content=buffer3fbce&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Literature and Africa:

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/10/man-booker-shortlist-2015-the-fishermen/409399/

Abortion in the world, 2015

Source: Le Monde Diplomatique, October 2015.

Migration into the EU

Here are the relocation quotas decided by the European Union in September 2015:

Source: The Economist, 22/09/15.

News highlights, early October 2015

Fishers and Gaza:

http://english.pnn.ps/2015/06/03/occupation-targets-farmers-and-fishermen-injures-1-in-incursion-east-of-rafah/

UN SDGs, women and fisheries:

http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/women-and-the-sdgs/sdg-14-life-below-water

Bollore and investment in Africa:

http://www.jeuneafrique.com/263769/economie/au-coeur-des-bluezones-de-bollore/

EU, Human rights, sanctions and Gambia:

http://venturesafrica.com/can-the-hrw-report-and-eu-funds-withdrawal-change-the-gambias-political-atmosphere/?utm_source=Copy+of+Ventures+Monday+14th+September%2C+2015&utm_campaign=PR%2C+Africa+Business%2C+Africa+Economy%2C+Africa+Entrepreneur%2C+Ventures+Africa&utm_medium=email

Industrialising through trade:

http://www.un.org/en/africa/osaa/pdf/pubs/2015era-uneca.pdf

EU sanctions on Burundi:

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ:JOL_2015_257_R_0009

Mean years of schooling in Africa (in years), 2002-12

Source: African Economic Outlook, 2015, p. 97.

Estimated gross national income per capita in Africa (female/male), 2013

Source: African Economic Outlook, 2015, p. 97.

Boko Haram: origins and partial solutions

The following draws from evidence in Irin, 01/10/15, given by officials who work with former Boko Haram members:

-Kasali Yusuf, coordinator of the joint ONSA/prison service team in Kuje in Nigeria.

-Dr Wahaab Akorede, psychologist and prison officer in Nigeria.

-Ferdinand Ikwang, head of the national de-rad programme (under the Office of the National Security Adviser) in Nigeria.

Origins: exclusion and violence

Private level:

No evidence of deep religiosity.

Dysfunctional families.

Public level:

No education.

No opportunity: lack of jobs.

No health service.

Boko Haram offers:

Money (through links with jihadists in Algeria and Mali)

Inclusion into a group.

Quotes:

“here’s a man that is not happy within himself. He has not been given an opportunity to be educated. He has no future. If you give him 10,000 naira [$50], he will carry that bomb.”

“polygamous families where wives compete for their husband’s affection to the detriment of the children; an Islam, as traditionally taught in the north, that leaves young men ill-prepared for the modern workplace; and the callousness of successive governments that has consigned so many to suffering and an early death, “to the point where God must be tired of seeing Nigerians.”

Solution:

Counselling.

Monitoring.

Jobs in government programmes.

Living together.

Inclusion in the wider community.

Quote:

“If you’re returning say 400 ex-combatants to the community, you have to engage the community. If it’s 400 [ex-Boko Haram] in, then you need to find places for 400 local youths in government programmes, otherwise the host community will scream and say they are going to kill them.”