(April 25, 2014) Lake Turkana, the world’s largest desert lake, has held water for at least five million years and is also known as the cradle of mankind for its abundance of hominid fossils, but may now suffer the same dry fate as the Aral Sea in central Asia thanks to hydro-electric development that ties neighbours Ethiopia and Kenya together. Writer Ben Rawlence looks here at how regional power plays can work against accountability and how the complexity of large projects and the many actors involved with them militates against holding anyone to account.
USAID and Chinese state companies look to build white elephant
(January 24, 2014) USAID may join forces with Chinese state companies to build a controversial and uneconomic dam in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
SNC-Lavalin may have to abandon involvement in DRC dam project
(September 24, 2013) SNC-Lavalin may have to pull out from a consortium bidding on a contract to construct a massive dam project in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Grand Inga Dam: Another white elephant for the DR Congo
(November 21, 2011) An article in the Daily Maverick argues that the proposed Grand Inga Dam in the DR Congo is a “beautiful vision” that would “fix Africa” by “lighting up the heart of darkness”, powering African industries and forcing countries to rely on each other.
In the Name of Progress: The Underside of Foreign Aid
In clear, uncompromising language the book explains where progress went wrong and the remedies needed to prevent foreign aid from doing more of the same in the future.
Debt relief for poor faces $7.8 bln gap, US watchdog
(April 20, 2004) A debt relief program for the world’s poorest countries is facing a $7.8 billion funding shortfall, mostly from the World Bank, a U.S. Congressional watchdog told lawmakers on Tuesday.
AfDB cancels projects in Nigeria over corruption
(September 1, 2003) Overwhelmed by complaints of failed water projects due to official corruption, the African Development Bank (ADB) has announced the cancellation of 80 per cent of its projects in the country.
We are not surprised by Chiluba’s corruption – IMF
(August 10, 2002) We are not surprised at the reported high levels of corruption under Chiluba regime, International Monetary Fund (IMF) resident representative Mark Ellyne has said.
World Bank criticises trillion-naira budget
(Jul 4, 2002) Nigeria cannot sustain a trillion-naira budget without major long-term macro-economic distortions, the World Bank’s Chief Economist, Mr. Nick Stern, said yesterday.
A troubling deposit at World Bank
(November 25, 1995) For 5O years government guarantees have allowed the World Bank and its sister development banks to amass the world’s riskiest loan portfolios. Three months ago, the weakest of these sisters, the African Development Bank, was downgraded. And now for the first time, the World Bank admits that many of its own loans can’t be paid back.
Patricia Adams
Dai Qing
Fan Xiao
Lawrence Solomon
Mu Lan
Probe International
Lisa Peryman
Patricia Adams and Lawrence Solomon
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