(July 17, 2004) The head of the United Nations agency for Aids called yesterday for the foreign debt of African countries to be forgiven and the money put into programmes to tackle the Aids epidemic.
UK calls for world rethink on trade politics
(July 8, 2004) A senior United Nations economic adviser has suggested that impoverished African countries should refuse to pay foreign debt worth tens of billions of dollars.
Ban corrupt firms, urges Manuel
(June 4, 2004) Companies that pay bribes to African officials should be named and shamed," and banned from participating in further contracts on the continent, finance minister Trevor Manuel has urged.
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.
Hard currency
The duplication, waste and inefficiencies of the worldwide aid business are largely a consequence of unilateralism – that is, of the unwillingness of many donor countries . . . to coordinate development projects within the countries they aid
Haiti’s debt of independence
(March 5, 2004) A fight for leadership in the Caribbean nation of Haiti has plunged the Western hemisphere’s poorest country into further turmoil. The only nation in history to successfully overthrow enslavement, Haiti may also have been one of the developing world’s first heavily indebted countries.
Must the show go on?
(March 4, 2004)With Aristide seemingly ousted, American and French troops have once again landed in Haiti to run the island’s affairs, writes Gamal Nkrumah.
American Friends Service Committee
(February 1, 2004) Without doubt, the Iraqi people deserve a reprieve from debt. But Africa’s predicament doubles Iraq’s many times over. In Africa today, millions have been killed, and are routinely wounded, raped and displaced from their homes and means of livelihood by war.
Debt and reparations
(February 1, 2004) In addressing Africa’s struggle for relief from its onerous external debt, advocates of global justice have raised a critical question: Who owes whom? Millions of people on the continent and throughout the world have concluded that it is the countries of the Global North that are heavily indebted to African countries for over a century of exploitation.
Impoverished Haiti pins hopes for future on a very old debt
(January 2, 2004) The initial agreement between France and the young republic called on Haiti to pay the whole 150 million francs in five annual payments of 30 million gold francs. That proved impossible for Haiti.
PM tells African leaders: clean up corruption
(December 4, 2003) In a blunt message to African leaders, [Canadian] Prime Minister Jean Chrétien said they must tackle corruption and government mismanagement to attract foreign investment.
Africa is not in flames
While Bono’s oratory may be splendid, his analysis sells Africa short . . . As Africans know too well, the more that their governments have received foreign aid, the more poverty has grown. CBC Commentary
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.
Probe: Is Asian Development Bank defending Vietnam’s secrecy?
(August 26, 2003) With reference to the attached August 1st 2003 letter from ADB external relations specialist, Bart Edes, to Russell Peterson, NGO Forum on Cambodia, the ADB appears to be refusing to disclose the Se San 3 Hydropower Project Environmental Impact Assessment (TA 3222-VIE) dated February 2001.
A movement’s shifting stage
(August 1, 2003) Environmental activists “pitted against some of the world’s biggest energy companies over megaprojects in the Third World” are increasingly staging their battles in countries that fund such projects in environmentally fragile areas of Latin America.
Patricia Adams
Dai Qing
Fan Xiao
Lawrence Solomon
Mu Lan
Probe International
Lisa Peryman
Probe Media
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