“Biharis pictured at the Mohammadpur refugee camp in Dhaka, Bangladesh on December 22, 1971: around 16 million people were internally displaced in Bangladesh following the events of the 1971 war” IMAGE/AP/Dawn
Bangladesh gained its independence from an oppressive Pakistani rule after a bloody nine-month war in 1971.’
This is how bdnews24.com reported the news of Pakistan’s Deputy Prime
Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar’s forthcoming visit to
Bangladesh in February 2025. The tone and stance of many other media
outlets in Bangladesh are not much different.
Mr Dar, who represents a nation marked by a chequered history and a
continuation of missteps and insensitivities, is known for his expertise
in finance. Accordingly, the primary agenda item disclosed so far –
already being described in the national media as a “landmark” aspect of
the visit – is the enhancement of bilateral trade relations. Amid the
outbreak of such news, some news stories about the celebration of
Quaid-e-Azam’s birthday in Bangladesh in 2024 hint at a potential shift
in ideology, marking the end of the anti-Pakistan, pro-India stance
associated with Hasina’s regime.
Inspired by the physician turned journalist and statesman
Clemenceau’s famous quote, “War is too important to be left to the
generals”, I once again, as a non-specialist stakeholder, dare raise my
unrepresented views on the systemic neglect of the stranded Pakistani
Biharis – or non-Bengali Urdu speakers who remain trapped in camp-like
7×7/6×6 cages since the fall of erstwhile East Pakistan on December 16,
1971. Devoid of rights, they endure extreme forms of mental trauma,
inequalities and social exclusion. Betrayed by both the remnants of
(West) Pakistan and Bangladesh, they are the unrecognised victims of
history, foreign office negligence and media biases. They are disdained
by nationalists, self-proclaimed liberals, human rights defenders and
feminists, including eminent sensitive-hearted writers and poets. I have
been wondering for the last two decades or so why a humanist like Faiz
could not utter a single line about the classic tragedy of these
unconditional lovers of an unbroken Pakistan. Their voices are not given
any space in the conversations that dominate Pakistani mainstream media
talk shows, led by highly paid ‘independent and authentic’ journalists,
or in the new media cluttered with influencers. The donor community,
which often champions democratic norms and minority rights, and the
United Nations, regarded as the last resort for the wretched of the
earth, have also failed them. Even political parties that masterfully
market Islam, and the politics of the Gaza genocide, have turned a blind
eye to their predicament.
Plugging illicit financial flows are among solutions mooted by experts to bring the poverty rate of Africa down. IMAGE/ Ignatius Banda/IPS
BULAWAYO, Jan 15 2025 (IPS) –
Africa loses billions of dollars annually through illicit financial
flows, resulting in the continent failing to improve the lives of
millions of people despite vast mineral wealth, according to experts.
Agencies say more needs to be done to turn the continent’s natural
resources into prosperity at a time governments are struggling to
address challenging economic conditions that have spawned high poverty levels.
According to the African Development Bank (AfDB), poverty levels increased in 2022, with 281 million people affected by hunger, up by 11 million the previous year.
The grim data was a cause for concern among experts during the recent
African Economic Conference in Gaborone, Botswana, who lamented that
despite the continent’s undisputed mineral deposits, such high levels of
poverty have persisted.
“We cannot eat diamonds or bauxite,” said Said Adejumobi, Director of
Strategic Planning at the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).
“Other regions with fewer resources have transformed their economies
by adding value to what they produce. Why not us?” Adejumobi added in an
address during the Gaborone conference.
The ECA estimates that Africa loses USD 90 billion
annually through illicit financial flows, and the plunder has crippled
services such as the health sector and infrastructure development.
This loss is also being felt in the continent’s efforts to address
lingering debt and unserviceable loans, with ECA noting that the
external debt of more than half of African countries will soon exceed
USD 1 trillion.
“Sometimes we borrow just to repay previous loans, which is
unsustainable,” said Sonia Essobmadje, Chief of the Innovative Finance
and Capital Markets Section at the Economic Commission for Africa.
“There’s a need for economic diversification, fiscal discipline,
stronger public debt management strategies, and, above all, the
establishment of domestic capital markets,” said Essobmadje.
Researchers have long raised concerns about the loss of potential mining revenue to international criminal syndicates where African countries have failed to plug holes that have seen billions of dollars being lost.
However, experts note that for Africa to succeed, robust policymaking
will be crucial to ensure adherence to continental protocols that seek
to both protect and reclaim lost wealth.
“Policy is not first aid,” said Raymond Gilpin, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Africa’s Chief Economist.
“It’s about building structures for the future,” Gilpin said,
highlighting the lack of adequate long-term planning to protect the
continent’s wealth.
It is, however, not all gloom and doom, as experts have pointed to
Africa’s young population as offering hope for potential growth despite
the lingering challenges.
“We are optimistic because Africa has unique assets: a young, dynamic
workforce, vast renewable energy potential, and urbanization,” said
Caroline Kende-Robb, Director of Strategy and Operational Policies at
the African Development Bank (AfDB).
“It’s not all about crises—it’s about opportunity,” she added.
An upcoming evening of dialogue, poetry and music dedicated to the late radical feminist poets Amrita Pritam of India and Fahmida Riaz of Pakistan
Event poster from PIPFPD
‘Ishq, Siyasat, aur Awam’ (Love, politics, and the people) is the title of an evening of guftagu
(dialogue), poetry and music on Saturday, 27 January 2024, dedicated to
the late radical feminist poets Amrita Pritam of India and Fahmida Riaz
of Pakistan.
A multitude of speakers from both countries will pay tribute to the
‘strong voices of love, desire and resilience’ of these literary
stalwarts at the Jawahar Bhawan, New Delhi and online. The event is
scheduled to last for four hours, 3.30 to 7.30 pm (India time); 3- 7.00
pm (Pakistan time).
The evening is hosted by the Pakistan India People’s Forum for Peace
and Democracy in collaboration with Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and South
Asian Solidarity Collective.
“We welcome you all to join us to celebrate our art and resilience,” say the organisers, Tapan Bose, Dr Syeda Hameed, Evita Das, and Vijayan MJ of the PIPFPD, who are also founder members of the Southasia Peace Action Network. “We take the liberty to do this in honour of and through the prism of Amrita and Fahmida, who instigated love and politics.”
Note of context:
When Gen. Zia-ul-Haq’s regime found the poetry and political activism
of Fahmida Riaz intolerable, she fled the country and took political
asylum in India. It was Amrita Pritam who went to the then Prime
Minister of India, Mrs Indira Gandhi and secured shelter and safety for
her friend and contemporary poet from Pakistan.
The relationship between these two amazing women of South Asia does not start nor end with this story of asylum.
Remember when Amrita Pritam said, “Jaha bhi azad ruh ki Jhalak pade, Samajhna waha mera ghar hai” (Wherever you find a glimpse of a free spirit; that’s where you will find me)
And Fahmida Riaz said, “Jis lamhe me tum zinda ho, vo lamha tum se zinda hai (the moment through which you are alive, is the moment which is alive through you).
The two are often categorized as revolutionary, resilient, courageous
women, challenging society, patriarchy, and other norms. We might often
forget that one of the seeds of the revolutionary thought process is
radical love.
Both writers tirelessly provided the strength for themselves and
others to imagine, if not fulfil, relationships of people beyond
boundaries, beyond norms of society, state and religion. They
relentlessly contested norms and lived by their convictions.
The lines of poetry quoted above epitomise their life, writings, politics and choice of themes.
In more than one way, their love and respect for each other
personified the bond between the peoples of India and Pakistan. They
stood on either side of the border with open arms and open hearts, not
judging the ‘other’ from the prism of religion, politics or nationalism.
Fahmida Riaz wrote her satirical poem ‘Tum bilkul hum jaisey nikley‘ (You
have turned out to be just like us) after the 1992 demolition of the
Babri Masjid – so relevant today as a Ram Mandir is inaugurated on that
site. Comparing the rising Hindutva in India and Islamic fundamentalism
in Pakistan during Zia-ul-Haq’s regime, the poem remains relevant today,
against the backdrop of rising concerns over violence in the name of
religion in India.
The poem gained new life after Riaz recited it in Delhi on 8 March 2014 at a seminar titled ‘Hum Gunahgaar Auratein’ (We Sinful Women, the title of a poem by another contemporary Pakistani radical feminist poet, Kishwar Naheed).
“One should be totally sincere in one’s art, and uncompromising.
There is something sacred about art that cannot take violation,” as
Fahmid Riaz said.
These lines epitomise courageous Southasian women who stood out and
spoke their heart and art. Love, desire, democracy, passion, resistance –
they dealt with their times like prophets amidst lost peoples.
Topics and speakers:
Nazm on ishq, siyasat aur awam – Ankush Gupta ‘Siraj’, poet, writer, India
Fahmida aur jaddo-jahad – Meera Rizvi, artist, India
Voices of two revolutionaries resonates even today – Onaiza Drabu, co-founder of Daak Vaak, Kashmir
‘Amrita de naam’ poetic expression – Navsharan Singh, writer, activist, India
Amrita ek dharti – Muddasir Bashir, writer, Pakistan
Do mulkon ki mausiqui – Rene singh, artist, India
Paigham-e-ishq tarannum mein – Ananyaa Gaur, artist, India
As the poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz advised the people of Pakistan and India: “Halqa kiye baithe raho ik shama ko yaaro; kuchh raushn? baaq? to hai har-chand ki kam hai” (Friends, keep sitting in a circle around the candle; although limited at least some light is visible).
Wolfgang Weber at the party congress of the SGP in 2010
In the early hours of November 16, Wolfgang Weber, a longtime leader
of the German section of the International Committee of the Fourth
International, died at the age of 75 after five years of serious
illness.
Wolfgang devoted over 50 years of his life to building the Trotskyist
party and fought tirelessly politically and theoretically for the
independence of the working class.
A political appreciation of
Wolfgang’s life leads to an assessment of the fundamental historical
questions and tasks facing his entire generation. This was above all the
struggle for the continuity of revolutionary Marxism. This had been
attacked by Stalinism, fascism and Pabloism to such an extent that,
historically speaking, it hung by a thread. It was defended and further
developed, in the years in which Wolfgang became politically conscious,
only by the International Committee of the Fourth International, whose
leading section at that time was the British Socialist Labour League
under the leadership of Gerry Healy.
Wolfgang’s life is
inextricably linked to the construction of the ICFI and its German
section, which had been destroyed by Pabloism. As a child of the postwar
period, he drew the conclusion from Nazi rule that the working class
had to be freed from the crippling influence of the Stalinist and social
democratic bureaucracies in order to prevent another catastrophe. He
dedicated his life—and his enormous intellectual capacity—to this task.
Youth in postwar Germany
Wolfgang
was born on June 6, 1949 in Schliersee, south of Munich, where his
parents, grandparents and two older brothers lived together in a cramped
summer house where they had fled from bombed-out Munich after the war.
Two years after his birth, the family moved to Munich and four years
later to Würzburg, where Wolfgang spent his entire schooling. The soon
to be six-member family could not significantly climb the social ladder
on the salary of his father, who was an insurance agent, and later rose
to become branch manager.
His school years were marked by the
unbearable misery of the postwar period. Old Nazi teachers who wanted to
prepare the students for a new war of revenge, a church in which
nothing had changed since the end of the war, and an omnipresent
anti-communism in petty-bourgeois layers shaped his childhood and youth.
Wolfgang looked for the contrast in classical literature, reading in
particular Friedrich Schiller and Theodor Storm and enjoying the
programs on these authors on the radio from East Germany (GDR), where he
also had family ties.
He was attracted to classical humanism, and
as social conflicts intensified and May 1968 approached, Schiller and
Storm were increasingly supplemented by Bertolt Brecht and Franz Kafka.
Wolfgang turned away from the church and became a conscious atheist.
Like so many of his generation, he was increasingly driven by the
question of how, in the land of poets and thinkers, the catastrophe of
fascism was possible, which was now being swept under the carpet by the
ruling elites.
In particular, the French documentary film Nacht und Nebel
(Night and Fog), which brought together original shots from several
concentration camps, made a deep impression on Wolfgang. As one of his
first political experiences, he followed the Eichmann trial in Israel
and later the Auschwitz trials in Germany on the radio, at the age of
12. But he found no answer to his questions in school and in the
politically cleansed libraries. He found the countless misanthropic or
social-psychological explanatory models that prevailed to be totally
inadequate.
Introduction
Incentive-linked prescribing, which is when healthcare providers accept
incentives from pharmaceutical companies for prescribing promoted
medicines, is a form of bribery that harms patients and health systems
globally. We developed a novel method using data collectors posing as
pharmaceutical company sales representatives to evaluate private
doctors’ engagement in incentive-linked prescribing and the impact of a
multifaceted educational intervention on reducing this practice in
Karachi, Pakistan.
Methods
We made a sampling frame of all doctors running for-profit,
primary-care clinics and randomly allocated participants to control and
intervention groups (1:1). The intervention group received a
multifaceted seminar on ethical prescribing and reinforcement messages
over 6?weeks. The control group attended a seminar without mention of
ethical prescribing. The primary outcome was the proportion of
participants agreeing to accept incentives in exchange for prescribing
promoted medicines from data collectors posing as pharmaceutical company
representatives, 3?months after the seminars.
Results
We enrolled 419 of 440 eligible participants. Of 210 participants
randomly allocated to the intervention group, 135 (64%) attended the
intervention seminar and of 209 participants allocated to the control
group, 132 (63%) attended the placebo seminar. The primary outcome was
assessed in 130 (96%) and 124 (94%) of intervention and control
participants, respectively. No participants detected the covert data
collectors. 52 control group doctors (41.9%) agreed to accept incentives
as compared with 42 intervention group doctors (32.3%). After adjusting
for doctors’ age, sex and clinic district, there was no evidence of the
intervention’s impact on the primary outcome (OR 0.70 [95% CI 0.40 to
1.20], p=0.192).
Conclusions This first study to covertly assess deal-making between doctors and pharmaceutical company representatives demonstrated that the practice is strikingly widespread in the study setting and suggested that substantial reductions are unlikely to be achieved by educational interventions alone. Our novel method provides an opportunity to generate evidence on deal-making between doctors and pharmaceutical companies elsewhere.
On March 20, 2018, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met President Trump in the Oval Office. In the picture, Trump is seen holding a chart of potential military hardware sales. IMAGE/AFP/Getty Images/Los Angeles Times/Duck Duck Go
“Procuring, pimping, or pandering is the facilitation or provision of a prostitute or other sex worker in the arrangement of a sex act with a customer.[1] A procurer, colloquially called a pimp (if male) or a madam (if female, though the term “pimp” has often been used for female procurers as well) or a brothel keeper, is an agent for prostitutes who collects part of their earnings. The procurer may receive this money in return for advertising services, physical protection, or for providing and possibly monopolizing a location where the prostitute may solicit clients. Like prostitution, the legality of certain actions of a madam or a pimp vary from one region to the next.
“Examples of procuring include:
Trafficking a person into a country for the purpose of soliciting sex
Operating a business where prostitution occurs
Transporting a prostitute to the location of their arrangement
Deriving financial gain from the prostitution of another”
one could add a fifth example relating to nations and their leaders:
trafficking of national wealth for the purpose of gaining protection
“The first foreign trip typically has been with the U.K. but … I did it with Saudi Arabia last time [2018] because they agreed to buy $450 billion worth of our products.” “[This time] If Saudi Arabia wanted to buy another $450 billion or $500 — we’ll up it for all the inflation — I think I’d probably go.”
Trump openly demanded; how could MBS refuse, he needs protection
protection from his own people over whom he lords in undemocratic way
“The crown prince affirmed the kingdom’s intention to broaden its investments and trade with the United States over the next four years, in the amount of $600bn, and potentially beyond that.”
And it’s also reported today in the papers that Saudi Arabia will be investing at least $600 billion in America. But I’ll be asking the crown prince, who’s a fantastic guy, to round it out to around $1 trillion. I think they’ll do that because we’ve been very good to them. And I’m also going to ask Saudi Arabia and OPEC to bring down the cost of oil. You got to bring it down, which, frankly, I’m surprised they didn’t do before the election. That didn’t show a lot of love by them not doing it. I was a little surprised by that.
If the price came down, the Russia-Ukraine war would end immediately. Right now, the price is high enough that that war will continue. You got to bring down the oil price; you’re going to end that war. They should have done it long ago. They’re very responsible, actually, to a certain extent, for what’s taking place — millions of lives are being lost.
Trump was born with a barrel of lies
the barrel must be of infinite size that he still keeps on spewing the lies
“L.A. is vast. It is a city and a county. It is a global place, a Pacific Rim space, a ‘Third World’ metropolis. It has all the contradictions of the world and all the world is condensed in it. The homes of rich, poor, middle class, Black, white, Asian, Latino have burned. Fire is coming for all of us.” – Viet Thanh Nguyen
As I sit at my desk to write, the light shining through my office
window is a distinct orange, and the sky outside is a murky, polluted
shade of brown. The air quality is horrendous, and my eyes are dry and
itchy. My throat is sore. Two major fires are still raging out of
control in Los Angeles, the city I love, with little to no containment.
Another has just erupted in Woodland Hills. Fortunately, we’re in a safe
zone away from the infernos. Many more are not so lucky.
Scrolling through the latest fire
updates on social media, I quickly find commenters who are cheering on
the flames as if they’ve been ignited to smoke out the wealthy elites
from their mansions. They are gleeful. Conspiracists I come across
believe this is all a planned land grab (by whom I’m unsure), while
others spread lies that the shadowy Deep State, the ones behind
weather-altering chemtrails, is somehow responsible.
I gather that most of these folks
don’t live in Los Angeles (or the real world?), and I’m sure very few
could point out the location of Eagle Rock on a map. Yet, here they are,
experts on fire ecology and the history of Los Angeles.
I see, as per usual during a big L.A. fire, that a few are passing around Mike Davis’s fantastic essay, “The Case for Letting Malibu Burn,”
not because of Davis’s thesis that the poor, by capitalist design,
suffer most during a natural disaster but because they seem to believe
he was some kind of schadenfreude. It’s a shameful disservice to his
legacy and a twisted misreading of Davis’s important work.
A fervent critic of the conditions
that lead to inequality, Mike Davis was not one to celebrate misery. He
would have had nothing but empathy for those impacted by these flames
(okay, maybe not James Wood). As I think about Mike, his daughter Róisín messages me. Her childhood home and school have burned to the ground.
Another friend posts a short video of a smoldering foundation,
remnants of his garage/art studio. He’s lost everything, years of work.
His family was lucky to escape. A GoFundMe pops up; a friend of a friend
needs help. The place they rent is gone.
I get it, though. Many people do not
empathize with Los Angeles or those of us who live here, even though
L.A. is one of the country’s most culturally significant, diverse, and
fascinating cities. It’s become a natural reaction to hate this place.
The city has been relentlessly portrayed in the media, magazines, film,
and television as vapid – a bastion of rich, self-obsessed Hollywood
liberals, freeways, and smog. It’s an easy city to despise if you are
afraid of what you do not know, and no single person knows everything
about Los Angeles.
L.A. is endlessly complicated, and the reality of what’s behind these
fires, which will forever reshape its battered landscape and charred
souls, is no different.
The totality of the destruction of
these flames is impossible to comprehend. They’ve consumed museums,
schools, mobile home parks, senior centers, stores, restaurants,
encampments, apartment buildings, fire stations, countless homes, and
many historical and cultural landmarks. It’s hard to keep track. Tens of
thousands of people have been displaced. The historic Black community
of Altadena has been decimated. People have died, animals have
suffocated, and families across the economic spectrum have lost
everything.
In
Pakistan, Khawaja Serai community (Pakistan’s indigenous transwomen
community) do not tend to refer to themself as ‘Khawaja Serai’. This is a
word from the Urdu language is used in a more respectable fashion since
the origins of the Urdu language to refer to the Khawaja Serai
community as compare to other words in Urdu / Hindi/ Punjabi or Sindhi
languages such as H*jra, K**sra and Kh*dro etc which are derogatory
terms used by cisgender/ heterosexual folks to ridicule, harass and
abuse the Khawaja Serai community.
In
India, ‘Hijra’ is not seen as a derogatory term now and instead used as
a reclaimed word just like ‘Queer’. ‘ Kinner’ is another word used by
the Indian Hijra community and ‘Kothi’ for effeminate gays. Hijra Farsi
which is the traditional coded language of the Khawaja Serai community,
the word we use is ‘Moorat’ for not only Khawaja Serai folks but gender/
sexually diverse and even effeminate gays who are also referred as
‘Kotkhi’ or ‘Zenana’. ‘Mutajannis shakhs’ ‘Ashkhaas’ can be Urdu
literary terms in order to indigenous and mainstream non-binary, gender
non conforming and androgynous folks.
Even
‘Gay’ isn’t an Urdu word, I’ve struggled to find an exact word but we
can use ‘Humjins’ and for ‘homosexuality’ we can say ‘Humjinsiyat’
instead of ‘Humjins parasht’ which is offending to a certain level.
Also, trans men don’t mind Khawaja Mard, Pakistan’s national identity
card (NIC) databases officially recognize three genders other than the
binary terminologies e.g. ‘Khawaja Aurat’ (Transwomen), ‘Khawaja Serai
Mard’ (Transmen) and ‘Mukhanus’ (Intersex). Arabic, ‘Mukhannis’ is used
for trans women, intersex and gender non-conforming folks.
In
our South Asian languages, there isn’t much historical context or
traditional acknowledgement developed (which will take time) for
non-binary or gender-confirming folks. To surprise of most Khawaja Serai
culture is very inclusive and diverse incorporating street transwomen
and gay folks in a synergistic community. Pakistani culture much like
other South Asian cultures is patriarchal, conservative and
heteronormative where the ‘third gender’ Khawaja serai community came to
the origin as they were ostracized by the mainstream society and were
able to form their subculture/ communities.
South
Asian women never had that privilege and we all know how still women
are controlled in our culture that’s why we don’t see lesbian visibility
or even openness about their sexuality, trans men also don’t have the
same privilege, rights or freedom to leave their families and be on
their own. Khawaja serai can earn and live on their own as they have a
strong sense of community can survive in ghettoized dangerous
neighbourhoods working as beggars and sex workers under unfavourable
conditions.
Class
privilege, education and exposure has given freedom to a newer
generation of urban upper-middle-class segment of Pakistanis to embrace
their gender non-conforming and non-binary identities that were never
before possible, that does not mean societal discrimination and
restrictions go away for them but it is still safer to be open within a
closed group of friends as compared to those who like effeminate gays
and traditional ‘Khawaja serai’ transwomen are kicked out of their homes
to form their own Khawaja serai communities and sub-culture.
The 2024 UN OSAA flagship report ‘Unpacking Africa’s Debt: Towards a Lasting and Durable Solution’ addresses the urgent need to reform Africa’s debt structures and suggests how countries can get out of unsustainable debt.
To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Agenda 2063 aspirations, Africa requires an additional $1.3 – 1.6 trillion in financing.
According to a new report ‘Unpacking Africa’s Debt: Towards a Lasting and Durable Solution’
by the UN Special Advisor on Africa launched on 14 November 2024,
borrowing remains a necessary tool to navigate the compounding crises of
financial distress, climate change, food insecurity, and persistent
conflict.
The report emphasizes the need to re-examine Africa’s historical
reliance on debt instruments to address structural constraints and
unlocking economic opportunities. By fostering economic growth and
ensuring debt sustainability, debt can become a tool for progress rather
than a hindrance.
This shift requires aligning debt strategies with long-term development priorities.
“Debt is an important mode of financing. While many countries are in
debt distress, we must not treat Africa as a completely debt-distressed
continent,” said Cristina Duarte, Under-Secretary-General and Special
Adviser on Africa to the UN Secretary-General, at the launch of the
report in New York.
“Debt, when managed effectively, can help us invest in achieving
development goals,” added Ms. Duarte. The need to reform the global
financing system to ensure predictable and affordable financing,
prioritize development outcomes over private finance interests, and
create fiscal space to fund SDG investments, is also emphasized in the
report.
Existing frameworks, including debt restructuring arrangements like
the Common Framework, the Report says, are insufficient to meet Africa’s
development needs. The Common Framework for Debt Treatments beyond the
DSSI (Debt Service Suspension Initiative) is an initiative launched by
the G20 in November 2020 to help low-income countries address
unsustainable debt levels.
Developed by the G20 and the Paris Club (a group of major creditor
countries), the Common Framework aims to streamline debt restructuring
and provide more comprehensive debt relief options for countries
struggling with high debt burdens, particularly following the economic
impact of COVID-19.
At the national level, African countries can deepen domestic debt
markets to incentivize local investment and effectively engage with the
private sector.
Strengthening regional financing architecture can support
transboundary infrastructure projects, complementing national efforts.
Enhancing debt management and reform capacity across the continent will
also play a critical role in addressing the development financing gap.
The report envisions debt as a means to support a more sustainable
economic model. Moving beyond resource extraction for export, African
economies can leverage debt to build value-added industries, fostering
resilience and self-reliance.
By rethinking debt, fostering domestic investment, and pushing for
global financing reforms, Africa can bridge its development gap and
achieve its aspirations sustainably.
Key recommendations
Some of the recommendations proposed by the report aimed at addressing Africa’s financing challenges, include:
Increasing access to affordable finance:
Fulfill Official Development Assistance (ODA) pledges, allocating 10% to
capacity building and digitization for domestic resource mobilization
(DRM)systems.
Reform Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) to prioritize long-term
(30-50 years) concessional lending, increase capital, and lend in local
currencies to reduce currency risks.
Prioritize sustainable development by ensuring predictable, large-scale climate adaptation financing.
Reducing borrowing costs:
Restructure high-interest, short-term debt into long-term, low-cost loans to ease fiscal pressure.
Strengthen the G20 Common Framework by expanded eligibility, clarifying
processes, and ensuring debt service suspension during negotiations.
Enhancing debt sustainability:
Introduce debt service suspension linked to SDG progress.
Establish a Sovereign Debt Authority to prioritize development in debt treatment.
Leveraging Financing Innovations:
Use state-contingent clauses to suspend debt payments during crises.
Employ debt-for-development, debt-for-nature, debt-for-climate swaps to free resources for SDG investment.
Strengthening regional cooperation:
Boost regional development banks and accelerate Pan-African institutions like the African Investment Bank.
Promote cross-border financing for infrastructure and deepen regional financial markets.
