In The News

Vanguard: Earth Loses a Statesman – Kofi Annan

Charles Kumolo August 21, 2018
The world is mourning the death of Kofi Annan, secretary-general of the United Nations from January 1997 to December 2006. “Annan was not the first person nor the only African to have headed the global body, but his ability to lead and inspire endeared him to the world,” writes Charles Kumolo for Vanguard in Nigeria. “His 10-year leadership of the UN in the post-cold war era, saw him championing...

BBC News: Why Only 1% of the World’s Vanilla Is Real

Nancy Kacungira August 20, 2018
The island of Madagascar is the world’s largest producer of vanilla beans. Farmers protect their crops with patrols and mark individual pods while on the vine. The vanilla orchid, a native plant of Mexico, can grow 300 feet tall, but there are challenges: The orchid requires high humidity, shade and moderate temperatures and new plants produce pods after three years. Each flower must be...

Wired: Kenya’s Silicon Savannah

Laura Mallonee August 15, 2018
Nairobi is home to more than 200 startups as well as established firms like Intel and Microsoft, reports Laura Mallonee for Wired. Photographs by Janek Stroisch show young adults at work alone on computers and with teams surrounded by gadgets, wires and equipment, all reminiscent of scenes from Silicon Valley in California. Mallonee notes the “the problems are a little different,” describing...

Mail & Guardian: New Zimbabwe Is Not So Different

Simon Allison August 2, 2018
The internatonal community had hoped the end of Robert Mugabe’s rule in Zimbabwe would introduce a period of stability and prosperity. After fighting for Zimbabwe’s independence, Mugabe was the country’s president from 1987 until November 2017 when he was forced to resign. The country failed to deliver a peaceful or credible election on July 30, reports Simon Allison for the Mail & Guardian,...

Brookings: Africa’s 3 Deadly Deficits

Indermit Singh Gill and Kenan Karakulah June 21, 2018
Despite sub-Saharan Africa’s rapid population growth, the region’s income growth matches the global pace and was even negative in 2016. The Sustainable Development Goals pioneered by the United Nations in 2015 seem out of reach for the region as income inequality widens. Three factors for the region’s slow economic growth are low quality education, limited access to electricity and weak domestic...

African Business: Will Facebook’s Troubles Cost Africans?

Rafiq Raji June 7, 2018
Facebook admits to collecting data on people who are not users, who did not agree to terms of service, for security reasons. Such collections may clash with efforts of the EU General Data Protection Regulation that aim to give people control over their data. “The GDPR may become the global model for regulating tech firms that collect personal data and earn income by selling or drawing profitable...

New York Times: Improve a Billion Lives With Eyeglasses

Andrew Jacobs May 10, 2018
HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other deadly diseases are at the forefront of global health crises. This had allowed certain widespread health issues to be overlooked. Poor vision and lack of access to eyeglasses, while not necessarily fatal, afflicts more than a billion people worldwide. Eye exams and eyeglasses can be very expensive, while the resources allotted to improving vision care in...