BLACK STAR COLLECTIVE BLOG

Wrong Drugs for Malaria War

2009-07-14T10:12:00.000-07:00

Nairobi — The government is concerned about the continued use of wrong malaria drugs in the market, including in its own health facilities.

Only a third of people seeking malaria treatment are getting the recommended medicine and some are even being treated with chloroquine, which was phased out almost 10 years ago.

The first ever comprehensive malaria study in Kenya, the 2007 Kenya Malaria Indicator Survey (KMIS), which was launched in recent weeks, revealed that only 29 per cent of patients received the recommended Artemesinin Combination Therapy (ACT).

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Making Africa More Competitive

2009-07-06T10:44:00.000-07:00

Tunis, Tunisia - African businesses can become far more competitive, but African governments and their international partners will need to improve access to finance, resist pressure to erect trade barriers, upgrade infrastructure, improve healthcare and educational systems, and strengthen institutions.

This major new report, The Africa Competitiveness Report 2009, reflect research efforts of three institutions - the World Economic Forum, the African Development Bank and the World Bank. The report notes that limited access to financial services remains a major obstacle for African enterprises, but underdeveloped infrastructure, limited healthcare and educational services, and poor institutional frameworks also make African countries less competitive in the global marketplace. The report also points to a number of success stories in the region that highlight steps countries can take to improve the business environment.

The jointly produced report launched today in Tunis, Tunisia, is the second report on the region's business environment to leverage knowledge and expertise within the three organizations. The report also presents an integrated vision of the policy challenges African nations face as they build a foundation for sustainable growth and prosperity.

The report highlights two short-term and three longer term policy themes for improving the competitiveness of African economies. click for more

Boost Africa Agriculture

2009-07-01T11:25:00.000-07:00

F.E.B.N. Issue Post[AfriAGRICULTURE]: As more than 300 million Africans - face chronic hunger, donors must honour their pledges to help boost agriculture, which is the key to ensuring food security, top United Nations officials say.

Some 21 African countries now depend on food imports, leaving their populations highly vulnerable to increases in the global prices of such staples as rice, wheat, corn, and cooking oil, according to the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), which devoted a meeting of its governing board yesterday to the issue of Africa's food crisis.

"Africa has been hit very hard by several crises - food, finance, fuel - without causing these crises," UNCTAD Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi told the meeting in Geneva. "Africa is an innocent bystander."

He warned that Africa's food crisis may not get the attention it needs since much of the focus in recent months has been on the global financial turmoil, and the impact of that could be severe.

"There may be much less financing just when African farmers need to plant and harvest more," he noted. "I've heard that in some regions, farmers can't plant because they can't get credit and financing for trade has been lacking. All this has to be remedied."

Black Star Collective Foundation Hires Pastiche Group!

2009-06-27T06:01:00.000-07:00

For Immediate Release

June 26, 2009

Contact: Karen Opong
Executive Committee, Black Star Collective Foundation
Telephone: 1-(800)828.1087
http://www.blackstarcollectivefoundation.com
_________________________________
HOW ARE YOU GIVING BACK TO AFRICA?

A new, unique & critical effort to engage Africans abroad in the issues vital to the progress of the African continent.

New York, USA – The Black Star Collective Foundation is bringing on Syieda Penn, CEO of Pastiche Group LLC a marketing strategist consulting firm in Washington D.C. to handle marketing for foundation’s FINALE Benefit Gala & Awards Show and Forward Ever Backward Never (F.E.B.N.) campaign benefiting aid projects to Africa.

In its second year, in October THE FINALE invites friends of Africa, dignitaries and community leaders, businesspeople and artists to bear witness to excellence in various industries.

”We believe Syieda could be the missing link needed to the team based on her prior success, contacts, & enthusiasm for the foundation's objectives,” ~ Akua Ampadu, Black Star Collective Foundation Co-Founder.

The foundation has kept an eye on Pastiche Group since September 2007 when Syieda Penn worked on the Runway Africa show, a fashion benefit held in D.C. Working with Ghanaian Clarissa Abban, she was able to secure a contract with Amarula Cream. Most recently, she handled marketing for the 2009 International Inauguration Ball that involved the likes of Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, songstress, Lalah Hathaway, and Global Woman Magazine.

The Black Star Collective Foundation is a 501(c) 3 organization based in New York that supports innovative aid projects to Africa, raises awareness about African issues, and provides a grant program for emerging African social entrepreneurs. Co-founded by Akua Ampadu, Adjoa Adofo, Karen Opong, and Victoria Adjei of D.C. Ladies Inc., the organization is run by 16 U.S.-based African professionals in various industries. http://www.blackstarcollectivefoundation.com

SAVE THE DATE

JULY 15 – Application Deadline for the Forward Ever Backward Never grant program. http://www.forward-ever.org/fund.php.

JULY 25 – F.E.B.N. United Nations Soccer Tournament/BBQ Block Party. Manhattan. N.Y. http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=101001379523

OCTOBER 10 – 2009 FINALE BENEFIT GALA & AWARDS SHOW. Manhattan. N.Y.

__________________________________________________________

BLACK STAR COLLECTIVE FOUNDATION ◦ www.forward-ever.org ◦

New Report: Millions wasted on failing Africa water projects

2009-03-23T10:04:00.000-07:00

Hundreds of millions of dollars have been wasted on rural water projects in Africa because the donors and aid agencies that built them ignored maintenance, a new report claimed Friday.

London-based research organisation the International Institute for Environment and Development said about 50,000 water supply points across rural Africa had failed, representing a loss of 215 to 360 million US dollars.

"It is not enough to drill a well and walk away. Water projects need to support long-term maintenance needs and engage local communities. Without this, it is like throwing money down the drain," said report author Jamie Skinner.

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African free trade zone is agreed

2008-10-27T14:44:00.000-07:00

President Mwai Kibaki signed the agreement on behalf of Kenya

The leaders of three African trading blocs on Wednesday agreed to create a free trade zone of 26 countries with a GDP of an estimated $624bn (£382.9bn).

It is hoped the deal will ease access to markets within the region and end problems arising from the fact several countries belong to multiple groups.

The deal also aims to strengthen the bloc's bargaining power when negotiating international deals.

Analysts say the agreement will help intra-regional trade and boost growth.

The three blocs which struck the deal were the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the East African Community (EAC) and the the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa).

"The greatest enemy of Africa, the greatest source of weakness has been disunity and a low level of political and economic integration," said Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni at a meeting with the heads of state who chair the three trade blocs.

The agreement will also lend its backing to joint infrastructure and energy projects in the zone.

Six heads of state from 26 countries in Comesa, SADC and the EAC attended the meeting in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, to sign the agreement.

source

Zimbabwe: Political Leaders Agree on Power-Sharing Deal

2008-09-12T14:42:00.000-07:00

More than five months after Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) beat the ruling Zanu-PF into second place in elections, the country's major political parties have reached an agreement to share power.

President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa confirmed at a news conference in Harare on Thursday night, Zimbabwe time, that "a unanimous agreement, arrived at without any reservation by all the negotiating parties" had been concluded. The news conference was broadcast in South Africa on satellite television.

Mbeki - appointed as facilitator of the talks by the Southern African Development Community - spoke soon after the news agency Agence France-Presse quoted MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai as emerging from talks to tell journalists: "We've got a deal." Reuters quoted a Zimbabwe government source as confirming the deal.

Mbeki said Zimbabwe's leaders would spend the coming days constituting what he called "an inclusive government." A formal signing ceremony would be held in Harare on Monday, when details of the agreement would be publicly released. He said he believed it was "inevitable" that the agreement would succeed "because it's made in Zimbabwe and owned by Zimbabwe's people... The rest of the world needs to respect that."

End to World Bank's Chad oil deal

2008-09-12T12:45:00.000-07:00

The World Bank has been in talks with President Idriss Deby

The World Bank has cancelled an oil pipeline deal with Chad after a dispute with the government over failed pledges to use profits to tackle poverty.

The bank said Chad had also failed to use revenues on health and education.

It said Chad had paid the outstanding balance of $65.7m (£37m) under a $140m loan agreement, after talks with the government of President Idriss Deby.

Chad called the decision "practically consensual" and that relations would continue in non-oil sectors. The pipeline was seen as a test case for how Africa's oil wealth could benefit the poor if spent properly.
The central African country is expected to earn about $1.4bn in oil revenues this year.
"Regrettably, it became evident that the arrangements that had underpinned the bank's involvement in the Chad-Cameroon pipeline project were not working," said Michel Wormser, the bank's director of operations for Africa.
"The bank therefore concluded that it could not continue to support this project under these circumstances."
But he said future cooperation was possible "if the government of Chad wishes to focus its energies on a programme to support inclusive development to overcome poverty, assist displaced people and improve governance".

Source

South African Justice as Next UN Human Rights Chief

2008-07-26T08:45:00.000-07:00

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has informed the General Assembly of his intention to appoint Judge Navanethem Pillay of South Africa as the new United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Ms. Pillay will succeed Louise Arbour of Canada, who completed her five-year term on 30 June.

Since 2003, Ms. Pillay has served as Judge on the International Criminal Court (ICC), based in The Hague, Netherlands.

Prior to that, she served – as both Judge and President – on the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), which she joined in 1995.

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FYI : Senegalese Scrabble World Champion.

2008-07-26T00:00:00.000-07:00

Scrabble champion Ndongo Sylla

Sylla, 29, is competing in the 37th Francophone Scrabble World Championships, which are taking place in Senegal this week.

Some 600 competitors have travelled from 21 countries to the capital, Dakar, where they face the task of beating the hosts.

In 2000, Ndongo Sylla and his partner, Arona Gaye, became the first Africans to take a world title when they won the Pairs section.

Since then, Senegal's standing has improved to the point where it took three of the four titles on offer at last year's world championships in Canada - not bad for a country with a 40% literacy rate.

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