African Content

Deadly diseases including plague, Ebola and Rift Valley Fever are being targeted as part of a new multi-million pound international partnership involving African researchers and the London International Development Centre (LIDC). The Southern African Centre for Infectious Disease Surveillance (SACIDS) links medical and veterinary institutions from five African countries and the UK to improve the capacity of African institutions to detect, identify and monitor infectious diseases affecting humans and animals, including new infectious human diseases of animal origin.

Continue reading Research network wins approximately £5.7 million to target human and animal diseases in Africa

Predation is one of the most fundamental and fascinating interactions in nature, and sharks are some of the fiercest predators on Earth. However, their hunting pattern is difficult to study because it is rarely observed in the wild. As a result, shark predatory behavior has remained much of a mystery. Now, researchers from the United States and Canada are using geographic profiling — a criminal investigation tool used to track a connected series of crimes and locate where serial criminals live — to examine the hunting patterns of white sharks in South Africa.

Continue reading Geographic profiling applied to track hunting patterns of white sharks in South Africa

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) on Wednesday in Tunis approved an investment of Euro 10 million in the Investment Fund for Health in Africa (IFHA). IFHA is a pioneer multinational private equity vehicle that invests growth equity in privately owned businesses in the healthcare value chain. IFHA uses market instruments to enhance the efficiency and quality of health care in Africa. It focuses mainly on existing health insurance organizations, pharmaceutical production facilities and distribution chains. Investments are expected to range between € 0.5 million and €5 million.

Continue reading AfDB Private Sector Supports Healthcare Delivery-Invests € 10 Million in Investment Fund for Health in Africa

Mineral-rich countries in Africa enjoyed a mining boom between 2002 and 2007 as metal and oil prices nearly tripled. Companies competed furiously for new mines to meet growing world demand. As a result, a number of African nations found themselves in a much stronger bargaining position with foreign investors, who previously were able to demand — and get — huge breaks before they would invest. Now governments could strike better deals with new investors, and even renegotiate old mining contracts. “We just want to make sure that we are getting the best [deal] for our deposits,” Alhaji Abubakarr Jalloh, Sierra Leone’s minister of mines, said in September 2007.

The West Africa Doctors Network was started in March 2002 as a aggregator of medical and health related content. Today we continue aggregate news and information from over hundreds of sites and sources, saving the user valuable time surfing. Our Vision is to become an unbeatable access point for medical and healthcare professionals seeking information [...]

AKAR, 18 May 2009 (IRIN) – African Development Bank president Donald Kaberuka says medium-sized farms are the engine for agricultural growth in Africa and given their position and potential they merit considerable investment. Agriculture campaigners say while they support such an approach, investors must not overlook small-scale farmers.

Considering the gravity of the crisis and the Bank’s capacity as the continent’s premier development finance institution, the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group is providing concrete support to institutions and projects in Africa given the intensity of external shocks and evaporating financial resources.
To this end, the AfDB Board of Directors on Wednesday, 4 March 2009 [...]

The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group and six other prominent Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) have pledged to provide US$15 billion to promote trade and strengthen the African financial sector.
The other organizations, the Agence française de développement (AFD), the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), the European Investment Bank (EIB) the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), the [...]

“Finding productive employment for the 200 million Africans between the ages of 15 and 24 is surely one of the continent’s greatest challenges,” said Obiageli Ezekwesili, World Bank Vice President for the Africa Region. “The findings from this essay, especially with regards to the median African youth who is a poor female living in the rural area with little education and even less job opportunity has important implications for policy design,” she highlighted.

As the world’s economic woes deepen, Africa’s leaders are delivering a strong message that the international community must help the continent protect the development gains of recent years. In a report prepared for the 2 April meeting of the Group of 20 (G-20), a high-level consultative body, at which South Africa is the continent’s only representative, a committee of 10 African finance ministers and central bank governors set up to monitor the crisis, has told world leaders that they must honour their commitments to increase aid, improve trade access and agree to a fairer, more flexible way of managing international financial affairs.

“Africa Renewal, United Nations”.
By Roy Laishley
Unemployment challenges stability in Liberia, Sierra Leone
It was just a small loan worth the equivalent of $100, from a UN-supported local microfinance bank. But it enabled Mojamah, just returned to her home in Kenema, Sierra Leone, after the country’s civil war, to set up a dressmaking business to support her [...]

In October 2008 leaders from East and Southern Africa agreed on plans to form the largest free trade area in the continent. The new entity would be made up of three existing regional groupings — the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community [...]

Does microfinance benefit economic development? When asked that question, James Mwangi, chief executive officer of Kenya’s Equity Bank, responds in the affirmative. With even small loans, he told Africa Renewal, “We have seen families graduate from micro-enterprises to semi-medium enterprises.”

Boulder, CO, USA – A new publication by the Geological Society of America outlines the topographic evolution of the dynamic African continent, illustrating how its unique geomorphic history reflects its distinctive tectonics. Authors Kevin Burke of the University of Houston and Yanni Gunnell of University Denis Diderot Paris 7 detail this history, noting that “the [...]