In recent months, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has announced US$430 million of funding to fight Ebola in Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia. By making these funds available, the IMF aims to become part of the solution to the crisis, even if this involves a departure from its usual approach. As IMF Director Christine Lagarde said at a meeting on the outbreak, “It is good to increase the fiscal deficit when it's a matter of curing the people, of taking the precautions to actually try to contain the disease. The IMF doesn't say that very often.” Yet, could it be that the IMF had contributed to the circumstances that enabled the crisis to arise in the first place? A major reason why the outbreak spread so rapidly was the weakness of health systems in the region. There were many reasons for this, including the legacy of conflict and state failure. Since 1990, the IMF has provided support to Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, for 21, 7, and 19 years, respectively, and at the time that Ebola emerged, all three countries were under IMF programmes. However, IMF lending comes with strings attached—so-called “conditionalities”—that require recipient governments to adopt policies that have been criticised for prioritising short-term economic objectives over investment in health and education. Indeed, it is not even clear that they have strengthened economic performance. Here the authors review the policies advocated by the IMF before the outbreak, and examine their effect on the three health systems.
Health equity in economic and trade policies
In any economy, the extractive sector consists mainly of oil, gas and mining activities. Experience in countries such as Norway, Canada, Botswana and Ghana suggests that extractives can be effectively managed to contribute to sustainable economic growth. Experience, however, in other parts of the world including Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic suggest that extractives if not well managed can lead to conflict. Extractives in Kenya contribute approximately one per cent to gross domestic product. The sector is however emerging. In the recent past, there have been oil and more mining discoveries in Kenya. For instance, oil has been discovered in Turkana County, and there are new discoveries in the mining sectors for minerals such as titanium in Kilifi County and coal in Kitui County. In addition, Kenya is actively undertaking off shore explorations with the aim of making gas discoveries. The growing extractive sector in Kenya means that there is need to give more attention to the social and economic dynamics of the sector. For instance, when Kenya discovered oil in Turkana County in March 2012, the Government was faced with emergent issues such as environmental implications, community obligations and rights, a suitable governance framework, and effective utilisation of resources generated from the sector.
The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), a Pan African platform comprising civil society networks and farmer organisations working towards food sovereignty, has submitted this Open Letter to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Dr. Wendy White from Iowa State University and the Human Institutional Review Board of Iowa State University expressing fierce opposition to the human feeding trials taking place at Iowa State University involving genetically modified (GM) bananas. The Letter is supported by more than 120 organizations from around the world. The letter states:"This so-called ‘Super-banana’, has been genetically modified to contain extra beta-carotene, a nutrient the human body uses to produce vitamin A. Unlike current GM crops in commercial production where agronomic traits have been altered, scientists have spliced genes into the GM banana to produce substances for humans to digest (extra beta carotene). The GM banana is a whole different ballgame, raising serious concerns about the risks to African communities who would be expected to consume it. Production of vitamin A in the body is complex and not fully understood. This raises important questions including inter alia, whether high levels of beta- carotene or vitamin A may carry risks and what the nature of those risks might be. While a risk assessment is a pre-requisite for GM foods under many national jurisdictions, the need for specific and additional food safety assessment for nutritionally enhanced GM crops such as the GM banana is acknowledged by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, as genetic modifications result in a composition that may be significantly different from their conventional counterparts".
SciDev.Net’s focus groups in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are part of a global programme that aims to understand regional needs and contexts for science and technology in development. The programme started in 2012 in South East Asia and the Pacific, and reports are available online at www.scidev.net/global/content/learning-series.html This report highlights the key areas of interest in for development, and barriers and gaps in the use of science and technology evidence. It also provides suggestions for how communications about science and technology can be improved.
Agricultural export restrictions have been seen by many as worsening food price volatility, and pushing up world prices, to the detriment of poor consumers in developing countries. At the same time, others have argued that these measures can help safeguard domestic food security, support government revenues and help countries add value to farm exports. This paper examines the likely trade, food security and development implications of various options for disciplining agricultural export restrictions. The paper seeks to provide policy-makers, negotiators and other policy actors with an impartial, evidence-based analysis of the likely trade, food security and development implications of various options for disciplining agricultural export restrictions.
This report was developed from a platform was developed in a series of regional workshops held in Argentina, Peru, South Africa, and Thailand. Hosted by WIEGO and local partners, the workshops used a participatory approach to gather feedback and insight from representatives of domestic workers, home-based workers, street vendors, waste pickers, and others.
The platform sets out common core needs and demands for informal workers around economic, social and labour rights, voice and bargaining power, legal identity and standing, and social protection. For all informal workers, it is argued that formalization must offer benefits and protections – not simply impose the costs of becoming formal. It must restore the universal rights from which workers in the informal economy have been marginalized by the neo-liberal model of governance over the past 40 years.
On October 10, the World Bank met for its Annual General Meeting in Washington DC. Around the world, in 12 cities, people came out to protest against the Bank’s Doing Business rankings. 'WorldvsBank', a global campaign asked the Bank to dump the Doing Business Rankings that only serve big business. The World Bank’s Doing Business ranking gives points to countries when they act in favor of the “ease of doing business.” This is argued by the campaign to smooth the way for corporations’ activity by, for instance, cutting administrative procedures, lowering corporate taxes, removing environmental and social regulations, or lowering trade barriers. The ranking system is also argued to encourage land reforms that tend to make land just a marketable commodity, easily accessible to wealthy corporations, in process neglecting human rights, the protection of workers, and the sustainable use of natural resources.
The author highlights through a case study the pattern of reckless lending, high interest rates that, over time, significantly inflate the sum of the original loan, strong-arm debt recovery tactics such as threats of legal action and telephone harassment, that is argued in this article to be cases of 'economic violence'. She describes how the extreme distress induced by these practices was manifested in 2012, when thousands of desperate, poorly paid, over-indebted Marikana mineworkers, while striking for a R12 500 per month living wage, refused to back down and chose to face bullets to escape the suffocating squeeze of the omashonisa (money lenders). The article proposes that debt for an increasing number of South Africans has literally become life threatening, and that there is as yet no meaningful challenge to it.
The Bridges Africa editorial team features various analyses that take a closer and fresh look at the unique challenges facing least developed countries in the context of the trade-innovation nexus. The dynamics underpinning the IPR and public policy debate are often epitomised by the topic of the protection of patented drugs by LDCs. In 2001, the latter obtained a separate waiver to implement TRIPS provisions on pharmaceutical products until January 2016. Should LDCs seek the renewal of this waiver before it expires, or does the general extension for the TRIPS Agreement until July 2021 already allow for exemptions from patent protection motivated by public health concerns? These and related questions are addressed in this edition.
Patrick Bond addresses questions raised by Yash Tandon in regards to the role of the BRICS in Africa and in the current configuration of the neoliberal international capitalist order. The challenge is for critics of BRICS to strategise with the world’s progressive forces to build a genuine anti-imperialist movement.