XYZ AFRICA NEWS BULLETIN @ 20h00
The
best 10-minute news from across Anglophone & francophone Africa on Radio
XYZ93.1FM in Accra, Ghana. We offer mini-features under "Focus".
Original content guaranteed weekly! Weekly review assured on Fridays. Look for
#xyzAfrica on soundcloud.com
STORIES:
1.
FOCUS: Third ISTR Africa
Regional Conference Opens in Accra
WEST AFRICA:
Ø
Sierra Leone Deputy-Minister Salutes ECOWAS
Commission for Abidjan-Dakar Highway Project
Ø
4 Things to Know about Niger’s Recent Elections
Ø
Senegal Creates New National Airline & Seeks
Strategic Partner
FOCUS
Third ISTR Africa
Regional Conference Opens in Accra
|
The Third International Society for Third Sector Research (ISTR)
African Network Regional Research Conference has opened in Accra.
Organized by the local hosting committee that includes the West
Africa Civil Society Institute(WACSI); Institute of African Studies at the
University of Ghana, this 2016 ISTR Conference is themed “Civil Society and
Renascent Africa: a Stocktaking.”
Twenty years after the world “discovered” civil society and saw
them as key in a renascent Africa, some questions are begging to be asked in
civil society circles. These include to what extent has civil society lived up
to these expectations? Is civil society the missing key to a renascent Africa?
To what extent has civil society contributed to the triple imperatives of
African development, democratization and integration?
These questions and more are to be explored at the conference
underway here in Accra, with a view to taking stock of two decades of civil society
conversations and its contributions to the imperatives of a renascent Africa.
Opening the conference, Executive Director of WACSI, Nana
Asantewa Afadzinu, explained how civil society is “going through evolution”,
with civil society organizations (CSOs) engaging governments more than ever.
With a number of CSOs dependent on external funding, the Executive Director
explained how this meeting offers a moment of “introspection” as well as a
“meeting of minds to engage issues.”
Topics include “Civil Society and Development in Africa”; the
“Significance of the Women’s Movement in Africa: Successes and Challenges”; “Modeling
the influential impact of CSOs in Africa”; and “Sustaining Civil Society in
Africa.”
The conference has attracted around 70 participants and would be
organized around keynote addresses and a number of paper presentations.
WEST AFRICA
|
Sierra Leone’s Deputy Minister
of Works, Housing & Construction, Madam Kadija Olamatu Seisay, has praised
the ECOWAS Commission for the establishment of the Abidjan-Dakar Highway
Development Project, saying it would ease transportation and communication
among member States.
Delivering a speech at the
opening of the Ministerial Meeting on the Abidjan-Dakar Highway Development
Project, she expressed her gratitude for being part of a team of ministers and
experts that had been populated to discuss issues pertaining to the regional
highway.
Madam Seisay said: “we are here
to discuss the Abidjan-Dakar Highway Development programme, which forms part of
the Trans-West African Coastal Highway. One cannot, therefore, overemphasize
the importance of this project as it falls within the agenda of the government
and people of Sierra Leone.”
The Deputy Minister explained
that, when finished, it “will enhance trade between the two sister nations
[Liberia and Sierra Leone] and as such effectively serve the Mano River Union
as a whole.”
The so-called Trans-West African
Coastal Highway runs from Mauritania to Nigeria and connects Guinea, Liberia
and Sierra Leone.
The acceleration of the
implementation of this regional highway comes in the wake of the
UNECA-sponsored African Integration Index that has praised the IGAD region of East
Africa for its regional infrastructure.
Still on West Africa…
The Washington Post Paper
reports that, as the dust settles from what it calls a “dramatic campaign
season” in Niger, there are four things one should know about the election.
First, the major candidates were
“recycled” elites. That is to say of the top four presidential candidates –
Issoufou, Amadou; Seyni; Oumarou and Mahamane Ousmane – two have served as
President; three as prime Minister; and all as President of the National
Assembly. They have all been arrested a combined 13 times.
Secondly, “election observers
did not guarantee a clean process.” According to the Paper, although both
ECOWAS and the International Organization of the Francophonie sent observers,
the opposition Coalition for Change complained about electoral irregularities,
including the use of a single ballot for the presidential election but not the
legislative election and the “vote by
witness” order that the National Independent Electoral Commission issued at the
last minute to allow 1.5million Nigeriens without identification papers to vote
as long as two witnesses could positively identify them.
Third, terrorism is always a
looming threat in the country as the country has suffered incursions from all
sides, especially along its southern border with Nigeria, where Boko Haram is
attempting to extend an Islamic caliphate. There is some evidence that external
terrorist threats may unite citizens who are otherwise bitterly divided across
pro-government and opposition lines.
Finally, democratization in
Niger has not been a linear process: there have been alternating periods of
authoritarian backsliding and democratic consolidation. Very quickly,
democratic politics can turn around in Niger – for better or for worse.
Finally in West Africa…
The Senegalese Minister of Tourism
and Air Transport announced to the press last Friday that, Senegal has created
Air Senegal, which is a new national airline that seeks to replace the West
African country’s now-defunct-and-heavily-indebted carrier Senegal Airlines.
Maimouna Ndoye Seck explained
that, the new company was formed with the capital of $69million aimed at making
the new airline operational as quickly as possible as it seeks a “strong
strategic partner.”
Congo Republic’s ECAir announced
this week it was seeking to raise over $100million through a regional bond
issuance in order to expand its fleet and routes.
Airlines have long-been a
difficult business in the sub-region, with a number of airlines going bust.
However successes, such as Air Cote d’Ivoire and ASKY have proved that it is
possible for West Africa to finally get its act together on the Africa Open
Skies Policy – also known as the Yamoussoukro Declaration – that calls for a
liberalization of the African sky, while encouraging greater competition.
ENDs
ALL
editions of XYZ Africa News Bulletin@8 can be downloaded from soundcloud.com.
Just search, Journalist for “XYZ
Africa News”.
We
are on twitter on @xyzafricanews8
No comments:
Post a Comment