A decade after the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), development is facing serious headwinds – including what UN officials describe as a “silent crisis” of surging debt service payments in low-income countries. On Friday, Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed launched a new report, Confronting the Debt Crisis: 11 Actions to Unlock Sustainable Financing. She…
Funding cuts to international development have cast a pall over a major UN-led international conference set to address the huge challenges faced by countries in the Global South. Despite this sobering backdrop, Eva Granados, Spanish Secretary of State for International Cooperation, insists that global solidarity is still alive, despite indications to the contrary. For decades,…
Ghana and Zambia’s official creditors are pressing them to default on loans to two African multilateral financial institutions: the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and the Trade and Development Bank (TDB). These creditors, in effect, are demanding that the two countries prioritise repayments to themselves over payments to these two banks. As academics who have worked…
Of the 700 million people worldwide living in extreme poverty, 40 per cent live in conflict-affected or fragile settings and this is on track to worsen, UN Secretary-General António Guterres told the Security Council on Thursday. Ambassadors met to debate how poverty, inequality, and underdevelopment are fuelling conflict and instability, at a time when hostilities…
The Innovator Trust, created by Vodacom over a decade ago to foster the development of small black-owned Information and Communications Technology (ICT) enterprises in South Africa, has assisted over 200 black-owned ICT companies across the country and positively impacted the lives of thousands through its comprehensive programmes. This is a proud legacy shaped by strategic…
The Ministerial Meeting of Coordinators on the Implementation of the Follow-up Actions of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) has just concluded in Changsha, China. Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the Meeting, pointing out that openness and cooperation are the right path, and mutual benefit and win-win outcomes meet the aspiration…
