Poverty Matters development blog | Global development

Migration is expulsion by another name in world of foreign land deals | Saskia Sassen | Global development | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2013/may/29/migration-expulsion-foreign-land-deals

Overseas land acquisitions are rising, with people pushed off their land and into poverty; let’s not pretend that’s migration

In effect, expulsions are being rebranded as migrations, a phenomenon that will not cease anytime soon, given the ongoing search for land for crops, mining and water by governments and firms from a growing number of countries.

The generic term “migration” tends to obscure the fact that our firms and government agencies, and those of our allies, may have contributed to expulsions.

How #China is #educating #Africa – and what it means for the west
In an extract from a new book, China’s aspirational approach to #education and #investment in Africa is distinguished from the west’s focus on basic needs

Les nouvelles relations #Chine <-> #Afrique seraient-elles si éloignées que celles nouées par les anciennes colonies #européennes ? (Article en anglais)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2013/may/13/china-educating-africa-what-means-west

Revue de Presse Hebdomadaire sur la Chine du 13/05/2013

Angola’s poor people hit hard by #urbanisation crackdown in Luanda | Lilly Peel | Global development | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2013/may/10/angola-urbanisation-crackdown-luanda

#Angola has experienced fast economic growth, due to a booming oil and diamond trade. But the war left a ravaged infrastructure and weakened political and social institutions. Luanda is now one of the world’s most expensive cities, yet an estimated two-thirds of the people living there exist on less than $2 a day. Since 2002, forced evictions and the demolition of poor areas to make way for shopping centres and gated condominiums for Angola’s elite have been recurrent themes. Postwar infrastructure and development are undoubtedly necessary in this chaotic and crowded place, but at what cost?

Sitting outside her tin shack in what is left of Cambamba II neighbourhood, where she has lived for 47 years, a Luandan grandmother says she and the other inhabitants had cultivated land over the years to grow their own food, but police and government bulldozers have destroyed her home five times, together with all her possessions. “We lost the bed, the pans, our stove – the people who pushed down the houses took them. They came with dogs and guns and they flattened everything.”

#pauvreté #foncier #évictions

Indian land grabs in Ethiopia show dark side of south-south co-operation | Anuradha Mittal | Global development | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2013/feb/25/indian-land-grabs-ethiopia

The idea of south-south co-operation evokes a positive image of solidarity between developing countries through the exchange of resources, technology, and knowledge. It’s an attractive proposition, intended to shift the international balance of power and help developing nations break away from aid dependence and achieve true emancipation from former colonial powers. However, the discourse of south-south co-operation has become a cover for human rights violations involving southern governments and companies.

A case in point is the land grab by Indian corporations in Ethiopia, facilitated by the governments of both countries, which use development rhetoric while further marginalising the indigenous communities that bear the pain of the resulting social, economic and environmental devastation. It is against this scenario that international solidarity between communities affected by the insanity of a development model that prefers profits over people is reclaiming the principles of south-south co-operation.

oui, on est loin du projet des non-alignés
#terres #développement

Marine #agriculture offers a new solution to the problem of water scarcity | Mark Tran | Global development | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2013/jan/05/marine-agriculture-solution-water-scarcity?intcmp=122

Ricardo Radulovich, professor of water science at the University of Costa Rica, points out that in Africa irrigation is a very limited option, due to lack of water, and rain-fed agriculture is affected by prolonged dry seasons and rainfall variability during the rainy seasons. A case in point is the Sahel in west Africa, where drought has grown increasingly frequent and where emergency aid was needed last year to forestall famine.

Yet Radulovich believes that Africa’s lakes can be part of the solution to the continent’s agricultural limitations. Several African countries are endowed with lakes, some very large, that occupy a surface of more than 150,000 square kilometres. Why not use that water surface to grow food and aquatic plants, and for fisheries, asks Radulovich, who began his career as an agricultural water scientist 10 years ago.

“The key issue is water,” Radulovich said in a telephone interview from Costa Rica. “We have land, but water is the limiting element. You can have agriculture if you have water. If we use that lake surface to produce crops, aquatic plants, we won’t waste water.”

#eau #alimentation

Where’s the global outrage over this modern-day slavery? | Kevin Watkins | Global development | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2012/dec/10/global-outrage-modern-day-slavery?intcmp=122

Headline figures tell part of the story. According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), there are 215 million five to 17-year-olds trapped in child labour. Globally, numbers are falling at a desperately slow pace. On current trends there will still be 170 to 190 million child labourers in 2020. In Africa the numbers are going up.

Half of all working children are employed in what the ILO describes as “hazardous conditions”. That’s a polite euphemism for conditions that would have shocked even the most hardened Victorian social reformers.

In Mali, boys as young as eight are digging shafts for gold mines and working in tunnels 30 metres underground. They are among the 2 million children worldwide employed by small-scale mines. Another 30 million children, most of them girls, are employed as domestic servants, working long hours for very low pay and facing physical abuse. And there’s a good chance that the metals in your mobile phone include products mined by children working under the control of warlords in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

#travail_des_enfants

In a world hungry for biofuels, food security must come first | Olivier De Schutter | Global development | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2012/oct/17/world-hungry-biofuels-food-security

Growing crops for food and fuel together can work but farmers and policymakers must prioritise hungry people and think local

#alimentation #agriculture #agrocarburant

Egypt’s turmoil is a distraction from IMF economic agenda | Nick Dearden | Global development | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2012/sep/21/egypt-turmoil-distraction-imf-economic-agenda?intcmp=122

The storming of the US embassy in Cairo has diverted attention once again from the real issues facing Egypt. It couldn’t have come at a better time for those who want to convince the Egyptian people to accept an International Monetary Fund loan, and extend former president Hosni Mubarak’s liberalisation of the economy.

While the western media and politicians seem content to view Egypt through the prism of political rights versus Islam, the economic causes of the revolution, the waves of strikes and economic demands of the activists are barely discussed.

This allows the US and European governments to portray the $4.8bn IMF loan under negotiation, the “assistance” funds that will shortly start flowing into public-private “partnerships” and free trade zones being planned by the EU, as “gifts” to the Egyptian people. In recent days, highly critical rightwing commentaries about the US embassy incident have even suggested withdrawing such “gifts” until the Egyptian government can keep its people under control.

The diversion into religious tension is also helpful to economic conservatives in the Egyptian administration, who are intent on pushing through the IMF loan, repaying Mubarak’s odious debts and opening the country to western capital. It allows President Mohammed Morsi to stand firm against the US on issues that are more symbolic, while giving way to its economic agenda.

The IMF agenda is not popular. When it tried to negotiate a loan with the unelected interim military government last year, it was turned down on the grounds that the resulting IMF interference would be unacceptable.

At the time, the opposition Muslim Brotherhood said it was firmly against the loan. Today, in government, the party hierarchy is supporting it, despite serious doubts in the wider organisation, where many are rightly concerned that an IMF agenda is incompatible with Islamic principles of finance.

A developing world of debt | Global development | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2012/may/15/developing-world-of-debt?intcmp=122

Years after debt campaigners succeeded in persuading the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and G8 to abolish debts worth billions of dollars owed by developing countries, figures show total external debts are once again on the increase.

Data in the World Bank’s global development finance 2012 report (pdf) shows total external debt stocks owed by developing countries increased by $437bn over 12 months to stand at $4tn at the end of 2010, the latest period for which data is available.

#dette #développement #cartographie

Kenyan #TV show ploughs lone furrow in battle to improve rural livelihoods | Global development | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2012/may/15/kenyan-farming-reality-tv-rural-livelihoods

“Agriculture is the absolute backbone of #Kenya and the livelihood for many people,” says David Campbell, the show’s creator and director of the edu-tainment company Mediae. “We have a potential 5.6 million rural audience for TV … but there is no agricultural information on TV. We want to establish a series that gives farmers information in an educational and entertaining way.”

#agriculture #développement

The sticky challenge facing Africa | Global development | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/dec/20/therapeutic-food-famine-relief-africa

As the food crisis in the Horn of Africa continues, so do the campaigns asking for support and donations. Some of the money raised goes on the purchase of ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTFs), small packets of a sticky, peanut butter-like paste, fortified with minerals and vitamins, that can reverse severe malnutrition within six weeks. Products such as Plumpy’nut.

The vast majority of RUTFs are produced in the US or Europe, bought by aid agencies such as Unicef, and transported great distances to reach those in need. But a small group of social enterprises is questioning this business model, redesigning it with a more local footprint in mind.

#malnutrition

Campaigners propose radical agenda to tackle ill-health | Sarah Boseley | Global development | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/oct/21/who-conference-poverty-causes-ill-health

At a prestigious World Health Organisation global conference on Friday, intended “to build support for the implementation of action on social determinants of health”, the stakes were raised publicly. More radical health campaigners rejected the official Rio Political Declaration on Social Determinants of Health, which had been carefully negotiated in advance in order not to upset sensitivities, and launched an alternative civil society Rio Declaration.

#santé #politique #inégalités (à lire en entier)

What went wrong for Afghanistan’s women? | Madeleine Bunting | Global development | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/sep/26/afghanistan-women-what-went-wrong?intcmp=122

The security situation has become increasingly dangerous in the past few years. A recent attack on local staff employed by Oxfam, which led to three deaths, is believed to have been caused partly by the practice of employing women. Attacks on girls’ schools and women teachers continue.

“Those who work outside the house risk their lives every day,” says Zarghuna Kargar, an Afghan author and journalist, who presented the Afghan Woman’s Hour on the BBC World Service. “They face risks from their neighbours, their colleagues and strangers in the street. I don’t see any evidence of a cultural shift over the last 10 years. There are still strong roots to the traditions.”

#femmes #Afghanistan

The challenge of keeping Nepalese girls in school | Emma Reynolds | Global development | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/sep/16/nepal-challenge-keeping-girls-in-school?intcmp=122

Caste and gender remain the major barriers to education. If you are a girl from a Dalit or an indigenous family, you are unlikely to go to school or complete primary education.

Keeping girls in school beyond puberty is nevertheless a major challenge. As the mothers’ committee of a primary school in the Rupandehi district of Nepal’s flatlands told me, girls’ education is not a priority for many families. Their daughters are often needed to work in the fields and at home. Many are married at an early age. At the same school, I met two thirteen-year-old married schoolgirls. I doubt that they will ever see the inside of a secondary school classroom.

Child marriage is not the only problem. Chaupadi – a practice in which girls face restrictions during menstruation – is widespread, even in Kathmandu.

#éducation #inégalités #femmes #Népal

Phnom Penh residents score landmark victory over proposed land grab | Global development | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/sep/14/cambodia-phnom-penh-residents-victory

In March, thousands of residents received eviction notices from the land speculators, clearing the way for a controversial new “city of the east”. The plan is to replace a park and urban poor area with a posh residential and leisure complex.

The $98m investment is based on a joint venture agreement with a Chinese investment partner from Inner Mongolia, Erdos Hongjun Investment Corp.

Housing rights activists expressed grave concern that Phnom Penh was being rapidly transformed into an exclusive city for the rich, devoid of public spaces, while the poor were deported to the capital’s periphery, where jobs and amenities are non-existent.

Kenyan girls fight back against genital mutilation | Madeleine Bunting | Global development | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/apr/18/kenyan-girls-rebel-against-fgm

But even worse it causes huge emotional conflict within the closest, most important relationships. We see a daughter arguing with her mother over why she refuses to be cut, and a wife arguing with her husband. One of the most poignant moments is when Nancy, an exemplary daughter in every respect, challenges her mother’s authority. She doesn’t want a life like her mother’s, she declares. You can see the bewildered hurt on the mother’s face; this kind of rejection may be familiar to many a western parent but perhaps still a novelty in a culture where the idea of making your own fate in life, particularly for a girl, is completely alien.

Implicit in this rejection is a judgment of the inadequacy of the mother’s life, a repudiation of her form of love. “I don’t want to grind stones all my life like you,” says Nancy. “I bury you, you bury me in a vicious cycle of daughter and mother.”

#Kenya #excision

’Indigenous thinking can solve climate crises,’ says Bolivia’s foreign minister | John Vidal | Global development | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/apr/13/bolivia-foreign-minister-solving-climate-crises

David Choquehuanca is Bolivia’s foreign minister; he is also a prominent intellectual, an Aymara Indian and has been an adviser to President Evo Morales, a fellow Aymara, for many years. The rainbow-squared, pan-indigenous flag of the Andean peoples, the wipala, flies from his ministry balcony overlooking the presidential palace in La Paz.

#pachamama #climat