Alicia Ely Yamin 23 October 2014 The catastrophic Ebola crisis unfolding in West Africa offers many lessons, not least for global anti-poverty efforts. These will culminate in a set of targets, to be agreed by the United Nations in 2015, known as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). First of all, the crisis should lead to a re-think of the triumphalism that has marked some of the global health debate in recent years, with some projecting a “grand convergence within a gen

By Alice Kanengoni, 22 May 2014 First published in Allafrica For decades, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been used the world over as the measure for economic progress and development. Policies and programmes designed to end poverty and inequality have thus been designed and informed through this GDP lens. Yet, the GDP tool and model is macho and masks inequalities – especially gendered inequalities. A telling case is the current “Africa rising” narrative which is largely b

James Murombedzi The environment is taking center stage in local, national and global discourse and policies. This increasing focus is occurring in a neo-liberal context defined by unprecedented land grabs, increasing militarization of natural resource use and governance, and privatization/commercialization of the environment facilitated by the neo-liberal market hegemony. In Africa, the Sahelian drought of 1968-73 and the southern African droughts of the 1990s, the famine in

The 2013 Good Governance Summit held in Dakar, Senegal, in collaboration with Mo Ibrahim Foundation has ranked Nigeria 41st among 52 African countries that are relatively backward in human development. The new report contained in the 2013 Index of Good Governance made available to the Hausa Service of the Voice of America (VOA) in Dakar, Senegal, indicated that the Republic of Niger is in the 28th position. The Index of African Governance was launched by the Mo Ibrahim Founda

On the 16th November, 2013 Lawyer Alert trained 22 monitors to document reported cases of violation of economic rights of the Mbayion community by the Dangote Cement PLC. This is under our natural resource extraction/human rights project within the cement producing community of Mbayion, Benue State, Nigeria. Recall in our past postings we reported that, Allhaji Aliko Dangote Africa’s richest man makes part of his fortune extracting cement from this community under his company

A case for intense citizens budget monitoring and strict Evaluation. by Emeka Ononamadu I will like to state that neither Nigeria’s economy nor its will be unable to positively change in favour of the citizens because politicians only embark on development palliatives instead of real and sustainable development. All the three tiers of government and the three organs that form each tier of government are guilty of this crime, which in deed can be classified as crime against Ni

In this piece towards the third annual International Day to End Impunity campaign launched by IFEX  Global Network,  ELVIS-WURA TOWOLAWI writes on Nigeria Human Rights Lawyer Rommy Mom one of the persons profiled and circumstances of the campaign. Undoubtedly the greatest challenges facing the attainment of a civil, democratic and well-governed state is the ugly face of impunity; this is especially so in mother Africa where human rights are breached and violated with panache

The International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) today launched the start of its 2013 anti-impunity campaign ahead of the third annualInternational Day to End Impunity (IDEI) during which it will profile the case of Nigerian human rights lawyer, Mr. Rommy Mom, who had to flee his home state of Benue following threats to his life. Mr. Mom, who is President of the Makurdi-based non-governmental organization, Lawyers Alert, is being threatened because he is asking questio

By Rommy Mom, esq In 2009, when Nigeria’s External Affairs Minister, Chief Ojo Madueke, stated before the Human Rights Council, HRC, of the United Nations during the country periodic review that there were no gays in Nigeria, even Nigerians back home were amused. The statement was inaccurate at best.  At the 2013 review, Nigeria took a slightly different position. The Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Bello Adoke, stated that Nigeria’s Government would not accede 

The Global Gender Gap Report, published yesterday, found “definite if not universal improvements” in economic equality and political participation between the sexes in the ranking of 136 countries. Of those countries measured this year and last, 86 improved, the Geneva-based WEF said in an e-mailed statement. Iceland ranks first as in the last five years. Finland ranked second this year followed by Norway and then Sweden, unchanged from last year. Among Group of 20 economies,

– Asan Gabin Bennedict Even before the take-over of the Benue Cement Company located in the Mbayion Community of Benue State by Dangote Holdings, the Community suffered various forms of environmental degradation, socio-economic and cultural rights violations and a host of other challenges. With Dangote Holdings acquisition (owned by Africa‘s richest man) of the company and christening it Dangote Cement,  a profit making company, the plight of the community naturally deepened

Scheduled for 10am at the premises of the National Assembly in Abuja, participating organizations in the rally include Enough is Enough Nigeria, the United Action for Democracy, Say No Campaign, Reclaim Naija, the Freedom of Information Coalition, and other organizations. Groups and individuals that are unable to join the rally at the National Assembly in Abuja are expected to organize protests and rallies on the same day at their various State Houses of Assembly. The groups

By Misha Hussain DAKAR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) More than half a million children in northern Nigeria face severe malnutrition this year in a humanitarian crisis that has largely gone unnoticed because of ongoing conflict in the region, aid agencies say. Violent clashes between insurgents and Nigeria’s security forces in 11 northern states have forced thousands of people to flee to neighbouring countries in search of food, shelter and livelihoods. Aid organisations are fi

The Founder and General Overseer of a Pentecostal Church in Benin City, Nigeria, Pastor Phillip Ogbebor is an  inmate at the federal medium security prison, Oko after  a magistrate court ordered that he be remanded for having sex with a male member of his Church. The pastor  did not the allegation of homosexuality saying  “I am only passing through temptation, my lover is 22 years old,  let God decide my case.” The Pastor  was apprehended recently by men of the State Criminal

An Over view: Most often, campaigns into offices in Nigeria and indeed Africa are usually not issue based and even when specific undertakings and/or commitments to the electorate are made, the Electorate are not sufficiently equipped nor empowered to engage government and demand accountability. The Mandate Protection project basically seeks to build the capacity of the electorate towards demanding for accountability and transparency from the elected officials based on specifi