Continent-Wide and Global Issues This page updated on-line at http://www.africafocus.org/intro-gen.php. About these pages|Climate Change and the Environment|Peace and Security|Economy and Development|Illicit Financial Flows and Tax Justice|Food and Agriculture|Health AfricaFocus Bulletin pays special attention to issues which are both Africa-wide and global. Today's global issues take different forms in different countries and on different continents. But the most critical issues transcend geographical boundaries and demand common action. The talking points included in this set of pages were first prepared in July 2014, prepared for use at the Empowered Africa Forum at Howard University in Washington, DC, on August 4, 2014. Health as a Human Right was added in September 2014. Other global issues regularly covered by AfricaFocus include Migration and Information and Communication Technology. Global warming and environmental damage from the fossil-fuel industry already affect all of us, although responsibility lies primarily with the rich industrialized countries and the newly industrializing powers. Africa is the most vulnerable continent, but extreme weather and sea-level rise have hit New Orleans and New Jersey as well as Lagos. Inequality and tax evasion are growing both within and between countries, while the rich on all continents funnel their wealth into secret bank accounts scattered around the world. This erodes the public sector, starves countries of funds needed for development, and drives up deficits. In responding to internal conflict, terrorism, and criminal violence, leaders in Africa and around the world most often rely on militarized responses that are ineffective and abusive of human rights. Although leaders give lip service to addressing the root causes, it is standard formulas of repression and funding for security forces that take priority in practice. Politicians and investors speak of creating good jobs. In practice, they most often promote a market-fundamentalist development model that sheds jobs while increasing profits for the 1%. International agencies agree that small farmers are key to addressing poverty and food insecurity in Africa. But commercial monopolization of seeds and land grabs by both foreign and domestic investors make a mockery of international pledges. According to international law, health is a fundamental human right. Both national governments and the international community have the responsibity to ensure that this right is guaranteed in practice to everyone. Rich countries in particular have the responsibility to contribute their fair share to achieving this goal. Most recent bulletins on continent-wide and global issues January 23, 2023  Update from Editor on Future Plans http://www.africafocus.org/docs23/af-230123.php     When President Barack Obama hosted his US-Africa Summit in August 2014, my roundups in AfricaFocus Bulletin featured critical analysis of the likely outcome and the issues that were likely to be ignored, as well as alternate viewpoints by civil society groups. November 15, 2022  Africa/Global: "Daughter of Africa" Steps Up to Lead on Global Crises http://www.africafocus.org/docs22/af-221115.php     At the climate summit in Egypt last week, President Biden pledged that the United States would take the lead on the climate crisis. But his speech was eclipsed the same day by a powerful call to action by Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados. October 25, 2022  Africa/Global: Remembering Valeriano Ferr�o and Charles Sherrod http://www.africafocus.org/docs22/af-221025.php     Valeriano Ferr�o died in Maputo, Mozambique, on October 2, 2022, at the age of 83. Charles Sherrod died in Albany, Georgia, on October 11, 2022, at the age of 85. As far as I know, the two had never met. And they were very different people. But for me, they epitomize the shared values of solidarity and integrity that were central to the movements they represented. October 10, 2022  AfricaFocus 3.0: Not �A Nation of Immigrants� http://www.africafocus.org/docs22/af-221010.php     Coming in 2023: AfricaFocus 3.0 July 20, 2022  Africa/Global: Oligarchs of All Nations http://www.africafocus.org/docs22/books2207.php     "Biden Concedes Defeat on Climate Bill as Manchin and Inflation Upend Agenda" - New York Times, July 16, 2022 June 9, 2022  Africa/Global: Ukraine, Africa, and Our Planet http://www.africafocus.org/docs22/upd2206.php     �An end to this terrible war based on dialogue must be the international community�s highest priority. Support to the people of Ukraine must be matched by efforts to advance Russian/Ukrainian negotiations, European security dialogue, and wider risk-reduction measures to prevent nuclear escalation.� - The Elders, May 25, 2022 May 11, 2022  Africa/Global: Debt, IFFs, and Inequality in Africa http://www.africafocus.org/docs22/ineq2205.php     �43 African governments are facing expenditure cuts totalling $183 billion (equivalent to 5.4 percent of GDP) over the next five years, reveals new analysis from Oxfam and Development Finance International (DFI) today. If these cuts are implemented, their chances of achieving the UN�s Sustainable Development Goals will likely disappear.� - Oxfam International and Development Finance International April 21, 2022  Africa/Global: Climate Put on Back Burner by War http://www.africafocus.org/docs22/clim2204.php     While media attention focuses on the cost in human lives on the ground in Europe, the direct and indirect effects are also leading to many more lives lost around the world, not least in vulnerable countries on the African continent, according to a report issued on April 13 by the United Nations. The direct effects alone are projected to devastate the world economy (https://reliefweb.int/report/world/global-impact-war-ukraine-food-energy-and-finance-systems). March 25, 2022  Africa/Global: Updates from AfricaFocus http://www.africafocus.org/docs22/upd2203.php     This is the first AfricaFocus Bulletin since January. Towards the end of that month, major issues with my home office computer systems crippled the interface which I normally use to publish the Bulletin, and catching up on a variety of medical issues also limited what I could do. Nothing life threatening, but lots of doctor appointments. November 23, 2021  Africa/Global: From Climate Denial to Deceit and Delay http://www.africafocus.org/docs21/cop26-2111.php     Asad Rehman of�War on Want�spoke to the presidency of COP26 with words that resonated far from Glasgow: �The rich have refused to do their fair share, more empty words on climate finance. You have turned your backs on the poorest who face a crisis of Covid, economic and climate apartheid because of the actions of the richest. It is immoral for the rich to talk about the future of their children and grandchildren when the children of the Global South are dying now.� Less than 2 minutes. Watch here! November 2, 2021  Africa/Global: The Heat is On! Time to Act! http://www.africafocus.org/docs21/clim2111.php     The warnings are consistent and devastating, across the political spectrum from the International Monetary Fund from climate activists mobilizing at the climate summit in Glasgow and around the world. There are only eight years to have any chance of bending the curve of fossil fuel emissions sufficiently to avoid mounting climate chaos. Predictions are also consistent that the government officials gathered at the summit will continue to let promises and belated minimal policy shifts substitute for significant action. October 15 , 2021  Africa/Global: Hardly a Dent in #VaccineApartheid http://www.africafocus.org/docs21/vac2110.php     �Millions of people remain at risk of dying from COVID-19 because high-income countries (HICs), including the US, continue to hoard excess vaccine doses, warns a new report released [on October 11] by Doctors Without Borders/M�decins Sans Fronti�res (MSF). The international medical humanitarian organization is calling on governments to commit to a concrete plan to redistribute vaccine doses to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) via COVAX or regional procurement bodies by the end of October.� May 17, 2021  Africa/Global: Decolonizing Medical Technology http://www.africafocus.org/docs21/mal2105.php     �A continent of 1.2 billion people should not have to import 99% of its vaccines. But that is the tragic reality for Africa. Fixing the lack of home-grown manufacturing capacity has become a top priority for Africa�s policymakers. Last week, 40,000 people, including researchers, business leaders and members of civil-society groups, joined heads of state for a two-day online summit designed to share the latest developments and kick-start fresh thinking on how to bring vaccine manufacturing to Africa.� - Nature magazine editorial, April 21, 2021 May 3, 2021  Africa/Global: African-Language Literature in Global Scholarship http://www.africafocus.org/docs21/aflit2105.php     �Broad early modern comparative projects often fail to address Africa at all. A search of the MLAIB [Modern Language Association International Bibliography] finds that the number of pieces published in the last thirty years on the subject of 'globalization' is in the thousands, and yet only 5 per cent of them address Africa or African countries. When it comes to eighteenth-century studies, the exclusion is total: not one of the pieces on globalization addresses Africa or African countries. Not one. � This is more than unfortunate. No arena of study can be successful that has Africa as a lacuna. � � Wendy Laura Belcher