A conference organised by the Brenthurst Foundation, a Johannesburg-based think-tank and lobby group gave Huawei a slot to pitch its vision for the future of African cities. It is a vision that revolves around surveillance, artificial intelligence and 5G communication networks, creating a world where your every movement is tracked, recorded and searchable. Human Rights Watch describes this technology, however, as “algorithms of repression”, given a potential for abuse of people’s rights.
Health equity in economic and trade policies
Huawei's pitch to African mayors: ‘Our cameras will make you safe’
Allison S: Mail and Guardian, November 2019
Human Development Report 2013: The Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP): March 2013
Sub-Saharan Africa can achieve higher levels of human development if it deepens its engagement with other regions of the South, according to the 2013 Human Development Report. The report shows the Africa region as having the second highest growth in the UNDP’s Human Development Index (HDI) after South Asia over the past ten years. Africa has achieved sustained rates of economic growth at a time of great involvement with emerging economies. Progress has been broad-based, with strong improvements in other dimensions of human development such as health and education. Compared to other regions, sub-Saharan Africa still has the lowest average national HDI, yet of the 14 countries in the world that recorded HDI gains of more than 2% annually since 2000, eleven are in the region. These top performers include Angola, Ethiopia, Mauritius, Rwanda and Uganda. Progress may be linked to an upsurge in trade, investment and development cooperation with emerging economies like Brazil, China and India. For example, between 1992 and 2011, for instance, China’s trade with sub-Saharan Africa rose from US$1 billion to more than $140 billion.
Human rights and the establishment of a WIPO Development Agenda
3D: June 2006
Over the past two years, discussions on a World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Development Agenda have provided a forum for Member States to challenge the current trends in intellectual property (IP) policy-making and work towards a system that is more consistent with development commitments and needs. The second session of the Provisional Committee on Proposals for a WIPO Development Agenda (PCDA), from 26 to 30 June 2006, will provide an opportunity for Member States to consider proposals in clusters of issues2 and submit a decision for a WIPO Development Agenda to the WIPO General Assembly in September 2006 that will dictate the future of these discussions.
Ignore the World Bank on health, says minister
The Standard, Kenya
Kenya should ignore donor restrictions and employ health workers needed urgently countrywide, an assistant minister has said. The country needs 10,000 health workers to offer improved services, Health assistant minister Enock Kibunguchy said. He said about 130,000 infants born yearly to HIV-positive mothers were not being cared for effectively for lack of medical staff. He said the scaling up of the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV could only be achieved if there was adequate personnel and infrastructure.
Ill-gotten money and the economy: Experiences from Malawi and Namibia
Yikona S, Slot B, Geller M, Hansen B and el Kadiri F: World Bank, December 2011
According to this study, Malawi’s anti-money laundering (AML) framework has revealed that the main sources of ill-gotten money in the country are corruption and tax evasion, including trade mispricing. Other prevalent forms of crime for profit in Malawi are smuggling of (counterfeit) goods, the production and export of cannabis, organised motor vehicle theft, violent housebreakings, human trafficking and labour exploitation. According to World Bank estimates, income derived from corruption amounts to about 5% of gross domestic product (GDP) in Malawi, while tax evasion constitutes about 8-12% percent of GDP. However, the authors of the study note that these estimates should be treated with caution, as they are not conclusive. The Malawi Revenue Authority is reported to have recovered millions of Kwacha by using the AML tools available to it. Namibia is also reported to be implementing its AML system since May 2009. Further in that country tax evasion stands at an estimated 9% of GDP.
Illicit financial flows from developing countries: 2000-2009
Kar D and Curcio K: Global Financial Integrity, January 2011
This report is an update of Global Financial Integrity’s 2008 report, which found that developing countries lost between US$859 billion and US$1.06 trillion in illicit financial outflows in 2006. On the same basis, this report finds that illicit outflows increased to between US$1.26 and US$1.44 trillion in 2008 and that, on average, developing countries lost from US$725 billion to US$810 billion per year over the nine-year period, 2000-2008. Globally, illicit flows increased by 18% per annum from US$369.3 billion at the start of the decade to US$1.26 trillion in 2008. When adjusted for inflation, the real growth of such outflows was 12.7%. Illicit flows from Africa grew by 21.9% over the nine years, representing 4.5% of total illicit flows. Trade mispricing accounts for 54.7% of cumulative illicit flows from developing countries, according to the report, which identifies bribery, theft, kickbacks and corporate tax evasion as other significant sources of illicit flows.
IMF 'can't bail out crisis countries'
King M: Bank of England, 20th Anniversary of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, 29 May 2008
The International Monetary Fund no longer has the financial clout to fulfil its traditional role of lending out money to save crisis-stricken countries, according to a Bank of England report. In all cases the analysis suggests the present IMF lending framework may no longer be appropriate. The working paper is unique because most critics of the Fund have instead focused on the shortcomings of its management structure or economic analysis. It said that the Fund "is increasingly unlikely to provide financing on a sufficiently large scale to meet the demands of higher-risk members." The IEO report also urged the Fund to overhaul its governance structure, much of which is largely unchanged since the 1940s. Among its recommendations was a call to reform the selection process for managing director.
IMF approves new poverty reduction plan for Zambia
People’s Daily Online, 5 June 2008
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved a three-year, US$79-million plan to support Zambia's efforts to alleviate poverty and sustain economic growth. The new Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) plan succeeds a previous arrangement successfully completed last year, the IMF said in a press release. The new PRGF arrangement will support the government's objectives of boosting economic growth and enhancing employment and income opportunities, especially for the poor, while maintaining macroeconomic stability. The PRGF is the IMF's concessional facility for low-income countries. PRGF loans carry an annual interest rate of 0.5 percent and are repayable over 10 years with a five-and-a-half-year grace period on principal payments.
IMF calls for land reform, wage reductions in Swaziland
International Monetary Fund: 7 November 2012
Following a visit to Swaziland, a delegation from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) issued a press release noting that a budget surplus of 1% of GDP targeted for the 2012 fiscal year is unlikely to be met without additional expenditure cuts. The mission recommended a reduction in the wage bill of 300 million emalangeni (US$3.4 million), cuts in 'non-priority' recurrent expenditures and implementation of an Enhanced Voluntary Early Retirement Scheme. The IMF acknowledged that these cuts will imply sacrifices from Swazi society, and proposed that the basic needs of the most vulnerable be protected. The delegation further recommended that subsistence farmers have access to title deeds to give them collateral to raise funds for basic improvements such as irrigation systems to increase their yields.
IMF conditionality: still undermining healthcare?
Brunswijck G; Griffiths J: Global Health Check, April 2018
An IMF blog in March 2017 claimed that: “A number of studies have found that IMF support for countries’ reforms, on average, either preserve or increase public health spending.” However, the evidence provided was weak. Of the six studies referenced, one, by Oxford and Cambridge university researchers flatly contradicts this claim. Two were not related to health expenditure: one looked at revenue, not expenditure, and the second had a broader remit and contained no new evidence on the IMF and health. One was over a decade old and did not directly support the claim; while another was a link to an IMF page on the Ebola crisis. In fact the only referenced study that supported the claim was written by the staff who authored the blog. The IMF’s concern not to be seen to be impacting negatively on health expenditure in the poorest countries can be viewed as an improvement. However, the authors suggest that it is clear that IMF conditionality can constrain expenditure on health and other related services, at odds with the SDG commitment to achieve universal health coverage. The next scheduled review of IMF funding to low-income countries is planned for 2018. The authors argue that it is time for a much broader reform of IMF conditionality. Citing Eurodad’s detailed study, in 2014, that found that IMF conditions are often highly controversial and intrusive on key economic policy issues, they suggest that these policies should be the crux of democratic debate in country, not mandated from Washington.