Spending more on interest payments than on education or health is normal in many poorer countries today. How international debt policy should change – and why the FfD4 conference is the right place to do so.
The group has been positioning itself as an advocate of the global south. While the changing role of the USA may indeed create room for the bloc to manoeuvre, continued expansion of BRICS+ is creating new challenges.
In January, the ECOWAS lost three members – Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. ECOWAS should grant AES, the new political entity they formed, diplomatic recognition – not least to show that intra-African solutions do not need western condoning.
The largest single donor worldwide has halted its development cooperation: funding for USAID has been frozen for 90 days. These actions by the US president are already costing human lives. The global community must save what it can.
After years of legal disputes, Malawi has enforced a ban on thin single-use plastics. The challenge now lies in consistent implementation to address pollution, protect ecosystems and align with global environmental efforts.
At the first D+C Roundtable, we spoke to private sector experts about the opportunities and challenges of private sector involvement in development financing – a topic becoming more important given the current decline in public development financing.
The situation in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is escalating once again. It has the potential to drag the entire region into it. The global community must take a stand, not least because the conflict centres on resources we all rely on.
The separatist conflict in the Anglophone part of Cameroon has been going on for years. School operations are constantly disrupted, schools are destroyed or house refugees or the military. The effects on young people are devastating.
In Cameroon, hundreds of thousands of children have not been able to go to school for years due to the violence in the English-speaking regions of the country. The fact that the EU is providing more funding gives hope – but is far from sufficient.
