Do women hold the key to a peaceful society? Much is known about the victimisation of women through rape, trafficking, and early marriages, but much is yet to be discovered about how women can be empowered in conflict settings to bridge the gap towards peace.
I recently conducted research analysing female peacemaking and found that women do hold a significant role in the peace process. However, this role is not always long-term, unless gender equality is institutionalised through quotas. A better understanding of how women can transform conflict situations, and how to create space for them to do so, will be vital for the UN and other concerned actors in the coming years.
Can women make the world more peaceful? | Global Development Professionals Network | Guardian Professional
August 12, 2014
African Center for Strategic Studies Africa, Conflict, Conflict Resolution, Development, Gambia, peter singhateh, Peter Singhatey Leave a comment
Billions promised to Africa – here’s how it would be spent | Africa | Africa | Mail & Guardian
August 8, 2014
African Center for Strategic Studies Africa, Development, Gambia, peter singhateh, Peter Singhatey Leave a comment
Billions promised to Africa – here’s how it would be spent | Africa | Africa | Mail & Guardian.
“IT is summit season in Africa. The US-Africa Leaders Summit is the second major meeting this year, following the EU-Africa summit in March, and comes hot on the heels of similar summits with France, Japan and Arab nations last year.
Later this year India will hold its second triennial summit with African leaders, as Beijing’s flagship Forum on China-Africa Co-operation waits in the wings for next year.
These summits have recently been similar in that they are carefully wrapped in varying degrees of “co-operation” and “equal partnership” talk, but despite this the headlines are usually around the money and investment promised.
We take a look at the numbers announced so far: (Quoted exchange rates reflect the time the deal was announced.)
1: United States, ($33-billion), August 2014
President Barack Obama has become the first American leader to convene a summit of such magnitude with African heads of state, with the US-Africa summit themed around investment, security and rights issues.
On Tuesday, Obama announced $33-billion in commitments, with American companies planning $14-billion worth of investments in Africa, and his Power Africa drawing an additional $12-billion in commitments to go with the initial $7-billion it had attracted…”
What the Gaza War Means for the Middle East – Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
August 8, 2014
Middle East Conflict, International Security, Middle East, peter singhateh, Peter Singhatey Leave a comment
What the Gaza War Means for the Middle East – Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
With intensifying international pressure to end hostilities, a brief lull in fighting currently prevails in Gaza. But a formal ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has proven elusive and the death toll continues to mount following sporadic attacks.
Carnegie experts assess how the crisis will impact Palestinians, Israelis, and the rest of the Middle East.
- What are the immediate implications for both Israelis and Palestinians?
- How can Gaza be rebuilt after this latest round of fighting?
- How will the conflict with Israel impact the Palestinian leadership and relations between Hamas and Fatah?
- What are the implications of the turmoil in Gaza for Egypt?
- How will the conflict in Gaza influence regional dynamics?
Africa: Behind the smokescreen of charity – Counting the Cost – Al Jazeera English
July 30, 2014
African Center for Strategic Studies Charity, Development, Gambia, NGOs, peter singhateh, Peter Singhatey, Proverty Leave a comment
Africa: Behind the smokescreen of charity – Counting the Cost – Al Jazeera English.
Africa receives billions in aid from wealthy countries, but a new report suggests that notion is actually a smokescreen for politicians and corporations to plunder Africa’s vast resources.
Aid to Africa amounts to less than $30bn but it is losing $192bn a year and it still remains unclear how much there is in illicit money that is squirelled away in tax havens and money loans to other governments.
So, does aid make a difference to the poor in the region? And are the different nations taking more than they are giving?
Counting the Cost discusses this and more with Martin Drewry, the director of Health Poverty Action.
Watch each week at the following times GMT: Friday: 2230; Saturday: 0930; Sunday: 0330; Monday: 1630. Click here for more Counting the Cost .
Who Aids Whom? Exposing the True Story of Africa’s $192 Billion Losses | Think Africa Press
July 16, 2014
Uncategorized Africa, Aid, corruption, Development, peter singhateh, Peter Singhatey Leave a comment
Who Aids Whom? Exposing the True Story of Africa’s $192 Billion Losses | Think Africa Press.
“It says something about this country. It says something about our standing in the world and our sense of duty in helping others… in short – it says something about the kind of people we are… And that makes me proud to be British.”
As exhibited by UK Prime Minister David Cameron, who made the above comment on 8 June 2013, governments of wealthy countries like to tell tales of generous aid spending and a common responsibility to help those less fortunate in the world. But there is another story to tell. And it is not a story of what is given to continents such as Africa, but of what is taken away.
Research published today reveals that whilst the continent receives $30 billion in aid a year, this figure pales in comparison to the $192 billion leaving the continent via illicit financial flows, the repatriation of multinational company profits, debt repayments, loss of skilled workers, illegal logging and fishing, and the costs imposed as a result of climate change…
Congo plane crash that killed British pilot may have been caused by escaped crocodile | Mail Online
July 12, 2014
Articles on Africa, Aviation Africa, peter singhateh, Peter Singhatey, Plane Crash Leave a comment
Congo plane crash that killed British pilot may have been caused by escaped crocodile | Mail Online.
A plane crash which killed a British pilot in Africa may have been caused by passengers panicking over an escaped crocodile, an inquest heard yesterday…
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2689113/Plane-crash-Congo-killed-British-pilot-caused-escaped-crocodile-causing-passengers-panic-rush-causing-nose-dive.html#ixzz37ISyBfys
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Iraq Illusions – Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
July 12, 2014
Uncategorized International Security, peter singhateh, Peter Singhatey Leave a comment
Iraq Illusions – Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
The story most media accounts tell of the recent burst of violence in Iraq seems clear-cut and straightforward. In reality, what is happening is anything but. The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), so the narrative goes, a barbaric, jihadi militia, honed in combat in Syria, has swept aside vastly larger but feckless Iraqi army forces in a seemingly unstoppable tide of conquest across northern and western Iraq, almost to the outskirts of Baghdad. The country, riven by ineluctable sectarian conflict, stands on the brink of civil war. The United States, which left Iraq too soon, now has to act fast, choosing among an array of ugly options, among them renewed military involvement and making common cause with Iran. Alternatives include watching Iraq splinter and the creation of an Islamist caliphate spanning eastern Syria and western Iraq.
Much of this is, at best, misleading; some is outright wrong. ISIS, to begin, is only one of an almost uncountable mélange of Sunni militant groups. Besides ISIS, the Sunni insurgency that has risen up against the government of Nouri al-Maliki includes another jihadi group, Ansar al-Islam (Supporters of Islam), as well as the Military Council of the Tribes of Iraq, comprising as many as eighty tribes, and the Army of the Men of the Naqshbandi Order, a group that claims to have Shiite and Kurdish members and certainly includes many Sunni Baathists once loyal to Saddam Hussein…
More Africans in extreme poverty than in 1990: UN – Yahoo News
July 9, 2014
African Center for Strategic Studies Africa, Development, Gambia, MDGs, peter singhateh, Peter Singhatey Leave a comment
More Africans in extreme poverty than in 1990: UN – Yahoo News.
United Nations (United States) (AFP) – More sub-Saharan Africans are living in extreme poverty now than in 1990, said a major United Nations report Monday, warning the region will miss most of its development goals.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), set in 2000, strive to halve extreme poverty and hunger in the world by 2015.
They also promote and track progress in tackling issues such as AIDS, maternal and childhood mortality, access to clean water, gender equality and education.
Many targets are within reach by the end of 2015, according to the United Nations’ annual MDG progress report: if current trends continue, targets on malaria, tuberculosis and access to HIV treatment will be surpassed, while the hunger target also looks to be within reach, it said.
But it found that sub-Saharan Africa is lagging behind the rest of the world in its progress, with population growth, conflicts and a decrease in international aid making the timely completion of many goals unlikely…
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