Author Archive

When the Future Challenges Team put out a call for local views on International Women’s Day, I thought long and hard. The first issues that came to mind were African women’s access to land, food security and poverty reduction- all related, especially within the contexts of governance and development. My […]

In light of the Great Land Rush, that the Lead Article alludes to, smaller stories are often overshadowed. The narrative often includes players such as multinational corporations, governments, local traditional authorities and the displaced small farmer. The picture is of a lone widen-faced farmer who suddenly finds that their informal, […]

What do bugs have to do with your food? Many of us do not think of that beyond the moment when we select and wash our fresh produce. What if I told you that the use of pesticides is linked to the increased need for ecological pollination services and fertilizer […]

In the year 2005, Africa’s youth unemployment was at 21 percent, much higher than the world average of 14.4 percent and second only to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region’s 25.6 percent. Youth unemployment in Africa is a problem of alarming proportions precisely because 65 percent of the […]

Indigenous peoples and resource exploitation. Who wins, who loses, how is the game played, how should it be played? Map of Equatorial Guinea (Photo credit: Wikipedia) When one lands in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, it is immediately apparent how resource-rich this country is. The silk cotton trees greeted us with their […]