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Namibia’s Anti-BioPiracy Bill
Research suggests that trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights, when specifically applied to “traditional” or indigenous knowledge, genetic material and plant and animal life, have a detrimental effect on biodiversity. The 2001 Doha Declaration suggested that the TRIPS Council look at the “patent-ability or non patent-ability of plant and animal […]
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The Mauritania/China fisheries deal: My Moroccan viewpoint
Re-socialization the Arab Spring The Arab Spring did not start with political claims. The Sidi Bouzid events were sparked by socio-economic factors, and it was only when Ben Ali killed many protestors[1] that the social uprising took on a regime-change objective. With hindsight, however, all the other events of the […]
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African Governments, NGOs & Civil Society: A Crisis of Legitimacy?
In April, the Columbia Journalism Review raised the question of whether non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Africa benefit from particular representations of the continent as conflict and poverty-ridden. „Yet US journalism continues to portray a continent of unending horrors. Last June, for example, Time magazine published graphic pictures of a naked […]
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“Cash Back:” Remittances from the African Diaspora
The African diaspora is comprised of over 30 million emigrants from Africa‘s 54 nations. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) estimates that each year the African diaspora contributes about 40 billion USD in the form of remittances to their families and communities. Between 1960 and 2003, the continent of […]
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Migration in Africa
What better ways can African countries benefit from migration on the continent? Migration is the act or process of moving from one region or country to another usually in search of better human living standards. Migration is chiefly caused by war, natural disasters or economics. Africa is a large continent […]