Danielle Kurtzleben
WASHINGTON, Jun 1 2009 (IPS) – Drug trafficking was once thought to be a largely Latin American problem, but the international community increasingly finds itself fighting this phenomenon in Africa.
Africa, and, most notably, West Africa, has become a major centre of the international drug trade in recent years, leaving U.S. and international organisations scrambling to deal with the problem, said a panel of experts on the subject at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars.
Conservative estimates say that 40 to 50 metric tonnes of cocaine pass through Africa each year. However, such figures are by nature uncertain and based on drug seizure rates, which are themselves also imprecise.
The worldwide cocaine seizure rate is around…
Stanley Kwenda
HARARE, Oct 18 2010 (IPS) – Zimbabwe s debt burden of about 8.3 billion dollars, owed to internal and external institutions, is crowding out essential national budget items such as health and basic services, with detrimental effects for particularly women.
An activist s t-shirt displays the message of the ZIMCODD anti-debt campaign. Credit: Stanley Kwenda/IPS
Indications are that many Zimbabwean women opt to give birth at home, with some children …
AMSTERDAM/ROME, Apr 6 2020 (IPS) – What is likely to be the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on developing economies? we looked at possible short term disruptions and discussed actions by the private sector and Governments.
These included mobilizing available public resources to augment what private citizens are doing to help the poor and vulnerable; working on some of the national macro-economic levers to sustain businesses; and discussing with international creditors about cancelling or rescheduling repayments, of some…