Africa

Diamonds In The Rough: Making Quality Education A Reality

On Wednesday, 18 October 2017, The Global Communiqué’s 5th segment of Grassroots Reporting journeyed to Chiwenga Primary School in Likuni – a village centrally located in Malawi – situated in the outskirts of the capital, Lilongwe. Two interviews were conducted at the school: one with the Head Teacher, Mr. Fanuel Dzinziye and the second interview with a Standard 7 Teacher at the primary school, Ms. Grace Mkute. Below are excerpts from the two respective interviews, mildly edited for brevity. Interview...

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A Collective Journey Towards Agenda 2030 – Grassroots Conversations in Malawi’s Senti Market

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development envisages to ensure that "no one is left behind". The achievement of all of the 17 global goals, is said to be a "collective journey" - not just the journey for the educated, the elite, the politicians or the diplomats to take; but a "collective journey" for the uneducated, the micro business owners, the poor, and those at the grassroots. The preamble to the SDGs, which can be found on the Sustainable Development...

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Harnessing Tech Innovation for the SDGs – Leaving No-One Behind

The 72nd United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) runs until Monday 25 September. Speeches from different heads of state commenced on 19 September. The much-anticipated debut of President Donald Trump on the world stage took place on Tuesday. He applauded the African Union and United in his debut speech for “[leading] peacekeeping missions [and] to have invaluable contributions in stabilizing conflicts in Africa”. Among African heads of state, President Alpha Condé of Guinea was the first African to take the international stage....

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Grassroots Reporting on Youth Issues on the Eve of the 72nd UNGA

The 72nd United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) will be kicking off today at the UN Headquarters in New York City. There are a lot of world and international issues that are on the table for debate, discussion and clarification. The leader of the free world, President Donald Trump, is set to take the world stage on Tuesday, September 19th – and the international community awaits to hear the clarification over some of the rhetoric he conveyed, both pre-and post...

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Youth Involvement & Participation in Providing Scalable Solutions to the SDGs

Africa and Its Youth Population Africa is considered the youngest continent. In 2016, the World Economic Forum indicated that the “world’s 10 youngest populations are all in Africa”. This youth bulge on the African continent should be harnessed positively to avoid a Malthusian disaster, given that food and agricultural production on the African continent is yet to be maximized. According to the World Bank the youthfulness of the African continent could potentially yield a 11 – 15 percent of...

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Is Global Peace Hanging on the Precipice?

This article first appeared on YourCommonwealth Prime Minister Theresa May’s bid for early elections flowed directly from the 2016 EU referendum. On the other side of the Atlantic, 2016 campaign rhetoric relating to U.S. foreign policy on China, Syria and Russia had been at odds with the recent sharp turns President Trump made on his journey as president of the United States. President Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on April 7th, 2017, and days later stated in an interview that China...

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Politics, Elections, Opposition Parties & Leaders: A Look at Different Country-Contexts & their Elections between the years 2016 – 2018

Citizens of different regions of the world are bracing themselves for democratic elections that will be taking place in the year 2017. The United States underwent its democratic duty in November 2016 by electing President Donald Trump of the Republican Party into office after what was a hotly contested campaign and election between him and Democratic Party former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The whole world watched to see the ultimate outcome of that election, the famed 2016 US elections. Whereas...

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Malawi Caught Up in Unhealthy Political Party Pluralism?

Introduction It is certainly encouraging that over the years virtually all African countries have embraced democratic systems. What used to hang on the balance was ruling party’s ‘inability’ to lose elections and as a result step down; however, in recent years, we have seen more incumbent governments step down after losing elections: recall Nigeria, The Gambia, Ghana and Malawi being good examples. However, democracies have allowed the proliferation of small parties, which I argue, are failing to make a significant...

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Is Corruption Engrained in the African Soil?

10 years ago, in the first year of my undergraduate studies, one of the lecturers asked each of the students to brainstorm an idea for a feature story which would also be presented to the rest of the class. One idea for a feature story by one of my classmates particularly stood out. "I want to discuss the benefits of corruption," one young female student confidently articulated her idea. The class erupted in laughter and before she could complete her...

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Marrying 22

I had hoped to get married to 22 men. Yes, and I say this very frankly. I had thought and hoped that getting married to specifically 22 men would change the whole world and put in place all the wonderful values that guarantee the presence and existence of an ideal and balanced society. Before I dive deeper into this and before you, the reader, misunderstand me and jump to conclusions, I need to add some details and contextualize this previous...

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