Picture credit: Cliff1066™
Sami Yusuf has released his new single - Forgotten Promises - to help the UN World Food Programme (WPF) provide assistance to drought-affected people in the Horn Of Africa.
A Global Graveyard for Dead Computers in Ghana
Corruption
The influence of corruption on the development in Africa, is profound. For many governments, the main aim of the people running the country is helping themselves rather than helping the people of their country. Corruption has had, and continues to have a disatrous effect on development.
People at the top of government can and do plunder resources coming into government. Government resources are siphoned off by those in control of government and used to enrich those in control. People at lower levels of government can plunder resources too by not providing services they are paid to provide, charging for services which they should provide, and by taking goods, e.g. medical supplies or trucks, which should be used for government service.
Angola
Manuel Vicente, as a member of Angola's ruling party - the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) - became a very rich man by raiding Angola's public assets. In 2008 Manuel Vicente, as chair of the board and director-general of the Angolan state oil company Sonangol, restructured the company and its main subsidiaries for his personal benefit. Essentially Vicente did a business deal with himself when he illegally transferred a percentage of Sonangol Holdings into his own name and becoming a private shareholder of nearly all the multi-million dollar deals Sonangol carried out.
Kenya
Following an internal investigation, Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta reported that over 4.2 billion shillings - about $46 million - was missing from the Ministry of Education. The money had been stolen from President Mwai Kibaki's landmark initiative to provide free primary education for every Kenyan. Those at the Ministry of Education have mantained their innocence but have been criticised by anti-corruption chief Patrick Lumumba for having done nothing to rout out the thieves in the months since the charges were made; the missing funds were first reported in November 2010.
Corruption puts Kenya's educational funding at risk
Liberia
The hunt continues for the millions and possibly billions believed pilfered by Charles Taylor, former president of Liberia. UN investigators also believe Taylor extracted money from companies that operated in Liberia. Records show how the country's largest timber company sent tax payments to Taylor's private account rather than the national treasury. The estimates of hidden wealth stolen from Liberia run as high as $3 billion.
Hunting for Liberia's missing millions
Zimbabwe
Despite UN estimates that up to 75% of Zimbabweans need food aid and unemployment at more than 90%, a small elite have become very wealthy, for example, vice president Joyce Mujuru and her husband. Gideon Gono, the reserve bank governor, has been accused of dishing out the country's revenue that is kept at the central bank "willy nilly to individuals within the party, to Mugabe and his family without any accountablility".(John Makumbe, associate professor of politics at the University of Zimbabwe)
Zimbabwe elite seeks to evade sanctions
Zimbabwe's Diamond Production Draws Scrutiny
Corruption Perceptions Index 2010 Results
Conflict
War and conflict hamper development in many ways. Money and resources are diverted away from services to fund the war. People are displaced from their land unable to grow crops reducing productivity.
Foreign Investment
China, India, South Korea and Saudi Arabia are some of the countries that have been negotiating deals to acquire farmland in Africa to grow crops for export.
The ultimate crop rotation: Wealthy nations outsource crops to Ethiopia's farmlands
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