SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
November 2009
"Climate Finance"
Policy Brief
By The Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements
The finance of climate mitigation and adaptation in developing countries represents a key challenge in the negotiations on a post-2012 international climate agreement. Finance mechanisms are important because stabilizing the climate will require significant emissions reductions in both the developed and the developing worlds, and therefore large-scale investments in energy infrastructure. The current state of climate finance has been criticized for its insufficient scale, relatively low share of private-sector investment, and insufficient institutional framework. This policy brief presents options for improving and expanding climate finance.
AP Photo
September 15, 2009
"Climate Change a Stumbling Block to Africa's Economies"
Op-Ed, The Daily Nation
By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa
According to the World Development Report 2010: Development and Climate Change, ... a two-degree Celsius warming above pre-industrial levels could permanently reduce Africa's annual per capita consumption by four to five per cent....The report calls on industrialised countries, which have released most of the greenhouse gases, to lead the way in charting a new low-carbon economic path. In addition, the report calls for financial support to enable developing countries adapt to climate change and lay the foundation for low-carbon economies.
AP Photo
July/August 2009
"Disorder in the Ranks"
Magazine or Newspaper Article, Foreign Policy
By Robert Rotberg, Director, Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution
The label "failed" remains a powerful way to describe those states that no longer serve their people. That harsh term sharpens the attention of policymakers and helps single out countries that should be of utmost concern. The threat of such state failure also focuses attention on the soon-to-crumble; it is those countries that need the most external help.
AP Photo
June 13, 2009
"The False Unity in Zimbabwe"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Robert Rotberg, Director, Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai of Zimbabwe, who visited President Obama yesterday, needs all the American support he can get. Although the head of government of an impoverished and beleaguered nation battered by a decade of severe mismanagement and corruption, Tsvangirai is hardly in charge. President Robert Mugabe is still calling too many of the crucial governing shots.
Photo by Beth Maclin
June 7, 2009
"Geospatial Science & Technology for Sustainable Development in Africa: Partnerships and Applications"
Event Summary
By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa
This conference, co-sponsored by the Association of American Geographers and the Science, Technology, and Globalization Project, Harvard Kennedy School brought together members of public and private donor organizations with those from institutions and industry engaged in the application of geospatial science and technology to assess development needs, formulate responses to those needs, and successfully implement sustainable development programs in Africa. Its goal was to insure that public and private sector initiatives that rely on geospatial tools, techniques, and applications achieve a high level of integration in the areas of database requirements and standards, methodologies, and strategies for sustainability. Enhancing private sector linkages with government and nongovernmental initiatives already underway, as well as with ongoing academic and scientific research efforts, will help further capacity building and coordinate public policy applications across regions and themes.
Spring/Summer 2009
"Governance and Leadership in Africa: Measures, Methods, and Results"
Journal Article, International Affairs
By Robert Rotberg, Director, Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution
Governance is performance-the delivery of high quality political goods to citizens by governments of all kinds. In Africa, as everywhere else, those political goods are security and safety, rule of law, participation and human rights, sustainable economic opportunity and human development. The Ibrahim Index of African Governance, created at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, evaluates forty-eight sub-Saharan African countries according to fifty-seven variables.
AP Photo
April 2009
"Nasty, Brutish and Long"
Magazine or Newspaper Article, Prospect, issue 157
By Monica Duffy Toft, Associate Professor of Public Policy
It’s a busy time for civil wars. The Sri Lankan army has pushed far into Tamil territory, seeking a decisive victory. The killings in Northern Ireland show how spoilers try to gain advantage over rivals in any political process. Then there is the threat that recently pacified civil wars, such as those in Iraq and Sudan, will come back, while the global recession may push new ones forward.
AP Photo
March 26, 2009
"China's Grand Bargain"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Robert Rotberg, Director, Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution
AS THE G20 group of nations prepares to meet next week to discuss the world economy, a grand bargain with geostrategic significance is implicitly being crafted between Washington and Beijing. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hinted as much when she said in February that the United States would not hammer China about its human rights violations.
Belfer Center
Spring 2009
"Intrastate Conflict Program Advises on Governance in Africa"
Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter
By Beth Maclin, Communications Assistant
The Belfer Center's Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution (ICP) traveled to meet with leaders and officials in Rwanda and Malawi in January to discuss the 2008 Index of African Governance.
AP Photo
December 13, 2008
"Uniting Against Mugabe's Corrupt Regime"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Robert Rotberg, Director, Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution
DESPERATE Zimbabweans cannot understand why Africa and the forces of world order have abandoned them in their hour of need, when what is left of their once wealthy nation decays irredeemably. President-elect Barack Obama has spoken critically of Africa's irresponsibility. So have French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. All three want Africa to eject Robert G. Mugabe, Zimbabwe's unelected ruling despot.
