ZURICH (Reuters) &#8211; Former Ghana Football Association president Kwesi Nyantakyi was handed a life ban from all football-related activities by FIFA on Tuesday following various violations of the governing body’s ethics code, including bribery and corruption.
Nyantakyi, a former member of FIFA’s General Council, was found guilty after being filmed by an investigative journalist in a hotel room appearing to take a $65,000 bribe from a supposed businessman seeking to sponsor the Ghanaian football league.
He was also fined 500,000 Swiss Francs ($498,000).
“The adjudicatory chamber found Mr Nyantakyi guilty of having violated art. 19 (Conflicts of interest), art. 21 (Bribery and corruption) and art. 22 (Commission) of the FIFA Code of Ethics,” FIFA said in a statement.
“As a consequence, Mr Nyantakyi is banned for life from all football-related activities (administrative, sports or any other) at both national and international level.
“Additionally, a fine in the amount of CHF 500,000 has been imposed on Mr Nyantakyi.”
Nyantakyi, who was also a former vice-president of the Confederation of African Football, resigned in June after a recording by undercover journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas appeared to show him demanding kickbacks to pass on to top government officials, including the presidency.
Nyantakyi later apologised to Ghana president Nana Akufo-Addo and the government for what he called his “indiscretion”.
He denied any wrongdoing regarding match fixing.
The scandal, along with undercover footage that showed numerous match officials receiving bribes, forced the suspension of the Ghana Premier League in June, which has still not resumed.
Former Ghana Football Association (GFA) board member Kofi Amoah was placed in charge of a four-member normalisation committee in September that was tasked with steering the affairs of football in the country for the next six months.
Nyantakyi and the Ghana FA could not be immediately reached for comment on Tuesday.
($1 = 1.0048 Swiss francs)
Reporting By Nick Said, editing by Pritha Sarkar

Why FIFA handed former Ghana FA president Nyantakyi a ban for life

<figure><img decoding="async" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241212/original/file-20181018-67188-12rs5mq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt="File 20181018 67188 12rs5mq.jpg?ixlib=rb 1.1" /><figcaption>The WHO recommends HIV viral load testing to monitor people on ARVs. 
Shutterstock</figcaption></figure>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/glenda-gray-111201">By Glenda Gray</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/south-african-medical-research-council-1976">South African Medical Research Council</a>
A United Nations <a href="http://www.unaids.org/en/resources/909090">initiative</a> backed by global experts has set its sights on an ambitious programme to bring an end to the AIDS epidemic by 2030.
The 90-90-90 strategy aims to do this by reaching three targets: 90% of all people with HIV must know their status, 90% of those diagnosed with HIV must receive antiretroviral therapy, and 90% of people receiving antiretroviral therapy must be virally suppressed. When a person is <a href="http://www.who.int/hiv/mediacentre/news/viral-supression-hiv-transmission/en/">virally suppressed</a> it means the virus in their blood is undetectable. The last goal is informed by <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanhiv/article/PIIS2352-3018(17)30183-2/fulltext#%20">evidence</a> that people with a suppressed viral load are less likely to transmit HIV to others.
But a couple of steps still need to be taken before these goals can be met. The first is large scale community based HIV testing that aims to get people tested on an annual basis at the very least. The second is linking testing to care. This is critical because it addresses the gap between a person being diagnosed with HIV to when they start antiretroviral therapy.
The third step is the close monitoring of people taking antiretroviral medication. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends <a href="http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/255702/9789241512633-eng.pdf?sequence=1">viral load testing</a> as the primary method of monitoring people on antiretroviral therapy. Viral load is the measure of the amount of HIV in a person’s blood and is used as a measure of how well a person is responding to HIV treatment. The lower the viral load the better the health outcomes.
WHO guidelines advise that all patients on antiretroviral therapy receive a viral load test at six months and 12 months, and annually thereafter if the patient is stable. But very few patients receive that level of care.
The main barrier is the time it takes to get test results back from laboratories that are often situated great distances from clinics. One way round the problem is to enable viral load testing to take place at primary health care level – what’s known as point-of-care viral load testing. This would be a game changer. Results would be known immediately and health workers could intervene swiftly by evaluating antiretroviral treatments in real time. This would, in turn, improve treatment outcomes.
But achieving this requires innovation. A new approach is being piloted. The idea is to test if point-of-care viral load monitoring is in reach.
<h2>Testing</h2>
Monitoring the viral loads of people on antiretroviral therapy is an essential part of HIV management. Viral load testing helps doctors determine if a person is taking their medication as prescribed. It also helps to determine if patients are on the correct combination of antiretroviral drugs.
It’s a key part of the arsenal against HIV because research shows that people who are virally suppressed are less likely to pass on the virus to someone else. That makes it a key factor in breaking the cycle of transmission.
The most efficient way of doing this is through point-of-care testing sites. These are based within the community so that patients don’t have to travel long distances to get tests done as well as to receive treatment. This new model is being piloted with the aim of providing convenient access to care for patients.
Currently nearly all viral load testing is conducted in centralised and <a href="http://www.nhls.ac.za/?page=hiv_pcr&amp;id=61">designated laboratories</a>. This means that there can be lags in getting results back to the field. Patients can wait for weeks.
Laboratory based viral load testing is also expensive. Point-of-care testing is also cheaper than lab-based viral loads: health care workers could do the test rather than highly paid technicians.
Small steps have been made in the direction of enabling viral load monitoring to be done at point of care.
But additional equipment is also needed. Pilots evaluating point-of-care viral load testing are ongoing. A pilot is being run using a portable testing machine – the m-PIMA HIV1/2 – that fits on a desk top and can provide an accurate reading of viral load in under 70 minutes.
The machine is being tested to establish whether it meets WHO standards. Once it is given the stamp of approval by the WHO, ministries of health can start the implementation at all sites.
<h2>Closing the gap</h2>
All countries still struggling to bring the HIV pandemic under control are focused on achieving the 90-90-90 goals.
South Africa, which still has the <a href="http://www.unaids.org/en/regionscountries/countries/southafrica">biggest HIV epidemic in the world</a>, with 7.9 million people living with <a href="http://www.hsrc.ac.za/uploads/pageContent/9234/SABSSMV_Impact_Assessment_Summary_ZA_ADS_cleared_PDFA4.pdf">HIV</a>, is no exception, and is making significant progress.
It is edging closer to the target of having 90% of people with HIV <a href="http://www.hsrc.ac.za/uploads/pageContent/9234/SABSSMV_Impact_Assessment_Summary_ZA_ADS_cleared_PDFA4.pdf">knowing their status</a>. And it’s made significant progress on the second target that 90% of people with HIV should be on treatment.
But it has some way to go on the third. While the country is on track to meet the goal that 90% of people on treatment be virally suppressed, it’s advances on this front haven’t been uniform. Some regions of the country still lag behind others. Being able to roll out point of care testing would go a long way in helping close these gaps.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/104432/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/glenda-gray-111201">Glenda Gray</a>, Research Professor, Perinatal HIV Research Unit and President, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/south-african-medical-research-council-1976">South African Medical Research Council</a>
This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-innovation-can-help-end-the-aids-epidemic-by-2030-104432">original article</a>.

Innovation can assist in the end of the AIDS epidemic by 2030, here’s how

ZURICH, Oct 26 (Reuters) &#8211; Swiss luxury group Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA and Chinese group Alibaba are joining forces to target the Chinese retail market, Richemont said on Friday.
The strategic partnership will feature retail offerings of Yoox Net-a-Porter Group S.p.A. (YNAP), the online luxury retailer, to Chinese consumers.
Under the partnership, YNAP and Alibaba will establish a joint venture to launch two mobile apps for the Net-a-Porter and Mr Porter multi-brand, in-season online stores for consumers in China.
(Reporting by Michael Shields; Editing by Maria Sheahan)

What you need to know about Richemont and Alibaba’s strategic partnership

GENEVA (Reuters) &#8211; An Ebola outbreak that ravaged Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia in 2014 cost economies an estimated $53 billion, according to a study in this month’s Journal of Infectious Diseases.
The study aimed to combine the direct economic burden and the indirect social impact to generate a comprehensive cost of the outbreak, which was the worst in the world.
The outbreak ran from 2013 to 2016 and killed at least 11,300 people, more than all other known Ebola outbreaks combined. The vast majority of cases were in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The report’s authors, Caroline Huber, Lyn Finelli and Warren Stevens, put the economic costs at $14 billion and said the human cost was even greater, based on the people affected and a dollar figure that reflects the value of each human life.
The total is far higher than previous estimates. In October 2014, the World Bank said the Ebola epidemic could cost $32.6 billion by the end of 2015 in a worst case scenario, but by November 2014 it dialled back that forecast to $3-4 billion. In 2016 the World Bank estimate of economic loss was $2.8 billion.
The 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) cost an estimated $40 billion, while the 2015-2016 Zika virus outbreak in the Americas was estimated to have caused $20 billion in social costs, the new study said.
But a repeat of the 1918 influenza pandemic could cost an annual 700,000 lives and $490 billion, the authors said, citing research published in 2016.
The new Ebola study factored in the impact on healthworkers, long-term conditions suffered by 17,000 Ebola survivors, and costs of treatment, infection control, screening and deployment of personnel beyond West Africa.
The biggest cost not previously accounted for was deaths from other diseases, as Ebola tied up healthcare resources and hospital admissions fell dramatically, adding $18.8 billion to the total bill.
During the outbreak there were 10,623 additional deaths from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, with 3.5 million additional untreated malaria cases.
Measles caused 2,000-16,000 extra deaths as 1 million children missed being vaccinated for measles, and 600,000-700,000 missed other vaccines.
But the authors added that they had limited information on the cost of deploying international health staff and military personnel, and they were obliged to place a value on human life, a widely accepted economic measurement.
Although the “value of a statistical life” (VSL) in North America and Europe is estimated at $7 million-9 million, the authors said, they took a figure from the only study in a West African context, with a VSL of $577,000 in Sierra Leone.
Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg

How the Ebola outbreak in West Africa cost economies $53 billion

By <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/alf-gunvald-nilsen-573050">Alf Gunvald Nilsen</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-agder-3690">University of Agder</a>
The World Bank’s latest annual report on <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/poverty-and-shared-prosperity?cid=EXT_WBSocialShare_EXT&amp;ogImage=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.worldbank.org%2Fcontent%2Fdam%2Fphotos%2F780x439%2F2018%2Foct-1%2FEPD2.png">poverty and shared prosperity</a> has an unsurprisingly positive message that only 10% of the world’s population lived in extreme poverty in 2015, which is the most recent year that available data allows for global poverty estimates to be made.
As World Bank President Jim Yong Kim points out in the foreword to the report, this is “the lowest poverty rate in recorded history”.
This is a story that we have become accustomed to hearing from the Bank, and other significant participants in the debate about poverty and development in the global South (Asia, Africa, and Latin America). But does the story actually hold true? For example, the World Bank measures extreme poverty in terms of the number of people who live on less than USD$1.90 a day. But is this in fact a meaningful measurement of poverty?
World Bank poverty estimates have come in for a lot of criticism. For example, Jason Hickel, an anthropologist at the London School of Economics, <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/111/1113531/the-divide/9781786090034.html">has pointed out</a> that there’s often a large gap between national poverty lines and the international poverty line stipulated by the bank.
For example, more than 55% of South Africa’s population lives below the country’s upper poverty line, of R1,138 (USD$80) a month. But, according to the World Bank, only 18.85% of the South African population lives in poverty. This suggests that the international poverty lined touted by the World Bank systematically underestimates the extent of global poverty.
This point is partially acknowledged in this year’s report. Accordingly, the World Bank proposes new and higher poverty lines &#8211; USD$3.20 and USD$5.50 a day, respectively. According to the report, almost half the world’s population lives below the USD $5.50 a day poverty line. However, we need to go further than this – indeed, the World Bank’s widely touted story of historically low poverty levels must be rejected.
If we are to have a serious debate about world poverty on <a href="http://www.un.org/en/events/povertyday/">End Poverty Day</a>, we have to start by acknowledging that the global problem of poverty is far more extensive than World Bank rhetoric would have us believe. Two big factors need to be confronted. The first is that the majority of the world’s poor live in countries that have experienced strong economic growth. The second is that the growth strategies these countries have practised create and reproduce poverty.
<h2>Unequal distribution</h2>
The World Bank attributes the supposed historical decline in poverty in large part to the rising wealth of several Asian countries. But, this is a problematic argument. In his recent book <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/global-poverty-9780198703525?cc=za&amp;lang=en&amp;">Global Poverty</a>, development economist Andy Sumner shows how a new geography of poverty has emerged in the global South.
Whether we use monetary estimates – Sumner uses a poverty line of $2.50 a day – or estimates of multidimensional poverty; that is, poverty measured according to health indicators, education levels, and economic standards of living – as many as 70% of the world’s poor currently live in what the World Bank refers to as middle-income countries.
As Sumner points out, poverty in middle-income countries cannot be attributed to an absolute lack of resources. These are countries that have experienced strong economic growth since the 1990s. What it boils down to in middle-income countries like <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2018/06/26/africa/nigeria-overtakes-india-extreme-poverty-intl/index.html">India</a>,<a href="https://theconversation.com/beating-poverty-needs-partnerships-and-collaboration-not-just-money-101145">Nigeria</a>, and <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/the-illusion-of-brazils-incomeequality/article37536515/">Brazil</a> is the issue of distribution.
The economic growth that has lifted countries from low-income status to middle-income status is profoundly unequally distributed. As a result, large parts of the populations in these countries are excluded from the benefits that accrue from this growth.
This in turn has implications for how we think about growth strategies and poverty reduction in the global South.
<h2>Global growth and development</h2>
Much of the economic growth that has lifted countries from low-income status to middle-income status has resulted from the emergence of global production networks and global value chains since the late 1970s. Poorer countries have been integrated into these networks in large part due to their large reservoirs of cheap labour. It is this process of industrialisation that has turned low-income countries into middle-income countries.
But if global production networks come with so many developmental benefits, why is it that world poverty is concentrated in countries that have experienced economic growth precisely because they are integrated in these networks? To understand this paradox, it is important to remember that global production networks are comprised of different value tiers, and that different countries and different groups capture different amounts of the value that is created in these networks.
This obviously leads to a <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/review-of-international-studies/article/poverty-reduction-through-liberalisation-neoliberalism-and-the-myth-of-global-convergence/FAC3F9EDA9C6B87938804D260B795412">reproduction of inequality</a> – countries in the global South tend to be integrated in lower value tiers.
This is evident in the fact that the distribution of national incomes and wealth at a world scale is still characterised by a pronounced North-South hierarchy. But it is more important still to be aware that countries in the global South that have witnessed strong economic growth have also experienced marked escalations in national levels of inequality. In India in 2016, for example, the richest 10% of the population received 55% of all income. This is an increase of <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/india-wealth-inequality-growing-rapidly-180125084201143.html">more than 20% since 1980</a>.
This pattern of development clearly shows how poverty is a matter of distribution that is related to the kind of employment opportunities that are created when southern countries are embedded in global value chains. The factory jobs that are established when transnational corporations set up shop in countries like Mexico or Vietnam are fundamentally precarious. And it is precarious workers who capture the least of the value that is created in global production networks. This is why <a href="https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745335995/southern-insurgency/">precarious workers live in poverty</a> in middle-income countries in the global South.
What’s clear from this is that we have to ask ourselves what a development policy based on redistribution in favour of the working classes in the global South might look like – because that, ultimately, is the key to ending poverty in an unequal world.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/104963/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/alf-gunvald-nilsen-573050">Alf Gunvald Nilsen</a>, Associate Professor of Development Studies, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-agder-3690">University of Agder</a>
This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-world-banks-optimism-about-global-poverty-misses-the-point-104963">original article</a>.

Is the World Bank missing the point about global poverty?

&nbsp;
<div id="attachment_320323" style="width: 540px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-320323" class=" wp-image-320323" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/HeForShe_b.jpg" alt="" width="530" height="353" />UN Women&#8217;s &#8216;HeForShe&#8217; initiative</div>
Johannesburg – 9 October 2018 – Gender equality is a fundamental human right but remains a distant dream for many women worldwide. The United Nations’ HeforShe is a solidarity campaign for the advancement of gender equality. Its goal is to achieve equality by encouraging both genders to partake as agents of change and take action against negative stereotypes and behaviors, faced by people with feminine personalities/genders. Grounded in the idea that gender inequality is an issue that affects all people—socially, economically and politically—it seeks to actively involve men and boys in a movement that was originally conceived as &#8220;a struggle for women by women&#8221;.
The HeForShe movement is gathering momentum globally as a cohort of select leaders from both the public and private sectors join the drive and stand out as visionaries on gender equality. On behalf of Standard Bank Group, Chief Executive Sim Tshabalala, has become one of the global “Thematic Champions” in the HeForShe movement. These leaders have committed to implement game-changing policies and concrete actions towards gender parity.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-320322 size-medium alignleft" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/HeForShe_Sim-copy-2-copy-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="300" />
“Achieving gender equity is a moral duty, a business imperative, and just plain common sense. Women embody half the world’s talent, skill and energy &#8211; and more than half of its purchasing power. So every sensible business leader must be committed to achieving gender equity in their company and to contributing to gender equity in the societies in which we operate,” says Tshabalala.
In the World Economic Forum’s latest Global Gender Gap report, it is estimated that it will take more the 217 years to achieve workplace equality after gender parity took a step backwards in the past year.
Concrete commitments made by Standard Bank Group in order to bring about tangible change include reaching parity in executive positions and to improve the representation of women in executive positions from its current 32% to 40% by 2023. Another is to lift the representation of women on the Board from 22% to 33% by 2021.
Standard Bank is also committed to increasing the representation of women Chief Executives in its Africa Regions network from 10% to 20% by 2021, while Standard Bank South Africa will improve the representation of women in executive positions from the current 35% to 40% by 2021.
While progress has been made in certain countries in Africa to close gender gaps, others remain behind the curve. Namibia and South Africa both score in the Top 20 in the WEF global report on gender equality &#8211; after closing 78% to 76% of their gender gaps &#8211; but Sub-Saharan Africa still displays a wider range of gender gap outcomes than practically any other region.
Launched by Emma Watson and the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2014, HeForShe represented the first global effort to actively include men and boys as change agents for gender equality at a time when most gender programs were only targeting women.
It was the beginning of a trend that only seems more relevant as stories emerge of sexual abuse and harassment suffered by women in the workplace.
The Sustainable Development Goals call for gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, but campaigns such as last weekend’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women highlight that there is much work to be done. The U.N. recently reported that nearly 20 percent of women surveyed said they had experienced physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner in the previous year.
Originally conceived as a one-year media campaign to raise awareness about the role of men and boys in gender equality, the HeForShe website garnered more than 100,000 male supporters in its first three days. These males affirmed their commitment to the cause by declaring themselves “HeForShe” and saying that gender equality is not just a women’s issue. Early adopters included a clutch of celebrities and politicians, including former U.S. President Barack Obama, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and actor Matt Damon.
Since then, 1.6 million men have signed up online, including at least one man in every country of the world, and its “Impact Champions” include the presidents of Rwanda, Ghana, Malawi, and Indonesia, among several other heads of state. The issue has also been the subject of 2 billion conversations on social media.
But HeForShe is not without its critics. Many in the gender equality community say they would like to see the movement make more concrete demands of its male champions, and have called for civil society to play a greater role in developing and monitoring the movement.
“Now is a good moment for reflection and discussion about HeForShe, which has achieved high visibility, clear successes, and also drawbacks,” said Gary Barker, co-founder of Promundo, an NGO working to engage men and boys for gender equality, which has advised the HeForShe campaign since its launch three years ago.
“Having that amount of reach and star power on board means there’s huge potential, but we need to harness it before the movement loses momentum … [and] we need to push UN Women to go further and ask more of men,” he added.
&nbsp;
Content provided by Africa.com

How UN Women’s global ‘HeforShe’ initiative seeks to drive gender equality

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; The South African rand firmed against the globally hobbled dollar early on Friday ahead of the country’s credit review announcement by ratings agency Moody’s later in the day.
The rand was 0.85 percent stronger at 14.5100 per dollar at 0650 GMT, having closed in New York at 14.6350.
The rand is expected to trade between 14.3500 and 14.7000 to the dollar on Friday, NKC African Economics wrote in a note.
Moody’s is the last of the top rating agencies to have Pretoria’s long-term foreign-currency debt in investment grade.
South Africa’s stable outlook on its credit rating means there is little chance of a downgrade, Moody’s said on Sept. 13, but a commitment to fiscal consolidation at the October budget would be key to maintaining the positive rating.
The rand was supported by the slightly-better-than-expected South African manufacturing production data for August.
Globally, the U.S. dollar traded at its lowest level this month against its major peers on Friday as declining U.S. treasury yields and further losses on Wall Street soured sentiment. [FRX/]
In fixed income, the yield on the benchmark government bond due in 2026 fell 1 basis points to 9.255 percent.
Stocks are due open firmer at 0700 GMT, with the JSE securities exchange’s Top-40 futures index up 1.10 percent.
Reporting by Nomvelo Chalumbira; Editing by Ed Stoddard

South African rand firms against US dollar ahead of country’s credit review

HARARE (Reuters) &#8211; The World Bank and IMF have endorsed Zimbabwe’s road map to clear more than $2 billion in foreign arrears at a meeting in Indonesia on Wednesday, the finance minister said, adding that the lenders had also backed his two-year economic recovery plan.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa has promised to revive the struggling economy, pay foreign debts that the country has defaulted on since 1999 and restore ties with West after becoming a pariah under Robert Mugabe’s near four-decade rule.
Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube, who is attending the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank meetings in Bali, Indonesia, said in a statement his plans to clear the arrears to the World Bank, African Development Bank and European Investment Bank had been accepted.
“All the cooperating partners and creditors present uniformly expressed their support for Zimbabwe and its arrears clearance Road Map,” Ncube said.
The lenders and Western donors also urged Ncube to “judiciously” implement his two-year economic recovery plan announced last Friday.
Ncube’s plan will see cuts on spending and the government’s wage bill and privatisation of loss-making state-owned firms.
Zimbabwe, which adopted the U.S. dollar after hyperinflation left its own currency worthless in 2009, is gripped by acute shortages of cash dollars. Prices of basic goods and medicines have risen in the last few days.
Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by James Macharia

World Bank, IMF support Zimbabwe’s plans to clear more than $2 billion in foreign arrears, what you need to know

NAIROBI (Reuters) &#8211; Marriott International plans to increase its hotels in Africa by 50 percent in the next five years, opening new facilities in markets where it already operates and venturing into new ones like Mozambique, the company said on Monday.
Global hotel chains have been increasing their investments in Africa in recent years to take advantage of fast expanding economies and improving transport links.
Marriott said it had signed deals with partners which will see it increase its hotels in Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, South Africa, and mark its entry into Mozambique.
“The signings put Marriott International on track to increase its portfolio by 50 percent with over 200 hotels and 38,000 rooms by 2023 estimated to generate 12,000 new job opportunities,” the company said in a statement.
Other chains which have recently announced African expansion plans include AccorHotels, which has more than 100 hotels in Africa and has earmarked $1 billion for expansion on the continent.
The Bethesda, Maryland-based company has a portfolio of 6,700 properties in 130 countries, including 21 countries in Africa.
Reporting by Duncan Miriri; editing by Jason Neely

Marriott International plans to expand in Africa by 50 percent in the next five years

Press Release
African Development Bank seeks partnerships to lift 1 billion people out of hunger globally 
“We must not get carried away: we are not winning the war against global hunger” 
INDIANAPOLIS, United States of America, September 26, 2018/ &#8212; The African Development Bank (www.AfDB.org) called on global partners to join hands to lift one billion people worldwide out of hunger and said it was leading the way by investing US$24 billion in African agriculture over the next 10 years in the largest such effort ever.
“We are not winning the war against global hunger,” Bank President Akinwumi Adesina told an agriculture conference at Purdue University in Indianapolis on Tuesday, 25 September.
“We must not get carried away,” he added, referring to statistics showing a decline in the global population living on less than two dollars per day. In reality, the number of hungry people in the world had increased from 777 million in 2015 to 815 million in 2016, he said citing the latest World Food Security and Nutrition data.
Adesina told the audience that included researchers, implementing organizations, business leaders, policymakers and donors that simple technical and scientific methods were already making a whole difference to farm yields and income in Africa. While such technologies to deliver Africa’s green revolution exist, they are mostly just sitting on the shelves, he said.
“The release of water efficient maize varieties now allows farmers to harvest good yields in the face of moderate drought,” he noted. “Today, rice varieties exist that can give yields of 8 tonnes per ha. Cassava varieties exist with yields of up to 80 tonnes per ha. Heat tolerant and disease resistant livestock and technologies for ramping up aquaculture exist.”
Bank experts put current comparative yields at 1.5-2 tonnes per ha for rice and 10-15 tonnes per ha for cassava.
What was needed urgently was deployment of supportive policies to ensure technologies are cascaded down to millions of farmers. “All Africa needs to do is to harness the available technologies with the right policies and rapidly raise agricultural productivity and incomes for farmers and assure lower food prices for consumers.”
The Bank has launched its Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT), a $1 billion initiative to extend the use of farm technologies. TAAT is currently engaging seed companies, public and private entities, and financial institutions in 27 countries to make technology available to a total of 40 million African farmers.
Combining targeted subsidies for farmers with a market-based system for rapidly expanding access to financing for farmers and agricultural value chains is the fastest way to get many people out of poverty to a sustained pathway for economic growth, Adesina added.
The conference on “ Scaling Up Agricultural Technologies for Transformation” (http://bit.ly/2NK3XL5) marked Adesina’s fond return to his alma mater.
“It was here, as a graduate student, that I began the journey of searching for ways to get technologies into the hands of millions of farmers,” he said. Adesina was to go on to make a huge impact on the transformation of agriculture in Africa, including implementing game-changing policies in his years as Nigeria’s Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development before taking up his post at the Bank in September 2015.
Adesina said the situation in Sub-Saharan Africa needed particularly urgent intervention due to the ravages of climate change. The International Food Policy Research Institute estimates that Africa will add 38 million to its number of hungry people by 2050 as a result of climate change. The Institute forecasts that Africa will experience major food shortages by 2020 and beyond, while malnutrition will be on the rise over the next 20 years.
The Bank’s ongoing initiatives had the objectives of growing income for farmers, stabilizing prices for staple crops, reducing losses and stimulating multiplier effects in local economies. With its Staple Crop Processing Zones and other initiatives, the Bank is demonstrating how this can be done.
“The African Development Bank put feeding Africa as one of its topmost priorities when it launched its Feed Africa strategy (http://bit.ly/2Q7A04c) in 2015 and is investing $ 24 billion in agriculture for Africa over 10 years – the largest ever such effort,” the Bank President said. Across Africa, the Feed Africa Strategy (http://bit.ly/2Q9GnUv) is supporting the development of policies, markets, infrastructure and institutions that will ensure that agricultural value chains are well developed and that technologies reach several millions of farmers.
Adesina called for global partnerships to establish Staple Crop Processing Zones across Africa.
“The SCPZs will provide several advantages for rural economies. They will create markets for farm produce. Raw materials will no longer be moved out of rural areas, but as finished value-added products. Post-harvest losses will be substantially reduced. Well integrated agricultural value chains will develop, with supportive logistics, especially warehousing and cold chains,” Adesina added.
The African Development Bank has already started investments to develop these SCPZs in a number of pioneering African countries, including Ethiopia, Togo, Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique. It expects the processing zones to be active in about 15 countries in the near-term.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Development Bank Group (AfDB).

AfDB seeks partnerships to lift 1 billion people out of hunger globally

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa has signed an extradition treaty with the United Arab Emirates, the justice minister said on Thursday, raising the prospect of the Gupta brothers, friends of former president Jacob Zuma, returning to face corruption charges.
The Indian-born brothers &#8211; Ajay, Atul and Rajesh &#8211; have been accused of using their ties with Zuma to siphon off billions of rand in state funds and of inappropriately influencing cabinet appointments.
The Guptas are believed to be in Dubai where they own property and businesses and police have issued an arrest warrant for Ajay Gupta over a corruption case.
The Guptas and Zuma, who have repeatedly denied wrongdoing, could not be reached for comment.
Justice Minister Michael Masutha told Reuters that treaties on extradition and legal assistance had been signed with his counterpart Sultan Saeed Al Badi on Tuesday in Abu Dhabi.
“I will not at this stage comment on individual matters,” Masutha said when asked about the Guptas.
A long-awaited inquiry into allegations of inappropriately influencing government decisions, known locally as “state capture”, opened last month with witnesses testifying that the Gupta brothers tried to bribe or threaten them.
The Guptas left South Africa earlier this year around the time Zuma resigned under pressure from his own party.
Activists, opposition politicians and members of the ruling African National Congress have been calling for an extradition treaty to be agreed with the UAE so the Gupta brothers can be ordered to return to South Africa.
“This means the infamous Guptas are fast running out of places to hide as they can now face extradition to finally answer for state capture,” said Natasha Mazzone, Democratic Alliance shadow minister on state companies.
Reporting by Joe Brock and Ed Stoddard; Editing by Richard Balmforth

South Africa signs extradition treaty with UAE that could target Gupta brothers, what you need to know…

By Francois Conradie – Head of Research at NKC African Economics
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika hosted Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel at his palace in Zeralda on Monday, September 17. The main point of the meeting was to discuss Germany’s repatriation of almost 4,000 Algerians who have been refused asylum (Germany considers Algeria a safe country and Algerians’ asylum applications are almost all turned down).
For an observer of Algerian politics, however, the meeting was most interesting because state television broadcast some video footage of it, which gives an idea of Mr Bouteflika’s health. His health is terrible.
The footage (which, it should be remembered, was carefully chosen to show him in the best light) shows the ailing president struggling to say a sentence and then sitting still in his wheelchair once he has said it, his one good hand immobile in the air, while Ms Merkel chats to his interpreter. It also shows Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia getting involved in the discussion from an armchair on the other side of the room.
From the footage we do not think Mr Bouteflika plays any significant role in the running of his country, which is relevant as the power structure around him prepares to put him forward as a candidate in next year’s presidential election.
The same power structure, in which a key player is Ahmed Gaid Salah (chief of staff of the army and deputy minister of defence), has been busy with a personnel shake-up in the army.
On the day of Ms Merkel’s visit, the high commander of land forces and commander of the air force were pushed into retirement; their sacking follows the sackings of a dozen generals in July and August. It was reported in the week that five of the generals were being investigated for abuse of power.
In other election-related news Nacer Boudiaf (son of the highly respected President Mohamed Boudiaf), who has expressed his intention to run for president next year and who has publicly blamed the deep state for his father’s assassination in 1992, has had his diplomatic passport taken away.
The army has been weakened and Mr Gaid Salah with it. This makes us think that the civilians around Mr Bouteflika, especially his brother Said and Mr Ouyahia, may not have been entirely convinced of Mr Gaid Salah’s loyalty and wanted to remove the risk of him using the army to prevent Mr Bouteflika’s re-election. But the army will have to play a key role in assuring his victory (as it has in past elections).
The political environment is deteriorating as the rapacious power structure delays improvements to governance in order to extend its time in government and as this network’s internal paranoia renders it more brittle and fragile.

OpEd: Algeria’s Bouteflika receives Merkel as army is shaken up

NAIROBI (Reuters) &#8211; A Kenyan judge temporarily lifted a ban on an acclaimed lesbian movie on Friday, making it eligible to be entered for a Foreign Language Oscar, delighting the filmmakers but angering the censor.
“Rafiki” &#8211; “Friend” in Swahili &#8211; premiered at Cannes, the first Kenyan film to be selected by the prestigious festival, but it was banned at home on the grounds that it promotes homosexuality, a criminal offence under a colonial-era law.
“During the seven day suspension period the film shall only be open for viewing to willing adults only”, Justice Wilfrida Okwany told a packed courtroom in Nairobi.
Okwany said the makers of the film were “hereby allowed to admit the film” to Kenya’s Oscars selection committee.
A Nairobi cinema announced it would screen the movie from Sunday.
Reporting by John Ndiso; Additional reporting by Humphrey Malalo; Writing by Maggie Fick; Editing by Robin Pomeroy

Lesbian movie #Rafiki eligible for Oscars after Kenya temporarily lifts ban

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa’s highest court on Tuesday allowed the private use of marijuana, upholding a lower court’s ruling that found the criminalisation of cannabis was unconstitutional.
Activists who include members of the Rastafarian movement and traditional healers greeted the ruling with loud applause. They have held marches over the years to demand that the law be changed to allow people to smoke ‘weed’, which is called ‘dagga’ in South Africa.
Several government departments, including the health and justice ministries, oppose its legalisation and warn of harmful effects.
But in a unanimous judgment read by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, the Constitutional Court decriminalised home consumption, saying “the use of cannabis must be for the personal consumption of the adult”. The ruling also approved growing marijuana for personal consumption.
Rastafarian Garreth Prince and former Dagga Party leader Jeremy Acton brought the case asking the High Court to allow for the home use of marijuana.
Jules Stobbs and Myrtle Clarke‚ known as the “Dagga Couple”, joined the case, and asked the court to strike down laws banning the use‚ cultivation and sale of marijuana.
He added that it would not be a criminal offence for an adult person to use or be in possession of cannabis in private for their personal consumption in private.
However, the judgement did not specify the amount that can be used by an adult in private use.
“This must be determined by parliament,” he said.
Parliament is now expected to amend the laws that criminalise cannabis following the court ruling.
Activists had argued that the criminalisation of dagga use and possession is a violation of the right to equality, dignity, and freedom of religion.
There was no immediate comment from the departments over the country’s top court ruling on Tuesday.
Reporting by James Macharia; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg

South Africa’s ConCourt decriminalises the private use of marijuana, here’s why…

WASHINGTON (Reuters) &#8211; The United States is concerned that increased currency swap agreements between China and African nations will reduce visibility into financial transactions and will make it harder to prevent money laundering, a senior U.S. sanctions official said on Thursday.
Marshall Billingslea, the U.S. Treasury Department’s assistant secretary for terrorist financing, told a congressional hearing that while there was greater interest in using the yuan, most African countries still found it necessary to ultimately clear trade in U.S. dollars.
He was responding to questions by Republican Representative Chris Smith, who cited a $2.5 billion currency swap agreement between China and Nigeria to facilitate trade between the two countries, and a meeting of African finance leaders in June that sought to discuss using China’s yuan as a reserve currency for the region.
Nigeria is the third African nation to agree a currency swap deal with China.
“You are very much onto something of great concern to us as well,” Billingslea replied, referring to increased currency swap agreements between China and African governments.
“That said, there remains a great desire among most of the countries in Africa to maintain correspondent banking relationships with U.S. banks. At the end of the day they still are finding it necessary to ultimately clear trade in U.S. dollars,” he said.
He said maintaining those correspondent banking ties was “our best line of defense to ensure we maintain not just a degree of transparency and visibility into the transactions in Africa but &#8230; further to ensure that anti-money laundering standards are being applied.”
Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Leslie Adler

Why U.S is concerned about increased currency swap agreements between African nations and China

WASHINGTON (Reuters) &#8211; The U.S. government will not lift sanctions against Zimbabwe until the new government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa demonstrates it is “changing its ways,” a senior U.S. economic official told a congressional panel on Thursday.
Manisha Singh, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs, told a House of Representatives hearing there were 141 entities and individuals in Zimbabwe, including Mnangagwa and former president Robert Mugabe, that are currently under U.S. sanctions.
“Our pressure on Zimbabwe remains in place. We are trying to use this pressure to leverage political and economic reforms, human rights observations,” Singh said.
“We want to see fundamental changes in Zimbabwe and only then will we resume normal relations with them,” she added.
Mnangagwa was sworn in as Zimbabwe’s new president on Aug. 26 after the Constitutional Court confirmed his July 30 election victory, dismissing a challenge by opposition leader Nelson Chamisa.
Mnangagwa has called for the lifting of U.S. sanctions against officials from the ZANU-PF ruling party, top military figures and some government-owned firms, which were imposed during Mugabe’s rule for it called violations of human rights and democracy.
The EU lifted most of its sanctions in 2014, but has maintained those against Mugabe and his wife Grace.
The July ballot was touted as a crucial step toward shedding the pariah reputation that Zimbabwe gained under Mugabe as well as securing international donor funding.
Rep. Karen Bass, a Democrat from California, said Zimbabwe was “trying to reach out to us now and I want to know where we are with that.”
“We are always open to conversations. We are open to a demonstration from the government that it is changing its ways, that it is observing human rights,” Singh added.
Reporting by Lesley Wroughton, editing by G Crosse

U.S. will not lift sanctions against Zimbabwe until the African country does this…

By <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/experts/landry-signe/">Professor Landry Signé</a>, David M. Rubenstein Fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program and Africa Growth Initiative at the Brookings Institution and <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/author/chido-munyati/">Chido Munyati</a>, Global Leadership Fellow, World Economic Forum.
&nbsp;
This July, Zimbabwe held its first post-Robert Mugabe era presidential election, nearly four decades after his accession to power. The ruling ZANU-PF party won the 69 percent of the 210 seats in parliament after winning rural voters by large margins. In the presidential vote, Emmerson Mnangagwa, the ZANU-PF party candidate and the incumbent president, emerged victorious from a 23-candidate field, winning 50.8 percent of the vote. The main opposition, the MDC Alliance, challenged the election results, and today the constitutional court upheld the outcome.
Free, fair, and credible elections are preconditions for sustainable peace and democratic development, as well as for attracting new investment and other support from international financial institutions and foreign governments. While most election observers have acknowledged improvements in this election, they have not considered them sufficient. They highlighted “inclusive participation rights and a peaceful vote” but also noted a “lack of trust in the process.” Two U.S. based groups, the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute, highlighted “numerous incidents of food and agricultural assistance and extreme media bias” in favor of President Mnangagwa. The Southern African Development Community largely considered the election successful, noting that people had the “opportunity to exercise their constitutional right.”
Support for democracy is strong in Zimbabwe. According to the latest Afrobarometer Survey, 75.2 percent of people “prefer democracy” and an additional 4.7 percent “sometimes prefer democracy.” Additionally, 78.5 percent of citizens think that they should choose leaders in their country through regular, open, and honest elections. Finally, 67.8 percent of people believe that the constitution should limit the president to serving a maximum of two terms in office.
Zimbabwe seems to be regaining the trust of international investors and foreign governments. The country has attracted an estimated $16 billion in investments since Emmerson Mnangagwa took over in November 2017. Development partners are also collaborating again. The Indian government will provide a $310 million soft loan for the rehabilitation of the Hwange Thermal Power station and the CDC and Standard Chartered will provide $100 million in lending to new businesses.
Despite these advancements, there is still a lot to do to bring the country back to sustainable development:
IMPROVE GOVERNANCE TO REPEAL INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC SANCTIONS, ADDRESS INTERNATIONAL DEBT, AND DELIVER BETTER PUBLIC SERVICES 
Recently, the U.S. government renewed the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZIDERA), which requires that the country make credible progress towards holding free and fair elections, restore the rule of law, and ensure military subordination to the civilian government. The Government of Zimbabwe needs to increase accountability and accountable governance, and convince the U.S. government to repeal ZIDERA. With the sanctions bill in place, Zimbabwe cannot access loans or guarantees from international financial institutions without the approval of the U.S. government.
The renewed legislation also requires that U.S. representatives at multilateral organizations not support any efforts to address Zimbabwe’s debt situation. As of February 2018, Zimbabwe still had debts of $1.15 billion at the World Bank, $601 million to the African Development Bank, and $3 billion to Paris Club countries.
The government needs to re-engage diplomatically to get the sanctions lifted as they restrict business, its ability to borrow from international organizations, and resolve its debt situation. Zimbabwean officials continue to look to engage U.S. officials with the Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister, Dr. Sibusiso Moyo, telling reporters that “we are determined to continue in the re-engagement with the U.S. administration, as we together seek to restore our bilateral relations to normalcy.” In order to regain access to international capital markets Zimbabwe must repay its debt arrears to major foreign lenders.
Other necessary reforms include repealing the chilling media laws—including the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) and the Public Order and Security Act (POSA)—which restrict the media environment and promotes self-censorship. Additionally, the government must align current laws with the constitution.
IMPROVING THE MACROECONOMIC CONTEXT AND POLICY DELIVERY
Resolve the chronic cash shortage in the short-term, and create its own currency in the long-term 
Addressing the cash shortages must be a priority for the government. Zimbabwe desperately needs an influx of foreign cash to resolve the currency crises and spur economic growth. The country has not had a currency of its own since it dollarized in 2009 because of hyperinflation.
In the long term, Zimbabwe needs to have its own currency. In 2016, the Reserve Bank introduced “bond notes”, a substitute currency that locally has the same value as the U.S. dollar. Bond notes were meant to alleviate the shortage of U.S. dollars in the system—this, however, had the opposite effect by further increasing the demand for U.S. dollar.
Implement economic and civil reforms domestically 
As highlighted earlier, President Mnangagwa has attracted significant new investment to Zimbabwe since last year. However, the country continues to face chronic cash shortages that are holding back economic growth. In recent months, businesses raised prices as they struggled to find U.S. dollars to conduct business.
Beyond reforms, President Mnangagwa can send positive signals to foreign lenders and investors by tackling corruption, and appointing reputable and accountable technocrats to manage the economy. Indeed, the window of opportunity has narrowed considerably since the post-election violence that followed a peaceful vote. President Mnangagwa said there would be an independent investigation into the post-election violence. Some hope and goodwill remains; however, actions taken in the next few months will determine whether Zimbabwe is breaking with the past.
By <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/experts/landry-signe/">Professor Landry Signé</a>, David M. Rubenstein Fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program and Africa Growth Initiative at the Brookings Institution, distinguished fellow at Stanford University’s Center for African Studies, World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, and author of “Innovating Development Strategies in Africa: The Role of International, Regional and National Actors,
and <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/author/chido-munyati/">Chido Munyati</a>, Global Leadership Fellow, World Economic Forum.

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