Franklin Cudjoe, 2010 Young Global Leader Award
Life seems to grant rare opportunities to show a person how much they really mean to us. Sure, on a daily basis we say “thank-you” and tell people we appreciate them, but very rarely is there a time and place to tell the world about a person who has [...]

While all eyes were on the celebrations surrounding the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, another 20th anniversary was almost completely eclipsed in the news last week.
In Africa’s last colony, Namibia, the first free and fair elections were held on November 7th, 1989, two days before the Wall dividing East and West [...]

On the heels of Barak Obama winning the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize, it seems to be unusual that the most valuable individual annual award in the world is not being given this year. The Mo Ibrahim Prize consists of US$5million over 10 years and US$200,000 annually for life thereafter. It is the largest annually awarded [...]

Last week Ed Cropley, African Investment Correspondent for REUTERS listed five risks to watch for in Africa.  Not surprisingly, threat of violence and corruption in Kenyan elections made the list.  Last year’s post-election violence has not yet been brought to justice, and there is strong evidence that tribal and ethnic groups are arming themselves for [...]

Cape Town — Southern Africa is the continent’s best-governed and Central Africa its worst-governed region, according to a new ranking of Africa’s quality of governance published on October 5, 2009.
If you are an African who ranks health, education and freedom from poverty as your top priority, you are best off in the Seychelles, and worst [...]

The impact of mobile phones and mobile applications on emerging markets
This week’s Economist has an excellent set of special reports focused on the impact that mobile phones and mobile applications are having on emerging markets. The reports also cover how mobile applications are being used to provide financial services to millions around the world [...]

The Institute for Public Policy Research, located in the capital city Windhoek in Namibia recently released a policy paper which provides an overview of poverty, inequality and growth in post-Independence Namibia.
The main findings of the paper entitled “Poverty, Inequality and Growth Linkages: National and Sectoral Evidence from Post-Independence Namibia” are:

• Inequality remained at more or [...]

“Many Africans lack access to essential medicines. There are myriad reasons for this: poverty, lack of awareness about the need for treatment, confusion over which drugs to take, technical and logistical challenges in procurement and distribution combined with a general lack of local healthcare staff and infrastructure, among other cultural and political factors. [...]

One of the top goals of a free market organization is to gain a seat in the debate on important issues that effect our society, so that the window of possibilities is widened to include our set of freedom loving beliefs. James Shikwati, founder and director of IREN-Kenya, has worked for years to educate the [...]

The Inter Region Economic Network (IREN), a Nairobi-based free-market think tank, has just announced that the 7th annual Africa Resource Bank meeting will take place from November 11-14th in Arusha, Tanzania.
Launched in 2003 by IREN, the Africa Resource Bank brings together like-minded academics, policy makers, think tank leaders,  business leaders and civil society members from [...]