ANALYSIS

 

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – African finance ministers told their rich nation counterparts at weekend meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to work harder and faster to kick-start their economies to avoid a prolonged slump that could undermine strong growth in the developing world.

“We are concerned,” Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said at the meetings of global finance leaders.

“If we continue to see slow growth in the euro zone, which provides a large market for many African countries, and is coupled with a slowdown in emerging economies, then we will become more vulnerable,” Okonjo-Iweala told a news conference of African finance ministers. “We need to insist that our partners in other parts of the world work harder and faster.”

Despite a global economic slowdown in 2012, most African economies grew at close to 6 percent buoyed by strong internal demand and higher commodity prices. Strong and better managed economies have also attracted investors’ attention, with net capital flows to the region reaching a record $54.5 billion (35.7 billion pounds) last year, an increase of 3.3 percent from 2011.

But figures released by the World Bank last week showed that most of the world’s poor are now concentrated in Africa despite increased economic growth.

African economies are also hobbled by poor infrastructure, high unemployment and growing inequality. The region also remains vulnerable to droughts and floods, and pockets of instability.

Okonjo-Iweala said the region was concerned with how central banks in advanced economies planned to exit from years of easy monetary policy, which has led to a surge in investment capital in emerging and developing countries.

Aggressive stimulus from central banks in the United States, Britain, the euro zone and now Japan has so far failed to spark a reliable recovery, and questions are already being raised over how much more monetary policy can – or should – do.

Okonjo-Iweala emphasized it will be important for central banks to signal early on when they intend to change course.

“The signalling should be given ahead so we can prepare our economies for what the consequences might be, is important because we don’t want to precipitate a situation in which money suddenly flows out of the countries,” she said.

“But also, for us, we should be looking at our own instruments that we can apply should we have problems with volatility that arises out of some portfolio flows that might have come in,” she added.

Cameroon’s finance minister, Alamine Ousmane Mey, said African economies had built up more resilience to withstand economic downturns. Increased trade with the BRICS emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa has also helped, he added.

“The BRICS countries which allow us to diversify our trade and rebalance a situation where growth in advanced economies has slowed down,” he said.

LASTING RECOVERY

While Africa has witnessed booms before, many question whether this time Africa’s growth takeoff will stick. New IMF research finds that it is likely to stay on course if countries maintain the strong economic policies of the past 10 years.

Antoinette Sayeh, the IMF’s director for Africa, believes the region has turned a corner.

“We certainly are optimistic that growth will continue to be robust and have an uptick as global growth itself recovers,” Sayeh told Reuters. “We think the conditions that underpin this robust growth in the past are still very much there, that is good macroeconomic management in many countries, good commodity prices, strong investment both domestic and foreign investment in a number of countries.”

Last week, the IMF forecast that Africa will grow at 5.6 percent this year and picking up to 6.1 percent in 2014, with Ivory Coast and Mozambique growing at the fastest clip.

Sayeh said a sustained stagnation in Europe and sharp downturn in investment by large emerging economies posed the biggest risks to the region. “Could it derail growth? Our assessment is that, absent a truly dramatic shock to the global economy, probably not because it is not just externally propelled growth, it is also domestic. That is the difference,” she added.

Sayeh, a former Liberian finance minister, said countries should prioritize spending and those that could afford it should rebuild their fiscal safety nets.

Turning to Kenya, east Africa’s largest economy, Sayeh said the economic outlook was “bright” following a peaceful vote on March 4 that elected Uhuru Kenyatta, 51, as president. Elections five years ago were marred by violence, leaving more than 1,200 dead and hammering the economy.

“Now with a clarified political scene, it is an opportunity to see Kenya’s potential takeoff. That requires a sustained commitment and implementation of reform as we think government intends to pursue,” said Sayeh. “There is a lot of interest on the part of investors in Kenya and sustaining the reforms will be important.”

Copyright © 2013 Reuters

People in Cameroon are being subjected to a raft of abuses including unlawful killings and torture as the authorities seek to use the criminal justice system to clamp down on political opponents, human rights defenders and journalists and as a weapon to attack lesbian, gay, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people, Amnesty International said in a new report.

“It’s time to put an end to such blatant violations of human rights,” says Godfrey Byaruhanga, Amnesty International’s central Africa researcher who has recently returned from the country.

“The government needs to make it clear to security forces that human rights violations will not be tolerated – that the perpetrators will be brought to justice and reparations paid to victims.”

In the report, Amnesty International documents a series of cases where fear, intimidation and imprisonment have been used to clamp down on political opposition to President Paul Biya.

For example the case of Titus Edzoa – the former health minister who quit the government to stand as a presidential candidate on 20 April 1997. Later arrested on charges of corruption he is currently serving a 20-year jail sentence after completing a 15-year prison term.

During a visit to his cell he told Amnesty International: “I’m living in virtual isolation and am frightened people will forget me.”

Human rights defenders and members of their families are harassed and threatened for doing their work and the government fails to offer them protection.

Shootings and inhuman conditions in prison

Over the years dozens of prisoners attempting to escape have been shot, injured or killed by prison guards. Numerous prisoners are held in shackles and many have been detained for more than 20 months with no trial.

Amnesty International delegates visited Yaoundé’s Kondengui and Douala’s New Bell prisons and were appalled by the conditions and ill-treatment. At the time of their latest visit in December 2012, there were more than 7,000 prisoners in the two prisons with a shared capacity of 1,500.

“It’s close to a miracle that people actually survive their stay in prison. I was frightened when I visited. How much worse can it be for the thousands of detainees who are abused and forgotten or ignored by the authorities?” says Byaruhanga.
 
Inmates in Kondengui prison only eat one meal a day and malnutrition is rife. Prison authorities informed Amnesty International that most of the detainees in one wing are mentally ill and researchers saw male inmates who were completely naked amidst a crowd of fellow prisoners.

Imprisonment and ill-treatment of LGBTI people

Engaging in same-sex relationships is a criminal offence in Cameroon and authorities routinely arrest, detain and torture individuals because of their real or perceived sexual orientation. In fact, these violations have increased since the mid-2000s.

Jean-Claude Roger Mbedé was arrested in March 2011 after sending a text to a man saying that he was in love with him. He suffered from malnutrition and regular beatings in jail, and his three year sentence was upheld in December 2012.

LGBTI people in custody are also forced to undergo anal examinations in a mistaken belief by the authorities that the examinations can prove whether or not people are engaging in same-sex relations. “There is no justification whatsoever for this illegal, degrading treatment. It represents a severe breach of medical ethics and has to end immediately,” says Byaruhanga.

Defence lawyers for LGBTI people have recently received death threats against themselves and their children for defending homosexuals.

Amnesty International submitted a comprehensive memorandum on human rights abuses to the Cameroonian government in September 2012 along with recommendations. When delegates visited the country in December 2012, they concluded that human rights violations had continued unabated since their previous visit in August 2010.

“The government is adamant that it enforces the rule of law but has little to show for it on the ground. It has to prove that it means what it claims,” adds Byaruhanga.

http://www.amnesty.org/

 

The national branch of Transparency International has published another disturbing finding on corruption in Cameroon.

The 2012 result on corruption carried out in 176 countries world-wide places Cameroon on the 144th position.

In other words, Cameroon is 32nd most corrupt of the 176 countries involved in the research.

Within Africa, Cameroon is placed on the 34th position of the 48 countries or 14th most corrupt country in the continent.

The country loses 10 positions from last year’s results. Many wonder aloud if the current measures taken by government to intensify the fight against corruption are not yet yielding the expected fruits.

Charles Nguini was hopeful that the efforts in combating corruption  shall be reflected in the 2013 results.

He however made a number of proposals which can further intensify the fight against the cankerworm. Some of his suggestions include;

•             The need to apply article 66 of the constitution that stipulates that all officials appointed to managerial positions declare their assets before taking office and after leaving.

•             The need to draw up a special anti-corruption law in the country

•             The need for the executive to ensure the independence of the judiciary

The Head of Transparency International in Cameroon however said Cameroon is making great strides in specific domains in the fight against corruption.

CRTV

A court in Cameroon has sentenced a fugitive journalist Simon Hervé Nko’o in absentia to 15 years in prison and slammed suspended two-year jail sentences on two others, Serges Sabouang and Robert Mintya.

The Mfoundi High Court in Yaoundé reached a late-night verdict Monday after lengthy and winding hearings.

Mintya, editor of the weekly Le Devoir, Sabouang, editor of the bimonthly La Nation and Nko’o, reporter for the weekly Bebela, were sentenced over the investigative reports alleging kickbacks paid by a senior government minister in a deal with the country’s biggest oil company.

The court also ruled that Sabouang and Mintya should jointly and pay a fine of FCFA 119,421 ($200).

The official charge against them was falsifying a government document.

The sentences were issued just 48 hours before a government-organised, three-day General Conference on Communication, in Yaoundé Wednesday.

The case dates back to early 2010, when they requested an interview with the then secretary-general at the presidency and current Justice minister Laurent Esso.

A fourth journalist, Cameroun Express editor Ngota Ngota Germain, also known as Bibi Ngota, was also arrested in the same case.

He later died in jail, reportedly for lack of medical attention on April 20, 2010.

Active boycott

But the government version claimed he had died of HIV-related complications. Ngota’s family vehemently denies the journalist had HIV.

The journalists had received a document which alleged corruption in state-run oil company Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures (SNH).

The document purportedly implicated Mr Esso in paying three SNH managers curiously high commissions.

Mr Ngota and the other three journalists sent questions to Mr Esso and were subsequently arrested.

Some Cameroonian media and journalists’ organisations have in recent weeks been criticising the National Communication Forum, saying there was no prior consultation with the media sector on the upcoming conference.

The National Union of Cameroonian Journalists (SNJC), which has called for an “active boycott” of the conference, has condemned the sentencing.

SNJC president Félix Cyriaque Ebolé Bola claimed that all along, the trial of the journalists and their eventual sentencing had been commandeered by the Executive.

Reporters Without Borders Africa desk officer Ambroise Pierre, who is attending the conference, said; “these grossly unjust and shocking sentences have just one merit – they confirm the urgency of the need to decriminalise media offences in Cameroon”.

He added: “We hope that the conference that starts today will not sidestep any issues, including the status of journalists, media responsibility, media laws and institutions, media regulation and self regulation.”

Africa Review

In order to be effective and sustainable, national and international responses to the

HIV/AIDS epidemic must aim to limit the immediate spread and impact of HIV/AIDS,

and also address the underlying determinants of infection and impact.  Like gender

equality, appropriate analysis and responses to HIV/AIDS must be mainstreamed

throughout development assistance programming. Programs which respect, protect and

fulfill human rights in the context of HIV/AIDS are consistent with international law as

well as emerging good practice in international development assistance.

 

 

The human rights dimensions of the HIV/AIDS epidemic span the full range of civil,

political, economic, social, and cultural rights, and include:  

 

·  direct discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS or presumed to be infected

(e.g. denial of the rights to work, to housing or to medical attention based on HIV

status);  

·  factors that increase vulnerability to HIV infection, or the impact it has if infection

occurs (e.g. denial of the rights to adequate food, to education, to treatment of disease

(including sexually transmitted infections), and gender-based discrimination); and

·  factors limiting the civil society response to the HIV epidemic (e.g. denial of the

rights to freedom of speech and association for affected groups; police or other

harassment of HIV prevention education workers).

 

Human Rights Relevant to HIV/AIDS include:

 

- The right to non discrimination, equal protection and equal before the law

- The right to life

- The right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, liberty, security, privacy

- The right to seek and enjoy asylum

- The right to FREEDOM  of Movement

- The right to mary and have family, equal access to education and standard living

- The right to participate in public and cultural life

- The right to  be FREE from turture,cruel, inhuman treatment or punishment

- The right to FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Human-Rights-Dialogue-Center/196558167063170

Cameroun

APA–Douala (Cameroun)
Le renchérissement des prix des denrées de grande consommation est perceptible depuis quelques jours au Cameroun et cela inquiète les ménages dans la perspective des fêtes de fin d’année.

D’après des témoignages concordants, l’on assiste notamment à une envolée de prix de la viande et du poisson, d’où les complaintes des consommateurs qui ‘’se demandent jusqu’où ira cette hausse des prix”.

Un tour dans les principaux marchés de la ville de Douala a permis de se rendre compte d’une tendance générale d’augmentation des prix de certaines denrées de première nécessité qui connaissent une hausse de 25 à 30 pour cent.

C’est ainsi que le poulet qui se vendait encore il y a quelques jours à 3000 francs CFA revient actuellement à 4500 francs CFA, les vendeurs invoquant ‘’la rareté” du volatile pour expliquer le renchérissement de son coût.

Que ce soit au marché central ou dans les autres espaces commerciaux, le kilogramme de bœuf avec os et sans os est passé respectivement de 2200 francs CFA à 2500 francs CFA, et de 2700 francs CFA à 3000 francs CFA.

De son coté, le kilogramme du poisson ‘’bar” se négocie actuellement à 1300 francs CFA contre 1000 francs CFA auparavant, alors que le kilogramme du poisson ‘’maquereaux” revient à 1200 francs CFA contre 1000 francs CFA, il y a moins d’une semaine.

A cette allure, il est évident que seule une prompte réaction des autorités pourrait atténuer cette tendance haussière, surtout que les vendeurs pourraient profiter de cette période de grande consommation que sont les fêtes de fin d’année pour créer la pénurie et renforcer l’inflation.

YAOUNDE, Cameroon (14 November, 2012)_For villagers in Cameroon’s Central region, the forest creeper known as okok is a wonder plant. High in protein, it’s believed to cure hemorrhoids and hypertension, combat malaria and HIV/Aids – and even frighten off snakes.

“When you are tired, it rejuvenates – even old ladies like myself,” says Calixte Mbilong, the head of the local okok cooperative in Minwoho village. “It also makes you more intelligent.”

And woe betide the young bride who doesn’t know how to prepare the leaves – she won’t be considered a suitable wife by her husband’s family.

Gnetum spp., called Okok or Eru in different parts of Cameroon, is a non-timber forest product (NTFP) of huge cultural significance right across the Congo Basin.

“It is very important in terms of food, it is very important in terms of medicine, and it is very important in terms of income generation,” says Abdon Awono, a Cameroonian scientist from the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).

There’s no scientific evidence it cures Aids or malaria, Awono says, although that hasn’t been comprehensively tested.

“But it is a delicious dish, no matter the way it is cooked. Depending on the method, it can taste sweet or salty,” he said.

Okok occurs naturally in the Congo Basin rainforest. But the vegetable’s soaring popularity in Cameroon has led to concerns about sustainability – and to the launch of a program encouraging villagers to plant their own okok that’s been so successful, it’s been expanded nationwide.

National dish

While researching NTFPs in his home region of Lekie division, Abdon Awono noticed that villagers were having to walk further and further into the forest to find okok.

He encouraged CIFOR to partner with the Cameroonian research organisation Institute of Agricultural Research for Development (IRAD) and a local NGO to develop a trial domestication program in several villages.

“We started convincing them that it was also possible to plant okok as they do with cocoa and other agricultural products. Believe me, it was very difficult because they said, ‘What are you talking about, we have it in the forest, you cannot tell us to plant,’” he said.

“But along the line they started to realise it was very useful, because they could not get the quantity they needed from the wild.”

Pierre Ayissi Nanga is the head of the local NGO, ADIE (Association for the Development of Environmental Initiatives), and oversaw the program’s implementation. He says trends in consumption – it is even exported to expat Cameroonians living in Europe – have threatened okok’s survival.

“Okok has become a national dish – it is longer a dish attached to particular ethnic groups in the Center, East and Southwest regions. There are different dishes derived from okok and everybody consumes large quantities,” he said.

 

“The product in the forest is already very, very insufficient. Okok that we could harvest in our back gardens 10 years ago, we can’t find it anymore. So it is urgent that we domesticate the plants.”

Beginning in 2003, Nanga says, nurseries were set up, villagers were trained, and plantations established.

But domestication need not mean deforestation: unlike other forms of agriculture that require cleared land, okok is a liana that grows in the forest, climbing the trunks and entwining around the branches of established trees.

Leaves for livelihoods

Calixte Mbilong leads a line of women into the forest beyond the village of Minwoho. Each carries a tiny okok seedling, just a few bright leaves, ready to be pressed into the soil of a new plantation.

They sing and joke as they plant – but this is serious work.

“After the cocoa season is over, okok is what we rely on for our livelihoods. On Monday, Thursday, and Friday, I sell okok,” Mbilong says.

“When I make 35,000 Francs CFA a week, it is important for me. It is with this money that we pay our children’s school fees, take care of our health, and buy clothing. It allows me to buy all that I need.”

A key feature of the program was to assist villagers to form cooperatives – like the one led by Mbilong – allowing them to organise group sales and negotiate higher prices for their produce.

According to Abdon Awono, they are now able to earn 800 Francs CFA ($US 1.50) per kilogram of okok, up from 200 Francs CFA (40 cents) when the project started.

“Each family used to earn about 5 to 10 thousand Francs CFA per week, and now they can make up to 20 or 30 thousand,” he says.

Despite their importance in the lives of many rural people in the Congo Basin, the economic value of NTFPs like Gnetum spp. has until recently gone unrecorded – hindering the ability to monitor, regulate and manage them.

But CIFOR research has shown just how valuable the okok trade is in Cameroon. It’s estimated to top US$12 million a year and is the third most valuable NTFP in the country, behind only fish and fuelwood.

Expanding nationwide

The success of the pilot Okok domestication program in Lekie Division caught the attention of the Cameroonian government. Since 2009 it has committed around US$500,000 per year to roll out okok cultivation programs across the country, with Pierre Ayissi Nanga from the grassroots NGO appointed the national coordinator.

Abdon Awono says he’s proud of the program’s success.

“I’m happy because I see the impact on the population is direct, it’s something we can see. It’s not something we can just talk about at conferences – when you go to the field you can see what is happening and you can evaluate the change that is taking place.”

But he says there’s more work to do, applying the same research and techniques to other countries in the Congo Basin.

Back in Minwoho, one of the other village women, Beatrice Ananga, is preparing a meal made from ground okok leaves, palm kernels and peanuts.

She just can’t imagine life without the wonder vegetable.

“If there were no okok, how are we going to live?” she says, laughing. “How would we live?”

“We would be isolated. Maybe we would all die. How would we feed our children? We would have nothing, nothing.”

The national okok domestication program, Projet d’Appui à la Promotion de la Culture d’Okok (PAPCO), is funded by the Cameroonian government. The initial pilot program in Lekie division was funded by CIFOR, as part of the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry.

 

http://blog.cifor.org/11455/taming-okok-domesticating-forest-foods-in-cameroon/#.ULUMMV0m-P5

 

 

GENEVA — The United Nations Human Rights office is sharply criticizing Cameroon’s anti-gay laws, which it says criminalize same-sex relationships.

The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights says it is deeply concerned by reports in Cameroon of harassment, intimidation, arrest and imprisonment of people on suspicion of being lesbian or gay.

The U.N. human rights office says Cameroon’s penal code, which criminalizes sexual relations with a person of the same sex, breaches the country’s international human rights commitments. It says this law, which calls for up to five years imprisonment and a fine for any person found in a same-sex relationship, also violates international human rights law.

Like many nations in Africa, Cameroon is a conservative society, where homosexuality is frowned upon.

U.N. Human Rights spokesman Rupert Colville says the U.N. is seriously concerned that the anti-gay law is being applied to prosecute people simply on their appearance, their mannerisms, style of speech or general conduct.

“In 2011, for example, Roger Jean-Claude Mbede was convicted of suspected homosexual conduct after the authorities discovered he has sent a text message to another man that read ‘I am very much in love with you,’” recalled Colville. “Last month, Jonas Singa Kumi and Franky Djome were convicted on the basis of evidence of their appearance, which as perceived as effeminate, and the fact that they had been seen drinking Bailey’s Irish Cream.”

Colville says all three cases will have appeal hearings next week. He acknowledges the U.N. human rights office hopes that by speaking out it will pressure the Cameroonian court to overturn what he calls these unjust sentences.

Colville adds that the U.N. office is also receiving “very worrisome” reports of anonymous threats being received by human rights defenders working to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. He notes one prominent Cameroonian lawyer has received multiple death threats to her life and the well-being of her family.

Colville says civil society organizations that have spoken out on behalf of LGBT people also have been threatened and intimidated. According to Colville, the human rights office hopes to eventually, affect changes in Cameroon’s laws.

“So, obviously laws that target people because of their sexual orientation are discriminatory by any nature,” Colville noted. “So, that is why we strongly oppose them and we obviously try and convince governments that have such laws to change them. And, of course, many governments have changed them. Many governments have had these kinds of laws and have changed them over the years. So, we hope Cameroon will do as well.”

There was no immediate comment from Cameroon’s government to the comments from the human rights office. The country is one of 38 African nations have laws penalizing same-sex relations.

Voice of America

 

YAOUNDE (Reuters) – Cocoa farmgate prices in Cameroon’s main growing regions slipped by as much as 19 percent in November as heavy rains lowered bean quality and damaged roads hindering access to trading centres, buyers said on Thursday.

Weeks of showers in the world’s fifth largest grower also provoked an outbreak of fungal black pod disease, creating further woes for farmers after 2011/12 output reached 220,000 tonnes, falling well short of a projected 250,000 tonnes.

In the main trading centre of Kumba, in the South West Region of the country, prices dropped to 950 CFA francsper kg, from 1,150-1,160 CFA the previous month.

“Buyers are no longer coming from the economic capital because the quantity of beans on the market has been reduced,” said Joseph Nde, manager of the Cameroon Marketing Commodities (CAMACO), a major exporting firm based in Kumba.

“Moreover, persistent heavy rainfall has further deteriorated the bad state of most of the earth roads in this region,” he said.

Similar poor weather was seen in the South, Centre, and East Regions, where regular heavy showers and a lack of sunshine had hindered the proper drying of cocoa beans.

“As there are few beans on the market now, the number of buyers has therefore gone down with the few who show up dictating the prices,” said Moise Edou, a farmer from Sangmelima in the South Region.

South-West and Centre regions are the main cocoa growing regions in Cameroon, with each accounting for 40 percent of national output, while the South and East regions account for the remaining 15 and 5 percent respectively.

The cocoa season in the Central African country runs from August 1 to July 31, with main crop harvest from October to January/February and the mid crop from April to June/July.