A new report by the World Bank and the UN says the cost of coping with natural disasters could triple to US$185 billion per year by the end of the century. The report - compiled mainly by economists over two years - said the projection did not include climate change impact costs. But added more frequent and intense tropical cyclones because of climate change could raise total costs by an additional $28-$68 billion a year by 2100.

The Institute for Justice and Reconciliation has announced issue three of the SA Reconciliation Barometer newsletter. It includes the following articles:
- Albie Sachs: Recipient of the 2009 Reconciliation Award, Jo Higgs
- The search for our shared South Africanness, William Gumede
- ANC revivalism and nonracialism, Tim Murithi

Barely a year ago nearly 1,000 people from 80 countries gathered enthusiastically at the Palacio de Convenciones in Havana, Cuba, under the banner 'Innovating for the health of all'. They were attending the annual meeting of the non-profit organisation the Global Forum for Health Research (GFHR).
Now, less than a year after taking office, the forum's executive director, Anthony Mbewu, has resigned, and the forum itself is in failing health. Why did this international organisation, set up in 1998, founder so spectacularly and so quickly when the need for health research remains so great?

Commodities company Olam recently announced plans to invest US$1.5 billion in the African country of Gabon. Demand for agricultural commodities has outstripped supply for the last nine out of 10 years and agri-commodities companies are increasingly turning to unexplored regions like Africa for their resource needs.

China will launch a $1 billion fund aimed at boosting trade and economic ties between China and Portuguese-speaking countries, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Saturday at a forum in Macau. He did not elaborate. Wen, who delivered a keynote speech at a economic forum for China and Portuguese-speaking Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, and Timor-Leste, announced multiple initiatives to boost trade and investment between China and the seven nations.

'We have just heard that three vehicles were burnt during a protest in TR Section, Khayelitsha, today. One of them contained stationery for the matric exams. We want to make it absolutely clear that this protest was organised by the ANC Youth League and not by Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape. We only head about it for the first time when we started to get calls from the media.'

A mission from the International Monetary Fund, led by Seán Nolan, visited Luanda during 1 -11 November 2010 to conduct policy discussions for the fourth review under Angola’s 27-month Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) with the IMF. The SBA was approved by the IMF’s Executive Board on 23 November 2009 and provides for the disbursement of SDR 858.9 million (about US$1.4 billion) over the course of the arrangement. Following the visit, Nolan said implementation of the government’s stabilisation and reform program has been broadly as envisaged, with budgetary outlays tightly contained.

With close to 25 years surveying land and helping resolve land disputes, J. Patrick Vanie has unrivalled expertise on the nuances of land ownership in Nimba County. 'I know this county right down to my fingertips,' says Vanie. But Nimba’s land commissioner admits to feeling swamped by an overwhelming caseload. 'The land business here is tough, it is no joke,' Vanie concedes. 'The demand for land here has become very, very high.'

'Media reforms are inevitable, they are by public demand,' says the MDC Information & Publicity Department in response to permanent secretary in the Ministry of Media, Information and Publicity George Charamba's announcement that the government has no intention of issuing broadcasting licences. 'Zanu PF wants to refuse these reforms and continue with its propaganda agenda on its failed policies and rampant corruption that is now in the public domain. By maintaining the status quo and denying the entry of private broadcasters, Charamba and his masters are desperately trying to prop-up Zanu PF’s declining grip through the airwaves ahead of elections expected next year.'

Guinea’s veteran opposition politician Alpha Conde was declared the winner of the presidential election on Tuesday last week, as losing candidate Cellou Dalein Diallo called for calm after deadly clashes. News of Mr Conde’s victory came after a tense day in which violent clashes left at least one person dead and several wounded, and allegations of election fraud from Diallo.

Bunyoro Kitara Kingdom has backed a proposal by Dr Kizza Besigye that a portion of oil revenue should be dedicated to fighting poverty in the oil-rich region where the resource has been discovered. Besigye, the candidate for the four-party opposition Inter-Party Cooperation coalition, on Monday promised that his government will give Bunyoro region its fair share of oil revenue if elected president. Besigye’s proposal flies in the face of the ruling NRM party’s position, which considers the oil as a national resource and offers no affirmative action for Bunyoro.

NGO Gender Links has welcomed the appointment for the first time of a woman, Monique Oh San Bellepeau, as vice president in the Republic of Mauritius. After nearly four decades of independence and two decades of Republic, her nomination is a strong sign that gender equality is high on the agenda of the present government. It is also a victory for gender activists and Mauritian women at large, as well as for women in the region.

Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos has launched a national programme to improve living conditions in the oil-rich country's informal settlements and slums, local media said Tuesday. According to a UNICEF report published in June, 87 per cent of Angola's urban population lives in shanty towns and just 42 per cent of people have access to water, down from 60 per cent in 2001.

Zambia has fared badly in the Open Budget Survey (OBS) coming out second from the bottom of 94 countries that were surveyed. Presenting the findings of the OBS, Economic Association of Zambia (EAZ) executive director Alexander Chileshe said Zambia ranked among the bottom two that failed to uphold transparency and accountability for their national budgets. He observed that Zambia did not give room for citizens and even parliament to have a say on how the budget was being implemented.

Malawi’s economy needs a strong and vibrant public sector that can craft helpful and significant policies if the country is to register sustainable economic development, a political science associate professor has said. Presenting a paper titled ‘The role of a strong public service in an economy: Lessons and Opportunities for Malawi’ during the third economic seminar jointly organised by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, the Malawi Economic Justice Network (Mejn) and the Economic Association of Malawi (Ecama), Blessings Chinsinga, an associate political professor at the University of Malawi, described the public sector at the moment as too weak to lead the way to prosperity.

A 'forgotten emergency' has left tens of thousands of pastoralists in Djibouti needing food and nutrition assistance as well as longer-term coping mechanisms, according to the UN. The tiny Horn of Africa state is the subject of a US$38.9 million appeal for food aid ($16.2 million), agriculture and livestock ($6.5 million), health and nutrition ($7.4 million), water and sanitation ($2.4 million), and emergency preparedness and sanitation ($6.4 million).

The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), a Geneva-based international housing rights watchdog, has released a 'report card' examining the impact of Zambia’s land reform processes on women. The report, 'The Impact of National Land Policy and Land Reform on Women in Zambia', was released together with the Women's Land Link Africa (WLLA), a joint initiative of organisations dedicated to improving women's land and housing rights in Africa. The key finding in the report is that Zambian women’s enjoyment of land rights in both rural and urban areas is hampered by male-dominated structures and patriarchal decision-making mechanisms.

Nigeria’s main militant group said last week it had seized seven oil workers in a raid on an ExxonMobil facility and threatened a major attack while claiming the military fired rockets at one of its camps. The offshore raid was the latest such incident in recent months in the Niger Delta, the heart of the country’s huge oil industry, and the military warned of action at the weekend, saying residents near militant camps should clear out.

The signing of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) and the formation of the Government of National Unity (GNU) prevented Zimbabwe from continuing to spiral out of control and helped to establish a measure of political and economic stability, says this research report from the Institute for Democracy in Africa. 'However, major concerns remain, given the intransigence of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) specifically over honouring its responsibilities outlined in the GPA...The international community has three options: maintain the status quo, completely lift restrictive measures, and the calibrated lifting of restrictive measures tied to six benchmarks.'

A consortium of South Korean companies will seek a minerals-for-infrastructure deal in Democratic Republic of Congo that could be worth $1 billion, Congolese and South Korean officials told Reuters. The proposed deal - involving refurbishment of a copper mine and construction of an Atlantic deepwater port - would bolster South Korea's bid to secure long-term access to metals while speeding Congo's development, South Korean ambassador to Congo Kim Sung-chul said.