The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) under the theme: "China-Africa Progressing Together: Win-Win Cooperation for Common Development" was held on 4-5 December in Johannesburg, South Africa. This was the first time that a leaders’ summit level of FOCAC is held in Africa. The Summit which also celebrated the 15th anniversary of the partnership was co-chaired by Chinese President Xi Jinping and South African President Jacob Zuma. The FOCAC was established fifteen years ago with its first Ministerial Forum held in Beijing in 2000. With six Ministerial Meetings and two at Summit level already organised, FOCAC has evolved over the years to become a prominent example of South-South cooperation. In the two-day event, Chinese President Xi Jinping and over 50 African leaders gathered in South Africa to discuss together the blueprints of cooperation and show to the world the power of solidarity among developing countries. To build China-Africa comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership, the conference was informed that China will implement ten cooperation plans with Africa in the next three years. Guided by the principle of government guidance, businesses being the major actors, market operation and win-win cooperation, these plans aim at addressing three bottleneck issues holding back Africa’s development, namely, inadequate infrastructure, lack of professional and skilled personnel, and funding shortage, accelerating Africa’s industrialization and agricultural modernization, and achieving sustainable self-development.
Health equity in economic and trade policies
The health consequences of tobacco use are well known, but less recognised are the significant environmental impacts of tobacco production and use. The environmental impacts of tobacco include tobacco growing and curing; product manufacturing and distribution; product consumption; and post-consumption waste. The World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control addresses environmental concerns in Articles 17 and 18, which primarily apply to tobacco agriculture. Article 5.3 calls for protection from policy interference by the tobacco industry regarding the environmental harms of tobacco production and use. The authors detail the environmental impacts of the tobacco life-cycle and suggest policy responses.
In a joint statement released and endorsed by nearly 200 organisations across Africa and India on the occasion of the Third India-Africa Forum Summit taking place in New Delhi this week, African and Indian civil society reminds their governments of the key issues at stake at the forthcoming WTO Ministerial which will take place in Nairobi in December.
By the end of the 1990s, significant portions of the African debt had been written off or re-scheduled. Today this problem is re-emerging due to several factors including the decline in commodity prices, growing class divisions and reliance on foreign direct investment. In 2015, Africa’s sovereign debt levels rose to 44 percent of GDP, a 10 percent rise from 2010. The author argues this follows patterns of previous years which problems arising from several factors including the decline in commodity prices, growing class divisions and reliance on foreign direct investment. This financial crisis emanates from Wall Street and other centres of borrowing throughout capitalist states. Within the leading industrialised countries of the West, there has still not been a full recovery from the economic crisis of 2007-2009. Unemployment remains high and consumer spending is low due to the loss of wages and household wealth. Consequently, the availability of credit to African states will be far more limited during the second decade of the 21st century than what prevailed in the 1980s, 1990s and the 2000s. The continuing dependency on the neo-colonial system will serve as an impediment to not only national but regional and continental integration and economic planning. The author argues that these issues require more of a political response rather than economic and that genuine political independence and sovereignty of African states must lead to the rejection of the conditions established by the IMF and World Bank.
Africa’s development agenda beyond 2015 was at the heart of discussions at the 15th International Economic Forum in Africa: “Africa beyond 2015”, in Berlin in September 2015. According to the OECD, Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth is expected to strengthen to 2016 but poverty and hunger rates remain stubbornly high, progress in health and education is uneven, and huge inequalities persist between and within countries, and between women and men. Furthermore, low productivity and investment as well as weak or non-existent infrastructure are holding back economic and development progress. A panel of African leaders suggested that regional development strategies and local assets provide possible solutions to these challenges, and discussed special economic zones, economic corridors, strategies for lagging regions and slum upgrading for promoting regional development, overcoming spatial inequalities, mobilising local resources and creating productive employment opportunities. The importance of the Common African Position on the Post-2015 Development Agenda “to speak with one voice and to act in unity to ensure that Africa’s voice is heard and is fully integrated into the global development agenda,” was highlighted.
This satirical presentation by Swedish electronic music duo The Knife explores “the newest millennium goal” – end extreme wealth. More than 40 panels feature various experts expounding on the problems faced by the extremely wealthy using much of the same language that is used to describe the world’s poorest.
The author writes that the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is firmly located in an old ethical order which puts profit over people; where those in power make the rules to suppress the powerless; and where this iniquitous and unjust world “order” (disorder) is legitimised by the ideology of neoliberalism. He states that progressive people must defy this iniquitous system and overturn it as it is not reformable. He observes that it is one that could be neutralised if Africa was united to challenge the WTO and the "Big and Powerful". At the Seattle WTO Ministerial in November 1999 Africa and the global South neutralised the WTO with the help of world peoples' movements fighting for justice for the weak in the international trading system. The Tenth Ministerial Conference (MC10) of the WTO in Nairobi is not just Africa’s war. Trade negotiations in Geneva are said to be carried out in a "surreal" atmosphere where the forest is missed for the trees. In this piece the author argues that the Nairobi negotiations will be behind closed doors where the 'Empire' will use all means at its command to secure a "consensus" that serves its interest and where those from the grassroots resist being drawn into that consensus if that does not do justice to grassroots people and communities. He notes that economics is girded firmly in the politics of power and that power, in turn, is legitimised by an ideology, in this case the ideology of neoliberalism. Those who are fighting for justice thus have to tackle all three levels – economic, political and ideological.
This report aims to inform the ongoing discussions and processes on developing a new business model for antibiotics. It is based on the premise that delinkage, seeking to separate the return on investment from antibiotic sales volume, should be the principle underpinning any new business model. It calls on governments to invest significantly in antibiotic R&D by financing a broad menu of incentives across the antibiotic life-cycle, with the highest incentives targeted at the development of antibiotics directed at the greatest health threats arising from antibiotic resistance. Contributions from countries should be coordinated within a globally agreed framework. Finally, global access should, together with conservation, be a priority for any new business model fostering innovation. The report makes several recommendations based on findings. The authors suggest that a new business model needs to be developed in which the return on investment in R&D on antibiotics is delinked from the volume of sales.There should be increased public financing of a broad menu of incentives across the antibiotic life-cycle is required, targeted at encouraging the development of antibiotics to counter the greatest microbial threats. The assessment of current and future global threats arising from resistance should be updated periodically in order to identify which classes of product are a priority for incentives. The delinkage model should prioritize both access and conservation. Domestic expenditures on the model need to be globally coordinated, including through the establishment of a secretariat, and global participation in the model is the ultimate goal.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur in the field of right to culture recommended a new intellectual property regime for pharmaceutical products stressing that there is no human right to patent protection. This recommendation was made in the report to the 70th Session of the UN General Assembly. The Special Rapporteur recommended that “the United Nations should convene a neutral, high-level body to review and assess proposals and recommend a new intellectual property regime for pharmaceutical products that is consistent with international human rights law and public health requirements, and simultaneously safeguards the justifiable”. This is drawn from the recommendation of the Global Commission on HIV and the Law appointed by the UN Development Programme (UNDP). The report also recommends that states have a positive obligation to provide for a robust and flexible system of patent exclusions, exceptions and flexibilities based on domestic circumstances, including through the establishment of compulsory and government use licences when needed. The report further argues that states have a human rights obligation not to support, adopt or accept intellectual property rules, such as TRIPS-Plus provisions, that would impede them from using exclusions, exceptions and flexibilities and thus from reconciling patent protection with human rights. International agreements that do not provide sufficient flexibility should be renounced or modified. The report highlights Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights which ensure that measure be put in place to ensure affordability of and access to technologies essential to life and realisation of all human rights.
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is holding with the Japan Patent Office (JPO) an African ministerial conference on intellectual property (IP), in Senegal, November 3-5, in cooperation with the African Union (AU) and the Government of Senegal. The ministerial conference on ‘IP for an Emerging Africa” aims to “explore the opportunities as well as the challenges facing Africa in building a vibrant innovation system and in effectively using the IP system,” according to meeting’s provisional programme. The authors argue that the ministers should embrace a balanced and development-oriented approach to intellectual property. Such an approach ought to take into account the needs, priorities and socio-economic circumstances of African countries as well as the most recent empirical evidence on the dynamics of intellectual property and innovation on the continent.