The ‘developmental state’ was a populist slogan suggesting development first while democracy, human rights and social justice would follow later, though development hardly happened outside of the elite circles. Neither did democracy and human rights follow.

A responsible state acting in the public interest takes measures for the security and wellbeing of all. It must thus protect against the abuse of access to public goods and the protection of non-renewable natural resources.

This applies especially in the case of people who suffer marginalization and are subject to corporate encroachment upon their means of survival. A responsible state would ensure strict and categorical intervention to protect the victims and prosecute the perpetrators.

A state’s legitimacy lies in seeking equality and justice. Sustainable development needs to be development for all, both locally and globally, and cannot take place at the expense of others, be it in their own country or elsewhere.

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Jobs, Justice and Equity is the title of a new report published today by the Africa Progress Panel, a high powered group of ten luminaries. The report does an excellent job of assessing the cup half empty v half full narratives on Africa, and has some great graphics – it should become a standard reference on the region. Here are some highlights:

“The extreme pessimism surrounding Africa a decade ago was unwarranted. So is the current wave of blinkered optimism. Real gains have been made and Africa has an unprecedented opportunity for sustained economic growth, shared prosperity and poverty reduction.

However, governments are failing to convert increased wealth into opportunities and employment for their most marginalized citizens and there is a growing demand for justice and equity. Inequalities across Africa are not only ethically indefensible, they are economically inefficient and politically destabilizing.”

The report points to 5 global trends that are shaping the continent: the youth surge; agriculture and climate change; the rise of the emerging powers; science, tech and innovation and ‘the rising tide of citizen action’.

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The recent famine in Somalia has underscored the sharp differences between the traditional donors and the emerging ones, like Turkey. As Somalia still grapples to cope with acute famine and influxes of Somalia refugees into the neighboring countries, there has been strenuous debate over the donor community’s ineffective response.

Responding to such complaints, the Turkish prime minister braved into Mogadishu as the first non-African leader in 20 years and set the wheels in motion for Turkey’s new humanitarian foray into Africa.

Many international aid agencies have rushed to help Somalia, but the Turkish are remarkably different: They live in Mogadishu with their wife and families, use cheap hotels, tour in the refugee camps, deliver the much-needed foods and medicines, build hospitals and feeding centers, all under modest security detail.

The Nordic donors who contribute the bulk of Somalia’s aid should espouse Turkey’s model and adopt a new approach to humanitarian aid. Thus, your foreign aid would be accountable and, above all, reach the needy people who otherwise wouldn’t know where your aid has gone.

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Sweden’s Minister for International Development Cooperation has stated that aid to agriculture in Southern Africa should focus on supporting industrial agriculture through the group called the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, AGRA.

Industrial agriculture has many and massive problems. Mono-cropping involves covering huge areas of land with a single species, destroying all other species, disrupting the ecological balance and closing off possibilities of using the lost organisms in future for medicinal or other purposes.

Small-scale farmers know what it means to be exposed to the industrial agriculture pesticides, or how artificial fertilizers deplete the soil. They also know that conventional agriculture in the long run will reduce their space of life when climate change worsens.

Is Swedish aid now to promote the interests of multinational corporations and limit local farmers’ self-determination? Our concern is that Sweden, being a leader in the development aid field, will guide the way for other countries channelling agricultural aid in a similar problematic manner.

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Donor governments emphasize the need to entice the private sector to get engaged in promoting growth to reduce poverty. One often cited model is a public-private partnership in Tanzania called SAGCOT.

Tanzania’s economic growth has been 6-8% per year for 10-15 years, and budget allocations for development are on the rise. At the same time, high population growth and low growth rates in agriculture, where 74% of Tanzanians work, have pushed at least one million more people under the poverty line.

The lack of investors calls into question the effectiveness of the public money that has been contributed to the partnership. There are also concerns that agribusiness will dominate at the expense of small scale farmers and leave little room for small scale producers to participate or influence the partnership.

All of this begs the question: is Tanzania’s SAGCOT the model for a new G8 food security initiative, or is it more like a cautionary tale?

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Pictures have been distributed of Sweden’s Minister of Culture feeding Linde’s ‘blackface’ with cake. Around them are seen smiling white-skinned people with glasses in their hands. One interpretation that has taken root is that Linde thereby ‘exposed’ racist structures in our society.

But it is the artist himself who bears full responsibility for this installation. Technically it was brilliant, artistically deeply problematic. It trivialises racism and its staging of a dismemberment of a black female body is shocking but directionless.

I see many things in that cake. In brief, I see a number of abuses against black women – against women – and which are not just a matter of racism. What I don’t see is how this cake restores the dignity of these women, or gives me new insights about these transgressions.

What particularly bothers me about the cake is its reduction of racism to a matter of gestures and appearances. This mirrors some features of racist thinking, but does not address the protean (and truly scandalous) reality of discrimination.

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We the undersigned women of African descent and our supporters, who include anti-racist activists, scholars, community leaders and faith leaders wish to address the Swedish Venus Hottentot Cake incident.

The Minister of Culture was invited to speak at a World Art Day celebration, where artists presented creative birthday cakes. She was informed that the cake would be about the limits of provocative art, and about female genital mutilation.

The event was launched with the Minister cutting the first piece of cake from a dark, ruby red velvet filling with black icing. Rather disturbingly for many African women, the Minister is pictured laughing as she cuts off the genital area from the cake, as the male Afro-Swedish artist screams distastefully.

When the Minister ate and laughed at the caricature body of an African woman, she showed herself incompetent and incapable of morally and ethically making choices and incapable of running the department of cultural affairs in Sweden.

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The leasing or purchase of agricultural land in the developing world has become a hot button issue as the planet has grown more crowded and the pressure to stake out more arable land – whether for food or biofuels – grows.

Agricultural productivity in many of the poorest communities around the globe has stagnated and, unless higher crop yields can be attained, far too many people will remain trapped in poverty.

CSOs and other advocates for smallholder farmers worry that unsavory actors will run roughshod over smallholder farmers, herders and other local people who lack the power to stand up for their rights.

We welcome engagement that will keep investors and governments honest and that can help us work together on issues prompted by the global land rush. We focus on finding practical policies and solutions that can help smallholder farmers and rural communities benefit from the modernization of farming and the formalization of land rights.

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On 9 July 2011 the boundary between the northern and southern parts of the Sudan became the border between two sovereign states. The border is situated in a transitional area were history and politics have cemented the differences between groups living in the borderlands.

Long-term stability in the area is threatened by impediments to trade and movements across the border. A closed border separates families, cuts the links of interdependence, and forces people to find new arrangements and ways in which to solve their problems and need for trade.

The presence of insufficiently provisioned and undisciplined soldiers in the border areas has increased the distress of the local population. The political tensions between the two countries and the outbreak of rebellions along the border have abruptly aggravated the living conditions for people on both sides of the border.

The people living in the borderlands must become involved in future negotiations and affect the outcome. Acceptable arrangements for local people are essential: if national dimensions crowd out local concerns, the result may well be a border that is nominal, legal, and ultimately ungovernable.

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Southern Africa is experiencing a major backslide in democratic freedoms further damaging the reputation of its regional development community SADC and its ability to bind its members to common values.

Recent restrictions on civil society in the region whether through regressive laws, policies or vigorous persecution of activists fly in face of the SADC treaty which calls upon its 14 members to uphold human rights and the rule of law and promote common political values through democratic, legitimate and effective institutions.

The current reality on the ground is major cause for human rights defenders to question whether it is time to write the obituary for SADC’s potential to be a body committed to progressive pro-human rights values.

The critical question is whether there’s enough political will in SADC as a regional institution to exercise much needed influence over member states to abide by shared values professed on paper.

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