The politics of security in Germany →
A country threatened by terrorism grapples with its dark history of surveillance. Read more.
Update: I spoke to Seán Moncrieff as part of his daily news program on February 9. Listen here.
The ICC is flawed. Is it still Africa's best hope for justice? →
More than 11 years after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for Dominic Ongwen’s arrest, and nearly two years after he was captured and transferred to The Hague, his prosecution finally began in December.
Ongwen’s will not be the only trial unfolding over the coming months. The years since the unsealing of the warrant against him have been rocky for the ICC, which has been accused of reinforcing global power dynamics and targeting geopolitically weak states, particularly in Africa. These were among the reasons three African countries—Burundi, South Africa and Gambia—cited in late 2016 when they announced they would begin the process of withdrawing from the statute that created the court. More are threatening to follow.
During this particularly fraught moment in the ICC’s history, Ongwen’s trial promises to keep many of these issues at the fore. And it could be used either to reinforce the court’s necessity or further undermine its legitimacy, especially on the African continent. Read more.
A new platform for smallholder farmers →
Digital technology has long been touted as the key to helping smallholder farmers around the world overcome barriers that have kept them trapped in poverty, though initial innovations did not always deliver on this promise. Now developers of digital tools for agriculture are trying to refine their offerings, focusing on products that farmers want to use and that align with their priorities. Read more.
Is Sudan coming in from the cold? →
One of the more unexpected decisions to emerge in the waning days of Barack Obama’s presidency was his move last week to ease U.S. sanctions against Sudan that have been in place for nearly two decades. The move to open up Sudan’s economy might encourage the reforms that 20 years of sanctions have not. Read more.
More global attention for tuberculosis →
Two high-profile initiatives were launched late last year, each designed to shore up the response to the global tuberculosis epidemic. Read more.
In an apparent crackdown, Tanzania government raids NGO meeting on reproductive rights →
Mysterious visitors started drifting in on the second morning of a mid-December training for Tanzanian reproductive health providers. First, organizers said, a woman entered the conference room of the Dar es Salaam hotel, announced herself as a BBC journalist and took a seat. Then unidentified men started coming and going.
“It should have been a big red flag for us,” said Nguru Karugu, health and rights consultant for the Open Society Initiative for Eastern Africa, a human rights-focused grant-maker that organized the meeting.
Despite the interruptions, organizers continued the sessions helping representatives from eight different NGOs chart development strategies. Their organizations had been selected for the training because they provide health services to key populations — vulnerable communities such as sex workers and men who have sex with men, who often face discrimination in public facilities. Though local NGOs, organizers said some of the groups receive funding that originates with major bilateral donors, including the United States.
As the participants broke up for lunch, non-uniformed security officials swarmed the hotel, according to organizers and witnesses. Together with the unexplained attendees, they shut down the meeting and detained eight of the participants.
Does any party in South Sudan have the will to prevent genocide? →
The third anniversary last week of the start of South Sudan's ongoing civil war served only to reinforce how intractable that conflict has become. A peace deal is in tatters, along with the country's economy. With the return of the dry season, the combatants appear to be preparing for another round of fighting. And the United Nations is now warning of possible genocide. Read more.
Health is on the G20's agenda. Now what? →
Concerns over disease outbreaks — and the threat they pose to international security — will for the first time feature prominently on the agenda of the upcoming Group of 20 summit. A coalition of development and relief agencies is using the opportunity to push global leaders for stronger commitments to improve health systems in some of the world’s poorest countries. Read more.
What went wrong for Bridge Academies in Uganda? →
Uganda’s Ministry of Education is set to shutter the 63 schools run by Bridge International Academies, whose pioneering model for low-cost, private education has drawn significant attention — and investments — from major international players, including Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg.
Bridge has expanded quickly since opening its first schools in Uganda in February 2015, with more than 12,000 students currently enrolled in its academies across the East African country. According to ministry officials, though, it did so without meeting national standards. Bridge officials refute the allegations, and some education experts cast them as part of a broader international campaign to stop the development of affordable alternatives to underperforming public school systems. Read more.
At last, an HIV prevention tool women can control? →
There is a need “for self-initiated products that women, especially young women, can and will use consistently. Women need practical and discreet tools that they can use to protect themselves from HIV infection,” said Dr. Flavia Matovu, an epidemiologist and investigator with the Makerere University-Johns Hopkins University Research Collaboration, based in Uganda.
Now, researchers including Matovu hope they may have an option in the vaginal ring, a flexible piece of silicon laced with an antiretroviral medication. Women insert it near their cervix, where it can safely remain for about a month, slowing releasing the drug at the site of a potential infection. The method is being tested in two crucial “open label” extension studies, wherein all willing participants will receive the medicated ring, rather than a placebo.
West African countries focus on post-Ebola recovery plans →
It has been more than 6 months since the last diagnosis of Ebola in Guinea, Sierra Leone or Liberia. The three west African countries suffered nearly all of the more than 28,600 diagnosed cases and 11,300 deaths during the outbreak that began in December 2013 in a Guinean village.
Although the outbreak has ended, the scale of the epidemic collapsed these countries' health systems, while unleashing new medical crises. The capacity to treat even basic illnesses is now limited, while health needs of Ebola survivors stretch the services that do remain. With Ebola having killed health workers at a disproportionate rate, the years-long efforts to rebuild the health systems are only just beginning. Officials in all three settings acknowledge that the task ahead is immense.
Aid groups grapple with stigmatization in HIV prophylaxis roll-out →
The success of a promising HIV prevention intervention in sub-Saharan Africa — the region with the highest burden of HIV — will hinge more on the social than the scientific. Researchers and advocates will have to strike a balance in how they market and roll out pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). They have to ensure that it reaches stigmatized populations with high HIV transmission rates, such as MSM and sex workers. But they must ensure it is not perceived as exclusively a treatment for marginalized groups, which will lower its appeal both within those communities but also to other people who could benefit from it. Read more.
Kenya's troop withdrawal could seal the fate of South Sudan's peace process →
In a sharp rebuke to the United Nations, Kenya has started the process of pulling its troops from the U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Sudan. To make matters worse, Kenya is simultaneously disengaging from peace efforts in South Sudan, where a 15-month-old agreement to bring together warring parties was already on the verge of collapse. The moves by Kenya, which has been a key regional force in pushing for South Sudanese stability, could cement its failure. Read more.
Darfur's conflict might be forgotten, but it's not over →
Global interest in the conflict in Darfur has faded, allowing the Sudanese government to effectively seal off the region to outsiders and take control of the narrative. The narrative it presents, though, is not terribly cohesive: In early September, for instance, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir traveled to Darfur to declare that peace had officially returned, just weeks after African Union-backed peace talks fell apart in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
As international priorities have shifted, though, there appears to be little interest among global powers in challenging the government’s take, even as the reality that does emerge in the few unsanctioned dispatches from the region clearly undermines the official account. That includes a recent Amnesty International report documenting ongoing government-sanctioned violence across much of the region since the start of 2016. There is evidence those attacks may have included the use of chemical weapons against unarmed civilians. Read more.
Update: I was on World Politics Review's weekly podcast discussing the diminishing possibility of peace in Darfur.
Ethiopia's state of emergency silences aid workers →
The Ethiopian government’s recently imposed state of emergency, which followed months of clashes between political protesters and security forces, has imposed new curfews, limited the movement of civilians and diplomats and outlawed opposition media.
It has also largely silenced the extensive international aid community operating in the country from speaking about what effect the current political dynamic is having on their work. Read more.