Development Agenda

Women leaders called for swift, concerted action to advance gender rights at the first International Conference on Women’s Transformational Leadership, in Juba, South Sudan on Tuesday. Almost 400 women leaders from 15 African countries joined the UN-backed three-day conference, which opened on Monday, including former and current presidents. The goal is to advance progress, tackle pressing concerns and find sustainable solutions to issues affecting ...

Emma Thompson, Stephen Fry and Aisling Bea are among celebrities calling on the five of the UK’s biggest High Street banks to stop financing new oil, gas and coal projects. It follows criticism that HSBC, Barclays, Santander, NatWest and Lloyds are funding “fossil fuel expansion” despite making green pledges. Businesses and charities like Greenpeace also back the campaign. HSBC and ...

Although fictional, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s short story The Visit provides a glimpse into a world where gender roles are reversed; men stay home and care for the children and home while women go to work and provide financially for the family. This role reversal throws a spotlight on some of the inequalities women face by placing men in their position. ...

The World Bank has signed an agreement with four West and Central African nations worth $311 million to fund renewable energy projects. The funds will finance around 106 megawatts (MW) of solar power generation capacity with battery energy and storage systems, and 41 MW expansion of hydroelectric capacity. The countries are Sierra Leone, Liberia, Togo, and Chad. The funds will ...

Some parents in Kumasi say they have been compelled to withdraw their wards from basic private schools as the cost of education in those facilities has shot up. The worried parents say moving their children to public schools has become inevitable due to the ballooning cost of tuition, feeding, transportation and stationery.  They believe it has become necessary to find ...

TAMA Foundation Universal, a Policy Think Tank based in Tamale, in the Northern Region of Ghana has trained over 300 Community members and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in natural resources governance across the five regions of the north. The move was to equip them with the requisite knowledge to effectively engage with mining companies, regulatory agencies and other key stakeholders ...

President Akufo-Addo has said that the country is hopeful to get an International Monetary Fund (IMF) deal latest in February. According to him, the deal will enable the economy to bounce back. He added that the deal will also help us repair the country’s public finances as well as “rebuild the confidence of outsiders in our economy and our own ...

The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) says it has concluded investigations into corruption-related allegations at the Northern Development Authority. This is contained in a half-year report issued by the OSP. According to the OSP, the release of the report is in pursuance of section 3(3) of the Office of the Special Prosecutor Act, 2017 (Act 959). The 13-page report ...

The Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has expressed optimism that Ghana will continue on the path of economic emancipation and accelerated development this year. He has, therefore, stressed the need for Ghanaians to reposition their hands, minds, and hearts as the government deployed all efforts humanly possible for a happy new year. “I am very optimistic of Ghana’s future and my prayer ...

The international wildlife and conservation charity Born Free has warned that hippo numbers in Africa are continuing to decline as legislation, partly due to the tightening of the illegal ivory trade. The giant teeth of hippos which, like the tusks of warthogs, are also classified as ivory, have become much cheaper and easier to obtain than ivory from elephants. And ...