Released on March 28, 2001, this new World Bank report investigates the impact of development aid on economic policy in ten African countries. Among the findings is the discovery that in nations where political leaders are not committed to reform, aid can actually hinder development by insulating these countries from the need to adopt reforms. The report also concludes that using "conditionality"...

Begun in 1996, the International Crisis Group's (ICG) Central Africa Project analyzes political and ethnic conflict within and between the nations that straddle mid-Africa, including the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Burundi, Angola, Uganda, and Rwanda. As part of that effort ICG has released over twelve full text reports in the last year (a few in French only). The two most recent in-depth...

Commissioned by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), this extensive resource has been compiled from select print and electronic sources. The annotated bibliography is composed of three parts: a comprehensive list of general corruption-related literature from a variety of fields (divided into books and articles/papers); a smaller geographic listing of similar literature from...

This week's In the News covers the famine in Sudan. The seven resources discussed offer news, analysis, and commentary. The largest country in Africa, Sudan has been wracked by civil strife and violence since becoming an independent republic in 1956. Years of civil war have devastated the Sudanese economy and society, killing over 1.2 million since 1983 alone. Despite this tortured history, Sudan...

This companion Website to the PBS documentary of the same name that premiered last week "chronicles the rise of pro-democracy movements in six African countries during the 1990s: Benin, Nigeria, Rwanda, Morocco, Mozambique, and South Africa. For each country, the Website provides a profile, a brief synopsis of events in the 1980s and '90s, an essay by an African scholar or expert in African...

Authored and researched by individuals who work for the Human Rights Watch Organization, this 31-page report documents the tragic situation faced by children in Uganda. Since 1986, members of the Lord's Resistance Army in northern Uganda have abducted close to 20,000 children, often forcing them to serve as soldiers, laborers, and sexual slaves. The report estimates that since June of 2002, almost...

Released in March 2013, this report from the Brookings Institution's African Growth Initiative provides compelling information on why the African continent should be a public policy priority for the United States. The report is divided into five short sections, including "China in Africa: Implications for U.S. Competition and Diplomacy," "Transforming the U.S.-African Commercial Relationship," and...

The Urhobo Historical Society site offers basic information about the Urhobo Peoples of Southern Nigeria. This site was designed and constructed by Peter P. Ekeh, Ph.D. of the State University of New York at Buffalo, and it includes general information regarding Urhobo history, economy, political systems, and religion. In addition, the site offers a glimpse of various Urhobo art forms --...

The United Institute of Peace recently released this report (written by John Brinkley) outlining the use torture as a means to achieve political ends in Zimbabwe. The brief report is divided into several sections, including an introduction that outlines the use of torture in the country, which dates back to the 1970s. Other sections of the report detail the populations most affected by these...