by Andy Sumner | Jun 2, 2011 | Africa, Cooperation and coherence, Economics and development
More UK aid to India debate this week (see earlier posts here and here).
India has pledged $5bn in aid to help African countries meet the MDGs and got berated by the FT for being behind the (Chinese) curve.
Hold on… Didn’t UK aid agency, DFID just pledge £1bn ($1.5bn) to India for the same next 3 years in the run up to the 2015 MDG deadline? (because a third of the world’s poor live in India – largely in the poorer states).
So $1.5bn goes in as UK foreign aid to India and $5bn goes out as Indian foreign aid to Africa?
However, maybe that’s not as strange as it sounds. Transactions costs aside, why might India be better at doing aid in Africa?
(more…)
by Casper ter Kuile | Jun 1, 2011 | Middle East and North Africa
Watching news reports like the one below, it’s easy to get confused about what’s happening in Yemen – peaceful protest for democracy? Tribal uprising? Civil war?
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRsSF44ai5Y]
Broadly – the peaceful pro-democracy movement and the recent armed conflict are two separate issues. The armed clashes are between government forces and armed tribesmen loyal to Sheik Sadeq al-Ahmar. They’ve managed to take government buildings in Sana’a with deadly street battles after the collapse of the most recent ceasefire.
Peaceful pro-democracy protests have been running since January, and tent cities are still visible in major cities. President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s forces have killed over 250 protestors, using tear gas, bulldozers and live ammunition. Talks of a transition of power continue, with Obama’s emissary John Brennan pushing for a deal this week.
What is keeping the situation from becoming a civil war is the military’s lack of decisive intervention, despite government efforts to involve them.
Looks likely that Yemen will be moving up this list before long.
h/t Atiaf Alwazir.
by Richard Gowan | Jun 1, 2011 | Conflict and security, Economics and development, South Asia
Sushant K. Singh has a great piece over at World Politics Review on the state of Indian Kashmir (you may need to subscribe). Something seems to be going right:
With the global spotlight unwaveringly focused on the momentous changes in the Arab world, subtle shifts taking place in another strife-torn Muslim-majority region in Asia have escaped the world’s attention. Jammu and Kashmir, the object of a longstanding territorial dispute between India and Pakistan, has been ravaged for the past two decades by a violent, Pakistan-backed Islamist insurgency that has exploited popular grievances among Kashmiris. But almost a year after turmoil in urban Kashmir led to the deaths of 112 unarmed civilians in police actions last summer, the situation has been completely peaceful this year.
This is in spite the fact that Kashmir has been holding local elections, previously a high-risk activity. Even more surprisingly, says Singh, turnout has been exceptionally high in these polls, even in separatist strongholds. He ascribes this to the senistive political touch of Kashmir’s Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah (a voracious user of Twitter) and promises of big grants from Delhi. Other factors are at play:
A team of interlocutors appointed by New Delhi, though systematically ignored by the separatists, has further helped cool tempers by engaging with various sections of the Kashmiri population. In addition, New Delhi has approved a skills-training program for Kashmiris that aims to generate employment for 15,000 youths in the next five months. The local police have also geared up to prevent any repetition of last year’s street violence. Meanwhile, the fatigue gripping the two-decade-old insurgency led by Pakistan-based jihadi groups has been exacerbated by Pakistan’s own internal strife, which has undermined the separatists’ goal of merging Kashmir with Pakistan on the basis of religious affinity.
With everyone watching Pakistan with deep concern – and ramifications of the Bin Laden killing still playing out – this is one bit of good news for South Asian security.
by Richard Gowan | Jun 1, 2011 | Europe and Central Asia, Influence and networks, Off topic
Ben Judah has a wonderful piece over on the ECFR blog about a new Russian comic strip celebrating “Super Putin”:
Liberal bloggers have certainly been stirred – Some have even suggested it may even have been commissioned by the Kremlin as a PR stunt. In particular, they don’t like the portrayal of Medvedev as a “gnome raised by bears” (his superpowers involve being able to change into a bear) and a mere side-kick to Super Putin, and the treatment of civil society activists.
Read the full post here.
