poverty - The African Mirror

Jul

2021

‘Refugees in their own country’: Lebanon backs aid for 500,000 families

TIMOUR AZHARI LEBANON’S parliament has approved a $556 million cash injection for half a million families - the latest aid package for a population pauperised by an economy in collapse. The programme would provide up to $137 per family per month for a year and complements a $246-million World Bank loan for a basic social safety net that was approved by parliament in March but has not yet been disbursed. It aims, in part, to replace a subsidy programme for basics such as fuel and food that costs the cash-strapped state some $6 billion a year but could now be…

May

2021

By The African Mirror

Why renewable energy won’t end energy poverty in Zimbabwe

ENVIRONMENT

ZIMBABWE is one of the African countries that hopes renewable energy technologies will help to address their energy problems. About 42% of Zimbabwe’s households are connected to the electricity grid. ELLEN FUNGISAI CHIPANGO, Postdoctoral research fellow, University of Johannesburg The country has huge and diverse renewable energy potential. Its sustainable energy portfolio could include solar, hydro, biomass and, to a limited extent, wind and geothermal. Zimbabwe put forward a National Renewable Energy Policy in 2019. The policy aims to have 16.5% of the total generation capacity (excluding large hydro) from renewable sources by 2025. This increases to 26.5% by 2030.…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

World Bank allocates $300 million to help Tunisia fight poverty

BUSINESS

THE World Bank will allocate $300 million to help about 1 million poor families in Tunisia which suffer from economic and social problems that have led to an increase in protests against social injustice, it announced yesterday. "The only condition for this support is transparency and that support is to go directly to poor families", World Bank MENA Vice President Ferid Belhaj said after a meeting with Tunisia's President Kais Saied. The presidency said in statement that this support would be part of a social program under Saied's direct supervision. Since the 10th anniversary of the revolution in January there…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

Trash for cash: South Africans fight hunger with digital currency

BUSINESS

KIM HARRISBERG MIMI Ngalula never imagined cardboard boxes, cans and bottles would save her five children from hunger during lockdown, but over the past four months, digging through Johannesburg's trash cans has become her lifeline. Ngalula, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), is one of hundreds of people in the neighbourhood of Lorentzville who joined a project to exchange recyclables for a digital currency that they use to buy much-needed groceries. Run through local charity Love Our City Klean (LOCK), the project gives recyclers a card with a unique barcode that is used to load their recycling…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

Are warnings of a COVID-19 famine in Africa overblown?

COVID-19

OBI ANYADIKE ALARM bells have been ringing for months that COVID-19 could push fragile African countries “closer to the abyss” of famine as jobs are lost, local markets close, and poverty deepens. Aid agencies routinely list the coronavirus as a major factor in driving humanitarian needs, from the Sahel to Somalia, and don’t shy away from describing its impact as the “perfect storm”. A joint report in July by the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) calculated that COVID-19 could create an additional 121 million hungry people globally by the end of the year – mostly in 15 already crisis-affected African countries. But…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

Coronavirus may push 150 mln people into extreme poverty – World Bank

COVID-19

THE World Bank says that the coronavirus pandemic could push as many as 150 million people into extreme poverty by the end of 2021, wiping out more than three years of progress in poverty reduction. Releasing its flagship biennial report on poverty and shared prosperity, the multilateral development lender said that an additional 88 million to 115 million people will fall into extreme poverty - defined as living on less than $1.90 a day -in 2020. The report said this could grow to 111 million to 150 million by the end of 2021. That would mean that 9.1-9.4% of the…