Mogadishu, Somalia (IRIN) – It is Friday morning in Mogadishu and Lido beach presents a scene reminiscent of seaside towns around the world. At the top of the beach, women sit with their wares, selling water and ice-lollies from cool-boxes. The middle-beach is dominated by young men playing football using driftwood as goalposts. At the water’s edge, boys and girls, the latter heedless of their long flowing garments, hurl themselves into the waves or bob on the surface like apples.

“We’re on holiday”, says Ibrahim, a Londoner in his twenties who was born in northern Somalia. Ibrahim is traveling in a group of 20, all from the UK. “We came here for the beaches”, he said. On the road behind him, blue lettering advertises the Indian Ocean Star, a new beach-front restaurant and bar.

Bashir Osman has facilitated journalist visits for years and now plans to capitalize on the swelling ranks of visitors like Ibrahim who are choosing, for both business and personal reasons, to come to bullet-ridden Mogadishu. Osman has purchased 500-meters of beachfront land a few kilometers south of the international airport compound, where he hopes to open a restaurant and eventually a hotel. His infectious fondness for Mogadishu belies a strong philanthropic streak.

People are returning and reconstruction is under way. According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), 3,800 people returned to Mogadishu in March alone. From afar the city glints with shiny new tin roofs dotted among dust-covered ruins and camps. Private operators are offering electricity in the old town for US$30 a month. Fishermen are enjoying a healthy demand for shark-fins from Dubai and the Middle East, with a shark fetching as much as $500. Building materials lie in piles on street corners, where camel’s milk and cappuccino vendors ply their wares.

International NGO and diplomatic missions are also coming back – according to a UN source, Britain has already identified the plot for its permanent diplomatic base on the airport compound – and property prices have spiked. According to Osman, a 100-square meter plot near K4 in the city center sold recently for $2 million.

“The key is security”, said Abdullahi Godah Barre, minister for planning and international cooperation, of the city’s renovation. While African Union troops have largely taken Mogadishu and continue to push beyond the city limits to secure outlying areas where Al-Shabaab operatives remain obdurately in place, the Somali capital is still in counter-terrorism mode, and kidnap and ransom, improvised explosive devices, and suicide bombers remain an everyday threat.

Turkish investors

But there are investors willing to look past this. “We have a lot of interested parties, for example the Turkish government and Turkish business people”, said Mohamed Ibrahim, deputy prime minister in Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG). In March, a delegation of Turkish investors met Somali officials to discuss opportunities. “These are the first willing investors on the Turkish side,” Ibrahim said.

It is estimated that 25 percent (or even 50 percent according to some sources) of Somalia’s GDP comes from remittances abroad. In what is known as the economy without a state, the World Bank says minimal interference in Somalia’s private sector has allowed it to flourish.

Mogadishu’s 30 road, which was until last summer held by Al-Shabaab, is now one of the city’s busiest highways. Workers at the nearby headquarters of Hormuud Telecom view the bombed-out ruins of the city through mirrored glass windows. The largest telecoms company in Somalia, Hormuud, reported sales of $40 million in 2010 – staggering when the World Bank estimates that 73 percent of Somalia’s population of nine million lives on less that $2 per day. The company also distributes emergency food aid.

Like many in government, civil society and the diaspora, Ibrahim wants Somalia to cease being dependent on the international community. Somalia is believed to have significant oil deposits and interest in these has been sparked by this year’s announcement of drilling in semi-autonomous Puntland, northern Somalia. “The difficulty is this political situation. It is not the right time for international investors to come in,” acknowledged Ibrahim on the exploitation of Somalia’s oil. But he went on to add that Somalia welcomes discussions with any investors.

“The diaspora are coming back. We’ve been appealing to them for a long time”, said Abdullahi Goodah Barre, Somalia’s minister for planning and international cooperation.

Junaid Egale is a 30-year-old former Londoner who this year opened a UK-registered international business consultancy firm, MIJ, in Mogadishu, and whose political ambitions include running for president. “We are here now to service the Somali government projects and the international private sector firms i.e. NGOs, telecom and finance,” he said.

However, Egale is sage about the risks. He cautions that until the transitional government’s term has ended and a new mandate is under way, private investment from overseas is not viable. “On the other hand I do believe both private and foreign government investment is, and should be, an alternative fund towards the rebuilding of Somalia than aid from the donors via UNDP [UN Development Program]“, he said.

Corruption

The transitional government has received criticism this year for corruption and a lack of accountability. According to a February report by the International Crisis Group, there is “no reliable database covering all development funds” in Somalia, while as much as 85 percent of the central government’s revenue is never recorded, according to an audit by the Prime Minister’s Office in Mogadishu.

A 2011 report by the Center for American Progress, Twenty Years of Collapse and Counting, said that, according to a confidential audit of the TFG, “in 2009 and 2010 some 96 percent of direct bilateral assistance to the government had simply disappeared, presumably into the pockets of corrupt officials.”

But TFG officials defend themselves against the allegation. Minister for Constitution Abdi Hosh said: “We don’t qualify for bilateral aid.” The ports generate $2 million per year for the government. “That’s peanuts when you see the wreckage in the city”, he said.

Brad Parks, co-director of the transparency initiative AidData, cautions in a blog that recent gains are both fragile and reversible, and that the TFG must accelerate domestic reform efforts if it is to have any hope of building a legitimate state. “In particular, there is a growing sense that the TFG needs to bring some transparency and discipline to its management of public finances”, he said.

Somalia receives very little bilateral, i.e. direct donor to recipient government, aid. “Sadly the TFG has failed to demonstrate that it can manage funds responsibly,” said James Smith, Horn of Africa Project Manager for the Rift Valley Institute.

Much of the bilateral aid that the TFG does receive is from non-traditional donors in the Arab world, such as Qatar and United Arab Emirates. Of the $350 million pledged for Somalia by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation last year, less than half was channeled multilaterally, something which the broader humanitarian system has found difficult to manage.

“If the TFG inspired confidence in its ability to conduct development programs I imagine it would have received significantly more financial support. If it can just ensure a stable environment, Mogadishu will rebuild itself,” said Smith.

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– Provided by Integrated Regional Information Networks.

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Paris, France (4E) – Women will comprise half of the top ministerial positions in the new French government of Francois Hollande.

The announcement was made Wednesday by Secretary General Pierre-Rene Lemas a day after Hollande was sworn in as president.

In his election campaign, Hollande had promised to give an equal number of ministries to both women and men in his cabinet. Hollande, a socialist, named ex-premier Laurent Fabius as finance minister and Lionel Jospin as foreign affairs minister. Jospin will replace Alain Juppe.

Manuel Valls will take charge of interior affairs, while socialist deputy Jean-Yves Le Drian was nominated as defense minister. Pierre Moscovici will take over the tough task of economy ministry.

Another socialist veteran, Michel Sapin, will become labor minister, Arnaud Montebourg will take the seat as production recovery minister and Stephane Le Foll was named agriculture minister.

Hollande has appointed Christine Taubira to take charge of the justice ministry,

Greens party General Secretary Cecile Duflot will become territorial equality ministry.

Aurelie Filipetti was named culture minister, while Najat Vallaud-Belkacem will assume the post of defending women’s rights and the government’s spokeswoman.

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Johannesburg, South Africa (IRIN) – The UN Development Program (UNDP) launched its first Africa Human Development Report Tuesday, stressing food security as a means to a better quality of life for all.

The argument is straightforward: Most people in Africa depend on agriculture, and better nutrition is good for human development. More food production means more food and income in people’s pockets, which has spin-offs which are beneficial for health and education.

The report is not another exhortation to farmers to grow more food. Pedro Conceicao, chief economist with the UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa, explained that exclusively looking at linkages between small-scale farmers and agriculture or gender empowerment and agriculture were “piecemeal approaches” and not helpful. “We have to move beyond silver bullet obsessions [such as agricultural subsidies] or attention-grabbing headlines.”

He reasoned that high economic growth rates in Africa had not necessarily resulted in a reduction in poverty and food insecurity – which points to accessibility to food and purchasing power as key factors. The report emphasizes “empowerment” and participation as important levers for change.

It argues that countries need to implement a more strategic vision of food security. An approach to emulate would be what Ethiopia had done to beef up its agriculture sector by setting up a separate Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) right next to the prime minister’s office. It is modeled on similar initiatives in Asia which helped accelerate economic growth in South Korea and Malaysia, for instance. ATA addresses bottlenecks in areas such as soil management, research and extension services.

The report calls for new approaches covering multiple sectors – from rural infrastructure to health services, to new forms of social protection and empowering local communities. It calls for action in four critical areas:

1. Increasing agricultural production: It acknowledges that boosting production would be integral to any approach to becoming food secure, and calls for investment in research, infrastructure and inputs and a Green Revolution in Africa;

2. More effective nutrition: Develop coordinated interventions which boost nutrition while expanding access to health services, education, sanitation, and clean water;

3. Building resilience: Investment in crop insurance, employment guarantee schemes, and cash transfers to shield people from risks and make them less vulnerable to shocks;

4. Empowerment and social justice: Gender empowerment, access to land, technology and information are important to make people food secure.

IRIN interviewed two leading experts on the issues.

Steven Wiggins, research fellow with the UK’s Overseas Development Institute, who has been studying agriculture and rural development in Africa since 1972:

Africa is not one unitary entity: “There are 56 countries in Africa… When Africa is considered as a single unit, there is a great danger that it is compared to other similar units, above all Asia, leading to analyses that suggest that if only Africa were more like Asia, then things would improve. Well, I’m not sure that Botswana has very much to learn from, say, Afghanistan, thank you very much. Hyperbole aside, the point is this: in Africa we have several, if not many, cases of admirable progress in food and nutrition security, but we overlook this.”

Real progress takes time: “A longstanding issue in African policy debates is the search not only for growth, but for growth that is `transformative’. Even when an African economy grows, the pessimists say `yes, but where is the transformation?’ usually noting that in Asia growth is transformative. Well, yes, where that has apparently happened in Asia… it is the result of 30 or 40 years of sustained progress. Yet damning judgments are made about African countries after less than 10 years of sustained and high economic growth.”

Too complicated and demanding: It would have been better had it [the overview [of the report] stuck to a few fundamental propositions that are well supported by the evidence, namely: smallholder development plus primary health plus clean water will almost always reduce child malnutrition. Yes, let’s add girls in secondary school to the list: that will strengthen these links. But it’s that simple.

Peter Gubbels, the West Africa co-coordinator for Groundswell International, a global partnership of local farming communities, has 30 years of experience in rural development, including 20 years living and working in West Africa. He is based in Ghana. He says:

Move beyond the Green Revolution: “The report… seems to embrace the Green Revolution approach to agricultural improvement, citing… the results… in Asia, and seeking to now apply those lessons to Africa. The report suggests implicitly, that one reason Africa still has hunger is because Africa has not benefited from `science-based, input-intensive’ support. This is highly misleading. There have been many efforts to promote Green Revolution in Africa. Almost all have failed.”

Missing bits: “There is no mention of Conservation Agriculture, or of the Brown Revolution [to promote soil fertility and conserve water].”

Under-funding in agricultural research: “This is true but is also misleading. There has been a great amount of funding in the CGIAR [Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research] system in Africa, including IITA [International Institute of Tropical Agriculture] in Nigeria, from the 1970s onwards. One reason donors reduced funding in the 1990s was because it was not generating good production results.

“But this report seems to assume that investing in new seeds, fertilizers, tractors, irrigation and training is what is needed… And how many very poor small-scale farmers can afford tractors?”

Understanding resilience: “Equally disturbing is the suggestion that long-term resilience measures can enable risk averse, poor small-scale farmers to adopt riskier, but more productive, agricultural technologies. This is twisting my understanding of resilience. The aim is to reduce (or at least manage risk), using low external inputs and local ecological systems, not to increase risk by creating dependence on external expensive inputs (insurance, etc) for poor, vulnerable farm families working in marginal conditions. The way forward would be to develop crops and technologies that both increase food production and reduce risk by conservation agricultural techniques.”

“Subsuming” nutrition into food security: “There is not just food insecurity in Africa. There is both food insecurity and nutrition insecurity. Currently in the Sahel, there is both a food crisis and a nutrition crisis. They may be linked, but the causes are quite different, and the solutions that are [rooted] in food security are almost always inadequate.

“Just as we need to change the strong association of agriculture with food security, we also need to move nutrition out of the confines of food security. There is still a very strong tendency to believe that food aid, and increasing food production, solves most of malnutrition. It does not. It only helps prevent major spikes in the already existing emergency level of chronic and acute malnutrition.”

Controversial issues side-stepped: “The report also almost completely sidesteps… genetically modified seeds… the role of agribusiness in land-grabbing, control of seeds, pushing pesticides and herbicides.”

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– Provided by Integrated Regional Information Networks.

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Tehran, Iran (4E) – A U.S. media report on Sunday alleged Iran of turning off the satellite tracking systems on its oil tankers in response to the international sanctions, which has crippled its economy.

In its report, The Washington Post stated that this tactic began in April and is still ongoing. It allegedly effects a quarter of Iran’s tanker fleet. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is apparently monitoring the practice, said that this is a clear violation of the maritime law.

Iran, which is second largest OPEC exporter after Saudi Arabia, earns two-thirds of its foreign currency through oil exports.

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Brussels, Belgium (4E) – The European Commission predicts the eurozone economy will shrink this year as the region’s debt crisis continues to take its toll.

In its spring forecasts, EC officials said that it expects 2012 will see a contractions of 0.3 percent in the economies of the 17 nations that use the euro.

However, it also said that a recovery is in sight and that it expects the eurozone will rebound and grow by 1.0 percent in 2013.

The picture is only slightly brighter when looking at all 27 nations in the European Union. The EC is predicting zero growth, but that is better than a contraction. In addition, the EC expects 1.3 percent growth for the EU region next year.

Nevertheless, the situation remains problematic with disparities in the economies of the eurozone nations, as well as in the economies of the 27 nations in the European Union.

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Beijing, China (AHN) – China saw growth in its exports slow to 4.9 percent in April, compared with 8.9 percent last year because of the slowing of economies around the world.

The slowdown in global demand has also hit Chinese consumers and businesses. Growth in imports to China also slowed, dropping to just 0.3 percent in April, down from 5.3 percent growth in March.

Chinese government officials were reportedly expecting an 11 percent growth in imports. The decrease in imports was nearly across the board affecting everything from consumer items to raw materials.

China is the world’s second-largest economy behind the United States.

Although both nations have a capitalistic business system, the model that the Communist government of China uses is vastly different from the model the U.S. uses.

In the U.S., the model is democratic, secular and free-market where businesses pay taxes to the federal government. In China, the model is state capitalism where the government owns a portion of most businesses and takes part of the profits to fund government operations.

 

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New York City, NY, United States (AHN) – Gold prices tumbled Tuesday along with world markets as Greece’s political and economic woes weighed on investors across all sectors.

The board based declines in U.S. and global equities spilled over to the yellow metal, pushing gold prices below $1,600 intra-day.

Market participants fear that new elections could be held in June if no coalition Greek government is formed. Worries are growing that the ailing Mediterranean country could be coming closer to a default and may be forced out of the euro zone.

Often viewed as and held as a safe haven, gold provided no respite Tuesday as investors sold whatever they were holding to raise cash.

Also pressuring gold prices of late is the lack of speculative buyers. The only significant buyers of the precious metal in recent months have been central banks.

In addition, India, gold biggest buyer, has seen waning demand due to a weaker economy and proposed tax on gold sales.

While gold prices are currently under pressure, industry analysts note that the underlying support and fundamental reasons for buying the commodity are still sound, notably mega-loose monetary policies, and will provide a cushion and eventually keep the metal from falling much further.

Just after 1:30 p.m., June future contracts for gold were lower by $40.10 at $1,599 a troy ounce.

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Beijing, China (AHN) – A US university has offered a fellowship to Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng that would allow him to bring his wife and children with him.

The blind activist made headlines for taking refuge at the US Embassy in Beijing after his daring escape from house arrest. He later left to go to the hospital accompanied by US officials who were later barred from the hospital.

Chen initially said he wanted to remain in China, as long as he could be free.

However, Chen caused tensions to rise between the US and China when he announced that he had changed his mind and wanted to immigrate to the US. Chen said he changed his mind because Chinese officials were threatening his family members and he no longer felt safe there.

The Chinese government said he could apply to travel to the US to study. In addition, a university has offered him a full fellowship.

US government officials have said they would expedite visas for Chen and his family members.

However, the Chinese media is now lashing out at Chen, depicting him as a tool of the US.

China is the second-largest economy in the world and it is the largest nation with a Communist form of government.

It often clamps down on citizens that criticize its policies. Chen spent the last seven years under some form of imprisonment as a result of his outspoken views.

 

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Brussels, Belgium (AHN) – The eurozone saw it private sector contract sharply in April by one of its sharpest falls in nearly three years and its steepest decline since October, London-based Markit Economics said Friday.

A contraction is defined as any figure below 50 in the Markit eurozone composite purchasing managers’ index (PMI). The PMI fell to 46.7 in April from 49.2 in March.

Weak manufacturing exports were largely to blame for the drop, Markit said.

Moreover, Markit said the figures suggested the eurozone economy as a whole contracted at a dire quarterly rate of 0.5 percent in April.

The 17-member nation eurozone saw new business fall for the ninth consecutive month, while employment dropped for the fourth straight month.

Even Germany, known as Europe’s economic engine, slid toward stagnation. Economic growth has nearly stopped in both Germany and France and both are now seeing the sort of economic decline that has plagued Spain and Italy.

In addition, the eurozone’s services sector PMI also fell. It slid to 46.9, down from 49.2 in March.

The eurozone seems to be heading toward a third consecutive quarter of contraction in gross domestic product.

Release of Markit’s PMI reports helped to keep the euro low in currency pairs trading against the dollar.

 

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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The latest report on private company hiring shows a disappointing 119,000 jobs created in April, according to payroll processor ADP. ADP’s report comes ahead of the official government numbers for April due out on Friday

Stock prices fell in midday trading on Wednesday as Wall Street reacted to the numbers that were lower than the 170,000 jobs many analysts expected the economy to create last month.

Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 41 points, or 0.3 percent, falling to 13,239, while the Nasdaq Composite slipped two points, or 0.1 percent, slumping to 3,048 and the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index gave up six points, or 0.4 percent, plunging to 1,399.

ADP’s report comes ahead of the official government numbers for April due out on Friday.

The jobs that were created in April might not be the ones that many people might prefer.

That was because job creation differed between small companies, which traditionally offer fewer if any benefits, and large companies that usually have pay that is more generous and benefit packages.

Large companies with 500 or more employees added only 4,000 new employees, while small companies with fewer than 50 employees hired 58,000 people. In addition, medium-sized businesses created 57,000 jobs.

Job creation was better the previous two months with earlier ADP reports showing that companies added 228,000 jobs in February and 201,000 jobs in March.

The economy needs to create between 120,000 to 220,000 jobs monthly just to keep up with growth in the labor market.

In many months, the economy has not done that, which has meant that many of the millions of people who lost their jobs during the recession have not been able to find work. In addition, about 50 percent of recent college graduates have either been unable to find work or have had to take jobs below their skill level.

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