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Arab News
6 days ago
- Business
- Arab News
Water crisis demands a paradigm shift
As African leaders gather in Cape Town for this week's African Water Investment Summit, there can be no equivocation: the world faces an unprecedented water crisis that demands a paradigm shift in how we value and govern our most precious resource. The scale of the challenge is staggering. More than half the world's food production now comes from areas experiencing declining freshwater supplies. Two-thirds of the global population faces water scarcity at least one month per year. More than 1,000 children under five die every day, on average, from water-related diseases. And if current trends continue, high-income countries could see their gross domestic product shrink by 8 percent by 2050, while lower-income countries (many in Africa) face losses of up to 15 percent. Yet this crisis also presents an extraordinary opportunity. When South Africa assumes the G20 presidency in December, it can champion a new economics of water that treats the hydrological cycle as a global common good, rather than as the source of a commodity to be hoarded or traded. The economic case for action is compelling. The International High-Level Panel on Water Investments for Africa shows that every dollar invested in climate-resilient water and sanitation delivers a return of $7. With Africa requiring an additional $30 billion annually to meet the Sustainable Development Goal on water security and sustainable sanitation, the financing gap is significant — but it is surmountable with the right strategy. The Global Commission on the Economics of Water recently called for such a strategy. Treating water as a global common good and adopting mission-oriented approaches to transform the crisis into an opportunity requires that we recognize three critical facts. First, water connects us all — not just through visible rivers and lakes, but through atmospheric moisture flows that travel across continents. Second, the water crisis is inseparable from climate change and biodiversity loss, each of which accelerates the others in a vicious cycle. And third, water runs through every SDG, from food security and health to economic growth. Yet too often, water investments follow the failed playbook of climate and development finance. There is a tendency to derisk private capital without ensuring public returns, to fund projects without strategic direction and to treat water as a technical problem, rather than a systemic challenge. Such approaches risk creating water infrastructure that serves investors more than communities, exacerbates existing inequalities and fails to address the interconnected nature of the water, climate and biodiversity crises. We need to move from short-term thinking to long-term value creation — and that calls for mission-oriented investments. Mariana Mazzucato This interconnectedness demands a new economic framework that aims to shape markets proactively rather than simply fixing failures after the fact. We need to move from short-term cost-benefit thinking to long-term value creation — and that calls for mission-oriented investments that shape markets for the common good. Missions require clear goals, like ensuring that no child dies from unsafe water by 2030. Once goals are established, all financing can be aligned with them through cross-sectoral approaches spanning agriculture, energy, manufacturing and digital infrastructure. Rather than picking sectors or technologies, the point is to find willing partners across all industries to tackle shared challenges. Such mission-oriented investments can also lead to economic diversification, creating new export opportunities and development pathways. Consider Bolivia's approach to lithium extraction. Rather than simply exporting raw materials, the country is developing strategies to avoid the traditional 'resource curse' by building domestic battery production capabilities and participating directly in the energy transition. In doing so, it is converting its resource wealth into innovation capacity, strengthening value chains and creating new export markets for higher-value activities. As matters stand, more than $700 billion per year is channeled into water and agriculture subsidies that often incentivize overuse and pollution. By redirecting these resources toward water-efficient agriculture and ecosystem restoration, with clear conditions attached, we could transform the economics of water overnight. To that end, public development banks can provide patient capital for water infrastructure, while requiring private partners to reinvest profits in watershed protection. Africa is uniquely positioned to lead this transformation. Its vast supply of groundwater remains largely untapped, with 255 million urban inhabitants living above known supplies. Combined with affordable solar power, these supplies present an opportunity to revolutionize agriculture. By focusing on efficiency and reuse, as well as on capacity building, data-sharing and monitoring and evaluation, this relatively stable groundwater resource, accessed by solar-powered pumps, can be a decentralized alternative that minimizes the emissions, waste and other environmental costs implied by larger infrastructure projects that disrupt natural water flows. More than $700 billion per year is channeled into water and agriculture subsidies that often incentivize overuse and pollution. Mariana Mazzucato Through Just Water Partnerships — collaborative frameworks that pool such solar groundwater projects for increased bankability while ensuring community ownership — international finance can be channeled toward water infrastructure that serves both national development goals and the global common good. South Africa's G20 presidency — the first ever for an African country — offers a historic platform to advance this agenda globally. Just as Brazil has used its G20 leadership and role as host of the upcoming COP30 UN Climate Change Conference to drive climate action, South Africa can make water security central to the global economic agenda. With the 2026 UN Water Conference on the horizon, and with the international community recognizing that climate change cannot be tackled without also addressing the water crisis, the time is right for bold leadership. The African Water Investment Summit is not just another gathering — it should be a watershed. This is the moment when we should shift from treating water as a local resource to governing it as a global common good, moving from crisis management to proactive market-shaping and from viewing mission-oriented investment as a cost to recognizing it as the foundation of sustainable growth. Water security underpins Africa's aspirations for health, climate resilience, prosperity and peace. With young Africans set to constitute 42 percent of global youth by 2030, investing in water is tantamount to investing in the world's future. The question is not whether we can afford to act, but whether we can afford not to. • Mariana Mazzucato is Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London and the author, most recently, of 'The Big Con: How the Consulting Industry Weakens Our Businesses, Infantilizes Our Governments and Warps Our Economies' (Penguin Press, 2023). ©Project Syndicate
Al Jazeera
11-07-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Trump's African summit was a masterclass in modern colonial theatre
On July 9, United States President Donald Trump opened a three-day mini summit at the White House with the leaders of Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, and Senegal – by subjecting his distinguished guests to a carefully staged public humiliation. This was not the plan – or at least, not the part the public was meant to see. A White House official claimed on July 3 that 'President Trump believes that African countries offer incredible commercial opportunities which benefit both the American people and our African partners.' Whether by coincidence or calculated design, the meeting took place on the same day the Trump administration escalated its trade war, slapping new tariffs on eight countries, including the North African nations of Libya and Algeria. It was a telling contrast: Even as Trump claimed to be 'strengthening ties with Africa', his administration was penalising African nations. The optics revealed the incoherence – or perhaps the honesty – of Trump's Africa policy, where partnership is conditional and often indistinguishable from punishment. Trump opened the summit with a four-minute speech in which he claimed the five invited leaders were representing the entire African continent. Never mind that their countries barely register in US-Africa trade figures; what mattered was the gold, oil, and minerals buried beneath their soil. He thanked 'these great leaders… all from very vibrant places with very valuable land, great minerals, great oil deposits, and wonderful people'. He then announced that the US was 'shifting from AID to trade' because 'this will be far more effective and sustainable and beneficial than anything else that we could be doing together.' At that moment, the illusion of diplomacy collapsed, and the true nature of the meeting was revealed. Trump shifted from statesman to showman, no longer merely hosting but asserting control. The summit quickly descended into a cringe-inducing display, where Africa was presented not as a continent of sovereign nations but as a rich expanse of resources, fronted by compliant leaders performing for the cameras. This was not a dialogue but a display of domination: A stage-managed production in which Trump scripted the scene and African heads of state were cast in subordinate roles. Trump was in his element, orchestrating the event like a puppet master, directing each African guest to play his part and respond favourably. He 'invited' (in effect, instructed) them to make 'a few comments to the media' in what became a choreographed show of deference. President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani of Mauritania led the way, both physically and symbolically, by praising Trump's 'commitment' to Africa. The claim was as misleading as it was surreal, given Washington's recent aid cuts, punitive tariffs, and tightened visa restrictions on African nations. In one especially embarrassing moment, Ghazouani described Trump as the world's top peacemaker – crediting him, among other things, with stopping 'the war between Iran and Israel'. This praise came with no mention of the US's continued military and diplomatic support for Israel's war on Gaza, which the African Union has firmly condemned. The silence amounted to complicity, a calculated erasure of Palestinian suffering for the sake of American favour. Perhaps mindful of the tariffs looming over his own country, Ghazouani, who served as AU Chair in 2024, slipped into the role of a willing supplicant. He all but invited Trump to exploit Mauritania's rare minerals, praised him and declared him a peacemaker while ignoring the massacres of tens of thousands of innocents in Gaza made possible by the very weapons Trump provides. This tone would define the entire sit-down. One by one, the African leaders offered Trump glowing praise and access to their countries' natural resources – a disturbing reminder of how easily power can script compliance. Senegal's President Bassirou Diomaye Faye even asked Trump to build a golf course in his country. Trump declined, opting instead to compliment Faye's youthful appearance. Gabon's President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema talked of 'win-win partnerships' with the US, but received only a lukewarm response. What did capture Trump's attention was the English fluency of Liberia's President Joseph Boakai. Ignoring the content of Boakai's remarks, Trump marvelled at his 'beautiful' English and asked, 'Where did you learn to speak so beautifully? Where were you educated? Where? In Liberia?' That Trump seemed unaware English is Liberia's official language, and has been since its founding in 1822 as a haven for freed American slaves, was perhaps less shocking than the colonial tone of his question. His astonishment that an African president could speak English well betrayed a deeply racist, imperial mindset. It was not an isolated slip. At a White House peace ceremony on June 29 involving the DRC and Rwanda, Trump publicly commented on the appearance of Angolan journalist and White House correspondent Hariana Veras, telling her, 'You are beautiful – and you are beautiful inside.' Whether or not Veras is 'beautiful' is entirely beside the point. Trump's behaviour was inappropriate and unprofessional, reducing a respected journalist to her looks in the middle of a diplomatic milestone. The sexualisation of Black women – treating them as vessels of white male desire rather than intellectual equals – was central to both the transatlantic slave trade and European colonisation. Trump's comment extended that legacy into the present. Likewise, his surprise at Boakai's English fits a long imperial pattern. Africans who 'master' the coloniser's language are often seen not as complex, multilingual intellectuals, but as subordinates who've absorbed the dominant culture. They are rewarded for proximity to whiteness, not for intellect or independence. Trump's remarks revealed his belief that articulate and visually appealing Africans are an anomaly, a novelty deserving momentary admiration. By reducing both Boakai and Veras to aesthetic curiosities, he erased their agency, dismissed their achievements, and gratified his colonial ego. More than anything, Trump's comments on Boakai reflected his deeper indifference to Africa. They stripped away any illusion that this summit was about genuine partnership. Contrast this with the US-Africa Leaders Summit held by President Joe Biden in December 2022. That event welcomed more than 40 African heads of state, as well as the African Union, civil society, and private sector leaders. It prioritised peer-to-peer dialogue and the AU's Agenda 2063 – a far cry from Trump's choreographed spectacle. How the Trump administration concluded that five men could represent the entire continent remains baffling, unless, of course, this wasn't about representation at all, but control. Trump didn't want engagement; he wanted performance. And sadly, his guests obliged. In contrast to the tightly managed meeting Trump held with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on July 8, the lunch with African leaders resembled a chaotic, tone-deaf sideshow. Faye was especially disappointing. He came to power on the back of an anti-imperialist platform, pledging to break with neocolonial politics and restore African dignity. Yet at the White House, he bent the knee to the most brazen imperialist of them all. Like the others, he failed to challenge Trump, to assert equality, or to defend the sovereignty he so publicly champions at home. In a moment when African leaders had the chance to push back against a resurgent colonial mindset, they instead bowed – giving Trump space to revive a 16th-century fantasy of Western mastery. For this, he offered a reward: He might not impose new tariffs on their countries, he said, 'because they are friends of mine now'. Trump, the 'master', triumphed. All the Africans had to do was bow at his feet. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.
France 24
10-07-2025
- Business
- France 24
Trump hosts African leaders as aid cuts threaten millions of deaths
Africa 14:30 From the show In tonight's edition: US President Donald Trump told leaders from five African nations on Wednesday that he was shifting the US approach to the continent from aid to trade. Also, Lesotho has declared a national "state of disaster" over soaring unemployment and mass job losses as it reels from the economic fallout of US tariffs and aid cuts. Plus Egypt's deepening economic crisis makes marriage a luxury some simply can't afford.
BBC News
03-07-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Trump dey host five African leaders - which kontris dey di list
President of di United States Donald Trump go host five leaders from African nations for Washington next week. According to White House official wey tok on Wednesday, e say di discussion wit Trump na to tok 'commercial opportunities'. Dis dey come afta Trump bin don sama different African kontris wit tariffs. Some of di African kontris wey Trump sama wit tariffs early dis year also dey among dose wey e go host next week 9 July, 2025. According to Reuters, Trump go host di five kontris for a summit from 9 - 11 July and dia focus go be on commercial benefits. Di White House official tok say di reason why Trump dey host di African leaders na for opportunities wey go benefit America and oda African partners. Also aleast 25 African kontris dey face partial and total US travel bans inside one new anti-immigration measure by US President Trump administration. According to one internal State Department memo wey Reuters see, America goment dey extend dia travel restrictions on 36 more kontris, wey go potentially ban citizens of these kontris entry into di US. Some of di African nations wey e invite come di US dey among dose wey dey face di travel ban. "President Trump believe say African kontris dey offer ogbonge commercial opportunities wey dey benefit both di American pipo and our African partners," di official tok. Meanwhile, Trump administration don cut several foreign aids to Africa including di USAID. Di US president say di spending cut na wetin e consider as wasteful and e no align wit im policy. Di five kontris wey Trump go host Di five kontris wey Trump go host for America na: Gabon, dey on di west coast of Africa and don get few leaders since dia independence from France for 1960, wit Omar Bongo ruling as president for more dan four decades until e die for 2009. Gabon na major oil producer but a third of dia population dey live for poverty, according to di World Bank. Dia population na around 2.3 million. Dem comot Ali Bongo for a coup for August 2023. Gabon military leader Gen Brice Oligui Nguema wey bin lead di 2023 coup wey end almost 60 years dynasty bin win di April presidential election wit more dan 90% of di votes, provisional results show. Liberia na Africa oldest republic, but dem sabi am for 1990s during di long-running, civil wars and dia role for a fight for neighbouring kontri Sierra Leone. Although e dey founded by freed American and Caribbean slaves, Liberia dey mostly inhabited by indigenous Africans, wit di slaves' descendants comprising 5% of di population. Life expectancy for Liberia na 59 years for men and 62 years for women. Dem get population of about 5.3 million. Di opposition leader Joseph Boakai bin defeat di incumbent George Weah for di November 2023 presidential election run-off—to become di incumbent leader.
