President Biden has taken a lot of stick over Afghanistan, some of it justified. From Tony Blair to the Tory back-benches, in Parliament and on the BBC, we have been treated to days of passionate denunciation of American withdrawal – announced, of course, long before the current rush to blame. A miasma of unreality and…

Access to clean drinking water is a human right, but as the global population grows and the planet heats up, can we rely on this resource we take for granted Given that more than 70% of our planet is covered in water — all told that’s more than one billion trillion litres of the stuff…

Now is a critical time for South Africa, a major test of its institutions and leaders.  Former President Jacob Zuma (79) is finally behind bars.  The Constitutional Court, the country’s Supreme Court, will hear his appeal against a sentence of 15 months imprisonment for contempt of court.  By refusing to testify Zuma, the very stereotype…

The role of Transnational Corporations (TNCs) in Africa continues to be of vital importance for the economic development of the continent in terms of generating wealth, developing technologies, and creating jobs for new generations. But TNCs have a contradictory role because, on the one hand, TNCs carry out an economic transformation through different spheres of…

The purpose of private companies is to develop activities that report on economic benefits to their shareholders or owners. Few private companies, apart from seeking economic performance, have in their statutes an altruistic purpose that seeks the integral development of people or the protection of the environment. The legal regulation of companies is always in…

The impacts from the coronavirus pandemic and climate change manifest longstanding injustices that continue to put corporate profits over and above the benefit of all people. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted a longstanding chasm of inequality as deaths have numbered thousands and millions have lost their jobs, healthcare, and meagre life savings. Our broken world’s…

One of the most successful campaigns in the year 2000 led to debt relief for 37 of the world’s poorest countries. 20 years later, Africa is once again in a debt crisis, exacerbated by the pandemic. This new debt crisis has become a burning political issue. How did the crisis come about? How to deal…

Mozambique has returned to the news of the international media due to the humanitarian catastrophe ravaging the north of the country. Since the conflict broke out in 2017, violence in the region has caused a humanitarian crisis with almost 700,000 displaced people and more than 2,000 dead, according to UN agencies. The escalation of violence…

The Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) is an international treaty that came into force in the last decade of the last century. The ECT is a multilateral investment agreement signed by more than 50 countries and its main objective is to ensure the protection of investors in the energy sector, especially transnational companies operating in coal,…

Without a doubt, the Covid-19 pandemic represents the most severe developmental setback in recent history. But while the virus is still ravaging across the Global South, it’s not the only pandemic currently engulfing developing countries. In fact, a debt pandemic threatens to prevent them from achieving a meaningful- let alone sustainable – recovery. Between 2010…

Nigeria is full of energy, enterprise and dynamism.  Like most big states it struggles to create national unity from a plethora of cultures and languages. With a total population of 206 million – rising fast – it will soon have the third largest population of English speakers and Christians in the world.  At 100 million,…

The Niger Delta region of Nigeria is one of the most polluted areas in the world. In the 1950s, important oil reserves were discovered in the area and since then the region has been a battle ground of environmental conflicts between international oil companies (Shell, Chevron, ENI and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation) and the…