Editorial The prosperity of Africa depends on the economic performance of South Africa

and Nigeria. It is also a well known fact that education is one of the main drivers

of growth, innovation, and development. Hence, looking at how good academic

institutions are, we get a sense not only of how well a country is doing but also of

how well it is expected to do in the future. In one of our May posts we presented

the rankings of African universities. What are the key lessons?

The first and most obvious lesson is that South Africa, Africa’s richest country,

has the largest number of top academic institutions. South Africa has 7 of the Top

-10 African Universities and 14 of the Top-20.

The second lesson is that Egypt is the second most successful country in academic

terms as it hosts 1 of the Top-10 and 4 of the Top-20 universities in Af-

rica.

The third lesson is that East Africa has its pockets of excellence. Uni-

versity of Nairobi is the 8th best university in Africa, while Uganda’s

Makerere University is in 11th position.

What about West Africa? The evidence seems to suggest that West Af-

rica is not doing as well as it should. It has no university in the Top-10

and only 2 universities in the Top-20 in spite of the fact that Nigeria is

the largest country in the continent and in spite of the fact that Ghana

is one of the most affluent societies in Africa.

West Africa, in academic terms, punches well below its weight.

This is particularly problematic in the case of Nigeria. If Nigeria is one

of the engines’ of Africa’s development, if development is the result of

education, if Nigeria’s academic institutions are underperforming, then

the rate of economic growth in Nigeria will slow down, the country will

struggle to make progress along the developmental path, and Nigeria’s

struggles will be a curse for the whole continent.

Riccardo Pelizzo

This issue:

Editorial P.1 LE CHAOS P.2

Botswana’s Success P. 3 South Sudan P.4

Cholera P.4 Africans in Italy P.5

Millionaires in Africa P.5 Interview with J.C. Muhire P. 6

African Art Collection P.8

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African Politics and Policy Newsletter n.27, July 2017

L’Afrique Francophone VS Anglophone : « LE CHAOS. »

Ne vous fiez pas à l’allure majestueuse de nos chefs d’Etat et de

leurs acolytes dans les rencontres et réunions régionales et interna-

tionales, enfin que dis-je, ce n’est plus un secret pour personne.

Nous n’avons plus besoin de nous voiler la face, l’Afrique sombre

dans le chaos, grâce à l’amateurisme de nos chefs d’Etat et de gou-

vernements pourtant tous bardés de grands diplômes, enfin… quel-

ques-uns. J’aimerais bien résumer toutes ces lignes en une seule et

unique phrase : « Nous en avons assez ! »

S’il y a bien une partie de la population africaine qui n’a aucun

poids dans la balance mais sur laquelle on s’adosse pour attirer la

manne étrangère et justifier les dépenses fictives c’est bien la jeu-

nesse. Une pauvre jeunesse à l’avenir sombre, et pourtant ! Nom-

breuses sont les politiques creuses pour l’éducation de la jeunesse,

politiques pour l’insertion professionnelle des jeunes, les subven-

tions, les financements, les projets, les rencontres et toute l’armada

professionnelle et administrative pour laquelle l’on sous-traite des

contrats de collation, de décoration, de billetterie aux membres et

arrières membres de la famille.

Qu’est-ce que l’éducation en Afrique subsaharienne?

Chez-nous les francophones la définition est assez simple : passer

des années au collège et au lycée à recopier des cours soigneusement

dictés par des enseignants pour la plupart peu convaincus de ce

qu’ils font. Ah oui c’est clair ! Ils sont aussi passés par là, on ne

peut pas leur en vouloir. Ensuite, après avoir copié les cours, vient

le niveau des photocopies et des reliures enfin si t’a pas internet,

parce que si tes parents peuvent t’offrir internet ou si Internet est

disponible dans ton pays « surtout », tu peux te passer de cela, la

plupart des cours sont disponibles sur les sites Internet. Ce dernier

élément n’est peut-être pas valable pour toutes les institutions mais

assez souvent, le type il s’est pas trop démerdé quoi…

L’information est accessible en ligne mot après mot. Si vous voyez

ce que je veux dire ! Je dis ça, je ne dis rien.

Cette étape de photocopie communément appelée Université où

ailleurs, chez nos frères occidentaux, l’étudiant est amené à dé-

velopper ses qualités en matière de réflexion critique, émettre les

arguments les confirmer ou les infirmer, faire des tests échouer re-

commencer et trouver enfin sa solution qui pourrait apporter un

plus à l’humanité, ah non non non, chez nous ce n’est pas ça ! Le

professeur il est le roi de la forêt, il détient toute la connaissance

toute la vérité universelle se retrouve dans son polycopié et gare à

toi si tu venais à le contredire. Je me rappelle comme hier de mon

professeur de R… op… (Trouvez l’inconnu…) qui s’est indigné du

fait que toute la classe avait la solution à son activité de maison,

oui nous avons eu droit à une litanie de ses prouesses personnelles

depuis qu’il est devenu enseignant… Encore mieux je me rappelle

de ce professeur qui m’a remerciée en plein exposé parce que selon

lui ma présentation a été recopiée sur internet, en français facile, je

n’ai pas de méninges, oups ! Eh bien la définition de l’éducation en

Afrique francophone est bien longue mais fallait passer par là pour

en arriver là… Nos frères anglophones sur ce plan font beaucoup mieux,

je vous promets! Dans l’éducation anglophone on apprend en même

temps le « Bizness » parce que c’est clair chez eux la devise c’est « la

monnaie ». Et si ça marche pas à l’école, c’est-à-dire que si tu veux l’ar-

gent beaucoup plus vite ou que tes parents vivent dans une zone défa-

vorisée ou pauvreté obligeant, il y a beaucoup d’autres activités comme

les « Bend down Works » un coucou aux amateurs de friperie, la fabri-

cation de chaussures, le bricolage et j’en passe. La partie commune aux

pays francophones et anglophones, et à ne pas négliger surtout, est l’é-

cole militaire obligatoire. Mais nous ne la faisons pas cette école, selon la

manière anglophone qui est très bien organisée exemple du Nigéria

même si leur gouvernement s’acquitte difficilement des bourses des

étudiants pendant la formation, mais ce n’est pas bien grave non ! Chez

nous le service militaire obligatoire se passe à chaque manifestation

estudiantine déjà vous voyez c’est très aléatoire. Les étudiants aux pa-

rents faisant partie de la classe moyenne ont la malchance de ne jamais

voir le déroulement de ce cours. En effet tout se passe entre militaire et

étudiant sur le campus pour certains pays ou en dehors du campus. Au

programme, simulation de tirs de gaz, simulation d’arrestations, exerci-

ces physiques vitesse, résistance, incarcérations, procès, homicides invo-

lontaires (pas pour de vrai hein, c’est juste un cours…) et aujourd’hui

bien entendu, journalisme. Voici le gros package de notre éducation

option, bouquet complet.

Maintenant après çà qu’est- ce qu’on fait? Que faisons-nous après l’édu-

cation en Afrique subsaharienne? Mais quelle question ! Aieeeeee…..

Tout dépend du pays…. Nous comptons 23 pays pour l’Afrique de

l’Ouest et Centrale alors, allons savoir ce que les jeunes font après leurs

études… Désolée cet article est interactif… Tout ceci pour dire quoi ?

Il est impératif que les bases de l’éducation en Afrique soient revues.

Dans notre formation l’on ne nous enseigne pas à nous extérioriser. Les

programmes d’échange entre universités en Afrique existent « pas » ou

très peu. Nous fréquentons pour aspirer des connaissances toutes faites

uniquement et non pour en produire en plus. Ceux qui choisissent la

voie de l’invention ou de l’entreprenariat (parce que chez moi c’est un

choix et non du génie) sont traités de fous. Ils ne reçoivent aucun ou pas

assez de soutien et de subventions venant de leurs familles ni de leurs

universités parce que qui les connaît, c’est quoi ton nom de famille

déjà ? Ou encore de l’Etat, mais il faut bien acheter des armes pour

votre formation militaire chers jeunes. Mais voyons !

S’il te plaît, jeunesse africaine, lève-toi et réclame ton droit.

Il est temps !

By Ornella Ohoukoh

Botswana’s Success

Over the past couple of decades, the topic of achieving sustainable

development and growth in natural resource abundant countries

has received considerable attention from scholars and policy ma-

kers alike. Most commodity exporters have followed a variety of

policies and recommendations in numerous attempts to achieve

sustainable development and economic growth. This article sets to

examine different factors that attributed to better development of

resource abundant countries by analyzing the example of Botswa-

na and its good governance as a prerequisite for sustainable econo-

mic growth and prosperity.

Most commodity exporting countries face a difficult task of achie-

ving sustainable development. They need to change their economic

growth models and create more diversified economies with less

reliance on extractive industries, especially at the time of more

volatile and lower commodity prices and, as a result, reduced in-

vestment in their economies, and slower economic growth. They

need to diversify their non-commodity tradeable sectors toward

value-added industries with large spillovers to the rest of the econo-

my and high productivity gains.

While most developing countries reliant on natural resources have

implemented policy reforms and strategies on strengthening their

economies, there are only few successful examples. Apparently, the

degree of success or severity of failure to a large extent depends on

implementation of appropriate government policies. As the Global

Economic Prospects, the World Bank’s flagship report, states,

“policy will continue to play a critical role” in improving non-

commodity sectors of economy by focusing on structural reforms

and sound institutions (2015).

Indeed, a large number of the poorest countries fail to develop and

remain dependent on exports of their mineral wealth. However,

resource abundance can be correlated with economic growth. In

fact, many developed and economically successful countries such as

the United States, Canada, Australia, Norway, and others have

abundant natural resources and were or still are dependent on that

mineral wealth. Chile, the Latin American top performer, as well as

two richest African countries – Botswana and South Africa – owe

much of their success to natural resources. To sum up, mineral

wealth by itself is not necessarily a curse. The fact is that many

countries tend to waste their resources, the presence of which con-

tributes to economic stagnation and poor decision making.

Botswana is a good case for analysis due to its vast amounts of

natural resources, its unique resource transportation geography, its

sound public policy, and common to all commodity exporters eco-

nomic diversification challenges. In fact, Botswana stands out as a

development success story among other developing raw material

exporters. The country is among the few economies that avoided

common pitfalls of commodity booms and has managed an impres-

sive record of both good governance and economic growth (World

Bank, 2014).

A landlocked state of two million people and once one of the poo-

rest countries in Africa, Botswana has become one of the fastest

growing economies in the world. According to the International

Monetary Fund, Botswana has made “an impressive record of pru-

dent macroeconomic policies and good governance, which has mo-

ved the country from being one of the poorest in the world to the

upper‐middle income range” (2008). Indeed, since gaining independence

in 1966 the country has moved into the ranks of upper-middle income

countries with the real GDP growth rate of an average 5 percent an-

nually (World Bank, 2016).

Botswana has maintained a stable multiparty democratic government

since independence in 1966 and is often cited as the foremost example of

good governance in Africa (Maipose, 2008). In fact, Botswana ranked

best among all African states on Transparency International’s corrupti-

on perception index (2015). Botswana constitution established a multi-

party nonracial democracy at independence. The document maintains

basic freedoms and rights, and an independent judiciary. The ruling

party on the central government level peacefully coexists with the op-

position party that controls some local governments (Maipose, 2008).

Democracy along with political stability, the rule of law, and transpa-

rency have contributed to the sustainability and successful deve-

lopment in Botswana.

Primarily reliant on agriculture and heavily dependent on external aid,

the country’s economy grew rapidly as a result of the development of

the mining sector. Despite its huge mineral reserves, Botswana has di-

rected a development path in a way that has largely avoided the resour-

ce curse as well as the Dutch disease. Economic performance has been

closely linked to state governance decisions such as the vesting of sub-

soil rights by the central government instead of local authorities, deci-

sion to negotiate equity shares avoiding nationalization of mines, and

reliance on foreign expertise with gradual localization (Maipose, 2008).

Unlike in the rest of the region, these policies did not threaten private

foreign investors bringing technical knowledge and management com-

petencies to the country as well as helped to avoid land disputes over

mineral rights. The country pursues an open policy toward foreign in-

vestment in addition to a nonaligned foreign policy. This approach has

diversified and maximized inflow of foreign capital that played a crucial

role in the country’s development effort. Stable government was able to

attract foreign investors into the mining sector by the means of the

“smart partnership” (Maipose, 2008).

One of the growth-promoting policies Botswana leadership has adopted

was the decision to join the monetary union within the Southern Afri-

can Customs Union then known as Southern African rand monetary

area shortly after independence. It limited the country’s discretion over

its monetary policy despite the temptation to engage in deficit finan-

cing taking into account its limited economic and manpower resources

(Maipose, 2008). Botswana then replaced the rand with the pula in 1976

in its interest of pursuing independent economic strategy with growing

aid and mineral revenue, however still remains a member of the Cu-

stoms Union. In fact, Botswana government was able to renegotiate the

revenue distribution formula within the Union in 1968 that ensured a

bigger inflow of customs revenue for the needed infrastructure deve-

lopment (Harvey and Lewis, 1990; Maipose, 2008).

Another important policy choice was development planning. Formula-

tion and implementation of the country development plan served as an

instrument for mobilizing and managing resources. Each development

plan in Botswana seeks to promote its national Principles of democracy,

development, self‐reliance, and unity. That in turn leads to the four

overall national development objectives: rapid economic growth, social

justice, economic independence, and sustainable development (Maipose,

2008).

By Assel Serikbayeva

Botswana’s economic development strategy uses natural resource

revenue to improve social and economic conditions in the country

as well as to create new economic opportunities while encouraging

foreign investment at the same time. This strategy is believed to

have the potential for achieving sustainable growth, because hu-

man and physical capital are renewable while mineral endowment

is finite (Bank of Botswana, 1997).

In addition, government overlooks inflation and the current ac-

count balance in consistency with a policy of managing boom-and-

bust cycles. In fact, the inflation rate has been comparatively

moderate: the government policy was not to increase salaries of

public servants because of projected deficits even during the sensi-

tive election years of 1994 and 1999 (Maipose, 2008).

Accordingly, economic performance went in hand with impressive

social gains as a result of heavy government investment in socioec-

onomic infrastructure. Public expenditure in the social sectors was

around 10–12 percent of GDP throughout 1980s compared to just 4

percent in 1973 (Maipose, 2008). Botswana government annually

spends around 40 percent of the country’s GDP a year on infra-

structure and human capital. The figure is amongst highest in Afri-

ca, comparable to that of Norway (Acemoglu, Johnson, and Robin-

son 2003; Leith, 2005; Maipose, 2008).

References

Acemoglu, D., Johnson, S., and Robinson, J. (2003).

“Understanding Prosperity and Poverty: Geography, Institutions

and the Reversal of Fortune.”

Harvey, C., and S. R. Lewis. (1990). “Policy Choice and Develop-

ment Performance in Botswana.” Houndmill, United Kingdom:

MacMillan.

International Monetary Fund Off ic ia l Website .

(2015). www.imf.org

Leith, J. C. (2001). “Growth and Structural Transformation in

Botswana.” In Aspects of the Botswana Economy: Selected Pa-

pers, ed. J. S. Salkin, D. Mpabanga, D. Cowan, J. Selwe, and M.

Wright. Oxford: James Curry.

Lewis, S. R. Jr. (2005). “Explaining Botswana’s Success: The Im-

portance of Culture” https://apps.carleton.edu/campus/president/

slewis/speeches_writings/botswana_success/

Maipose, G.S. (2008). “Policy and Institutional Dynamics of Sus-

tained Development in Botswana.” Working Paper 35. The Inter-

national Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World

Bank on behalf of the Commission on Growth and Development.

Sarraf, M. and Jiwanji, M. (2001). “Beating the Resource Curse:

The Case of Botswana,” Environmental Economics Series, Paper

83, World Bank.

United Nations Official Website. (2015). www.un.org

World Bank Group. (2015). “Global Economic Prospects, June

2015: The Global Economy in Transition.”

World Bank. (2014). “Botswana Country Overview,” http://

www.worldbank.org/en/country/botswana/overview

South Sudan’s quest for peace

Political scientists have known it all along: fragmentation

is a problem for governance. Too many parties undermine

the stability and the effectiveness of government, erode the

legitimacy that a democratic regimes needs to survive, and

in the end lead to a regime breakdown.

Lowell knew it, Duverger knew it, and Sartori knew it.

Ben Reilly expanded political scientists’ understanding of

the problems caused by fragmentation when he discussed -

in his democracy in divided societies (Cambridge, 2001)-

why and how ethnic fragmentation affects the functioning

of democracy.

South Sudan is now teaching us a third lesson. In post-

conflict societies, the proliferation and fragmentation of

opposition forces and groups makes it much harder to paci-

fy the country and to make peace last.

Riccardo Pelizzo

Cholera kills 60 in South Sudan

Not so very long ago some of the folks here at APP went to

get some vaccinations to get ready to go back to Africa.

One of such folks asked the doctor whether there was any

need to be vaccinated against cholera and the doctor said

there was not such a need.

There is not much cholera and vaccines do not work terri-

bly well–the doctor said.

Maybe vaccines are not perfect, but, as we have document-

ed here, there is more cholera in Africa than this doctor was

wiling to acknowledged.

As we noted a few days ago “Cholera has been a serious

problem in Africa in the first half of 2017. South Sudan,

Malawi, and Mozambique experienced a cholera outbreak

in March, two people died in Zimbabwe in March, while by

April 14 there had been 25000 cases and 500 casualties due

to cholera in Somalia”.

Our analyses was corroborated by recent event. News to-

day reported that cholera killed 60 people in South Sudan.

Riccardo Pelizzo

Africans in Italy

By Riccardo Pelizzo

The number of Africans living in Italy increased from

749897 in 2006 to 1036653 in 2015. The overwhelming

majority of these Africans come from Northern Africa,

while only 22864 come from Southern and Central Africa.

And then there is the East African paradox. In spite of

the fact that Italy had colonial possessions in East Africa,

in spite of the fact that Somalia has experienced 25 years

of political instability, piracy and statelessness, and in

spite of the fact that Ethiopia is one of the most populat-

ed countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, in 2015 only 39890

East Africans resided in Italy while 304885 came from

West Africa.

While only 9597 Eritreans, 8000 Ethiopians and 7903

Somali lived in Italy in 2015, in that year there were

98000 people from Senegal, 77000 from Nigeria, 48000

from Ghana and 25000 from Ivory Coast.

East Africans in Italy

The number of East Africans living in Italy has remained

roughly unchanged in the course of the past ten years. In

fact the number of East Africans increased from 36822 in

2006 to 39890 in 2015–which amounts to roughly a 10

percent increase in 10 years.

Most of these East Africans come from Eritrea, Ethiopia,

Somalia, Mauritius and Kenya.

Ethiopians in Italy

The number of Ethiopians living in Italy increased from

roughly 6600 in 2006 to 8000 in 2015. Less than 40 per

cent of them are males, while more than 60 per cent of

them are women.

Lazio, Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna are the regions

with the highest number of Ethiopians, while the smallest

number can be found in Basilicata where only 7 Ethiopi-

ans resided in 2015.

Roma, Milano and Parma are the Italian cities with the

highest number of Ethiopian residents. But the size of the

Ethiopian population living in Roma greatly outnumbers

the size of the Ethiopian population in Milano and Parma

combined.

Nearly 30 per cent of the Ethiopians residing in Italy lives

in Rome.

African Millionaires

On April 13 we were among the first to report that the

number of African millionaires is high – in Africa there

were, according to the estimates made by the Afrasia Bank

of Mauritius,145000 millionaires – and rapidly growing –

The fastest growth in the number of millionaires occurred

in East Africa.

The newly released Global Wealth report of the Credit

Suisse suggest that the number of African millionaires will

double in the next five years. Credit Suisse in fact believes

that by 2022 there will be 279000 millionaires in the conti-

nent.

Book by APP team is now on

sale on amazon.it!!!

INTERVIEW with Jean Claude Muhire, Love the Kids Foundation, Rwanda

APP is proud to have the op-

portunity to publish an inter-

view with Jean Claude Mu-

hire, Rwandan Leader of the

year in 2016 and the founder

of Love the Kids Foundation.

APP: Could you please intro-

duce yourself and the organi-

zation you work in?

Jean Claude: Yes! I am a Rwandan social enabler and I have a

strong passion for children’s education, peace-building and advoca-

cy. I am an awarded young leader best known for story-writing,

filmmaking, peer education, and humanitarian assistance. I am a

published author. I lead a team of young committed people serving

at ‘Love the Kids Foundation’, a growing charity organization

working for the betterment of the vulnerable, poor, marginalized,

deserted, and abandoned children in the community.

APP: One of your first steps to show the difficulties

the abandoned children have was the movie LIZA

that was produced and scrip-written by you. How

was the movie received? And what effect does it

have on society?

Jean Claude: The movie was received as a reminder of

the kind world that we are living in today and what

could be done to reduce stigma and violence which are

happening in many communities. Abandonment and

orphanism are the very tough issues that may push

young women and girls on the struggle. LIZA shares the

story of a pretty young girl who was raped by her uncle

at home from an orphanage. This is shameful and meaningful. I

wrote the script of LIZA to spread a word to fight against sexual

violence. I produced LIZA to showcase the situation of some chil-

dren who are not lucky of living with their biological parents. My

movie is a quite a motivation to many societies and its effects are

marked by the positive and supportive feedback from various indi-

viduals, companies, and agencies and other bodies being both pri-

vate and governmental entities which really appreciated LIZA’s

content. Additionally, social medias served much to display the

positive impacts that the community gained from my initiative as

the writer and producer of LIZA film.

APP: How was born the idea to set up Love the Kids Founda-

tion (LKF)? Do you get any governmental/international sup-

port?

Jean Claude: I was a devoted volunteer when I was serving at

Kimisagara Orphanage. I can mention that I have spent a lot of

time at the center which was created since 1997 to support so many

children who have experienced the effects of the 1994 Genocide

against the Tutsi. I was there assisting the founder to care for or-

phans, street children, and poor children. Although, this was not an

easy task. For every single day that I met children in need, I had to

learn more about their stories as well as life of young people who

are not fully equipped like those having families which support them in

many ways. All of this has installed in me the culture of volunteerism

and humanitarianism. Afterwards, there was a law to close all orphan-

ages for children’s reintegration in local families. Then, all children of

Kimisagara were sent in foster care and later on, I had nothing to do

with the founder. Few months later and because of my little experience,

I had an idea to run an NGO to continue to support children in need. I

shared the idea with some of my friends and they were pleased. Then

we all pledged to create ‘Love the Kids Foundation (LKF)’. That’s how

it was born. Then we passed through many steps and we made it well.

Currently, we work with local authorities from different levels and all

we have received from them is collaboration and guidance.

APP: What projects/activities does LKF organize? How far do

you succeed in supporting children in need? What are your main

achievement and disappointments for the moment? What is next

for you?

Jean Claude: Love the Kids Foundation organizes activities on chil-

dren’s education for development as well as on women’s empowerment.

LKF supports children and their parents and guardians helping both of

them to leave poor living conditions through improving their standards

of living. By supporting children in need through educating them and

empowering their families, we see ourselves succeeding with helping

them to access and enjoy their children’s rights specifically right to

education, right to a safe family, and right to socio-cultural and eco-

nomic development. We have had some interesting achievements like:

rehabilitation and support of children we took from the streets, sending

some children to schools and pay for education costs, formation of peer

group of our children’s parents and guardians, participation to orga-

nized events, and so on. Our biggest challenge for the moment is the

limited capacity for raising funds for the betterment of our beneficiaries

and the next step for us is to continue work on our planned activities

and to try to look for more partnerships and sponsorships.

APP: Which dreams of the children LKF curated have been al-

ready realized? What was one of the most touching/remarkable

experiences that you had during your work in the organization?

Jean Claude: Access to quality education was a basic need and

now it is provided for those we support.

Typical examples are sponsored children we took at the

streets. Additionally, the formation of peer groups for par-

ents and guardians of our children was a good step to help

them sit together for mutual discussions to further create

friendship amongst themselves and partnership with the

staff and volunteer team members or supporters of Love the

Kids Foundation. All of these works have helped me person-

ally to have an experience on the causes of abandonment

and poverty and social inequality.

APP: You have many interesting programmes for chil-

dren, how does the foundation attract the financial

help for its realization? Do you get more help from the

government, various organizations or individual peo-

ple?

Jean Claude: Access to financial support is a challenging

issue for many growing not-for-profit organizations like

ours. LKF is a voluntary organization now trying to further

increase its ability of having sufficient funds to assist its

beneficiaries. To achieve this, LKF staff team members and

volunteers use their skills to make small and low-budget

projects to further attract donors or partners who can sup-

port us it soon. Interestingly, Love the Kids Foundation

receives the support from people with skills and commit-

ment, from the authorities governing local municipalities

and from few partner organizations.

APP: Do you have any special programmes to tackle

psychological problems of children who experienced/

ing hardships?

Jean Claude: Yes. We provide medical and emotional sup-

port and we have a special team of medical students that

volunteer to support children who have psychological prob-

lems. We also have a project which is called “Rehabilitate

and support children in need” – where we pay visits to chil-

dren scattered at the streets, listen to their life stories, reha-

bilitate them and pledge to support them in their homes.

Sometimes we can meet street children living with mental

illnesses and we support them.

APP: What are the policies implemented by the Rwan-

dan government toward vulnerable children you are in

favor, and which policies you as a founder of LKF are

against?

Jean Claude: The Government of Rwanda initiated so

many programmes dedicated to promoting the well-being of

all children and surely there are strategies which have been

planned for further implementation. For example there is an

ongoing programme called ‘Tubarere mu Miryango’ which is

designed to encouraging all citizens to raise children in local

families. I think that this programme has been planned be-

cause the policy is to assist children find safe families to care

for them. I am not against any government policy. I am

only seeing myself as a decision-maker behind the works of

‘Love the Kids Foundation’ now working to support a lim-

ited and identified number of children from various families who

really need a help for them to live a safe and healthy life.

APP: What message would your organization like to

spread across Rwanda? What positive changes do you hope

to bring in through your organisation?

Jean Claude: Love the Kids Foundation would like to take a

message of serving voluntarily to advocate for a social positive

change. And to me, positive change is all about people’s life im-

provement for good and better. Therefore, and as Love the Kids

Foundation, we hope to transform lives by providing humani-

tarian assistance to Rwanda children and adults in need.

APP: What is the greatest lesson you have learned so far as

an activist?

Jean Claude: I learned not to be selfish. As an activist, I also

learned to share my skills to ensure change happen. I have seen

in me some potentials which could be helpful to others. I moved

from volunteerism to storytelling and filmmaking. I also found-

ed a charity organization. I received significant awards and hon-

ors but I have achieved nothing expect motivation and inspira-

tion. I learned to be creative and serve for social good.

APP: How can our readers get involved in the various pro-

grams you offer? and how can we (African Politics and

Policy) be helpful to you?

Jean Claude: All your readers need is to be in touch with us

and this could only require a strong communication message for

further information and guidance. I have a hope that APP

Readers who may feel interested in our programs will contact us.

The support from APP would be to assist Love the Kids Foun-

dation in its journey. This kind of spreading the word on its so-

cial platforms could be the right way for us to promote our

works.

Website: http://www.lovethekidsfoundation.org/

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/LKidsFoundation/

If you would like to donate, please contact the organisation for

more information via email info@lovethekidsfoundation.org

African Art Collection

Ethiopian Crosses Tuareg Rings and Crosses

Nigerian Dagger Ghanian Mask

Job Openings

REPOA, Tanzania’s leading research institution, is look-

ing forward to recruting a re-searcher.

Further details about the va-cancy can be found

here: http://www.repoa.or.tz/repoa/careers

APP Newsletter

ISSUE 27 July 2017

Assel Serikbayeva , MPA 2017, Nazarbayev University

Ornella Ohoukoh, correspondent, Ivory Coast

Riccardo Pelizzo, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Public Policy, Nazarbayev

University, Astana, Kazakhstan

Collaborators

of the Newsletter of African Politics and Policy

African Politics and Policy

London: East African All Stars

On 15th July, London, Southbank Centre will host an event “East

African All Stars” that aimed to “discover the diverse styles, current

trends and concerns which contribute to making ‘The Greater Horn

of Africa’ a literary powerhouse.” The special guests of the event are

Nadifa Mohamed (The Orchard of Lost Souls) and Billy Kahora,

Managing Editor of Kwani Trust (http://kwani.org/).