Dawns Digest

The Mo Ibrahim prize is supposed to be an annual $5 million award to former African leaders who did well in office and, crucially, left office when their terms constitutionally expired. Alas, no-one lived up to the criteria this year. “The prize committee said it reviewed several former leaders but decided that none met the award criteria. The group did not reveal who was considered. Any African leader who left office in the last three years was eligible. Africa on the whole is making political and economic progress but some of the more than 50 countries on the continent are still ruled by men who stay in office for decades. And some leaders who have stepped down from power over the past three years had blemished records. Mo Ibrahim, a British mobile phone magnate who was born in Sudan, insisted in an interview that he was not disappointed that no winner emerged. ‘Not at all. This is a prize for exceptional leadership, and we don’t need to go through the motions to just find anybody,” he told The Associated Press by telephone. ‘We have a wonderful prize committee which comprises some wonderful men and women, and they set really high standards.’ The cash prize has been awarded three times in its six-year history. Former Cape Verde President Pedro Verona Pires won last year. In 2008 Festus Mogae of Botswana won; In 2007 it was Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique. No award was given in 2009 and 2010.” (AP http://bit.ly/SWTFT7)

CGD Unveils Commitment to Development Index

The Center for Global Development’s of donor countries aid effectiveness is hot off the presses. “Each year since 2003, the CDI has ranked wealthy nations on how much their governments’ policies and actions support global prosperity. Nations are linked in many ways: through trade, aid, climate, technology, and more. The CDI assesses policies in all these areas in order to communicate that helping takes more than aid, and to organize a comprehensive agenda for development policy. Denmark has climbed atop the rankings for the first time since 2005, on the strength of ample aid-giving and high participation in international peacekeeping and military operations such as the intervention in Libya last year (more on that below). Japan and South Korea continue in the bottom two spots because of low contributions in aid and peacekeeping and high barriers to crops and migrants from developing countries. One thing that hasn’t changed is the finding that all countries have substantial room for improvement when it comes to helping the world’s poor.” (CGD http://bit.ly/SWTR4B)

Horn of Africa

The Kenyan government issued flood warnings in the north as the short-rain season begins. (IRIN http://bit.ly/QiWDg7)

Sahel

Six people, including four aid workers, were kidnapped by gunmen in Central Niger. (Reuters http://bit.ly/Qj1A8W)

A 15 year old girl in Timbuktu was given 60 lashes for talking to men, a punishment doled out by the Islamist extremists controlling the north of Mali. (AP http://yhoo.it/Qj9NtC)

Algeria is particularly concerned with the situation in northern Mali given its oil interests near the border. (Reuters http://bit.ly/Py6HHs)

Africa

Nigeria was singled out by the 2012 Ibrahim Index of African Governance as a country that performs poorly in the area of governance. (Guardian http://bit.ly/Py2fZi)

People who fled Nigeria for Chad in March due to Boko Haram-related violence made their way back into Nigeria, says UNICEF. (IRIN http://bit.ly/Py30Br)

Gunmen attacked a power plant overnight in Ivory Coast’s economic capital Abidjan, while police came under attack at Bonoua, further east. (AFP http://bit.ly/SWW0NM)

Some 35,000 displaced Burundians are set to return home from Tanzania by the end of the year, but the logistical needs are not yet in place. (IRIN http://bit.ly/QiX9Le)

Unilever and the Millennium Village Project unveiled a new partnership that will support hygiene for 50,000 people in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda. (AVFTC http://bit.ly/QiYRMy)

Fresh clashes between Sudan’s army and SPLM-North rebels erupted in South Kordofan. (Reuters http://bit.ly/Qj18HH)

Striking South African gold miners rejected the latest pay raise offer, meaning that strikes are likely to continue. (Reuters http://bit.ly/Qj1sWX)

A profile of heroic women in Malawi who took action during recent floods in the south. (IPS http://bit.ly/Qj4HgU)

Middle East and North Africa

International peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi appealed to Iran to help arrange a ceasefire in Syria during the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adh. (Daily Star http://bit.ly/SWVhfu)

The Pentagon and State Department are speeding up efforts to help the Libyan government create a commando force to combat Islamic extremists. (NYT http://nyti.ms/Wfnukp)

The European Union said Monday it would continue assisting Turkey in coping with an influx of more than 100,000 refugees from Syria but made no offer to take them in. (AFP http://bit.ly/SWW9Rs)

An Initiative at the UN to grant Palestinians non-member state observer status would complicate efforts to restart talks, says US UN Ambassador Susan Rice. (JPost http://bit.ly/Wfwy8V)

Jordan announced it will open a second refugee camp to handle the influx of Syrian refugees. (AP http://yhoo.it/Qj9kaM)

European Union governments agreed further sanctions against Iran’s banking, shipping and industrial sectors on Monday, cranking up financial pressure on Tehran in the hope of drawing it into serious negotiations on its nuclear programme. (News international http://bit.ly/SWUwDj)

Asia

A member of the Afghan intelligence service detonated a suicide vest Saturday, killing two Americans and four Afghan intelligence agency colleagues. (NYT http://nyti.ms/Ttestv )

Reports say that a police station in northwest Pakistan was attacked by over 100 militants. (AP http://yhoo.it/Qj92Rm)

How China’s women billionaires made their fortune. (Bloomberg http://onforb.es/SWWzHn)

British doctors operating on Malala Yousufzai say the 14 year old activist shot by the Taliban has a good chance of recovering from her injury. (Reuters http://reut.rs/WfopkJ)

Tom Paulson provides an overview of the drug patent battle between Novartis and India (Humanosphere http://bit.ly/Py9Zui)

US Secretary of State Clinton is in Peru to take part in a conference on women. (Prensa Latina http://bit.ly/QiXopI)The charity of singer Wyclef Jean has come under investigation for its handling of money and programs in Haiti. (BBC http://bbc.in/Qj4YRd)

Opinion

Dave Algoso disagrees with Owen Barder. Complexity theory, adaptive leadership, and cash-on-delivery aid: one of these things is not like the others (Find What Works http://bit.ly/QiU7GM)

Joseph Kabila’s fixation on Kivu crisis threatens Congo’s stability, argues Günther Billerbeck (Guardian http://bit.ly/QiUEsd)

Amanda Glassman introduces the Global Fund Forum on the Center for Global Development site where experts and contributors will discuss reform and priorities for the Global Fund. (CGD http://bit.ly/QiUUYq)

Resisting the mantra of resilience - Some are pushing back on the buzz word. (IRIN http://bit.ly/Py2ELi)

Supporting Rural Women Is Good for the Environment (AlertNet http://bit.ly/Qj3whC)

25 Years On: The Mixed Legacy of Burkina Faso’s Thomas Sankara, Socialist Soldier (Think Africa Press http://bit.ly/QiWHww)

The World Bank and the Development Delusion  (Share The World’s Resources http://bit.ly/Qm2sth)

#176 Not working in silos (Stuff Expat Aid Workers Like http://bit.ly/QiUtNB)