Six of the wealthiest U.S. foundations on Friday pledged to provide $200-million over five years to improve colleges and universities in seven African nations.
The grant makers will seek to improve the Internet capabilities of higher-education institutions in Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda.
The foundations that are working together to provide the grants are the Carnegie Corporation of New York; the Ford Foundation, in New York, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, in Menlo Park. Calif.; the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, in Chicago; the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, in New York, and the Rockefeller Foundation, in New York.
The partnership “represents our commitment to Africa’s next generation of leaders, who deserve an exemplary education to prepare them to help set the course for their nations’ futures,” said Vartan Gregorian, president of the Carnegie Corporation.
The pledge was announced today at Ford’s New York headquarters and coincides with the gathering of world leaders in the city at the United Nations and elsewhere to discuss global poverty, environmental issues, and other social ills.
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Rome (dpa) - Nearly 12 million people are in need of emergency food assistance in southern Africa, according to a report published Tuesday by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Most of the needy are found in Zimbabwe and Malawi, FAO's Africa Report found, despite a bumper maize harvest in nearby South Africa.
Zimbabwe is reporting shortages of key farm inputs such as seeds and fertilizer while access to food in many areas is severely hampered by a scarcity of grain on the market and high inflation, coupled with fuel and
For a state that leads the nation in spending per capita on K-12 education, rising tuition and shrinking capacity in New Jersey colleges should not be accepted, the chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee said Thursday.
"There is no long-term plan for higher education," Assemblyman Louis Greenwald, D-Camden, told representatives of New Jersey's state colleges and universities. We need to "reverse this trend of higher tuition and reverse migration out."
Acting Gov. Codey has proposed a $50 million, or 2.5 percent, increase in state spending on higher education for fiscal year 2006, which begins July 1.
The budget plan cuts direct aid to
China to triple trade volume with Africa: VP Huang
TANANARIVE, Nov. 23 (Xinhuanet, by Ni Siyi) -- Visiting Chinese Vice-Premier Huang Ju announced an ambitious plan Wednesday in Madagascar to triple China's trade volume with Africa to 100 billion US dollars in five years by encouraging imports, and at the same time double its direct investment in the continent.
These efforts are intended to "beef up economic cooperation and promote common development" with Africa, Huang told an economic forum attended by Madagascan Prime Minister Jacques Sylla and more than 300 business people from the two countries.
Desperate Pakistani earthquake survivors Tuesday ambushed army trucks carrying relief supplies as the death toll in Pakistan and India topped 24,000.
Severe storms and fresh mudslides hampered rescue efforts Tuesday, when death count reached more than 24,000 even though remote areas had not yet been reached, the BBC reported.
An Islamic Relief spokesman told CNN he thought the death toll would reach "80,000, maybe more."
More than 1,300 died in India from Saturday's 7.6-magnitude quake centered in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, the BBC reported.
"Kashmir has turned into a graveyard," said Sikander Hayat Khan, prime minister of Pakistani Kashmir.
Desperate survivors ambushed caravans
Chirac champions French role in Africa
BAMAKO, Dec 3 (Reuters) - French President Jacques Chirac told African leaders on Saturday that rich nations must find more innovative ways to fund development in the world's poorest continent and pledged that France would champion their cause.
Chirac's trip abroad to the Mali capital of Bamako for the 23rd Africa-France summit is a relative rarity these days. In his address to the heads of state and government leaders from at least 35 countries around Africa he talked about France's commitment to their continent.
"Since independence you have changed. And so have we," Chirac told the opening
