African Development Bank president Donald Kaberuka is fighting hard to keep Africa on the international agenda. Spoilt by the attention that the continent received in 2005, due mainly to the UK government’s determined efforts to put Africa centre-stage that year, 2006 started out promisingly but ended in a whimper as hopes for trade liberalisation petered out towards year-end.
Despite last-ditch efforts at a compromise, the five-year-long Doha round of trade negotiations was all but dead in mid-December, scuttling hopes for an agreement to cut subsidies to farmers in rich nations and open markets to developing countries.
