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        <description><![CDATA[The Conversation is a network of not-for-profit media outlets that publish news stories written by academics and researchers.]]></description>
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            <title>Tax data can be mined to shape better policies. South Africa, Uganda and Zambia show how</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/tax-data-can-be-mined-to-shape-better-policies-south-africa-uganda-and-zambia-show-how-2026-06-03</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Bilateral aid to Africa fell by nearly a quarter in 2025, the largest annual decline in the history of official development assistance. Meanwhile, sovereign debt interest payments now consume on average 27% of government revenues across the continent, up from 19% in 2019.  The pressure to fund development from within has never been greater. But meeting it requires African governments to understand their own economies with precision: which tax policies work, which incentives serve their purpose, how fiscal decisions distribute their consequences.]]></description>
            <author>Creamer Media Reporter  </author>
            <category>The Conversation</category>
            <pubDate>Wed, 03 Jun 2026 15:54:00 +0200</pubDate>
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            <title>South Africa’s fuel supply and the Iran war: data black holes and low strategic stock put the ...</title>
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            <description><![CDATA[The supply of crude oil to the world had been reduced by about 7.5% to 10.1% by March 2026 in what the World Bank described as the largest oil market disruption in history. The fall was a result of the attacks on Iran by Israel and the US and the subsequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz.  No country was spared the impact. For some the economic fallout has been dramatic. In the case of South Africa, which imports all its oil and 81% of its petrol, diesel and paraffin consumption, the effects have so far been felt mainly in the price. This has caused the government to subsidise petrol and diesel.]]></description>
            <author>Creamer Media Reporter  </author>
            <category>The Conversation</category>
            <pubDate>Mon, 01 Jun 2026 14:52:00 +0200</pubDate>
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            <title>HIV in South Africa: why rolling out a groundbreaking new shot will miss a critical group of men</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/hiv-in-south-africa-why-rolling-out-a-groundbreaking-new-shot-will-miss-a-critical-group-of-men-2026-06-01</link>
            <description><![CDATA[The first shipment of Lenacapavir, a long-acting injectable that prevents HIV with two shots a year, arrived in South Africa from the United States in early April 2026. Clinical trials showed close to 100% efficacy. The rollout, expected to begin in June 2026, prioritises adolescent girls and young women, pregnant and breastfeeding women, transgender people, sex workers, men who have sex with men, and people who inject drugs.  These are the right populations to start with. But one group repeatedly slips through the cracks: adult, employed men in mobile, male-dominated industries, who move between work sites and home, between long-term partners and casual or paid encounters. In epidemiology, they are a “bridging population”: people whose sexual networks connect higher-prevalence groups to lower-prevalence groups.]]></description>
            <author>Creamer Media Reporter  </author>
            <category>The Conversation</category>
            <pubDate>Mon, 01 Jun 2026 14:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
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            <title>Why Africa – and the world – remain dangerously unprepared for the next pandemic</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/why-africa-and-the-world-remain-dangerously-unprepared-for-the-next-pandemic-2026-06-01</link>
            <description><![CDATA[As the news spread about the outbreak of Ebola in mid-May 2026, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a report about pandemics. The title was: A World on the Edge: Priorities for a Pandemic-Resilient Future.  The document was prepared by the WHO’s Global Preparedness Monitoring Board. It sets out why the world isn’t better prepared for pandemics a decade after Ebola exposed dangerous gaps. And six years after Covid-19 turned those gaps into a global catastrophe.]]></description>
            <author>Creamer Media Reporter  </author>
            <category>The Conversation</category>
            <pubDate>Mon, 01 Jun 2026 14:48:00 +0200</pubDate>
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            <title>Ethiopia votes: dominant ruling party seeks a new mandate in a deeply fragmented nation</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/ethiopia-votes-dominant-ruling-party-seeks-a-new-mandate-in-a-deeply-fragmented-nation-2026-05-28</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Ethiopia’s general election on 1 June 2026 will take place amid armed conflicts and political fragmentation. This has raised questions over voter participation and legitimacy and the future of the country’s multi-ethnic federal system. Ethiopia is Africa’s second most populous country and a key regional actor in the Horn of Africa. Redie Bereketeab, who researches state- and nation-building, identity and nationalism in the Horn of Africa, unpacks the 2026 election.  Who is on the ballot, and what is at stake? Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s Prosperity Party remains by far the strongest political force nationally. The party controls most federal and regional state institutions. The incumbent faces more than 45 opposition parties that are contesting the election. These include the Ethiopian Citizens for Social Justice, the National Movement of Amhara, Enat Party, the Freedom and Equality Party and the Oromo Federalist Congress.]]></description>
            <author>Creamer Media Reporter  </author>
            <category>The Conversation</category>
            <pubDate>Thu, 28 May 2026 14:40:00 +0200</pubDate>
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            <title>Shifting from fossil fuels will fail without funding for African industry and energy infrastructure</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/shifting-from-fossil-fuels-will-fail-without-funding-for-african-industry-and-energy-infrastructure-2026-05-26</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Moving to renewable energy will fail unless wealthy nations help finance cleaner energy systems, industrialisation and local mineral processing across the African continent. This was the argument that African countries put to a recent meeting of 57 governments on phasing out fossil fuels.  The Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels, hosted by Colombia and the Netherlands and held in Colombia in April 2026, was the first major international gathering focused specifically on how countries might gradually reduce their dependence on coal, oil and gas. At present, there is no global agreement on how to wind down down fossil fuel production.]]></description>
            <author>Creamer Media Reporter  </author>
            <category>The Conversation</category>
            <pubDate>Tue, 26 May 2026 12:38:00 +0200</pubDate>
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            <title>The Sahel region is less secure than ever: foreign forces just add to the cycle of violence</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/the-sahel-region-is-less-secure-than-ever-foreign-forces-just-add-to-the-cycle-of-violence-2026-05-26</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Several of Mali’s major cities experienced coordinated attacks in April by a new coalition of jihadists and separatist groups.  As the coalition took over the town of Kidal in the north of Mali, images of Russian troops being escorted out of the town after negotiations were cabled out across global media.]]></description>
            <author>Creamer Media Reporter  </author>
            <category>The Conversation</category>
            <pubDate>Tue, 26 May 2026 12:31:00 +0200</pubDate>
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            <title>Iran war is exposing South Africa’s dependency on diesel: what went wrong</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/iran-war-is-exposing-south-africas-dependency-on-diesel-what-went-wrong-2026-05-25</link>
            <description><![CDATA[It is forgivable to think that an oil shock mainly hurts at the petrol pump. After all, that is where households feel it first. But when my colleagues and I at the Bureau for Economic Research started digging through South Africa’s fuel data, a different story emerged – one that says as much about the country’s infrastructure failures as it does about global geopolitics.  As we began modelling the likely impact on the South African economy, it quickly became clear that diesel would inflict even more pain on the economy than petrol. (Our insights are based on ongoing analysis that has not yet been published.)]]></description>
            <author>Creamer Media Reporter  </author>
            <category>The Conversation</category>
            <pubDate>Mon, 25 May 2026 11:33:00 +0200</pubDate>
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            <title>Ebola outbreak in the DRC: four reasons it will be hard to contain</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/ebola-outbreak-in-the-drc-four-reasons-it-will-be-hard-to-contain-2026-05-25</link>
            <description><![CDATA[By the second week of the latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo it was already clear that containing the spread of the haemorrhagic disease was proving to be difficult.  On 17 May 2026, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern. This is its highest level of global health alert. It is mostly reserved for an extraordinary disease outbreak or event that is a public health risk to many countries through international spread and hence requires global coordinated efforts.]]></description>
            <author>Creamer Media Reporter  </author>
            <category>The Conversation</category>
            <pubDate>Mon, 25 May 2026 11:10:00 +0200</pubDate>
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            <title>Health authorities are racing to contain Ebola in the DRC and Uganda. ...</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/health-authorities-are-racing-to-contain-ebola-in-the-drc-and-uganda-heres-whats-making-it-so-challenging-2026-05-22</link>
            <description><![CDATA[The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is grappling with a rising Ebola epidemic, with almost 600 cases detected so far and more than 130 deaths.  Ebola is a rare virus that initially causes a fever, fatigue, muscle pain, then vomiting and diarrhoea. It can then progress to the hemorrhagic stage, with internal bleeding – which presents as blood in vomit and faeces – as well as bleeding as from parts of the body including the nose, gums, vagina and needle punctures.]]></description>
            <author>Creamer Media Reporter  </author>
            <category>The Conversation</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 22 May 2026 14:15:00 +0200</pubDate>
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