Dear newsletter subscriber,
we live in a world where, if you have enough money, you can sail your yacht through the blocked Strait of Hormuz without being fired upon. You can also get some of the world’s major stock market indices to change the rules so that your company’s shares are listed faster.
We are talking about Alexei Mordashov, a Russian oligarch and friend of Putin, and, of course, Elon Musk, a South African-Canadian-American oligarch and – at least at times – an ally of Trump. These two are prime examples of individuals who are able to convert extraordinary wealth into power, and power, in turn, into wealth. This is how David Lingelbach and Valentina Rodríguez Guerra from The Center for the Study of Oligarchs define oligarchs in their latest D+C article.
It is oligarchs like Musk and Mordashov who are increasingly shaping our world. They want us to believe that they are above the rules and unstoppable.
Namibia, for example, shows that this does not have to be the case. In March, the Namibian regulatory authority rejected the application by Musk’s satellite service, Starlink, for an operating licence. Namibia requires that at least 51% of telecommunications companies must be locally owned. South Africa is also currently refusing to grant Starlink a licence, as the country stipulates that network operators must demonstrate that at least 30% of their ownership is held by historically disadvantaged South Africans. Musk has repeatedly described these regulations as “openly racist”.
To prevent the spread of oligarchic rule, it is therefore sometimes enough simply to stick to principles – such as those of democracy or the rule of law. The hope is that South Africa, Namibia and other countries will find alternative ways of connecting their populations to the internet – and that they will not one day be forced to abandon their established principles of the rule of law in favour of rapid technological progress.
Please feel free to share your opinions, criticisms and suggestions by emailing us at euz.editor@dandc.eu. |
|
|
|
|
Kind regards,
Katharina Otieno
editor at D+C |
|
|
© picture alliance / ZUMAPRESS.com / Gina M Randazzo
|
|
Another step towards Muskism
|
|
|
© picture alliance/dpa/TASS/Yuri Smityuk
|
|
The oligarchs’ world is here. What can we do about it?
|
|
|
Our latest Digital Monthly:
|
| Innovative businesses as drivers of change |
|
|
human rights defenders, journalists and trade unionists were, according to preliminary figures, killed or abducted worldwide in 2025. The number is more than twice as high as 10 years ago and thus exemplifies a range of alarming developments highlighted by Human Rights Count 2026, published by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
At the same time, the OHCHR reports that one in two UN Member States now has National Human Rights Institutions that fully comply with international standards. At least at the institutional level, this continues a positive trend that has persisted since 2015.
|
|
|
Kenya has emerged as a pioneer in the field of clean energy within Africa. In just over a decade, the country has already increased access to the electricity grid by 42%, ensuring that the majority of its electricity comes from clean energy sources such as geothermal and hydroelectric power.
However, this is just the first step in the larger shift towards renewable energy integration. Variable renewable energy (VRE) sources, such as wind and solar, only account for a small part of the country’s electricity generation. To account for their uncertainty and location constraints, it is essential to have the adequate grid flexibility and infrastructure in place. Kenya is currently halfway through the International Energy Agency’s six-phase framework that would allow the country to better secure its energy future.
|
| What has also caught our interest |
|
|
Claudia Sheinbaum’s recipe for success
|
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum took office in 2024 and has high approval ratings of around 70% among Mexicans. How did she do that? A Guardian longread written by Rachel Nolan offers some clues, beginning with the fact that Sheinbaum is the political protégé of her popular predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. She promised to continue his policies. Their political party, Morena, puts a focus on welfare spending and policies for workers: López Obrador’s welfare policies have lifted 13.4 million people out of poverty. Sheinbaum continues on this path. Two examples: she rose the minimum wage by 13%, and in the beginning of 2026, she signed a decree for universal healthcare. Sheinbaum has also been praised for the way she’s been handling Mexico’s difficult neighbour so far: the US under President Donald Trump.
There’s still a lot going wrong in the country: no end in sight for the drug war and no real progress on investigating the disappearances, for instance. But, and perhaps this is key: “For many voters, rather than focusing on an intractable problem, it makes more sense to pay attention to the truck, painted with Morena colours, that drives into your remote town to install solar panels for free,” as Rachel Nolan puts it.
|
|
Global knowledge available for download: More than ten thousand media titles from the Global South
|
Behind Commbox lies a truly impressive effort: 30 years of collecting material on media and communication from the Global South – now available online at commbox.org. There, around 17,000 titles can currently be downloaded free of charge. According to the organisers, the service has already been used by users from more than 140 countries.
A wide range of subject areas such as “Community & Citizen Media”, “Conflicts, Peace & Media”, “Disinformation & Misinformation” and “Press Freedom” make searching easier. Handy for those in a hurry: ten filter options provide a quick overview by topic. Next step: partner organisations from the Global South are to set up their own “Special Collections” – Latin America is already on board with two universities and a research centre, with Africa and Asia set to follow. By the way: D+C issues on media and digitalisation can also be found on Commbox. We would like to take this opportunity to remind you that you can download all the D+C issues of the past years free of charge from our archive.
|
|
| Real conversations instead of panel discussions |
If you think of “development podcasts” as well-meaning panel discussions, you’ve come to the wrong place. In “Theory of Change”, Devex reporter Michael Igoe speaks to just one person each week – in a way that really gets to the heart of the mechanics of global change: power, politics, money, influence and ideas. Guest list: people from the worlds of philanthropy, foreign policy, tech, finance, media and humanitarian aid. New episodes are released every Tuesday.
Recently, for example, the well-known economist and development aid critic William Easterly was a guest and shed light on the long-standing tension between development and individual rights. Easterly criticises not only spectacularly failed anti-poverty mega-projects, but above all the familiar pattern behind them: experts exporting their visions and planning over the heads of countries and communities. Easterly knows this role from his own experience.
|
|
|
.png) |
| In this section, we occasionally highlight small projects that are making a difference at the community level – because sometimes it’s not major international decisions that make a tangible difference on the ground, but small, local actions. |
Helping Hands 4 Africa is a voluntary community organisation based in Uganda. It works with particularly disadvantaged groups – primarily orphans and other vulnerable children – and combines practical assistance with long-term approaches. Its work focuses on education programmes, health, WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene), human rights, and sexual and reproductive health and rights. The organisation also supports people with disabilities, women, older people and youth, and is committed to agricultural and environmental projects.
To enable its work to grow, Helping Hands 4 Africa is seeking partner organisations and individuals to implement projects together. Specifically, this involves support with fundraising campaigns, assistance in accessing grants, putting the organisation in touch with volunteers, as well as donations and in-kind contributions for local programmes.
Contact: banuganda2k@gmail.com
|
|
Interpeace’s Effective Advising Course on 22-27 November helps advisers in peacebuilding, development and humanitarian contexts strengthen their ability to work in complex, unpredictable and often polarised environments. Focusing on the personal and relational dimensions of advising, it consists of a five-day workshop plus three live online sessions (pre- and post-course), supported by readings and preparation. |
|
|
|
| UNITAR’s Inclusive Learning Design Course is a free online course that helps educators and training professionals to design accessible and inclusive training programmes. It focuses on integrating gender equality, disability inclusion and “do no harm” principles across the training cycle. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
To unsubscribe the newsletter, please click here.
Imprint
Publisher information: ENGAGEMENT GLOBAL gGmbH Service für Entwicklungsinitiativen
Publisher: Fazit Communication GmbH, Pariser Straße 1, D-60486 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Telephone: +49 (0)69 7591-3110 | Email: euz.editor@dandc.eu
Webseite: www.fazit.de | Managing Directors: Jonas Grashey, Hannes Ludwig |
|
|
|
