The last few months have seen some significant developments for African trade and integration. These advances come at a crucial time for African countries, which have been particularly hard hit by the slump in commodity prices, China’s economic downturn, and higher external borrowing costs. This has resulted in slower GDP growth than expected, currency fluctuations and reduced investment – particularly in resource-rich countries.
The interaction between artisanal (small-scale) mining and agriculture in Africa still needs to be carefully considered by policy makers to ensure that people’s livelihoods and countries’ export revenues aren’t threatened. It’s also important that the relationship between the two sectors be optimised to mutual benefit.
African policy makers are increasingly called on to use evidence-based research to inform development decisions. However, this requires the rigorous collection of data as well as a coordinated system to disseminate it. This is why Kenya-based African Population Health Research Center is advocating for national policies to enable strong data systems. Donatien Beguy explains Africa’s challenges and opportunities.
What is data driven decision making in the world of policymaking?
Key to the implementation of the ambitious 17-point Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is the question of how the estimated cost of between U$614 billion and $638 billion that will be required annually will be financed.
In November 2010, Ghana Statistical Services announced new and revised gross domestic product (GDP) estimates. As a result, the estimated size of the economy was adjusted upward by more than 60%, suggesting that in previous GDP estimates economic activities worth about US$13 billion had been missed.
One of the most hotly debated topics in development economics is what does it take to steer a poor country from Third World to First World status?
It is a debate of particular relevance in Africa, which is home to a large number of countries in the Third World category.
It also has some of the fastest-growing economies in the world.
Whatever its final impact, in the short-term the UK’s EU referendum will increase global economic uncertainty, market volatility and economic risk. In Africa, most scenarios will prove costly, particularly among those economies highly exposed to UK trade, investment, banking and remittances.
A consistent feature of global analyses of Africa’s economic prospects is their fickleness.
This year’s Africa Day message from African Union Commission chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma affirms the organisation’s commitment to political and economic integration among member states. It cites the free movement of people, goods and services as among its flagship projects for 2016.
Since the turn of the century, the middle classes of the global South have taken centre stage in economic policy circles. Animated by diversification of some countries’ economies, a handful of economists from international agencies and think-tanks began a discourse that then entered African and development studies.
