A China-Africa scholar weighs the evidence on the effect China has on Africa’s industrialisation
Conventional wisdom has it that the Chinese economic juggernaut is sweeping across the African continent, devastating already weak manufacturing sectors. Yet in many countries, sta...
Vol 3 (AAC) No 1 |
- INDIA
- AFRICA
India is launching its own mini-offensive in the electricity sector, following Chinese-style financing and contracting practices. On 29 October, New Delhi announced a new US$263 mi...
Vol 3 (AAC) No 1 |
- VIETNAM
- AFRICA
A US$2 million deal by a major Vietnamese rice exporter points to the corruption found on both side of the Africa-Asia commodities trade. Unlike Thailand, where the private sector ...
The new team of Eurocrats has little experience of Africa and may be surprised by what it finds
A new European Commission was named on 17 November and most of its members who will deal with African affairs are from countries with no ties to the continent. The Commission Presi...
After Mohammed ibn Chambas takes over as Secretary General of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group in Brussels on 1 March 2010, he will have to fight hard to reassert the coher...
Vol 50 No 23 |
- AFRICA
- ARMS
The more embargoes and sanctions, the higher the rate of return for international arms dealers
Arms traders are getting around Europe's sanctions on Guinea and playing games with the embargo on Côte d'Ivoire, and Belgium sells weapons to Libya, hub of the arms business in Af...
Vol 50 No 22 |
- ECONOMY
- AFRICA
The IMF and the AfDB differ sharply on the severity of the global recession's effects on Africa and the measures needed to ameliorate them
The world's financial experts and institutions disagree on how seriously the global financial crash has affected developing economies or how quickly they may recover. In Africa, th...
Vol 50 No 22 |
- FRANCE
- AFRICA
The lucrative commercial and political networks between France and Africa have survived a remarkable month in the French courts but more embarrassing cases are coming soon. On 27 O...
Facing stubbornly high food prices, rising joblessness and investment cutbacks, Africa is lagging behind the economic recovery in Asia
A faint self-congratulatory whiff of a 'great depression averted' wafted through the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Istanbul, Turkey, on 4-5 O...
The population of sub-Saharan Africa will exceed one billion this year so the African nations entering the 2010 World Cup can hope for a large fan base. For optimists, billionaire status offers the opportunity for the continent to follow in the footsteps of China and India (which, however, have one government each) and reap a demographic dividend. Others argue that it will intensify the pressure on land, food, water and job opportunities, as many governments increasingly fail to meet demand for basic social services such as education and health care.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which made the one-billion prediction, says sub-Saharan Africa faces serious political, economic and social challenges. Twenty years of ...