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A growing body of literature addresses the implications of the ongoing rapid state-led, exportoriented industrialisation in African cities for a range of development concerns -- e.g. labour relations, value chain development, gender relations and China's involvement in infrastructural development. This study focuses on another important implication of Africa's rapid industrialisation that has not been sufficiently explored -- urban--industrial integration. Recent scholarship that looks at the interaction of urban and industrial development in Africa identifies challenges emerging at the nexus caused by lack of policy integration (PI). However, this literature does not address why this disconnect between the policy spheres arises or why it continues to persist. Based on thematic analysis of over a hundred qualitative interviews with key policy actors in the urban--industrial sphere, I argue policy fragmentation in the African urban--industrial nexus is driven by processes of 'authoritarian centralisation' that foster adverse political conditions for PI -- more specifically conceptual integration, policy coordination and infrastructural integration. The study illustrates the relationship between authoritarian centralisation and PI and discusses the ways in which authoritarianism has shaped urban policy, planning and development and its integration into industrial and economic development strategies. The paper contributes to the nascent literature on the politics of urban--industrialisation in a broader range of developmental authoritarian African states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the role of networks in the spatial diffusion of local economic shocks in Africa. We show that geographic connectivity, along with road and ethnic connectivity, are important for diffusing economic spillovers over longer distances. We then determine the key players, that is, which districts are key in propagating local economic shocks across Africa. Using these results, we conduct counterfactual policy exercises to evaluate the potential gains from policies that increase economic activity in specific districts or improve road connectivity between districts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing body of literature highlights the importance of export sophistication for economic development. Given the newness of the literature on export sophistication, its determinants are under‐exploited. As a pioneer study, this paper attempts to fill this gap in the literature by examining the effect of infrastructure development on export sophistication. Based on a panel of 45 African countries over the period 2003–2016, the results of the different estimations show that infrastructure, including transport, electricity, ICT and access to water and sanitation, improves export sophistication in Africa. Our results also show that the effect of infrastructure varies at different intervals of the export sophistication distribution. Therefore, improved infrastructure would allow African countries to not only improve their export structure but also achieve sustainable and durable growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese political and economic gains in Africa have been increasing at an alarming rate. Despite the fact that some of these have been favourable, China's presence in Africa has received considerable criticism. African states have similarly responded to this Chinese trend with most of them enjoying Chinese support ranging from economic development to political involvements. These however are mostly embraced by the so-called undemocratic states. China has a core direction on how they carry out their relations with any foreign nation. This paper aims at explaining these policies and see how effective they have been for the parties involved. The article is supported by qualitative data accessed from scholarly writings, the government publishes, articles, and also from web pages. Because the subject is broad in scope, a range of challenges was encountered relating to the authenticity of the sources. Similarly, the topic is rich in content; some parts of the coexistence of the relations shared by these two regions have been left out. Much emphasis has been directed toward economic relations without leaving out the social and political aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examined finance-growth nexus in the finance industry and the influencing factors of economic indicators which deliberate on the performance of the Solow Growth model to prove the actuality of financial development (FD) inside the economic growth (EG) model, based on the regional data from 1980 to 2017 in Africa. We applied the econometric method of GMM style panel vector autoregressive (PVAR) and panel quantile regression (PQR). With the optimal finance-growth outcome, the review shows that the economic indicators influence the finance-growth nexus. The quantile results show that high economic indicators help to strengthen the finance-growth nexus, whereas low economic indicators hinder it. The GMM style PVAR results present a mixed effect in terms of the connection and marginal significance, indicating that FD has a varied impact on economic growth. Last, the granger causality results show a two-way causal association amid finance-growth in Western, Central, Eastern, and Southern African economies and a unidirectional causal link of finance-growth in Northern Africa. The policy conclusion is that to gain the long-term economic benefits of FD, African countries should strive for low and steady economic stability. To attain the required economic stability, it may be important to use suitable fiscal and monetary policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1980s, inequality has been rising in Europe, North America and parts of Asia. How does our understanding of global inequality dynamics change if coverage is extended to the rest of the developing world? To rebalance the perspective on global inequality trends, this paper surveys data and literature on recent inequality trends in Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. It finds that in these regions there are more countries with falling than rising inequality over the past 20 years, as measured by Ginis of income or consumption inequality. At the global level, therefore, there are signs of inequality convergence, as inequality has been falling in countries with high inequality in the 1990s (particularly Latin America), and rising in historically low-inequality countries. We discuss the political and economic drivers of inequality decline in countries with a steady fall in the Gini. This suggests some common trends across the globe, including the role of democratisation, the rise of new social movements, and the expansion of education and social safety nets and favourable commodity prices, in reducing income disparities. This paper calls for more country-level comparisons of inequality trends, to highlight the multiplicity of paths in this latest phase of globalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper views economic development in Africa as a transition from traditional African civilization to Judeo-Christian civilization. Africa lags behind most of the other regions of the world in economic development as defined. The paper aims to contribute to the extensive attempts to explain why Africa is economically underdeveloped. After analyses of some elements of cosmology that are common to most Africans like kinship system, deference to elders, belief in destiny and mystical powers, the paper concludes that the root cause of Africa's economic underdevelopment is to be found in the cosmology of the people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reviews the history of the concepts used to depict poverty in Africa. "Pauperism" is a legal concept, deriving from early modern law in Britain, which frames individual situations, places the paupers under specific rights and duties, and was applied in early colonial situations. Percentile is a economic-demographic concept, implying class difference, indexed to measurable or imputed monetary income, which became an instrument of government in the colonial world mainly after 1945, moving into the international comparative world after the era of independence. In the neoliberal era after 1989, the concept of precarity, and a focus on realizable assets rather than income, has taken higher profile than an emergent replacement for the comparative-percentile approach, sometimes now depicted as "living on $2 a day". The paper indicates the conceptual and political implications and challenges of each of these depictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quest to continuously attain economic development without surpassing the cycle of global warming limit of 1.5°C has necessitated the need to explore more sustainable ways of living on the human planet. This has equally placed the sustainable development agenda high on the priority list of many international, regional and national governments. Sustainable development (SD) has been viewed as a pattern of development that avails an economy the basic economic, social and environmental needs without endangering the natural, built and social systems. Therefore, the calls to resolve the developmental and environmental conflicts have received global attention. In this paper, the authors examine the nexus between renewable energy and sustainable development in Africa over the period, 1990-2015. The number of countries considered are 51 African countries. The coverage period is constrained by data availability. All the data employed were sourced from the World Development Indicators, 2017 except the data on human development index (HDI) which was sourced from the HDI report of the United Nations Development Program, 2018. Analysis are predicated on fixed effects panel model based on the Hausman test and the system generalized method of moments (SYS-GMM). The SYS-GMM is considered in order to control for shortcomings associated with OLS estimation technique which include among others, endogeneity, simultaneity bias, and measurement error. Prior to these approaches, the panel cross-section dependence test was used to test if a shock in a country in the panel can have effect on other countries in the panel. The analysis shows that renewable energy positively impacts on both the economic dimension and aggregate SD index. It also reduces carbon (iv) oxide emission thereby promoting environmental quality. However, it impedes the HDI which represents the social dimensions of SD. The impact of renewable energy on environmental quality or environmental dimension of SD is further corroborated through the conduit of hydro and natural gas sources. Regarding other control variables, nonrenewable energy negates SD but financial deepening, gross fixed capital and population serve as propellants while FDI exerts univariate impact. The findings support a shift from a monolithic fossil-fuel economy to one driven by a growing share of renewable in the energy mix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The majority of African countries have passed the threshold of fifty years of Independence. Yet, the majority of them, save the Republic of South Africa, and a few ones here and there, are still struggling to develop the basic social and physical structures and infrastructures that can put them on the path of development and modernity. Against this backdrop, countless development theories and arguments have been proposed about why Africa is not developed and still is poor despite being the second largest continent and by far one of the richest ones there is. As a result, development has become an elusive quest and challenge for generations of African leaders and their frustrated populations. This paper is set to explore why Africa is not developing and shed light on other arguments that are overlooked when analyzing or debating why African countries are lagging behind in their socio-economic development quest. The paper intends to answer those questions in an interdisciplinary manner and touches upon social, cultural, religious, political, economical, and international relations factors. For, to understand Africa's economic problems, one has got to go beyond the mere economic indicators such as the GDP and GNP and bring to the fore other non-economic factors that are hampering Africa's development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prevailing narratives in the discourse on China-Africa engagement are that China is developing Africa. This paper departs from those narratives because they disregard the agency of Africa's political elite. Basing its argument on the nature of the African political elite, the paper analyses their role in determining the impact of China's economic and trade engagement on economic development in their respective countries. To do that, it first discusses the nature and identity of African political elites, and examines how they control their states and scarce resources. Having done that, the paper then analyses their role in determining the nature and extent of development emanating from their countries’ economic engagement with China. It then concludes that it is not how much foreign states invest in African countries that determines Africa's rise, but rather political elites who influence the direction of their states’ development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Differing definitions of ‘urban’ settlements can make comparative analysis of trends in urbanisation difficult. Definitions used by many African countries include small settlements which may not exhibit the degree of labour specialisation away from agriculture that economic theories about urbanisation presume. This may mean there is a mismatch if urban data are presumed by decision-makers to be proxies for structural economic transformation. After examining these definitional issues this paper provides five illustrative African case studies based on detailed analysis of census and agricultural employment data. It finds that for Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Mali in situ urbanisation of settlements at the bottom of the urban hierarchy has played a significant part in recent urbanisation processes. In Rwanda complex boundary changes have also contributed to a very significant redefinition of previously rural people as ‘urban’ yet overall the urbanisation level did not increase between 2002 and 2012. Significant employment in agriculture is found within small, and some larger, urban centres in all these countries. It is shown that these issues tend to be disregarded in analyses of urban trends for these countries which often present a more positive narrative of urban economic change than the census data support. These examples are contrasted with Botswana, where in situ urbanisation has also occurred but in this case driven by real occupational change. The paper concludes that the impact of definitions on apparent trends in urbanisation in Africa needs to be understood given the significance attached to these trends by policy makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic growth and poverty reduction now take the centre stage in most global policy discourse. This is coming at a time that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are fast gaining global relevance. Africa has witnessed the highest but non-inclusive level of growth in the last decade because the continent still grapples with high unemployment rate especially among the youths. This paper therefore examines some drivers of and constraints to growth and poverty reduction in Africa. The paper focused on Africa by using secondary data sourced from different such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Transparency International (TI), Institute of Economics and Peace (IEP) and National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reports and Annual Abstract of Statistics. Analytical methods employed were mainly descriptive statistics and comparative statistics. Findings showed that economic growth recorded in the continent is a 'jobless' one advancing inequality and poverty. More so, 75 percent of countries with low human development are in Africa with the continent's consistent economic growth imparting insignificantly on the livelihoods of the people. In fact, 27 out of 54 African countries were reported to have GDP of less than $USD 2000 per capita. GDP growth in sub-Saharan Africa was estimated at 4.9 percent in 2013 and this increased to 5.3 percent in 2014 and further estimated to rise to 5.5 percent in 2015. The fight against inequality, poverty and unemployment is tantamount to aiming a moving target. Youth unemployment remains a component of Africa's growth owing to persistent low productivity and underemployment in the informal sector. The resultant implication of this is manifested through persistent inequality, poverty, armed conflict and unchecked migration of young people to industrialised nations in search of the non-existing livelihood opportunities. This paper therefore recommends increased and monitored investments in critical infrastructural facilities. There is a need for multilevel and multinational partnership in the fight against corruption and social conflict to attract foreign direct investment. Investment in social security programmes will also assist the poor and vulnerable people in the continent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an energy efficiency assessment of 46 African countries and analyzes possible bidirectional relationship between energy efficiency and economic development within a three-stage framework. In the first stage, energy efficiency is measured within a total factor framework using the slack-based measure with undesirable output and sub-regional comparisons are done. The second stage assesses the determinants of energy efficiency in Africa by way of a bootstrapped truncated regression. The third stage tests the reverse causal relationship between energy efficiency and economic development using 2-stage least squares. The results showed African countries to be on average, 56% energy efficient within the study period. Other African sub-regions could adopt the energy efficiency policies of North Africa as benchmark to improve energy efficiency. Economic development and technological progress are found to have significant positive effects on energy efficiency of African countries, while higher energy prices lead to higher inefficiency. Also, a bi-causal relationship is found to exist between total factor energy efficiency and economic development, giving support to the concept of sustainable development and confirming the International Energy Agency's assertion on the positive macroeconomic impacts of energy efficiency. African countries are therefore, encouraged to invest in energy efficiency technologies and policies to drive sustainable economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While debates continue about China's role in sub-Saharan Africa, there is growing consensus that China is a different kind of development partner. One distinct feature of Chinese partnerships is that they include support for the tobacco industry, a sector other donor states and institutions shun. Not only is tobacco a primary agricultural export in a number of Africa states, the state-owned Chinese National Tobacco Corporation is the largest tobacco company in the world. This paper analyses Chinese support for the tobacco industry in three states – Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia – documenting how co-operation is shaped by Chinese state capitalism and assessing the development and governance implications. Following an introduction situating the analysis within the context of China–Africa co-operation and tobacco's global value chain, Chinese engagement in each country is analysed. Findings indicate that, despite differences across case studies in terms of development outcomes, common governance implications are apparent. African elites initiated tobacco-related co-operation to meet their interests, but Chinese interests dominated implementation. Consequently, Chinese investments have maintained hierarchal governance of an exploitive and harmful industry. Analyses of Chinese African co-operation need to move beyond public–private paradigms and interrogate the nuances of Chinese state capitalism in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper empirically examines the extent to which different forms of capital flows (foreign direct investment [FDI], remittances, foreign aid and external debt) affect the impact of trade (exports) on economic growth in Africa. We do this with the aid of an augmented endogenous growth model which we estimate by dynamic system GMM technique with endogeneity-expunging efficiency. First, we find that whilst the direct impact of trade (exports) has been crucial in driving economic growth in Africa in both the short- and long-run, capital flows (FDI, remittances, foreign aid and external debt) do not. Second, our results clearly show that, in both the short- and long-run, inflows of FDI and remittances serve as important channels through which trade (exports) has its largest impact on economic growth while inflows of foreign aid and external debt do not. Following these outcomes, we conclude that policies aimed at attracting FDI and remittances to African countries are what policy reforms should target. Further, our findings suggest that moderating the inflow of external debt and foreign aid could be beneficial to the effect of trade (exports) on economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We investigate the effects of refugees' camps on the occurrence of protests and conflicts in host localities employing a counterfactual approach were we compare geographical cells that host a camp (treated) with other cells that have a priori similar probability of hosting a camp and a similar socio-economic context. • We do not find that after the establishment of a camp the average occurrence of protests increases significantly. • Using a panel event study estimation, we find evidence of a significative increase in the number of protests in the 2-years after the establishment of the camp. • Over time the easing of tensions might be related to the increased socio-economic contacts as we find that the establishment of camps boosts the growth of host-localities. • The intensity and density of interactions are unlikely to generate strong social tensions as refugees contribute to the expansion of economic opportunities also in marginal and relatively underdeveloped contexts. In this paper we study the effects of the establishment of refugees' camps in Africa on the occurrence of protests and social conflicts by using geo-referenced panel data (2000–2014). We use 50x50 km cells as units of analysis and match data on the frequency of protests, armed conflicts and other organized violence events (based on GDELT and GED databases) with information on the location of camps contained in the UNHCR Camp Mapping Database. By using a counterfactual empirical strategy, we find that refugee camps significantly increase the occurrence of protests only in the initial period (2 years) while no statistically significant effect is detected in subsequent years. We interpret these findings as the asynchronous effect of two shocks associated with the presence of refugee camps: a sudden population shock which initially increases social tensions with the host-communities and a growth effect spurred by the increase in aggregate demand due to a public-spending shock and the progressive participation of refugees in the host socio-economic system. To support this hypothesis, we analyze the effect of hosting a camp on economic growth in the surrounding area (within 10 km from the camp). We find evidence that, on average, camps positively affect economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Africa is a continent with huge resource endowments and prospects for growth. However, the continent battles with myriads of problems such as poverty, food insecurity and dwindling commodity prices among others. This is because Africa's export is dominated by primary products that are majorly climate-dependent and vulnerable to price volatility. This paper therefore examined the economic situations of Africa considering the dwindling commodity prices in the face of the threat posed by climate change. Climate change remains one of the greatest environmental problems with economic, social, health, security and environmental implications. The paper employed a combination of both secondary and historical information obtained from different sources (UNDP, UNECA, NBS, Trade reviews etc). Analytical method used include descriptive statistics such as tables, averages and percentages. Despite the declining Africa's contribution to global market, commodity prices have been plummeting with very devastating impact on the livelihood of households and general wellbeing of the inhabitants of many of these countries. Countries relying on mineral resources such as oil, copper, gold and platinum to mention just a few have been the worst hit. Therefore, African countries' local currencies and trade balance have weakened against the dollar leading to high inflation in the continent. The terms of trade is declining as Africa continues to import commodities it should be producing because of the weak productive base, decaying infrastructure and the worsening climate conditions. This implies that households' welfare in these countries is likely to be compromised because of more job losses emanating from declining profits accruing to the solid mineral sector in the affected countries. The paper recommends increased investment in infrastructure facilities and human capital development for skills enhancement in Africa. Also, climate change adaptation policies should be formulated and implemented by African governments at all tiers and encouragement of value addition in exportable commodities to enhance favourable trade balance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines the evolving role of the private sector in helping to address the challenges of disturbing health issues in Africa. The central question is to find out the role multinational corporations operating in Africa play in the fight against malaria. The paper presents a case for the implication of multinational corporations in global health matters, especially malaria and provides an overview of the key ways in which the private sector is already involved. The paper also makes attempts to analyze how businesses can bring unique contributions to the fight against malaria in Africa and offer recommendations for how to catalyze further private-sector engagement in the years ahead. Through the analyses of corporate reports and personal communications, this paper seeks to demonstrate the implication of multinational corporations in the fight against malaria in Africa south of the Sahara by assessing the contribution of six multinational corporations in this endeavor. The companies selected on the basis of their involvement in this fight include ExxonMobil, Marathon Oil, Chevron, Heineken, Sanofi-Aventis and Lafarge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a systematic review of challenges to doing business in Africa. It complements the extant literature by answering two critical questions: what are the linkages between the ease of doing business and economic development; and what are the challenges to doing business in Africa? In providing answers to these questions, the nexus between the ease of doing business and economic development is discussed in six main strands, namely: wealth creation and sharing; opportunities of employment; balanced regional and economic development; Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and GDP per capita; standards of living and exports. Moreover, challenges to doing business are articulated along the following lines: (i) issues related to the cost of starting a business and doing business; (ii) shortage of energy and electricity; (iii) lack of access to finance; and (v) high taxes and low cross-border trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extractive foreign direct investment (FDI) is heralded as the new development opportunity in Africa. A key precondition for FDI's contribution, however, is that foreign investors create ‘local content’ by linking up to the local economy. Consequently, African host governments are contemplating ways in which they can promote local content. This paper examines local content policies and practices in three African countries – Tanzania, Uganda and Mozambique – all countries with huge expectations for extractive based economic development. It is found that in spite of high ambitions and strong expectations, local content is limited, shallow and inefficient. The paper explores why local content apparently is so difficult to achieve in these African countries. It is argued that conventional economic explanations, focusing on market failures and weak institutions, are partial at best and therefore must be complemented with political explanations. Hence, it is proposed that local content practices in the three countries can be understood partly as the results of ruling elites’ efforts to build and maintain stable political coalitions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper is a preliminary reflection on China’s domestic development and its aid presence in Africa. “Development” had its day before the 1970s but then encountered de-constructive and re-constructive critics in the field of Development Anthropology. China’s conceptualization of development has not only drawn a lot from Western development discourse but also evolved with its own features, which deserve a critical reflection in terms of an “elusive discourse” and the “practical pursuit of welfare”, a seemingly paradoxical dichotomy. It follows with China’s foreign assistance or aid presence in Africa, which, the author holds, is imprinted with China’s development practice concepts and illustrated by a case of Chinese development aid in Ethiopia. The paper eventually discusses the would-be roles of Chinese anthropologists, who have been surprisingly absent in recent years, in contrast to Western academia’s intellectual tradition of widely reflecting development issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses annual balanced panel data to examine the Granger causal link between foreign direct investment (FDI) and economic growth (measured by real GDP growth) for 23 African countries covering the period from 1970 to 2011. Using recently developed panel econometric techniques the present paper takes into account non-stationary and cross-section dependency in the dataset when analyzing the growth-FDI nexus. The empirical results indicate two-way Granger causality link between FDI and economic growth. Furthermore, we show that this causal link is not homogeneous among individual countries in our sample. More specifically, we observe unidirectional causality from FDI to GDP growth in Egypt, Gabon, and Mauritania, and from GDP growth to FDI in Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya, South Africa and Zambia. Our main finding remains robust to estimation between FDI as a fraction of gross capital formation and real GDP growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes 24 African census samples from 13 countries available via the African Integrated Census MicroData website to illustrate how microdata may be used to assess development and pinpoint basic human needs at local administrative levels over time. We calculate a Human Development Index-like measure for small administrative areas, where much of the responsibility lies for executing policies related to health, education and general well-being. The methodological proposals introduced in this paper are particularly pertinent for the case of Africa. While it is true that data for much of Africa is not appropriate for economic growth rates or per-capita income estimates, the analysis in this paper demonstrates that they are good enough for many other purposes. Indeed, a major aggravating problem that contributes to the “African statistical tragedy” is the lack of accessibility to existing census microdata. This paper aims to illustrate the usefulness of census microdata—which are vastly under-utilized in Africa—and hopefully contribute to make them more transparent and freely accessible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the impact of the rise of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and social entrepreneurs on economic development, with a special focus on how they have been used in Africa. The paper describes the decline of the state and the rise of NGOs as a force in economic development under neoliberalism. We then turn to two of the major problems with the roll-back of the state in Africa: the inherent weaknesses of nonstate actors in the development process, and the significant cost that is incurred by undermining the role of state. The paper concludes by suggesting the necessity of reinserting the state as the major vehicle for economic development, albeit in productive partnership with NGOs and social entrepreneurs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Even though many African and Asian countries share a common history of European colonialism and thus a model of economic development shaped within the aegis of center-periphery analysis, many Asian countries have been able to ride through the burden of center-periphery economics and built more successful political economies than most African countries. This state of affairs has often led many African analysts to point to Asian success stories like China and South Korea for comparative analysis and often see these Asian countries as models of socio-economic and socio-cultural success to emulate. In particular, Africans in the Diaspora, especially Africans in China, tend to compare very frequently the socio-economic and socio-cultural conditions of their host countries with those of their source countries. This paper outlines and discusses how a group of Africans living in Hong Kong and other parts of Asia see Korea and Korean culture through the prism of Korean television dramas, which constitute a popular cultural phenomenon among Hong Kong/Asian youths. Through qualitative and quantitative survey methods, participant-observation, and questionnaire surveys, the paper reports on how African community members of Hong Kong and others think of Koreans. We show that Africans draw a lot of comparisons between Korean and African ways of conceptualizing the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese firms operating in Africa are often accused of violating international labour standards and not adhering with national labour laws. Considering China’s tendency to maintain control over development projects throughout the entire implementation phase, using Chinese contractors for work performed in the recipient countries, the present paper investigates whether China impacts African labour practices in their capacity as a donor. Specifically, we use a new data material allowing for systematic quantitative analysis of Chinese development finance to investigate whether Chinese development projects affect trade union involvement. Matching geo-referenced data on the subnational allocation of Chinese development projects to Africa over the 2000–2012 period with 41,902 survey respondents across 18 African countries, our estimation strategy relies on comparing the trade union involvement of individuals who live near a site where a Chinese project is being implemented at the time of the interview to those of individuals living near a site where a Chinese project will appear in the future, but where implementation had yet to be initiated at the time of the survey. The results consistently indicate that Chinese development projects – unlike the projects of other major donors – discourage trade union involvement in the local area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing consensus that food security is vital to the general well being of any economy, but a far less consensus on whether food security can spur economic growth in a country. Many economic growth strategies focus on specific interventions (trade openness index, tropical climatic variables, working age population share etc.), but many factors, such as food availability, female education and health outcomes, can potentially have a profound influence on economic growth. To explore this hypothesis more systematically, this paper employs a rich cross-country dataset of 124 countries to examine the impact of food security, using food availability as a proxy on economic growth. This paper examines the impact of food shortages on African economic growth rates. It does so by extending the Barro growth model to include food availability as a right hand-side variable and by distinguishing African countries with food shortages from others. Based on the cross-country regressions results, the paper concludes that the improved food availability indeed contributes to the improved economic growth in general, as well as in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the role of economic transformation in the form of increased manufacturing share in aggregate output in accelerating growth and reducing growth volatility in Africa. Using cross-section time series data from 50 African countries, the paper examines the key determinants of growth in the share of manufacturing output in aggregate output and its relationship with real GDP growth and growth volatility. Results of system GMM estimation indicate that real GDP growth and domestic investment are among the key drivers of growth in the share of manufacturing output in total output and that growth in the latter has, in turn, the potential to raise GDP growth and reduce growth volatility. It is therefore argued that African countries should pursue effective strategies, including industrial policies and institutional reforms, to promote manufacturing and other innovative activities as a means to accelerate economic growth and diversification, and enhance employment creation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information Technology (IT) is now globally recognized as a very strong tool for economic development and is being used by many countries to spur economic growth and to create jobs. In an attempt to objectively measure the progress of Africa in IT development over the last decade, this paper critically analyzes the Global IT Reports of three specific years during the last decade - 2009, 2012 and 2015. This is done by getting the lowest common denominators of indicators present in all the three (3) years and making an analysis on the basis of these common indicators for the countries of the world. When countries are grouped into their continents and a comparison is made of the averages of the NRI indicators for different continents, the results can be used to show how well Africa is doing with respect to other continents and what African countries need to do in order to use ICT to enhance the economic development of their countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting from a stock-taking of the millennium development goals, the paper emphasizes the need to pay greater attention to Africa’s regional dimension in the context of the post-2015 development agenda. Three main arguments are elaborated in this respect. First, translating the sustainable development goals (SDGs) into regional development strategies can enhance the link between global objectives and the multifaceted reality of a multi-polar world, enhancing policy coherence, and providing a strategic option to strengthen Africa’s bargaining power vis-à-vis both developed and emerging partners. Secondly, a regional approach to SDGs can facilitate the definition of relevant targets/indicators and enhance the monitoring and evaluation framework. In so doing it could also offer the scope to integrate more closely SDGs’ social and environmental concerns into existing development frameworks. Thirdly, focusing just on the economic sphere – the area where Africa’s integration is relatively more advanced – increasing evidence suggests that effective regional integration can support the continent’s transformation agenda and foster more inclusive and sustainable growth. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper considers the factors that drive a strong and competitive agri-business sector with particular attention to investment in research and development (R&D) for technological innovation as well as the broader drivers and risk factors of influence. It develops a case study and in particular contrasts the very successful value chain in Thailand with the weak one in Nigeria in order to highlight the implications for Nigerian government policy if it wishes to exploit the potential for a strong cassava agri-business sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper rigorously investigates the relationship between foreign bank entry and bank competition in Africa. It uses newly databases of bank competition measured by the Boone indicator and foreign bank entry. Our final sample covers 34 African countries over the period 1997-2009. To take into account potential endogeneity between our measures of bank competition and foreign bank entry we employ the GMM system dynamic-panel data estimation. The GMM results show that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between foreign bank entry and bank competition. Our result remains robust to the introduction of financial depth measured by: private credit, liquid liabilities, bank assets and deposit money; bank efficiency: overhead costs, bank cost to income ratio, and the net interest margin; and bank stability measured by: bank capital, the Z-score and deposit insurance; bank concentration, defined as the share of assets of the three largest banks, the logarithm of perworker GDP, the inflation rate, corruption, geography and religion as controls. Our findings have important implications for both policymakers and regulators who work on issues related to African economies. Since the majority of foreign banks in Africa are originated from developed countries, our result suggests to governments to encourage and diversify foreign bank presence in the continent. Specifically, they should encourage foreign banks entry from developing and emerging economies. This will increase competition in the banking sector for those countries and will boost economic growth by lowering the cost of credit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achieving economic development and environmental sustainability simultaneously is one of the most important development challenges for Africa today. The relationship between economic growth and environmental sustainability is founded on the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC). This paper examines the validity of the hypothesis and the driving factors of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emission in five African countries using the STIRPAT empirical model, panel cointegration and fully modified ordinary least squares. Unlike previous studies, economic development is disaggregated into agriculture and industrial economic development. The results show that there is no evidence of the validity of the hypothesis in Africa, regardless of whether economic development is driven by agriculture or industrialisation. Energy structure and energy intensity are the two major driving forces of CO 2 emissions in Africa. Population growth and urbanisation have negative relationship with CO 2 emissions. From our results, the EKC is not a sound basis for environmental policy in Africa; rather, environmental policy in Africa, specifically for CO 2 emissions mitigation, should focus on encouraging energy efficiency, enhancing the use of clean energy, incorporating the impact of population growth and harnessing the positive impacts of urbanisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization has long been seen by scholars and policymakers as a disruptive process that can contribute to social and political unrest, yet there is little cross-national quantitative empirical research on the topic. In this paper we provide a comprehensive analysis of the links between urban geography and the incidence of protests (i.e. demonstrations, riots and strikes) in African countries since 1990. In contrast to previous studies, we are careful to distinguish between urban population scale effects, urban population ratio effects, population rate-of-change effects and urban population distribution effects. We also provide an explicit test of the long-standing hypothesis that ‘over-urbanization’ increases the risk of civil unrest. Employing multilevel negative binomial models that control for key political and economic variables we find that urban population size and the number of large cities in a country are both positively and significantly associated protest incidence. By contrast, we find that a country's level of urbanization is negatively associated with protest incidence and reject the over-urbanization hypothesis: higher levels of urbanization are associated with less frequent protests at all income levels. We find no evidence that the pace of urban population growth or urban primacy significantly influence protest mobilization. In sum, our results provide a nuanced picture of the relationship between urban geography and protest incidence that challenges conventional wisdom and contemporary hyperbole about the dangers of ‘rapid urbanization’ in Africa in particular, and developing countries more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The past decade witnessed the intensification of the commercial and political activities of emerging powers in Africa. These activities are analysed in terms of their impact on Africa, but also how they have potentially displaced the European Union and its leading member states as the key policy interlocutors in Africa. In many domains, the EU and its member states have now been normalised to strategic partners among other strategic partners. This has not been without implications for EU policymaking in Africa. This paper claims that the complexity and multifaceted nature of interaction between the European Union and emerging powers, notably China, in trilateral cooperation in Africa suggest that these actors have mutually accepted cooperation in Africa as a necessary end to be pursued. They have as a result of their respective presence and engagement in Africa modified their policies. While cooperation is a stated end, China is seen not only as a driver of certain EU objectives, including development, but it is perceived as a brake on the codification of certain EU norms such as democracy and human rights. Similarly, the willingness of China to pursue and deepen trilateral cooperation in Africa does not appear to be an urgent policy priority. Thus, this paper contends that in addition to an understanding of trilateral cooperation, a study of individual bilateral strategies and policy adaptation sheds more light through which relations between these actors should be analysed. In the main, the paper seeks to go beyond zero-sum analyses by arguing the relationship between the EU and emerging powers, particularly China, as deserving more nuanced and fuller analyses than it currently receives, in order to understand the impact on EU policymaking on Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After completing the two phases of preliminary research, this paper reports major findings that are directed towards two primary objectives. The first is to assess numerous research findings on the challenges of the African Infrastructure Sector (AIS) that are not currently being employed by various academic and research institutions. The second is to clearly identify the primary factors that contribute to the disconnection between the research findings and the implementation of innovation in the sector. This paper reports that most of the challenges have solutions that have been provided in various documents, while the majority of the challenges that necessitated these research projects continue to negatively affect the AIS. This paper aims to initiate a debate on the need to re-examine the currently existing research findings and convert them to an applied form that is ready for use by practitioners and policy makers. A variety of methods and techniques was used to gather the information contained in the paper, but the primary methods used were reviewing work from researchers across the world regarding the implementation of research findings, reviewing previously published research results on the challenges facing the AIS and semi-structured interviews with senior researchers and policy implementers in randomly selected African countries. The findings of these studies strongly suggest that researchers within these countries continue to present their findings at various forums but that very little of the research is translated for implementation. A number of causes of this situation are identified herein and recommendations for addressing the challenges are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research capacities in African universities are less developed due to many challenges — poor research infrastructure, limited Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), the lack of leadership mandate and support, the lack of congenial political and academic environment in some countries, shortage and lack of faculty to pursue academic research due to heavy teaching loads, inadequate financial support, etc. This paper discusses the challenges facing higher education research in Africa. Using research reports, policy papers, and data in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), the Arts & Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI) and the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) from Thompson’s Web of Science, this paper discusses the state of academic research in Africa. The author argues that for the continent of Africa to experience socioeconomic development, universities and research institutes need robust research agendas that will unleash to their economies the knowledge, ideas, innovation, and technologies for economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper argues the need to expand the research agenda on the use of ICT in African countries to include a stronger strategic developmental focus than is evident in much of the literature to date. Four strategic dimensions are identified, where ICT arguably has potential as a significant enabler for transformational development in Africa: institutional infrastructure; governance, accountability, and civil society; service production and economic activity; and access to global markets and resources. A representative set of literature on IS in Africa is classified along these dimensions, but an explicit focus on development is found to be lacking in most of this work. The four dimensions are then discussed in turn to describe their importance in the African context, to discuss some pathfinding research examples to date and to identify some directions for future research. The paper concludes with a call for IS researchers working on Africa to become involved in debate on national and international policy from an ICT perspective and to engage with other research communities in doing this, notably with those concerned with the field of African development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In discussions of Africa in the global North, the term ‘development’ is one of the most often used—though its meaning can be remarkably difficult to pin down. The sustainability of development processes and outcomes is also of current concern in development discourse. If sustainable development can be described in terms of ongoing, enhanced human well-being as well as continued national economic growth, then it requires the full participation of the target community. Development that is ‘done to’ people has little chance of sustainability. The central argument of this paper is that sustainable development, defined as many experts are defining it today, is not possible without attention to questions of language choice and literacy ability. Indeed, experts have recognized that the learning contexts (both formal and nonformal) needed for sustained development in the two-thirds world are currently quite inadequate to the task. Given this fact, the crucial role of language and literacy in truly sustainable development deserves careful attention. In this paper the specific links between language, development and literacy are explored. Examples from across sub-Saharan Africa are then given regarding the impact that is possible when local-language literacy is made part of the broader development picture. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In recent years diplomatic and economic relations between China and many African countries have deepened. This has been driven largely by China's remarkable economic growth, which has increased demand for energy and commodities, thus encouraging trade and investment with different African countries. Additionally, China is playing a key role in the emerging challenge to the unequal architecture of global trade and governance, for which it seeks political allies. For Africa, the impacts of these deepening relationships are mixed. Rising commodity prices, direct investment, aid, and cheap consumer goods can be beneficial; but China also threatens to undercut local manufacturing sectors and compete for export markets, notably in textiles. China also has a history of support for authoritarian and corrupt regimes, and its (stated) insistence on non-interference in sovereign affairs may undermine more progressive efforts towards accountability, transparency, conflict reduction, and environmental and social protection. This paper explores how UK broadsheet newspapers represent China's complex relations in Africa, and in doing so, how they reflect on the West's own role(s) in Africa. The paper concludes by debating the importance of these media images at a time when China's rise is being anxiously observed by western publics and policy communities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This article examines the concept ‘Integrated Water Resources Management’ (IWRM) and inquires as to its relevance for the Southern African region. The paper first acknowledges the contributions made to IWRM by three regional initiatives—WaterNet, the Water Research Fund for Southern Africa (WARFSA), and the Southern African chapter of the Global Water Partnership. Then, three important aspects of IWRM are highlighted: that IWRM requires institutional capacity to integrate, which often is a scarce resource; that IWRM is neither solution nor recipe, but rather a perspective or way of looking at problems with a view to solving them through transparent and inclusive decision-making processes; and that IWRM should explicitly deal with the fact that water tends to build asymmetrical relationships between people, communities and nations. An IWRM agenda is subsequently set out, focussing on five critical issues: the dilemma between economic development and sustainability; the unresolved issue of water as an economic good; the place and role of rainfed farmers in IWRM; the importance of training and teaching; and the need for building reflexive capacity in the new and existing water institutions. The paper concludes that IWRM is a relevant, yet elusive and fuzzy concept. Evidence from Southern Africa and around the world shows that IWRM inspires a new generation of water managers and researchers to act creatively; assists in addressing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs); and instils mutual respect, understanding and co-operation among water professionals in Southern Africa. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper uses cross-national data to investigate the extent to which the adoption of human development strategies has resulted in a reduction of poverty in Africa. Inter-country variations in income and human poverty reinforce the established patterns of well-being within the continent, as countries in Northern and Southern Africa have the lowest levels of poverty. The empirical analysis reveals that inter- country differences in poverty levels can be accounted for by variables indicative of the different facets of human development. These include public expenditure on education, primary school enrolment, female educational enrolment, expenditure on health, and good governance. Other significant variables apart from those pertaining to human development are economic growth, high external debt, the prevalence of HIV/AIDS and the geographical disadvantage of being a landlocked country. The paper also shows that foreign aid has had a limited effect on poverty reduction in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major concern in the development of African economies is the impact of corruption on economic growth and while there is general agreement on its detrimental effects, there is considerable debate over its nature and importance. In particular there is little work on the interaction between corruption, government expenditures and how this influences economic growth in countries in the region. This paper takes an endogenous growth model, extends it to include different categories of government spending and then introduces the possibility of corruption, which is allowed to have different effects on each of the categories. The results confirm the negative effect of corruption and military spending, but also show that corruption interacts with military burden, through indirect and complementary effects, to further increase its negative effect. The policy implications are that the effects of corruption on economic growth are worse than was thought in countries which have high military burdens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the impact of the financial and banking development in reducing poverty in Africa from 1990 to 2014. The study it shows that the banking sector is a useful tool to overcome poverty in African countries in terms of further development and activity according to the points made in the revised results achieved and literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the effect of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) on export diversification in Sub-Saharan Africa. The existing empirical studies suggest that AGOA has had a positive effect on the overallvolumeof trade between Sub-Saharan Africa and the United States. However, the economic development literature emphasizes the importance of exportdiversificationfor developing countries; therefore, it is important to understand the effects of AGOA on theextensivemargin of trade (i.e. the number of distinct products a country exports). Our empirical results suggest that AGOA does contribute to export diversification, specifically through its apparel provision. Countries that are eligible for the AGOA apparel provision export not only more apparel products, but also more non-apparel products to the USA. Thus, AGOA contributes to export diversification at the extensive margin of trade with the USA. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The present paper presents a hypothetical endeavour on the claim that China is a particularly rapacious neocolonialist in its interactions with individual African countries. Taking a trade-dependency perspective and using trade composition and relative trade intensity analysis, the most salient finding is that ten African countries (Angola, the Sudan, the D.R. Congo, the Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Chad, Zambia, Mauritania, the Central African Republic, and Equatorial Guinea) have a high relative trade intensity index with respect to China, implying that they are now locked into a relationship of dependency on China. Given the lack of a commonly accepted or an entirely consistent definition of colonialism, this trade dependency could be seen by some critics as reminiscence of the colonial interactions. Taking to the extreme and in an analogy to the Berlin Conference of 1885 that set African borders, these results suggest that these ten countries are becoming what could be termed "Chinese zones of influence." Although our interpretation is by no means proof of China's alleged colonialism in Africa, it does provide some empirical relevance in regard to economic developments that tend to be associated—rightly or wrongly—with allegations of colonialism in modern Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the total amount of alcohol consumed in the African region is expected to increase due to the growth of new alcohol consumers, especially young people and women. With the changing alcohol environment, increases in the alcohol-attributable burden of disease are inevitable. To our knowledge, there has not been a comprehensive analysis of the factors that could be driving those increases. The objective of this study was to examine the evidence from peer reviewed literature regarding the factors that could be instrumental in this process, in order to inform strategic policy-related decisions. Method A narrative review was conducted using a thematic analysis approach. We searched papers published between January 2000 and July 2014 in PubMed, the WHO's Global Health Library and African Journals Online. Results Our analysis identified seven factors (demographics, rapid urbanization, economic development, increased availability, corporate targeting, weak policy infrastructure and trade agreements) which are potentially tied to changes in alcohol consumption in Africa. Driven largely by globalization, a potential convergence of these various factors is likely to be associated with continued growth in alcohol consumption and alcohol-related morbidity and mortality. Conclusions To address the emerging risk factors associated with increased alcohol consumption, African governments need to take a more active role in protecting the public's health. In particular, important strategic shifts are needed to increase implementation of intersectoral strategies, community involvement in the policy dialogue, health services re-orientation and better regulation of the alcohol beverage industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After an impressive acceleration in growth and poverty reduction since the mid-1990s, many African countries continue to register robust growth in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Will this growth persist, given the tepid recovery in developed countries, numerous weather shocks, and civil conflicts in Africa? This paper “stress tests” African economies. The findings indicate that Africa's long-term growth is fairly impervious to a prolonged recession in high-income countries. Growth is, however, much more sensitive to a disruption of capital flows to the region, and to internal shocks, such as civil conflict and drought, even if the latter follow historical patterns. The broad policy implication is that with proper domestic production conditions African countries can sustain robust long-term growth. Because of the economic dominance of the agriculture sector and the share of food in household budgets, countries will need to increase the resilience of agriculture and protect it from unfavorable climate change impacts, such as drought. As in the past, civil conflicts and violence will pose by far the greatest threat to Africa's performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of natural resources on foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa. Decomposing the measures of natural resource, in terms of contribution to GDP (oil rent (OR), mineral rent (MR) and forest rents (FRs)) and export drive (fuel exports (FE) and minerals export), with the objective of obtaining quantitative estimates of their relationship with FDI, we considered the effect of regional or trade blocks on the continent and control for trade openness, financial market development and infrastructure. Design/methodology/approach – Using annual panel data of 49 African countries over the period 1980-2011 and employing the system GMM estimation technique. Findings – The authors show that after allowing for effect of trade or regional block formation, natural resources in its composite form (ORs, MRs, forest rents (FRs), FEs and minerals export) influences FDI in Africa. Quantitatively, we demonstrate that though natural resources (compositely) influences FDI, the different measures of natural resource differ significantly in terms of their marginal contribution in attracting FDI to the continent especially to different trade blocks. The authors provide that in the presence of certain type of natural resources, trade openness or banking sector credit expansion or infrastructural development is less desirable whilst regional or trade blocks strongly moderate the effect of financial market development and infrastructural development on FDI flow on the continent. Originality/value – The authors employed a broad data set to provide evidence of the association between natural resources in its composite form and well as its various component and FDI to African after accounting for regional/trade blocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]