Leaders of the Group of 20 (G-20) nations gather in St Petersburg, Russia, today, under a Syrian war cloud. Global economic crisis is in the air again, this time centred on emerging markets. The G-20 cannot fix geopolitical problems; nor will it rescue the world from Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke’s tapering of quantitative easing.
Group of 20 (G-20) leaders gather in St Petersburg, Russia, on Thursday 5 September. Global crisis is in the air again, this time centred on emerging markets; in principle, this is a circumstance that is tailor-made for this forum. What are the prospects for success at the G-20 — and with what implications for South Africa?
Against a background of growing international concern over the security of world food supply, the G-20 group of nations first recognised the need for improved global management of food security at its Pittsburgh summit in 2009.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Trade (PoT) was signed in 1996 with the aim of increasing trade between member states through the elimination of tariffs and harmonisation of customs procedures.
In the two decades since the end of Mozambique’s civil war the country has depended heavily on international donors to fund its development.
The value of nature’s ‘services’ and its non-market benefits need to be better understood and incorporated into the development choices that countries make.
Small-scale fisheries in Africa employ over 95% of fishers and provide more than 90% of the fish consumed across the continent. In Mozambique, as elsewhere on the continent, small-scale fisheries are a crucial component of the rural economy, supporting food security and livelihoods.
When heads of state met in Lilongwe, Malawi, for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit on 17 and 18 August 2013, one of their agenda items was a report from the Ministerial Task Force on Regional Economic Integration. This task force has been working on a roadmap towards the formation of a SADC Customs Union, which aims to take regional integration within the bloc one step beyond the existing Free Trade Area (FTA) that was launched in 2008.
Today, on 21 August 2013, a year has passed since the death of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, the man considered to be the leading architect of post-Derg Ethiopia. Following his death, the future of a resurgent Ethiopia hung by a thread. Uncertainty mounted in the vast country of over 80 million inhabitants, with over 60 diverse ethnicities and two major religions that have cohabitated uncomfortably for decades.
There are many faces to China’s presence in Sierra Leone and its present role there. Chinese investments, ‘gifts’ and trading activities have gone some way to reshaping the stereotype of Beijing as solely an exploiter of Africa’s minerals resources.
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