In May 2010, the Department of Trade and Industry finalised its draft Trade Policy and Strategy Framework document, following the release of the 2010/11–2012/13 Industrial Policy Action Plan in February.
The recent 19th African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, injected new momentum into the decade old African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) with the appointment of new leadership to the APR Forum and the APR Panel. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Barrister Akere Muna will play pivotal roles in the two afore-mentioned governing bodies of Africa’s unique voluntary governance assessment instrument. How will the new appointments affect the mechanism that is heading into its second decade of existence?
The paper discusses the impact of non-tariff barriers (NTBs) in the Southern African Development Community region.
The recent global conference of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), convened in Sydney from 23-24 May 2013, provided an opportunity for the EITI board to adopt and launch the EITI Standard, a new set of membership criteria and reporting standards aimed at strengthening the contribution of the EITI to improved governance of extractive industries.
Biofuels have been heralded as a solution to the world’s dependence on hydrocarbons and are promoted under international carbon trading schemes as a mitigation tool for climate change – impelling first world governments to incorporate biofuels into energy mandates for transport industries. Due to the amount of land needed to grow biofuel crops such as jatropha, sugarcane and oil palm, the biofuels market has given rise to a rush to buy up the world’s farmland.
The Fifth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD V) will be held from 1–3 June 2013 in Yokohama, Japan. Although in co-sponsorship with many international organisations, the conference, first held in 1993, is the main Japanese platform for Africa’s development.
This year’s elections in Zimbabwe may well prove to be a watershed for the Southern African country but as the elections move ever closer, the outcome appears less and less certain.
Increasingly assertive in continental politics and highly visible in a number of key global regulatory frameworks for the extractive sector, observers continue to wonder why South Africa (SA) remains conspicuously absent from the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).
On 21 May 2013 SAIIA and the University of the Witwatersrand co-hosted a visit by the Canadian Governor General, His Excellency, The Right Honourable, David Johnston for a keynote address and discussion. The event was held to discuss the importance of Canada-South Africa Relations on the occasion of His Excellency’s State Visit to South Africa. Indeed, the bonds between South Africa and Canada run deep and bilateral cooperation dates as far back as the 1920’s.
The loss of momentum of one of the most ingenious African-initiated and African-led mechanisms for monitoring governance reforms and deficiencies, and nurturing African solutions to African problems, the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), is most worrying.
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