Success Rate of Beijing’s Plans to Alleviate Poverty is Unprecedented
China has captured the world’s attention. There are two reasons for this: 1.3 billion people and a rate of economic growth doubling the economy every five years since 1980.
China has captured the world’s attention. There are two reasons for this: 1.3 billion people and a rate of economic growth doubling the economy every five years since 1980.
While there was great anticipation about the results for Africa at the Gleneagles summit, perhaps the release of Ghana and Rwanda’s African peer review reports will prove more significant.
On a maize-covered hill in Swaziland’s central belt, 75-year-old Josphephia Sihlongonyane surveyed the coming harvest with her neighbour, Dorkas Dlamini. The ears were fat and drying on the stalk in the April sun. It would be a fine yield, the two women agreed.
Lack of credit and underdeveloped financial services prevent growth in Africa, businesses say. Filling the gap between street-level informal traders and the big corporations run by multinationals or the state, Africa’s small and medium-sized firms could be the driver of jobs and economic growth.
African banks are caught in a vicious cycle: lack of infrastructure and weak technology mean poor service and high costs.
Despite having been present at the creation of the general agreement on tariffs and trade (GATT), South Africa is a new actor on the global stage, and the architects of its trade strategy have to deal with increasingly challenging contradictions between the structure of the local economy and the rules of the global game.
The Global Best Practice series examines a number of case studies in various sectors, with the aim of assessing their potential applicability in the Africa developmental context.
Bill Corcoran offers a first-hand look at a brutal campaign that’s destroying livelihoods.
Africa has the world’s lowest savings rate, with little capital for banks to lend to grow productive enterprise. South Africa is changing the rules by bringing the poor into the banking system.
The World Economic Forum meeting in Cape Town will discuss the role that the private sector, and specifically SA, can play in supporting the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad).