An African woman has been married for 13 years and for every day of those 13 years she worked hard with her husband to cultivate a small piece of land he owned growing vegetables which she then sold in the market. Tragedy struck when her husband died leaving her to fend for their two young daughters. Four days after burying her husband the latter's family evicted her, taking possession of the land and house and leaving her destitute.
While the last 15 years have seen relatively high levels of growth driven by a commodity super-cycle and strong internal demand from a growing middleclass, Africa is still dependent on commodities for most of its export earnings. There is now broad consensus that, without diversified economies, Africa will remain prone to exogenous shocks and trapped in the paradox of high growth rates, coexisting with high levels of unemployment and extreme poverty.
Over the past two decades, the international order has undergone a qualitative change. As a matter of fact, a new discourse has gained prominence in the international relations theory that emphasizes a rapidly changing global environment characterized by an ever-growing confluence of world- scale challenges.
The new Africa story with growth, investment and expanding opportunities was seriously shaken by recent developments. After successful demonstrations of the new narrative were reaffirmed in many forums, including the EU-Africa Summit and President Obama Africa Leaders Summit, alarming predictions around Ebola economic impact in the continent’s performance started a negative news cycle that spread fast.
Rwanda’s National Dialogue is a unique form of participatory democracy that keeps the momentum on the country fascinating two decades of development. Inclusiveness, togetherness, and unity, the topic of December 2014's Umushyikirano resonated well with transformation
History has shown the tenacity of African youth. Some of the most renowned figures of Africa’s independence struggle started their political engagements as young adults. By the time he turned 37, Kwame Nkrumah was deeply involved in the planning of the 1945 Pan-African Congress in Manchester. Abdul Gamel Nasser, at 35, was a colonel in the Egyptian army and became President at 38. Frantz Fanon at age 27 wrote his first book to worldwide critical acclaim.
This year Africa celebrates fifty years since the founding of the Organization of African Unity (OAU); never before has the continent been so poised to reap the benefit of its enormous resources. Sweeping political and economic changes over half a century have reformed global power structures, reconfigured international relations and led to serious rethinking of development paradigms.
Africa’s political economy is deeply ingrained with its history of the exploitation and (mis)management of its mineral and natural resources.
Grappling with goals for sustainable development is not only a demanding task but also a big challenge. Sustainable development seeks to achieve social and economic progress in ways that will not exhaust the earth's natural resources. The world's resources are finite, and growth that is unmanaged and un-sustained will lead to deteriorating conditions for all. We owe it to future generations to explore lifestyles and paths of development that effectively balance opportunities with possibilities. Therefore, creating goals are an important dimension to sustain development.
Smallholder producers, who are most directly dependent on ecosystem services, are critical agents for the future of agriculture in Africa. They contribute to poverty reduction and food security, especially in the rural areas. Disappointingly, they are often excluded from debates on agricultural investments. This exclusion has become more pronounced in the debate on Large Scale Land Based Investments.