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
When in March this year Guinean authorities reported the first positive tests for Ebola in the West African region, the news came as a surprise for scientists and were treated passively by most. After all Ebola had killed over a period of thirty years more than two thousand people, since it was first discovered in Yambuku, in the DRC. Never did it surface outside the Great Lakes and it has never been perceived as a threat for an entire country.
The Green Economy is based on the premise that social and economic progress must be achieved in ways that will not exhaust the earth’s finite natural resources and that will cope with the concerns over lack of natural resources, environmental devastation, and climate change.
The economic weight of Southern actors at the global level over the last two decades has been unprecedented in speed and scale. Whilst growth levels of western economies plummeted following the 2008-2009 financial crisis, developing economies continued to grow at high rates, largely driven by a variety of factors, including sound industrial policies and investments in human, physical and technological capacities.
One only needs to pick up a magazine or leading newspaper to read about innovations that are sweeping across Africa. From M-Pesa, a mobile money transfer service invented in Kenya that has revolutionized African banking practices, to South Africa hosting the Square Kilometer Array, the world’s largest and most powerful radio telescope ever constructed. This is quite different from common perception. Should Africa’s attainments come as a surprise?