On March 6, Zimbabwe’s Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube announced his government’s intention to scrap legislation requiring local investors to have a controlling stakes in his country’s gold and platinum mines: “We are removing that indigenisation rule, which is discouraging foreign direct investment … We say Zimbabwe is open for business” Eleven years after Zimbabwe introduced […]
It looks likely that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) will be implemented in the next few weeks. Only 22 African nations need to ratify the AfCFTA before it can be enacted, and thus far, 19 countries have done so. Last week experts from the United Nations Economic Commision for Africa met to discuss […]
The combination of mobile phone technology and the internet has had a transformative effect on many parts of Africa. By leapfrogging the landline stage of telephone development, a host of services, particularly banking, have brought economic and social gains. Which is why it’s sad to see the Ugandan government introducing a social media tax, with predictably damaging […]
In December 2018, Donald Trump approved a new strategy for Africa that includes increasing US commercial ties with the continent. According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump’s strategy “is part of a broader effort…to fight for global supremacy with Russia and China”. Geopolitical considerations aside, freer trade between the United States and Africa makes good […]
“If someone was ready to fork over $1 million to you to stop using the Internet – forever – would you do it?” Economics professor W. Michael Cox, who asked that question of his students, received an unambiguous reply. “You couldn’t pay me enough,” they answered. That answer speaks to just how priceless the internet […]
More than 60 years ago, in March 1957, Kwame Nkrumah proclaimed the independence of the British Gold Coast. Nkrumah, educated at British and American universities, was convinced of two things: first, that only independence would allow African peoples to succeed and second, that the ideal vehicle to do so would be a special kind of […]
Tomorrow the South African Parliament will find out if constitutional changes allowing for the expropriation of privately-owned farmland without compensation will move forward. The Joint Constitutional Review Committee will deliver their verdict to the National Assembly, and if the Committee decides the nation should continue to pursue expropriation, the proposition will proceed to parliament for […]
Child labour was once ubiquitous. Take, for example, ancient Rome. As Mary Beard noted in her 2015 book SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, “Child labour was the norm. It is not a problem, or even a category, that most Romans would have understood. The invention of ‘childhood’ and the regulation of what work ‘children’ […]
What is the biggest education challenge the world faces? It’s hard to argue with a number as large as 263 million. That is how many children around the world don’t go to school. Particularly worrying is the fact that, for all the myriad ways in which life for the world’s poorest is getting better, the […]
The pronouncements on Brexit – both from the Government and commentators in the media – have been pretty downbeat of late. There has been focus on division and delay, confusion and complexity. Ministers sound sullen as they proceed with what many regard as a damage limitation exercise. They talk of “implementing the decision of the […]
When Lady Sybil, a wealthy British aristocrat in the popular television shown Downton Abbey, died of eclampsia during an episode set in 1920, it was a reminder of the progress that mankind has been made on maternal mortality. Despite being able to afford the best medical care of the day, Lady Sybil suffered from the […]
Cash transfers transformed the life of a 63-year-old widow from eastern Rwanda according to a recent New York Times article. These transfers were part of a study funded by Google.org and USAID that analysed the different outcomes from three types if aid: in-kind aid — providing actual goods and/or services; the monetary equivalent of the […]
In 2015, malaria killed between 438,000 and 722,000 people, mostly in Africa, Asia and Latin America. On top of all that human suffering, malaria seriously hampers economic development in poor countries. The disease reduces overall labour productivity, reduces agricultural output, discourages investment and tourism, and damages educational outcomes due to high degrees of absenteeism among […]
All over the world more children than ever are attending school. However, many do not acquire foundational skills in reading and mathematics. In fact, according to the UN, the majority of children in the world are still not learning these basics. One way to seriously make an impact is to bring more players into the […]
South Africa’s government has recently flirted with the idea of changing its constitution to let the state expropriate farmland without compensation. They need only look north to Zimbabwe to see the disastrous consequences of this kind of policy. In the early 2000s, Zimbabwe’s former dictator Robert Mugabe gave the green light to his paramilitary supporters […]
Donald Trump tweeted something strange last week. In itself, that’s nothing unusual. The President certainly has form when it comes to outlandish and whacky pronouncements. But amid his calling the Mueller investigation “a rigged witch hunt” and attacking his former lawyer Michael Cohen, Trump said something else. He revealed he had instructed Secretary of State […]
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