This year marks the 10th birthday of Project Umubano, the Conservative Party’s social action project in Rwanda. And this August, as we have done have done every August for the past nine years, 80 Conservative volunteers, from all levels in the Party, will travel there to work with our Rwandan friends and counterparts on international […]
Last week on CapX I explained why the theoretical case for foreign aid is, at best, questionable, and why aid’s practical impact on some of the world’s poorest economies may well have been harmful. The case against aid doesn’t stop there. There are also problems with aid delivery and the negative impact of foreign aid on […]
In 2015, David Cameron’s government enshrined in law the UK’s commitment to spend 0.7 per cent of its gross national income on foreign aid each year. Ahead of last month’s general election, Theresa May reaffirmed Cameron’s commitment, which amounted to over 13 billion pounds in 2016. “Let’s be clear,” May said, “the 0.7 per cent commitment […]
In Ghana, a for-profit firm called LandMapp is “unlocking land’s value” by helping to secure farmer’s unofficial land rights. These farmers may have customary or traditional rights to their land, but in many cases these rights are not formally recognised. The company uses GPS-enabled smartphones to map the boundaries of farmers’ plots. They verify boundary […]
Most people don’t realise there is a global education crisis. But on current trends, over half the world’s children, around 800 million, will not be ready for the modern work place by 2030. They won’t have the basic skills. Today, 330 million are in school not learning, while 263 million are out of school. The […]
How do you stimulate economic growth in poor countries with faulty institutions? In the past, some thought foreign aid was the answer. But, as we have found out over the past 60 years or so, foreign aid cannot spur growth in countries lacking the rule of law, property rights and accountable government. In many places, […]
The kidnapping of nearly 300 schoolgirls in April 2014 by Boko Haram sparked a worldwide campaign for the Nigerian Government to ensure their safe return. This month, Boko Haram agreed to release 82 of the girls in a prisoner exchange deal, redirecting public attention back to the ongoing conflict in the region. With the exception […]
Politicians, being no better than the people who elect them, seek to further their agenda by following the path of least resistance. Nowhere is this more obvious than in contemporary South Africa, where the legacy of a peaceful transfer of power from the white minority to black majority is daily undermined by politicians seeking to […]
Grinding poverty, drought, lack of healthcare and fragile government institutions may not always sit high on the agenda of those seeking to address piracy and violent extremism. Yet the link between political stability and development is a critical one that must be addressed by delegates at today’s UK Somalia Conference in London. Somalia is facing famine. […]
During the recent Global Entrepreneurship Congress – which took place for this first time in Africa this year – I was interested to hear from a young woman named Shivani Siroya. Shivana is the founder of Tala Mobile, a company that offers micro-loans in Kenya and Tanzania. Tala has an intriguing premise: the company believes […]
As the Trump Administration advances past its first 100 days in office, its foreign policy team, as well as their counterparts in other Western capitals, would be well-advised to consider some important global demographic trends. If overlooked, these trends will become a threat to global stability. While population growth rates are slowing, if not declining in […]
Ever since African nations began to gain independence in the 1960s, Western countries have looked to assist their economic development. While the nature of this assistance has changed over time, many of the approaches to spurring economic growth in Africa continue to neglect some of the most pressing reforms needed to help lift people out […]
A few days before Christmas, I had the most tense journey to an airport of my life. I was in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where I had been reporting on the end of President Joseph Kabila’s term (he had refused to step down, despite being constitutionally limited to two terms). My […]
A bizarre column in Australia’s Daily Telegraph last month argued that it should be illegal to be a stay-at-home mom. The piece was met with ridicule, and rightly so. Women should be free to make their own choices about family and career. Fortunately, no country actually bans a woman’s choice to be a homemaker. Unfortunately, in […]
Robert Colvile’s excellent article on Prince Charles’s misunderstanding of the causes of African poverty provides a good opportunity to take a closer look at Africa’s economic history. African poverty was not caused by colonialism, capitalism or free trade. As I have noted before, many of Europe’s former dependencies became rich precisely because they maintained many of […]
Since 2000, when Africa was branded “the hopeless continent” by The Economist, its countries have (albeit with marked exceptions) made significant progress in human and economic development. Real average incomes have risen over 50 per cent, life expectancy has increased by nearly 20 per cent and infant mortality has nearly halved. Those looking for the […]
Watch or listen to CapX’s weekly podcast ‘The Capitalist’ wherever you get your podcasts.
