Africa’s economic, business and public policy analysts are forecasting that the speed and scope of the continent’s post-COVID-19 recovery will largely depend on the effective implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). These views were contained in the recent UN publication, “Africa Renewal.”
The AfCFTA is an African...
Governments around the world are responding forcefully to the COVID-19 crisis with a combined fiscal and monetary response that has already reached 10% of global GDP. Yet according to the latest global assessment from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, these stimulus measures may not boost...
As the COVID-19 crisis has escalated, stay-at-home orders have led to a surge in online purchases – of everything from groceries to medicines to household essentials – by consumers in the advanced economies. Africans facing similar movement restrictions will not enjoy the same convenience – or the safety it...
Food security in sub-Saharan Africa is under threat. The ability of many Africans to access sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs has been disrupted by successive natural disasters and epidemics. Cyclones Idai and Kenneth, locust outbreaks in eastern Africa, and droughts in southern and eastern...
The economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic could push rural families even deeper into poverty and threaten global prosperity and stability
The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to the loss of millions of jobs in the developed and developing world. Migrant workers are among the most directly...
As Africa braces itself for a surge of coronavirus infections, both China and the US are claiming to be Africa's greatest supporter; but there is more at stake in this escalating rivalry than simply tackling the virus, writes BBC Africa correspondent Andrew Harding.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was...
It is quite some exciting news in the midst of all the chaos currently engulfing the United States of America as the fight to get reforms to curtail injustice perpetuated against blacks across the country. This has received some sort of endorsement with protests around the world with the...
With the COVID-19 pandemic and economic slowdown threatening the lives and livelihoods of the world’s most vulnerable people, the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has committed US$40 million to support farmers and rural communities to continue growing and selling food.
IFAD’s new multi-donor fund, the COVID-19 Rural Poor...
Invasion of desert locusts, civil conflicts in parts of the West African region, and the global outbreak of COVID-19 pause a huge threat to Africa’s 2020 food security despite highly favorable climatic conditions in most parts of the continent.
According to the latest Food Security Monitor report by the Alliance...