The jubilation on the streets of Tel Aviv and Ramallah suggests that there is considerable support for continued calm among Israelis and Palestinians. Yet much depends on upcoming negotiations regarding the next phases of the cease-fire agreement
Rebuilding Gaza will not be easy, but we must try
Middle East Institute
This study evaluates the economic costs for three Egyptian coastal cities of catastrophic flooding resulting from either sea-level rise or intense rainfall. Using a computable general equilibrium (CGE) framework, we assess the higher-order impacts of physical capital loss on both regional and national economies
The Economic Impacts of Flooding in Egyptian Port Cities
Policy Center for the New South
Avec une croissance de 3,4% par an au cours de la période 1980-2019, la Mauritanie a enregistré de bonnes performances économiques au cours des quatre décennies précédant la période de Covid-19, qui l’ont fait passer au rang de pays à « revenu intermédiaire de la tranche inférieure ».
Impulser la transformation de la Mauritanie par la réforme de l'architecture financière mondiale
African Development Bank Group
This paper explores the energy geopolitical implications of the ‘other’ energy transition, ie, the slow but steady shift in global energy demand from traditional OECD markets to developing countries in the coming decades. It is a pilot study that aims to raise attention and invite discussion on this topic.
The geopolitics of the global energy demand shift
Real Instituto Elcano
With scarce arable land and water resources, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia depend heavily on food imports, as do other Gulf countries. The COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine war, and negative impacts of climate change exacerbated the challenge and exposed the vulnerability of their existing food supply chains.
UAE and Saudi Arabias agricultural diplomacy in Africa: Competition, cooperation and its strategic implications
Observer Research Foundation
The South African public transport sector is facing a critical crisis, marked by escalating violence and extortion within the taxi industry. This report delves into the dynamics behind these troubling incidents, shedding light on the severe impact they have on bus companies and the broader public transport ecosystem.
Crime and conflict in South Africas long-distance transport industry
Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime
The Multi-Partner Somalia Infrastructure Fund (SIF) was established in October 2016 with the key objective of supporting Somalia to develop and rehabilitate key infrastructure, rebuild institutions, and reinforce economic governance. This report provides an update on the Fund’s activities covering the period January to December 2023.
Somalia infrastructure fund 2023 annual progress report
African Development Bank Group
Global Gateway represents the offer the EU is making to its external partners. It will help to tackle the most pressing global challenges, from fighting climate change to improving health systems, as well as boosting competitiveness and security of global supply chains.
Evolving Africa-Europe Relations: Prospects For a Sustainable Future
Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI)
This book provides an overview of the technical capabilities of 5G, discusses how they may impact the information and communication technology (ICT) industry, and explores how 5G can support the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) and help countries make progress toward the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The Path to 5G in the Developing World: Planning Ahead for a Smooth Transition
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
The Global South features prominently in the context of geopolitical rivalry and efforts by developing countries to change the current international economic and financial architecture. While there are questions about whether some countries—such as China or Russia—should be considered parts of the Global South (GS), it is obvious that Africa is at the center of the group.
Africa: The Center Of The Global South
Policy Center for the New South
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security and nutrition continues to constitute a global emergency.
Global food commodity prices reached a ten-year high as a result of the pandemic, gravely exacerbating pre-existing vulnerabilities and negatively impacting food security and nutrition on a large scale, particularly affecting vulnerable people and communities.
Safeguarding the right to adequate food during pandemics and emergencies: Lesson from COVID-19
International Development Law Organization & Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
African governments have notable challenges, primarily surrounding addressing formal development concerns like effective education, healthcare, infrastructure, and skilled technical workforces. However, these issues will have to be addressed in tandem with enacting formal AI regulation to preempt harms to citizens and hold companies accountable for deleterious AI systems.
How AI is impacting policy processes and outcomes in Africa
Brookings
The ‘Accelerating Private Sector Investments in Green Mini-Grids’ report, as a key takeaway from the ARE Energy Access Investment Forum 2023, presents an overview of the Distributed Renewable Energy (DRE) mini-grids sector in Africa, highlighting its potential to meet the continent’s electricity access challenge.
Accelerating private sector investments in green mini-grids
African Development Bank Group
In recent decades, urbanisation has emerged as a major trend on a global scale. This is particularly evident across Asia, Latin America and Africa, where global megacities with a population of 10 million or more experienced a population increase of 350 per cent between 1990 and 2018. This trend also plays out in the Gulf region
The future is urban: fostering Gulf-European cooperation through sustainable development
Brussels International Center
While states acknowledge the need to better protect critical infrastructure against cyber-attacks, national and international efforts have brought limited results. The solution could be a global treaty that strengthens cooperation on this matter.
Reading of the Week: Why the World Needs a New Cyber Treaty for Critical Infrastructure
Carnegie Europe
Although international negotiators are racing to secure a new temporary cease-fire, the war in the Gaza Strip shows no sign of concluding, with the conflict at risk of becoming more regionalized and the severe loss of life mounting. In the meantime, policymakers around the world struggle with the impending equation of the “day after.
Rebuilding Gaza: Navigating the politics of infrastructure
Middle East Institute
Improving the processing and trade of African wood and wood products (WWPs) has long been a focus for African policymakers because it stimulates multiple benefits for the African continent, including the creation of jobs, investment, and revenues.
Regional timber trade flows and trends in Africa
African Development Bank Group
The global economy’s recovery is faltering, and Africa is not immune. Multiple crises— including rising living costs, weakening economic growth, increasing effects of climate change, health pandemics, and geopolitical tensions— are hindering Africa’s socioeconomic development. The momentum of Africa’s economic recovery has slowed, with average real GDP growth declining to an estimated 3.2 percent in 2023, from 4.1 percent in 2022.
Africas Macroeconomic Performance and Outlook
African Development Bank Group
While recent news from Africa has been dominated by political upheaval and coups, this coverage often overshadows significant strides in innovation and science across the continent. Chief among these is the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) radio telescope, designed to capture unprecedentedly detailed images of deep space from southern skies.
The Economic Potential Of African Radio Astronomy
Geopolitical Intelligence Services (GIS)
Urbanisation is the mega trend reshaping Africa. The continent’s population is rising at a stunning rate and is expected to reach 4 billion people by the end of this century. This is coupled with unprecedented rural to-urban migration, driven largely by young people.
Reading of the Week: From Millions to Billions. Financing the Development of African Cities
African Development Bank Group
The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor represents an important shift in US and EU efforts to promote trade in the Middle East. Unlike past trade initiatives, the IMEC encompasses a broader coalition of regional and non-regional participants.
The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor: an early assessment
The Economic Research Forum (ERF)
Solving Iraq’s demographic crisis will require immediate and comprehensive action at both the state and individual level.
Without these solutions, we risk extensively harming our future generations.
Adressing Iraqs Environmental Challenges: Population Growth
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Physical and electronic infrastructure must be in place to support digital identification, document exchange, payment and online trade in Africa. Physical or ’hard‘ infrastructure includes a reliable power supply, internet connectivity and secure data-storage facilities. This infrastructure enables broadband internet access, providing a foundation for individual and business participation in the digital economy.
Strengthening Africas Digital Infrastructure for Greater Economic Resilience
The South African Institute for International Affairs
China has emerged as a key funder and builder of infrastructure in the Global South. While this has sparked development, concern about the debt impact of these projects has grown in China and around the world. This policy brief maps key trends emerging in response to this dilemma.. It first looks at the expansion and contraction of Chinese infrastructure finance to Africa and provides some background on the sharp decline in Chinese lending over the past few years. Then it highlights three emerging trends driven by both Chinese and African stakeholders: a diversification of partners, a focus on smaller projects and the emergence of new funding models.
New Trends in Chinese Infrastructure Lending to Africa
South African Institute of International Affairs
Morocco made a surprising announcement last year, on July 5, 2022. The Maghreb-Europe Gas Pipeline, which had up until November 2021 transported billions of cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas every year from Algeria to Spain via Morocco, would be reversed. Instead, natural gas imported from North America via Spain would be sold to Morocco. For the first time since the inauguration of Mediterranean pipelines, natural gas would now flow south across the Mediterranean, from Europe to the Maghreb.
In Reverse: Natural Gas and Politics in the Maghreb and Europe
Foreign Policy Research Institute
Un des droits humains fondamentaux, l’accès universel à l’eau et à l’assainissement est le sixième Objectif de Développement Durable des Nations Unies (2023) et constitue un défi pour la plupart des pays africains. Touché par une crise sécuritaire depuis 2012, le Mali a vu son réseau hydraulique affaibli par la dégradation de ses infrastructures. Le service d’alimentation en eau a subi de fortes pressions à cause des déplacements internes liés à l’insécurité.
Au Mali, la fourniture de services deau et dassainissement reste un défi
AFRO Barometer
Today’s world is characterised by deep interdependencies and a growing degree of connectivity, namely the ability to bring people, goods, systems and societies closer together, while fostering deeper economic relations and people-to-people ties. For Africa, this focus on connectivity is more important than ever, as it is a critical factor underpinning the continent’s aspirations.
African Conflictivity
European Union Institute for Security Studies
Cutting off al Shabaab’s estimated $100 million in extortion-generated annual revenue will require restoring the integrity of Somalia’s compromised financial, judicial, and intelligence agencies.Despite setbacks, al Shabaab remains a resilient and destabilizing threat in Somalia. In the past year, it was linked to 2,553 violent events and 6,225 fatalities. This represents nearly a doubling in the number of incidents since 2019. Fatalities involving al Shabaab have increased by 120 percent during this period.A key means by which al Shabaab has remained resilient is the estimated $100 million in revenue it generates annually. By comparison, the Federal Government of Somalia accrues approximately $250 million in annual revenue.
Reclaiming Al Shabaabs Revenue
Africa Center For Strategic Studies
The fundamental role that water resources play in human development has been highlighted in multiple ways; the United Nations SDGs underline 17 different goals and over a hundred targets to be achieved by 2030. Out of 169 SDG targets, 59 were found to have direct links and synergies with the water goal SDG6 (UN Water, 2016). Careful policy making and interventions need to be implemented to avoid conflict among sectors and tradeoffs must be well established. The Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM – since 1992) was adopted by most countries and made significant strides in formulating a good foundation for policies and synergies between stakeholders.
Systems approach to water management
Policy Center for the New South
La construction de villes nouvelles sur le continent africain est en vogue. Des pôles urbains multifonctionnels en passant par les écoquartiers, les images qui accompagnent l’annonce de ces projets promeuvent un futur urbain africain basé sur la modernité et la technologie. Cette mode d’un urbanisme qui prétend faire table rase avec les approches préexistantes n’est pas propre aux pays africains, les gouvernements s’inspirent notamment des modèles nord-africains et asiatiques.
Villes nouvelles, villes politiques: Diversification des acteurs et recentralisation du pouvoir étatique dans le cas de Diamniadio
Policy Center for the New South
As part of its mission, the Infrastructure Consortium for Africa tracks investments in infrastructure on the African continent, by country and by source of financing. The objective is to follow trends and to identify ways in which the amount of financing for sustainable infrastructure can be increased in the transport, water and sanitation, energy, and ICT sectors in Africa.
Infrastructure Financing Trends in Africa 2019-2020
African Development Bank Group
This policy briefing provides a brief multi-sector comparison between African and Southeast Asian experiences of environmental, socioeconomic and governance (ESG) implementation in Chinese-led infrastructure projects. It highlights recurring challenges and proposes concrete recommendations to mitigate these challenges in the future.
Future Proofing Africa China Infrastructure Cooperation
The South African Institute of International Affairs
Since the mid-2010s, North African countries have been pursuing what some observers have called a “return to Africa” (Dworkin, 2020). Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia have attempted to position themselves as major components of Europe Mediterranean-Africa infrastructure and supply chains corridors (Tanchum, 2020). The three countries are trying to act as bridges between Africa and Europe amid discussions on the evolution of the partnership between the African Union (AU) and the European Union (EU).
Digitalize To Industrialize: Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, and the Africa-Europe Partnership
Policy Center
The COVID pandemic has brought into sharp relief Africa’s digital divide. COVID-induced lockdowns and restrictions on travel made it necessary for government and business meetings and conferences to be conducted virtually, via various online formats. Consumers bought online and, most importantly, schools and tertiary educational institutions moved their courses online.
Driving Digital Inclusion Within the AfCFTA Framework
The Mediterranean Dialogue
Created in the first few moments after the Big Bang, hydrogen (H2) is the most abundant element in the universe (US EIA 2022). At the same time, since it rarely exists in its pure form on earth, it has to be manufactured (Energy Observer, 2021). Its ability to store and deliver usable energy, means it could potentially be utilized in numerous applications, such as heat and power generation, transport.
Global trade of hydrogen: what is the best way to transfer hydrogen over long distances?
The Oxford Institute For Enegy Studies
Creating the foundation for transforming the G5 Sahel countries from power fragility to power resilience by establishing sustainable and widespread energy supplies aptly summarizes the objectives of 2021 for the Desert to Power (DtP) Initiative. In this second year of the Initiative, the focus of the African Development Bank and its partners has been to support the G5 Sahel countries to identify and prepare priority projects; a difficult task while also negotiating the challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic and continued socio-political instability.
Reading of the Week: Progress Report - Transforming the G5 Sahel countries from Fragility to Resilience in the Energy Sector
African Development Bank Group
Increased connectivity and the use of digital technology are unlocking innovative business models for trade and economic activities on the African continent. Yet, the real potential for large-scale job creation and inclusive growth lies in the diffusion of digital innovations from the lead firms to the rest of the economy. Social gaps in the use of digital services and spatial inequalities in digital infrastructure development are limiting this potential.
Reading of the Week: Promoting Innovation and Digital Transformation in the Infrastructure Technology in Africa
African Center for Economic Transformation
Public utilities in most African countries have failed to deliver adequate, reliable, and competitively priced electricity to support economic growth and improve the welfare of their populations. Despite more than two decades of power sector reforms, outcomes have been varied and often disappointing. A comparative case study analysis of electric utilities in three East African countries (Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda) explores the drivers of utility performance.
A comparative analysis of electric utilities in Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda
Africa Energy Portal
Rabat’s recent announcement that it would soon sign an agreement for the construction of a “gigafactory” to make electric vehicle (EV) batteries has placed Morocco in pole position to become a green mobility leader in the Middle East and North Africa.
Moroccos green mobility revolution: The geo-economic factors driving its rise as an electric vehicle manufacturing hub
Middle East Institute
Low-profile nuclear incidents have occurred in Africa over the years, but these have not always been made known to the public at the time.
The number of African states interested in nuclear energy is rising, making nuclear safety and security increasingly important considerations.
Nuclear accidents are not the only concern; there is also a risk of radioactive material falling into the wrong hands.
Safety and Security of Nuclear Facilities and Materials in Africa
The South African Institute of International Affairs