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The European Union has developed a one-size-fits-all approach to promote good governance reforms in African countries, focusing on strengthening the effectiveness of state institutions while increasingly asking for reforms that also target their democratic quality. Assessing the EU's policies in Angola and Ethiopia reveals, however, that the implementation of this approach is more differential. While the EU has a hard time making the two governments address governance issues, it has been more successful in implementing its policy approach in Ethiopia than in Angola. These differences are largely explained by these countries' different degrees of interdependency with the EU rather than differences in stability and democracy. Unlike Angola, Ethiopia heavily relies on EU development aid, giving the EU greater leverage to push for governance reforms. While conditionality is more effective in making African governments address governance issues, it undermines the legitimacy of the EU's development cooperation, which emphasizes partnership and ownership. Adapted from the source document.

Local economic development agencies (LEDAs) are increasingly important actors in place-based local economic development particularly in the global South. In South Africa there has been an expanded role for LEDAs in terms of the policy significance of local economic development. Although considerable research has been undertaken concerning the merits, challenges and contributions of LED in South Africa only limited material is available concerning the institutional and organisational arrangements to support the implementation of LED. Using policy documents, close engagement with the key national policy-making government departments and a national survey of the activities, operational challenges, and institutional constraints facing LEDAs, the findings from this investigation provide new insight into their role in place-based development. From the unfolding South African experience the strategic establishment of LEDAs potentially can contribute to maximizing the efficiency of place-based strategies. Arguably, key findings confirm the important contribution that LEDAs can make to locality development in the global South albeit that contribution is influenced by context realities.

Local economic development agencies (LEDAs) are increasingly important actors in place-based local economic development particularly in the global South. In South Africa there has been an expanded role for LEDAs in terms of the policy significance of local economic development. Although considerable research has been undertaken concerning the merits, challenges and contributions of LED in South Africa only limited material is available concerning the institutional and organisational arrangements to support the implementation of LED. Using policy documents, close engagement with the key national policy-making government departments and a national survey of the activities, operational challenges, and institutional constraints facing LEDAs, the findings from this investigation provide new insight into their role in place-based development. From the unfolding South African experience the strategic establishment of LEDAs potentially can contribute to maximizing the efficiency of place-based strategies. Arguably, key findings confirm the important contribution that LEDAs can make to locality development in the global South albeit that contribution is influenced by context realities.

The existence of large state-owned Chinese firms and private investors engaged in investing primarily, but not exclusively, in resource and infrastructure sectors in SSA (Sub-Saharan Africa) is a major preoccupation in economic and political circles. In order to understand it, Chinese investment has to be differentiated into four different types, and its distinctive characteristic unpacked –ie, the bundling together of aid, trade and FDI (foreign direct investment)–. This has major policy implications for how SSA should relate to Chinese investors in order to maximise available opportunities. There is widespread economic and political interest in the impact of Chinese investment in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This paper distinguishes between four different types of Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI), primarily focusing on SSA's engagement with large state-owned Chinese firms investing in SSA's resource and infrastructure sectors. Although there is a paucity of published research, it also provides evidence on private Chinese FDI in wholesale/retail, manufacturing, and services. The available evidence drawn from a variety of sources –macro, micro, firm surveys and country reports– on the extent of different types of Chinese investment is discussed. The distinctive character of large-scale state-owned Chinese investors is summed up in the bundling together of aid, trade and FDI, in contrast to traditional western trends which seek to unbundle these factors. The paper concludes that SSA countries should maximise the opportunities opened to them by their resource-base by adopting a similarly integrated and focused response to Chinese (and other large) investors who seek to draw on the continent's natural resources.

This book presents a snapshot of a major challenge, and shares subjective views on various areas of conflict in Africa and the diverse theoretical and practical efforts to achieve peace. Following an essential review of several real-world conflict contexts on the African continent and attempts to come to terms with them critically as a first step, the book explores the lessons learned to date with regard to peace studies in Africa.

As investment in new ventures across the African continent grows, and enterprises multiply in a wide variety of sectors, the next wave of challenges and opportunities has become apparent to those with the experience and vision to understand them. In this book for investors, institutions, entrepreneurs, and everyone interested in the economic future of Africa, noted Kenyan executive Edward Mungai will analyze recent successes and failures in business ventures across the African continent and identify the most important opportunities for impact investment impacting the future of Africa available today and in the near future.--

Whether the revolutions in North Africa are Marxist or democratic, they sure have Marxist touch in that they grew out of people's frustration with unemployment, elitist corruption, high cost of food, human right abuses, lack of freedom of speech and general poor living conditions. Although they are inspired by democratic desires and supported by democratic influences, which are curiously excessive, they nonetheless exhibit elements of Marxism. This paper aims at three things: to provide a Marxist interpretation to the revolutions in North Africa, to point out the influence which democracy or the democratic ideals had on them, and to extrapolate on the unintended consequences of excessive democratic influence.

The citizenry of South Africa is largely excluded from desicion making on public policy issues beyond the borders of their state. This contributes to their disempowerment in the face of seemingly inevitable and anonymous forces of globalisation and adds to their alienation from, and apathy towards, foreign policy. By tracing the causes and consequences of these processes in contemporary South Africa, and by re-defining foreign policy (to cover all public policy "beyond" the state) and public participation (to broaden it into "democratic participation" in the full sense of the term) this article attempts to open public space for a democratic transformation of collective responses to public policy beyond the state. (Politeia/DÜI)

In Lipchin, C.; Sandler, D.; Cushman, E. (Eds.). The Jordan River and Dead Sea Basin: cooperation amid conflict. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer ; NATO Science for Peace and Security Series - C: Environmental Security ; Africa is a continent of extreme water resource environments with arguably the greatest spatial and temporal natural water supply variability in the world. Africa is also a land of transboundary waters. With the exception of island states, every African country has territory in at least one transboundary river basin. These basins cover 62% of Africa's total land area, and virtually every one greater than 50,000 km2 crosses at least one national boundary. The management of these transboundary waters in conditions of such variability has been made even more complex by the unique political and economic history of the continent, in particular as related to the involvement of outside actors. In the first half of the 20th century this involvement was related to colonialism. From the second half to the present, it has involved bi-lateral and international donors, lenders and international NGOs. In this paper, we examine the impacts of this influence by first reviewing the development of transboundary water law in Africa. We then examine how the global norms now mentioned in African law, in particular equity in water allocation, have actually influenced agreement content. Finally, we examine the extent to which influences wielded by international actors are a logical response to conditions in Africa's international basins. The results highlight the tangible influences of international actors on the orientation and content of basin level agreements and suggest the use of greater discretion in the application of international paradigms to water management agreements in extreme environments.