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During the past two decades, most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa undertook extensive economic reforms to reduce the role of the government and increase the role of the market in their economies. Because of the importance of the agricultural sector in the region, agricultural market reforms occupied a central place in these liberalization efforts. Agricultural reforms included the removal of price controls, deregulation of agricultural marketing, closure of state-owned enterprises that monopolized agricultural trade, and changes in the foreign exchange market to provide greater incentives for exports. The expectation was that improving price incentives for farmers and reducing government intervention in the agricultural sector would be enough to generate a supply response and allow well-functioning markets to emerge quickly. Almost two decades later, the general consensus is that the reform programs in Sub-Saharan Africa have not met expectations. At the beginning of the 21st century, Sub-Saharan Africa confronts a number of daunting problems: extensive hunger, malnutrition, poverty, resource degradation, and the spread of AIDS. Because the majority of the region's population remains dependent on agriculture for its livelihood, well-functioning and efficient agricultural markets continue to be key to improving Sub-Saharan Africa's economic health. This report reviews the extensive evidence on agricultural market reforms in Sub-Saharan Africa and summarizes the impact reforms have had on market performance, agricultural production, use of modern inputs,and poverty. The report offers eight recommmendations for completing the reform process and developing a new agenda for agricultural markets in Sub-Saharan Africa. ; Non-PR ; IFPRI1 ; FCND

Africans arriving by rickety fishing boats to the Canary Islands, risking the passage across the Straits of Gibraltar or washed upon the Italian island of Lampedusa are familiar examples of therecent growth in migration from Africa to Europe. There is a darkside of migration in human trafficking, but the picture of a continenton the move also includes highly skilled professionals fromNigeria and Ghana who seek employment in universities and otherprofessions in South Africa. On the positive side migrant remittancesare a major source of income in many sub-Saharan Africancountries, helping to sustain the lives of poor home communities.A major challenge now facing sub-Saharan Africa is how to attractskilled emigrants back for national development. ; CONTENTS --Why focus on migration? -- The sub-Saharan African migration scene -- Emigration of professionals: causes and consequences -- The characteristics and roles of remittances in sub-Saharan Africa -- The role of the diaspora in country-of-origin development -- Human trafficking -- Legislative framework governing migration in sub-Saharan Africa -- Principal actors in migration issues in sub-Saharan Africa -- Migration and development: challenges and prospects

For the past thirty years Africa has produced a more noticeably inferior reserve of human capital than other developing regions. This is puzzling because at the inception of independence, the future of Africa looked promising. However, during the 1970s both the political and economic situation in Africa began to deteriorate, and since 1980, the aggregate per capita GDP in sub-Saharan Africa has declined at almost one percent per fiscal year. Thirty-two countries are poorer now than they were twenty years ago, and sub-Saharan Africa is now the lowest-income region in the world despite the fact that during the last two decades Africa has attracted more aid per capita than other developing regions. I hypothesize that focusing primarily on economic growth as the primary means of development has undermined and deterred social development in sub-Saharan Africa. I believe that as foreign investment and debt increase, social development stagnates and even declines. I argue that because of the focus on economics and lack of focus on social and cultural considerations sustained economic growth has been devitalized in sub-Saharan Africa. For this research I employed time-series, cross-sectional regression analysis to test the relative importance of the economic development model on social development in sub-Saharan Africa. My analysis of the forty-eight countries over thirty years gives leverage to the critique of economic growth centered development policies. ; 2004-08-01 ; M.A. ; College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Political Science ; This record was generated from author submitted information.

View the Executive SummaryAn apparent lack of interest by Russia in Sub-Saharan Africa over recent years masks persistent key strategic drivers for Moscow to re-establish lost influence in the region. A preoccupation with more immediate foreign policy concerns has temporarily interrupted a process of Russia reclaiming relationships that were well-developed in the Soviet period in order to secure access to mineral and energy resources which are crucial to Russia's economic and industrial interests, as well as both existing and new markets for military arms contracts. Russian policy priorities in Africa provide both challenges and opportunities for the U.S. in fields such as nuclear nonproliferation, as well as energy security for the United States and its European allies. Russian development of key resources in southern Africa should be observed closely. Russian trade with the region is significantly underdeveloped, with the exception of the arms trade, which Russia can be expected to defend vigorously if its markets are challenged, including by the prospect of regime change or international sanctions. At the same time, Russia and the United States have a shared interest in restricting the freedom of movement of terrorist organizations in ungoverned or lightly governed spaces in Africa, which opens potential for cooperation between AFRICOM initiatives and Russian presence in the region. Russian diplomatic and economic activity in southern Africa should receive continuing attention from U.S. policymakers due to its direct relevance to a number of U.S. strategic concerns. ; https://press.armywarcollege.edu/monographs/1321/thumbnail.jpg

Forty eight of the African continent's 54 sovereign states are located in the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region, with the government of each defining and shaping its own health services and delivery systems. This paper reviews the trends and patterns of contraceptive practice in the region. Using survey data available from the Demographic and Health Surveys and Performance Monitoring and Accountability 2020, the study finds modern contraceptive practice to be on the rise overall but with much geographic variation. The contraceptive methods most frequently used are injectables and, more recently, implants. Higher levels of use are observed among unmarried sexually active than married females. Although use is rising, contraceptive discontinuation rates are also high. Recent program initiatives discussed include expanding long-acting contraceptive options, promoting and delivering contraceptive methods in the postpartum period, and relying on community health workers for contraceptive outreach and service delivery. SSA's family planning situation remains challenged by weak health systems which must address competing priorities to manage disease prevention as well as primary health care. Increasing investments in family planning delivery in many SSA countries, however, augur for continued rapid uptake of modern contraception, possibly matching if not outpacing the record of other regions.

Foreword The context for irrigation development in Africa has been changing rapidly and drastically over the past decade. On the one hand, there is increasing scepticism about the returns to public investment in irrigation development, and a resulting decline in such investment. On the other hand, there are continued serious concerns about food insecurity and economic under-development in Africa. The Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) adopted the ambitious goal of achieving and sustaining a 6 percent annual growth rate, a goal that has since been endorsed by Africa's Heads of State under the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). How is Africa to achieve such a growth rate in agriculture and attain the World Food Summit goal of halving the number of undernourished people by 2015 without substantial irrigation investments? The good news is that while public investment has declined in the past, there is increasing evidence of positive experiences with small-scale private sector supported irrigation development. Some 70 million ha are currently under private irrigation in developing countries but are not well accounted for in official government statistics. It is estimated that nearly three-quarters of the future investment needed in the developing countries would consist of private commitments. We now realise that in the past the potential role of the private sector has been under-estimated. It is this realisation which gave impetus to this workshop. In 2000, the Africa Regional Office of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) approached the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and the ACP-EU Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) and proposed to co-organise the workshop. IWMI and CTA accepted the idea at a time when the former was establishing a new Africa Regional Office in Pretoria, South Africa and because it was in line with the latter's policy and programme. While FAO led the organisation of the workshop, IWMI prepared these Proceedings for copublication by the three co-sponsors. As evidenced in these Proceedings, we believe the expectations we had for the Workshop were more than fulfilled. There are a number of interesting and promising projects in Africa that demonstrate the potential of the private sector in promoting irrigation. These projects are promoted by NGOs, local private firms and individuals. They include interesting cases of the public sector encouraging and enabling private sector participation and development. Some of these cases are presented in this volume. FAO, IWMI and CTA continue to work together on a range of programmes globally and in Africa. We perceive that together we can accomplish a lot in terms of supporting an African agricultural renaissance by mutual co-operation and partnerships with a range of African institutions. We are confident that these Proceedings will be useful for many researchers, policy makers and practitioners in agricultural development in Africa. Douglas J. Merrey Director for Africa IWMI M. J. Omar Officer-in-Charge FAO Regional Office for Africa Carl B. Greenidge Director CTA ; Regional Seminar on Private Sector Participation and Irrigation Expansion in sub-Saharan Africa

The majority of Africans still live in rural areas, and an astonishing one in three Africans, or 215 million people, are malnourished. At the same time, eleven African countries use less than half the arable land within their borders (Economist). 62% of Africa's population (excluding South Africa) works in agriculture, generating 27% of these countries' GDP. An astonishing 80% of Africans depend on subsistence agriculture to provide food for their families (Bunting). An agriculture-led strategy for economic growth is one of the best ways to alleviate poverty on the continent. Not only are the direct effects powerful due to the huge number of Africans employed in agriculture, but the indirect effects of improved agricultural output and efficiency can also have a multiplier effect on the economy. Increased production can lower staple food prices, increasing purchasing power parity for consumers thereby allowing Africans to divert spending onto other products. A more reliable food system increases political stability and the welfare of the general population. In many of the faster growing African countries over the last few decades, agricultural growth rates were highly correlated with overall GDP growth. This paper will examine how technology transfers can improve agricultural productivity on the African continent, being sensitive to problems associated with each proposed solution. Through several case studies, this report will provide a comprehensive overview of the current obstacles and available solutions that shape national and international policy decisions.

A major focus of research on trade policy reform relates to whether changes in global economic participation, brought about by such reform, provides for sustainable income growth in the countries concerned. The challenge for many African economies in this context is to improve their position in the global economy by upgrading their export structures. The authors empirical work suggests that export diversification is a critical first step in upgrading export structure in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. The authors find that the knowledge gained from the export diversification process, along with technology spillovers associated with FDI flows, are important drivers. Furthermore, they find evidence of learning by doing productivity gains from SSA exporting activity. On the whole, the authors do not find that the rise of Asian driver economies poses a significant threat to SSA export sophistication. What is crucial to the further success of SSA countries upgrading their export structure is government policy initiatives that prioritise the upgrading of infrastructure, human capital development and institutional reform. These efforts will ensure that SSA countries can realise real economic gains through improvements in their export structures rather than locking their economies into commodity dependence on the basis of their favourable natural resource endowments.

This study assesses the role of income levels (low and middle) in modulating governance (political and economic) to influence inclusive human development. The empirical evidence is based on interactive quantile regressions and forty-nine countries in sub-Saharan Africa for the period 2000-2002.The following main findings are established. First, low income modulates governance (economic and political) to positively affect inclusive human development exclusively in countries with above-median levels of inclusive human development. It follows that countries with averagely higher levels of inclusive human development are more likely to benefit from the relevance of income levels in influencing governance for inclusive development. Second, the importance of middle income in modulating political governance to positively affect inclusive human is apparent exclusively in the median while the relevance of middle income in moderating economic governance to positively influence inclusive human development is significantly apparent in the 10th and 75th quantiles. Third, regardless of panels, income levels modulate economic governance to affect inclusive human development at a higher magnitude, compared to political governance. Policy implications are discussed in the light of the post-2015 agenda of sustainable development goals and contemporary development paradigms. This study complements the extant sparse literature on the inclusive human development in Africa.

The debate on the role of innovation in employment growth is still inconclusive with the available literature focusing largely on industrialised economies. With this concern, we examine the potential of innovations in creating permanent full-time jobs in registered manufacturing companies in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) by fitting the model of Van Reenen (1997) to a two-period panel of 687 manufacturing firms. Our paper is the first to examine the impact of innovation on employment with a particular focus on SSA and the first to apply a panel data approach to a larger set of developing countries. Our findings indicate that in the past, innovative firms created more jobs compared to non-innovative ones when controlling for sales, wages, time-invariant firms and country specifics. Likening the results with emerging or developing economies outside of SSA, we find that the effect is considerably larger in SSA than in other regions. As a consequence, we recommend that SSA governments strengthen their technological adaption and adoption mechanisms in their manufacturing sectors to foster innovations. Nonetheless, as a way to discourage imitations (which may not be well aligned to the production demands in SSA), governments are encouraged to invest in sector-specific research and development.

Sub‐Saharan Africa is expected to face the highest population growth rates leading up to 2060, yet this region faces uncertainties concerning how to cope with this demographic boom. Social protection has been a central theme in the political economic literature on advanced democracies, but little research has focused on the current social protection systems in sub‐Saharan Africa. Using a latent profile analysis, four clusters of social protection regimes were found in the region. The clusters range from groups with strong social protection and positive welfare outcomes to a cluster with poor social protection and weak welfare outcomes. ; Peer reviewed

Africa is a rising star - one of the most desirable investment destinations in the world. Nonetheless, economic growth is uneven among African countries, and many obstacles must be overcome in order to realize the full potential of opportunity. To achieve long-term sustainable investment results, and ultimately progress towards Sustainable Development goals, many risks must be isolated, analyzed, and mitigated. This paper introduces the concept of Sustainability Risk, identifying a set of major risk components for Sub-Saharan Africa and building an integral measure to quantify the degree of remoteness of the forty-six Sub-Saharan Africa countries from the total set of threats considered. The countries are separated into distinct groups with similar characteristics in terms of Sustainability Risk, and an analysis for potential decision-making, based on the visualization of the countries' position in relation to the major sustainability threats, is performed for each group. The research identifies risks with maximum impacts.

Within the continent of Africa, mental health services are relatively undeveloped. In the sub-Saharan countries of Malawi, Kenya and Nigeria, similar problems are faced by dedicated psychiatrists who are struggling to create and sustain an educational, management and political structure for psychiatry.

The final papers-the chapters herein-provide a wide-ranging, up-todate, and varied approach to key issues, which reflect the diverse physical, cultural, economic, and political environment of Africa. Recognition of this diversity is essential to grasping the magnitude of the problem of accelerating food production in Africa and to setting the essential priorities. In Africa, differences in perception as to developmental needs and the initial conditions necessary for development are greater than elsewhere because of the wide gaps in knowledge that characterize the region. Many of these differences are reflected in the chapters in this book. Food policy is, of course, the product of political processes. And the environments of these political actors are subtly reflected in their points of view. We have attempted to catch these nuances in this volume. ; PR ; IFPRI1

Abstract Background Biological sample and data transfer within and out of Africa is steeped in controversy With the H3Africa project now aiming to establish biobanks in Africa, it is essential that there are ethical and legal governance structures in place to oversee the operation of these biobanks. Such governance is essential to ensuring that donors are protected, that cultural perspectives are respected and that researchers have a ready availability of ethically sourced biological samples. Methods A literature review of all legislation, regulations, guidelines and standard operating procedures on informed consent, confidentiality and the transfer of biological samples amongst countries in Sub-Saharan Africa was conducted. In addition, an examination of the websites of departments of health and national ethics committees was performed. Researchers and research ethics scholars in the field in various African countries were contacted for assistance. A literature review of all studies examining participants views on issues related to biobanking in Africa was carried out and five separate studies were found. Results It was found that biobanking guidelines differ substantially across Sub-Saharan Africa regarding biobanking and often conflicted across borders. This has the potential to negatively impact collaboration. Furthermore, the guidelines in place often do not recognise the ethical difficulties arising from the transfer of biological samples and are unsuitable to regulate biobanks. Additionally, there is insufficient research into the views of research participants and stakeholders on the use of biological /samples. Conclusion Collaboration is necessary to ensure the success of biobanking projects in Africa. To achieve this, there should be some harmonization of guidelines across Africa which would aid in transferring biological samples across borders. These guidelines should reflect the unique ethical issues arising out of the storage and secondary uses of biological samples. Finally, further research into the views of research participants is necessary. Such studies should aid in the drafting of any new harmonization guidelines.