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This research investigates the interactive effect of trade openness and the institutional quality on economic growth in sub-Sahara Africa. The sample consists of 38 sub-Saharan African countries and covers the period 1986-2015. Pooled OLS, fixed effect, and Dynamic GMM were used as estimation techniques. The empirical section used a nonlinear growth regression specification that interacts trade openness with law and order, bureaucratic quality, corruption, government stability, and democratic accountability. The study found that corruption, government stability, law and order, and bureaucratic quality as institutional quality variables harm economic growth. The interaction of trade openness and institutional quality variables positively impacted economic growth. It is an indication that trade openness better impacted economic growth in the presence of high-quality institutional variables.

The study investigates the effect of financial development and trade liberalisation on macroeconomic volatility in Africa between 1980 and 2017. The study employed panel data, de jure and de facto measures of financial openness and three estimation techniques (pooled Ordinary least square method [OLS], fixed effect and dynamic general method of moment [GMM]) to analyse the data. Results show that increased financial openness also leads to increased income volatility for the de jure measure of financial openness while for the de facto measure increased financial openness reduces income volatility. Results also show that financial openness leads to subtle volatility of output growth in Africa. The results contradict the argument that more financial openness leads to lower volatility in consumption in Africa. Furthermore, investment volatility responded to the measures of financial openness in different ways. The study conclude policymakers should focus more on policies that will foster financial system development as it has shown to be very effective in reducing macroeconomic volatility in Africa.

The study examines the effect of military expenditure on output in Nigeria both in the short-run and in the long-run period. In addition, it verified whether military expenditure is an economically non-contributive activity using ARDL bounds testing approach to co-integration. Results showed that military spending has negative and significant effect on output in the short-run but positive and significant effect in the long-run. Labour and capital have positive and significant effects both in the long-run and short-run. In addition, labour has the highest coefficient (3.0709) in the long-run. The study concludes that government should reduce its expenditure on defense and concentrate more on human capital development, since military spending contributes nothing to output in the short-run.

In collaboration with national knowledge partners in India, South Africa, Vietnam and Turkey, the project elaborates country specific co-benefits of climate policies, with emphasis on the opportunities presented by renewable power generation. With its political partners in government departments and agencies COBENEFITS connects the social and economic opportunities of renewable energies to climate change mitigation strategies. The COBENEFITS project contributes to building strong alliances and lowering political barriers to revisit and effectively implement Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) to the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change. COBENEFITS enables international mutual learning and capacity building among policy makers, knowledge partners and multipliers on seizing the social and economic co-benefits of climate change mitigation, through Country-specific assessment reports of social and economic co-benefits of renewable power generation Training materials, online courses and face-to-face trainings on seizing co-benefits of renewable power generation Policy dialogue sessions on enabling political environments and overcoming barriers to seize the co-benefits Strategies to connecting co-benefits of climate change mitigation with climate action plans, the Paris Ambition Mechanism and MRV schemes to support national NDC implementation.

The aesthetic use of plants is a unique feature of horticulture which is also distinguishing it from other agricultural activities. The need to bring the attention of people and governments to the importance of maintaining the biodiversity of planet Earth and also ensuring that the on-coming generations inherit a cleaner, greener, more ecologically sustainable world cannot be overemphasized, and horticulturist have worked towards this goal by enhancing the beauty and quality of our surroundings. The urbanized environment, where 95 % of the world population lives, is a place plagued with excessive traffic, air and water pollution and the lack of open space, have destroyed natural diversity and beauty and thus, demand for massive increase in greenery and beautification for environmental restoration and protection. The functional and aesthetic interaction of people, building and site, using plants and space as its main tools is very important in solving environmental problems. In Nigeria for example the role of horticulture as a feasible means of improving urban green space, aesthetics and improvement of the built environment can be attested to through the growth of the green industry, persistent campaigns for more green spaces in the built environment and desire of the concerned government and public for developing sustainable landscapes that: beautify the environment; increase the diversity of plant and animal species; conserve water; reduce runoff and generally enrich the environment and people's lives. This increased interest in green spaces in modern cities ensured that government and urban planners now not only perceive horticulture as a means to urban development and aesthetics of the environment, but as one of the strategies to achieving green revolution in man's environment, and in urban centres. Hence, there is a need for policies that supports horticulture as a tool in city building and development. This paper therefore examined the significance of horticulture in environmental aesthetics and management of the landscape.