Food, Financial Crises, and Complex Derivatives: A Tale of High Stakes Innovation and Diversification

The 2008 food price crisis was an integral part of the financial crisis. In fact, the food price crisis was the second crisis in a chain of events that began in 2007 with the mortgage crisis, and culminated in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Contrary to what was generally believed in 2008, developing countries, particularly food-importing countries, were part of the early wave of the financial crisis via food price increases, and later suffered another wave via the real sector. The events leading up to the food crisis were global and complex in nature. As a result, as the G-20 discusses solutions to the financial crisis, any new framework must include developing countries, especially low-income countries. In addition, developing countries, especially in Africa, must pay close attention to the work of the Financial Stability Board (FSB) and its recommendations on financial market reform, and over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives in particular, because these reforms will have important consequences for their housing, food, fuel, financial markets, and ultimately their growth and poverty reduction objectives.food prices, food price crisis, financial crisis, derivatives, G-20, OTC, Africa, Financial Stability Board, developing countires, poverty reduction

Foresight Africa: Top Priorities for the Continent 2020-2030

The new year 2020 marks the beginning of a promising decade for Africa. Through at least the first half of the decade, economic growth across Africa will continue to outperform that of other regions, with the continent continuing to be home to seven of the world's 10 fastest-growing economies. Collective action among African and global policymakers to improve the livelihoods of all under the blueprint of the Sustainable Development Goals and the African Union's Agenda 2063 is representative of the shared energy and excitement around Africa's potential. With business environments improving, regional integration centered around the African Continental Free Trade Agreement progressing, and the transformational technologies of Fourth Industrial Revolution spreading, never before has the region been better primed for trade, investment, and mutually beneficial partnerships. The recent, unprecedented interest of an increasingly diversified group of external partners for engagement with Africa highlights this potential. Despite the continent's promise, though, obstacles to success linger, as job creation still has not caught up with the growing youth labor force, gaps in good and inclusive governance remain, and climate change as well as state fragility threaten to reverse the hard-fought-for gains of recent decades.This special edition of Foresight Africa highlights the triumphs of past years as well as strategies from our experts to tackle forthcoming, but surmountable, obstacles to a prosperous continent by 2030

Price selection mechanisms in imperfectly competitive economies

Diss. Doct

Identifying and addressing land governance constraints to support intensification and land market operation: Evidence from 10 African countries

AbstractBeyond concerns about agricultural productivity growth, issues of land governance have attracted global interest as demand for land acquisition by outsiders has increased rapidly but most of the transfers failed to live up to expectations and instead disrupted local livelihoods. We use the land governance assessment framework to identify key conceptual issues and identify how land governance in 10 African countries compares to global good practice. Results point towards weak protection of rights in practice, large gaps in female land access, and limited outreach and effectiveness of institutions to record rights and adjudicate disputes. We note that programs to improve performance along these lines had significant impact in other contexts, suggesting that efforts to improve land governance will be warranted and should be closely monitored and evaluated in an effort to identify models suited to African conditions and assess their impact and interaction with other factor markets

Africa-EU after COVID-19 : let’s start with vaccines : [conversation between José Manuel Barroso and Giorgia Giovannetti]

This contribution was delivered online on 6 May 2021 on the occasion of the hybrid 2021 edition of EUI State of the Union on ‘Europe in a Changing World'.Although Africa has managed to resist COVID-19 remarkably well, the economic consequences have been disastrous. For the first time after 25 years of continuous economic growth, Africa is facing a recession. COVID-19 has also led to increased protectionism and a delay in the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement. Furthermore, COVID-19 may be here to stay and could be the first of a series of “new infections” in a highly interconnected world. Considering Sub Saharan African countries’ economic structure, rapid urbanization, and often unreliable health infrastructures, and accounting for the fact that health security is a global public good, it is particularly important to have rapid and equitable access to vaccines. In many countries, health systems need to be strengthened and logistical capacity for vaccinations should be created. This panel will discuss these issues with a particular focus on policies to mitigate health, economic and social effects of the COVID-19 crisis, the global public goods nature of health security, the difficulties of planning a large-scale immunization, vaccination campaigns and prioritization and logistics

The State of Peacebuilding in Africa: Lessons Learned for Policymakers and Practitioners

The birth year of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), 1963, is often considered Africa's year of independence. But political freedom did not mean freedom from the repression and violence which had characterized the colonial period. Wars and conflicts have scarred the continent since independence. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, they became more complex and widespread. And so, too, did the international efforts to restore and (re) build peace in Africa. Countries worst affected by violence and conflict included Sierra Leone, Liberia, Rwanda, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan/South Sudan, Central African Republic, Mali, and Libya. In recent years, the quest for sustainable peace in Africa has taken on a new urgency, as instability and insecurity continue to negatively impact the lives of millions of Africans and hinder the continent's economic growth and development. This book joins the quest for peace by examining 30 years of peacebuilding in Africa, highlighting key lessons learned and offering some recommendations for making peace stick