Following recent talk of “deglobalisation” and speculations that the World Trade Organisation might have had its time, the agreements brokered at its recent Ministerial Conference show that free and open global trade live on to see another day. In the meantime, however, what can’t be denied is that the pandemic, its shutdown of trade routes and the ongoing disruption of supply chains, has shaken the notion of global trade being the panacea, and ushered in a trend of regional blocs, deepening regional ties, and a move towards what could seem like regional and even national self-reliance.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-while-afcfta-gives-promise-we-have-a-long-way-to-go-ppps-are-part-of-the-solution">While AfCFTA gives promise we have a long way to go – PPPs are part of the solution</h2>



While the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and its accompanying trillion-dollar investment framework will create the largest free trade area in the world, we’re not there yet. Indeed, the war in Ukraine and the ensuing food crisis across the continent are a pertinent reminder of our dependencies. Rates of progression vary, but many countries still need to create an environment where economic activity can thrive, and a large part of that means developing the appropriate infrastructure needed. In this context, public-private partnerships (PPPs) can offer a lifeline and lay the foundations for developing water, telecommunications, transport, and power, among other things.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Any PPP is not necessarily a good PPP</h2>



But any PPP isn’t a good PPP. For decent contracts and projects to happen, discerning governments with strong governance are required so that untenable projects that only go on to indebt countries and disadvantage their populations yet further are avoided. Indeed, despite the numerous successful PPP projects across the world, a lack of regulatory oversight and inadequate evaluation process from the get-go has resulted in at least as many failures.



The Grand Inga Dam project in the DRC might not be classed as such – 2 of the 6 dams originally envisaged have at least been built – but the project has and continues to be shrouded in controversy.



The initial international economic community’s vision to develop a power grid that can supply a third of the continent’s power supply and spur economic development is far from achieved. Instead, as the current government attempts to push the third dam forwards, the previous two are seen to be responsible for a huge part of the country&#8217;s debt burden, were fast producing a fraction of the electricity they were sold to do (40% of capacity by 2002) and haven’t come close to meeting even the nation’s needs – an estimated 11% of Congolese have access to electricity. The projects at inception failed feasibility studies, showing them to be uneconomical. &nbsp;A lack of transparency and accountability, a missing environmental impact assessment or mitigation plans, and displacement of local communities are just some of the other charges against it.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Governance matters</h2>



While big infrastructure projects may seem tempting to governments in the race towards economic development, when it comes to PPP investments, governments need to be more discerning of the projects they choose to embark upon. Many of the failures of PPP projects could have been avoided or mitigated with strong governance in place – of not just the projects, but of the governments themselves. ‘Investability’ is crucial to attract the necessary private investment, but beyond that, countries should also be politically stable, free from corruption, and adhere to rule of law. All these conditions count when it comes to the successful and sustainable PPP projects.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Rwanda shows that good investments with governance can spell growth&nbsp; </h2>



Take Rwanda for example, whose government is investing in PPPs with the potential to offer national and potentially pan-African benefits. Making that link with governance again, Rwanda was recently classed as the best performing low-income country in the world and ranked 2nd amongst countries in sub-Saharan Africa in the <a href="https://chandlergovernmentindex.com/">2022 Chandler Good Government Index</a>. Its rapid economic growth over the last two decades is in part due to its strong focus on improving not just its financial and economic governance, but also its leadership and long-term vision.



One of its PPP agreements, Africa Improved Foods (AIF), is creating jobs for locals, investing in farming, and sourcing their ingredients from the country to boost local economies and fulfil their vision for “Africa to feed Africa”. Meanwhile, AIF is also working to resolve the malnutrition and stunted growth of the country’s children by providing them with nutritious food during the first 1,000 days of their life, with the goal of reaching 1 million malnourished children and pregnant or breastfeeding women annually by 2031. Looking to solve malnutrition in the region, their next step is to expand operations to Ethiopia and other East African countries.



As the world pivots towards a seeming pulling in and localisation of trade and agreements, good PPPs and the AfCFTA provide countries with funds, resources, and mechanisms to build their physical and human infrastructure, and in so doing move us closer to a position of greater intercontinental trade and regional autonomy. In the meantime, foreign institutions and investors coupled with smart and discerning governments still have a large and valuable role to play in developing the capacity of countries and businesses in Africa.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="566" height="521" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Paulo-Gomes-picture.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-418430" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Paulo-Gomes-picture.jpg 566w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Paulo-Gomes-picture-300x276.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Paulo-Gomes-picture-98x90.jpg 98w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 566px) 100vw, 566px" /><figcaption>Paulo Gomes &#8211; Chairman and Founder of Orango Investment Corporation</figcaption></figure>

Paulo-Gomes-picture

Sound governance and good investments are what will move Africa to a place of greatness

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="492" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Farmers_farmingJimma_Ethiopia-820x492.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-376497" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Farmers_farmingJimma_Ethiopia-820x492.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Farmers_farmingJimma_Ethiopia-300x180.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Farmers_farmingJimma_Ethiopia-768x461.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Farmers_farmingJimma_Ethiopia-1110x666.jpg 1110w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Farmers_farmingJimma_Ethiopia-696x418.jpg 696w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Farmers_farmingJimma_Ethiopia-1068x641.jpg 1068w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Farmers_farmingJimma_Ethiopia-600x360.jpg 600w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Farmers_farmingJimma_Ethiopia.jpg 1280w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /></figure>



In 2021, global hunger surpassed all previous records, with close to&nbsp;<a href="http://www.fightfoodcrises.net/fileadmin/user_upload/fightfoodcrises/doc/resources/GRFC_2022_IN_BRIEF.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">193 million people</a>&nbsp;acutely food insecure. This crisis is worsening, and African countries are at its epicenter. Eight of 12 countries forecast to have more than 3 million people in food crisis in 2022 are in Africa.&nbsp;



While immediate aid is needed, the long-term solution in Africa is to boost domestic production.&nbsp;Indeed, the continent could be food sufficient through times of war and peace, boom and bust but today its huge agricultural potential is being overlooked. This is not for lack of urgency but for lack of patience – patience on the part of investors who may still shy from making long-term investments in African agriculture.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Let’s take mechanization as an example: African farming today remains the least mechanized in the world. Globally there are roughly 200 tractors per 100 square kilometers of agriculture lands, but in sub-Saharan Africa, there are only about 27. Changing that would go a long way in closing the deep productivity gap between African farms and farms in rich countries. Closing that gap could increase the global supply of cereals, grains, and vegetable crops by a stunning&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/agriculture/our-insights/winning-in-africas-agricultural-market" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">20 percent</a>.&nbsp;



But doing so is a multi-billion-dollar quest that cannot be solved with Silicon-valley type infusions of fast cash at high costs. A new tractor can cost anywhere from US$10,000 to $200,000—an unheard of amount of money for most farmers in Africa. What is needed is patient capital—invested for the long-term with low interest rates, using innovative new financial models.



Patient capital could fund the mechanization of African agriculture, just as it is already transforming other sectors. For example, it’s already infusing clean energy enterprises through green bonds, with&nbsp;Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mfw4a.org/blog/long-term-finance-critical-attracting-patient-capital-developing-sustainable-african-economies" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">taking the lead</a>. The&nbsp;$2 billion&nbsp;<a href="https://www.breakthroughenergy.org/investing-in-innovation/investing-in-innovation" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Breakthrough Energy Ventures</a>&nbsp;fund, launched by a coalition of investors led by Bill Gates, invests in 20-year cycles.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.engine.xyz/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Engine</a>&nbsp;incubates &#8220;tough tech&#8221; to solve global problems—without eyeing a return on investment for at least 12 years.&nbsp;



Patient capital will also transform health in Africa, not least through building its vaccine and medicines manufacturing capacity—a mission supported by the African Development Bank with a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00335-9" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">US$3 billion investment over 10 years</a>.&nbsp;



Why isn’t this happening for agriculture? Although agriculture contributes 40% of GDP and accounts for 60% of the continent’s labor force, it receives on&nbsp;<a href="https://altf.afdb.org/en/charts" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">average 4%</a>&nbsp;of long-term financial investments.&nbsp; That should be 40-50%.&nbsp;



There are signs of change. Hello Tractor, recently benefited from a round of patient capital—in the form of long-term, zero-interest loans—provided by Heifer International. Hello Tractor connects tractor owners to smallholder farmers using a smart app and booking agents with strong farmer networks.&nbsp;The US$1 million&nbsp;capital enabled Hello Tractor to finance the purchase of 17 tractors in Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda.&nbsp;



Building on the success of its partnership with Hello Tractor, Heifer International has now committed an additional US$3.5 million&nbsp;in tractor financing for Africa&nbsp;under its&nbsp;Tractors 4 Africa project. Heifer International’s&nbsp;total investment of US$4.5&nbsp;million is&nbsp;set to provide affordable access to tractor services to 872,250 smallholder farmers at an affordable rate, boosting farm productivity, employment, food security and farmer livelihoods over the next ten years.



This funding will be catalytic.&nbsp;



So far, Hello Tractor has facilitated tractor services for more than 500,000 farmers in 17 countries. We are now growing our capital base to finance more tractors. Patient capital for African agriculture cannot only be the purview of philanthropists. We need to excite capital markets, showing investors that they will get back their principal plus interest, albeit with a longer time horizon.&nbsp;



There are other positive developments for mechanization and long-term financing. In&nbsp;<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342329834_Agricultural_mechanization_in_Africa_Myths_realities_and_an_emerging_research_agenda" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">some districts of Ghana</a>&nbsp;up to 80 percent of farmers use machinery. These pockets of mechanization owe a lot to support of the government, which has imported and distributed tractors at subsidized rates to farmers and private entrepreneurs, who operate nearly 90 Agricultural Mechanization Service Centers.



Finally, there’s another less obvious benefit to patient capital. A recent study&nbsp;<a href="https://www.die-gdi.de/uploads/media/DP_18.2021.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">in Kenya shows that it can grow jobs</a>, and jobs that are high quality.&nbsp; This is in part because firms that benefit from patient capital can pursue longer-term growth strategies, which include hiring more workers and investing in skills that generate profits over the longer term. In addition, investors tend to care more about a firm’s social performance as they look beyond short-term profitability.&nbsp; They care more.



Africa needs this. Every year, 10-12 million new workers enter African labor markets, while only three million jobs are created. Economic growth and social stability in Africa demand the creation of millions of high-quality jobs, especially in food systems that provide a bedrock of African economies. Heifer International’s investment alone will create nearly 7,000 new jobs as booking agents, tractor operators, technicians and tractor owners over the 10 years.



Because patient capital demands a return on investment, it demands accountability and rigor. So does agriculture, and so does a tractor. When investors bet on patient capital, they are looking for a return that’s reasonable and meaningful—for the investor, the company, and ultimately the people who are employed and who benefit from new products and services. The mechanization of African agriculture may not be the goose that lays the golden egg, but with patience, it will give back far more than it receives.&nbsp;



Adesuwa Ifedi is Africa Senior Vice President for Heifer International. Jehiel Oliver is Chief Executive Officer for Hello Tractor

Farmers_farming,Jimma_,Ethiopia

Patient capital for African agriculture gives back far more than it receives

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="547" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Desai_Sonal_hi_res_RGB-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-417924" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Desai_Sonal_hi_res_RGB-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Desai_Sonal_hi_res_RGB-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Desai_Sonal_hi_res_RGB-135x90.jpg 135w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Desai_Sonal_hi_res_RGB-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Desai_Sonal_hi_res_RGB-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Desai_Sonal_hi_res_RGB-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>Sonal Desai, CIO at Franklin Templeton Fixed Income</figcaption></figure>



The Fed raised interest rates by 75 basis points in its June policy meeting, acknowledging continued upside surprises on inflation, inflation expectations and wage growth. It also de facto abandoned forward guidance. It was a reminder that economic data eventually rule the day, says Franklin Templeton Fixed Income CIO Sonal Desai. She argues this is a welcome but only partial move to a more realistic stance and discusses why further hawkish surprises likely lie ahead.



The US Federal Reserve (Fed) has capitulated to the data and in my view, has opened the door to a slightly more realistic assessment of the inflation and policy outlook.



Fed Chair Jerome Powell this week took the podium in a very weak position. The Fed had badly mismanaged communication ahead of this week’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting: it had telegraphed a 50 basis point (bp) hike but at the last minute signaled the larger 75 bp hike it then delivered—and which had therefore been largely priced in by markets. Upside surprises on headline Consumer Price Index (CPI) and inflation expectations had badly shaken the credibility of FOMC forecasts and of the moderate policy tightening that had been foreshadowed in last month’s meeting.



The FOMC outcome was a timely reminder that economic data eventually rule the day. In my view, the post-meeting press conference delivered a clear warning that investors should be prepared for further hawkish surprises. Powell acknowledged that the recent rise in inflation expectations had played a key role in swinging the decision to a larger hike. He acknowledged that the very tight labor market adds to inflation pressures via robust wage growth. He noted that the Fed is ultimately responsible for headline CPI inflation, and that headline inflation drives inflation expectations. The clear message is that the Fed is now—belatedly—aware that both inflation expectations and wages are adding to inflation pressures and sees inflation risks as skewed to the upside.



The FOMC’s median expectations of the policy rate have shifted up sharply, to 3.4% by the end of this year and 3.8% by the end of 2023. The end-2022 expected rate is now 150 basis points higher than at the March meeting.



Powell repeatedly emphasized the high level of economic uncertainty, in particular the important role that supply shocks outside of the Fed’s control can continue to exert on prices, and stressed that the Fed’s policy response will be data-dependent.



In a reversal of Mark Antony’s famous line “I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him,” Powell praised forward guidance while de facto burying it. The Fed wants to be transparent to investors in order not to add further volatility to markets, but in this case being transparent means that future policy moves will depend on data on which the Fed has very little visibility. This is a quite a momentous change. For over 10 years, major central banks have held markets by the hand with stone-clad forward guidance while claiming policy would be data-dependent. The inherent inconsistency and unsustainability of this combination has now come to the fore. Markets will need to adjust to this new reality.



While it will respond to data, the Fed recognizes it is still quite far from a neutral policy stance, and will need several months of declining inflation to be reassured that price pressures are coming back under control.



It’s a much more sober and realistic Fed than we have seen in previous meetings. Some of the criticisms and misgivings I expressed in previous writings still apply: inflation could easily end the year at 6%-7%, so that a 3.4% fed funds rate would still be deeply negative in real terms. At face value, the Fed’s forecasts still assume that inflation will come down on its own even as monetary policy remains expansionary. But this press conference has now signaled that the Fed could tighten more if inflation remains stubbornly high. I still find the Fed’s neutral rate estimate of the “mid-2s” to be way too low, but Powell to me this week sounded somewhat less confident of how reliable that estimate is.



Powell felt the need to reassure markets that he does not expect a 75 bp hike to become the norm. That sounded out of step with much of the rest of his comments. Consensus seems to be moving toward expectations of another 75 bps in July followed by hikes of 50 bps, 25 bps and 25 bps in the remaining policy meetings of this year. But I would caution that if inflation, wage growth and inflation expectations remain robust, the Fed’s “dot plot” could shift higher yet again and the actual policy tightening be more severe. I, in fact, see a significant chance that this could indeed be the case.



Overall, I think the Fed has taken an important step in the right direction. Acknowledging that policy will be driven by a very uncertain data flow gives a clear warning that policy tightening might get significantly more pronounced.  I expect that data over the coming months will indeed point to the need for a greater degree of tightening, and market prices will need to adjust. But the Fed’s new stance should buy it greater credibility and help limit market volatility along a very challenging disinflation path.

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On my mind: The Fed capitulates

Inflation hits the poorest most, economists often say as they welcome interest rate hikes which hit the poorest too. This seemingly sociopathic bunch tend to be in favour of short-term pain to improve the long-term. Which is why the Bank of England governor could say workers should not seek pay rises even as prices soared. Most economists are likely to endorse the biggest US interest rate in nearly 30 years and the interest rate rises in the UK.



But globally, it is those interest rate rises which hit the poorest countries most. There should have been a collective groan from Ghana to Pakistan on Wednesday night, 15th June, as the Federal Reserve in the US released its forecasts that US interest rates in 2023 will be over 3% instead of closer to 2% &#8211; its forecast from just a month ago.



Already global markets have taken fright and dumped the bonds they bought from low income countries in recent years. It was just last year, when US long-term borrowing costs were around 1-2%, that Rwanda (hitting the headlines for different reasons in the UK this month) could borrow at 5-6%. Today, when the US will pay you nearly 3.5%, investors will demand a far higher interest rate from riskier countries.



Long-term bonds for many now have a price that is around 50-60 cents on the dollar – compared to over 100 cents just a year ago. This is like your bank assuming they will only get repaid on the 50-60% of the mortgage they lent you. Investors do not expect to get repaid in full by Pakistan, Ghana or Tunisia, nor Sri Lanka and Zambia that have already defaulted. More countries will follow. Debt default often leads to currency collapse, more inflation (again worse for the poor) and a dramatic rise in poverty, as Lebanon, Venezuela and most recently Sri Lanka have all demonstrated in recent years.



Who’s to blame is a very natural question. Was it foolish fund managers who lent too much, or China who, often behind the scenes, lent a great deal too? Should corrupt local leaders be blamed for borrowing too much? Or do we simply blame Russia for global inflation and say this is just an unfortunate, unpredictable set of circumstances.



The problem is that the coming debt crisis has been predictable, but not for the reasons that many assume. As I argue in the forthcoming book, The Time Travelling Economist, debt default is normal among high fertility countries and most of the countries threatened by default in the coming years have a fertility rate above 3 children per woman.



What we show in the book is that high-fertility countries have very few savings. If you have 5-6 children per woman on average in a country, the children are your savings. After feeding and clothing them, you have nothing left to put in a bank on a Friday when you get paid. Local banks have few deposits to lend out, and what little they have, they lend out at very high rates, even as high as 20-25%. So governments welcomed the chance to borrow at 5-6% in US dollars as Rwanda did last year, and global investors jumped at the opportunity to lend to countries which wanted to accelerate infrastructure investment which can lift countries out of poverty. Rwanda boomed after issuing its first ever international bond in 2013, allowing it to dramatically increase annual spending on health, by far more than the interest costs of that bond.



The problem comes – as high fertility Latin America found out in the 1980s – when US interest rates drive up global borrowing costs. Low income governments can no longer borrow cheaply to repay maturing bonds (Rwanda was smart to refinance in 2021). They have to hike taxes locally or cut spending.



But not everyone suffers the same. Countries like Bangladesh with a fertility rate of 2.0 children per woman, doesn’t have the foreign debt pile that Pakistan with 3.4 children per woman has. They have never issued a Eurobond, because local banks had local savings accrued by parents who had to invest in their children. Bangladesh should thrive in the 2020s. Pakistan will struggle.



The coming debt crisis is a high fertility crisis, and one that politicians from Islamabad to Abuja will needs years to address. In the short-term, only concerted action by the G20, the IMF and the World Bank, can help ameliorate the economic pain that is coming. During the Global Financial Crisis and COVID, such support took over a year to arrive. For the West, 2022 and 2023 will be tough. For indebted high fertility countries, it will be worse.



Charlie Robertson is author of the <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Time-Travelling-Economist-Education-Electricity-Fertility/dp/3030975967/ref=sr_1_1?crid=133KRWYH0Z7JI&amp;keywords=the+time+travelling+economist&amp;qid=1655361657&amp;sprefix=the+time+travelling+econom%2Caps%2C73&amp;sr=8-1">Time-Travelling Economist</a>, to be published by Palgrave Macmillan in the next few weeks.  He has over 25 years experience as a London-based emerging market and frontier market economist, and has a niche following on Twitter @RenCapMan +44 7747 118 756

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Sociopathic economists and the coming high fertility debt crisis

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="546" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/8779634081_c64793f31f_o-820x546.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-413015" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/8779634081_c64793f31f_o-820x546.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/8779634081_c64793f31f_o-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/8779634081_c64793f31f_o-135x90.jpg 135w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/8779634081_c64793f31f_o-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/8779634081_c64793f31f_o-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/8779634081_c64793f31f_o.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>CCAFS East African regional program selects six sites to test interventions that address risks related to climate change and variability. Featured here is the Lower Nyando
Photo: via Flickr</figcaption></figure>



Ghana, like many developing countries in the tropical zone of West Africa, is already experiencing climate change impacts that include unpredictable rainfall patterns, rising temperatures, and the greater frequency of extreme weather events including floods. Climate change also affects agricultural production in Ghana, especially in northern Ghana. According to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/covid-19-wake-call-ghana-develop-national-plan-climate-adaptation#:~:text=Climate%20change%20in%20Ghana%20is,contributes%2054%25%20of%20Ghana's%20GDP." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">UNEP</a>, Climate change is expected to:&nbsp;render rainfall patterns increasingly unpredictable and erratic; increase mean temperature by 1.5 – 5.2°C by 2090; and increase sea level by 34.5cm by 2090. This is likely to have serious implications for the agricultural sector, which contributes 54% of Ghana&#8217;s GDP.



Agriculture also accounts for more than half of Ghana’s labor force, which has itself been severely affected by changing climate. Crop production has proven to be one of the most climate-sensitive sectors of the country as a whole. It is estimated that Ghana has experienced a 1.0°C raise in temperature over the last 60 years. This has significantly weakened crop production in northern Ghana, an area that is historically marginalized and characterized by high poverty and malnutrition. Due to their over-dependence on rainfall, farmers in northern Ghana are challenged by changing and increasingly unpredictable rainy seasons.&nbsp;



Ghana, like most sub-Saharan African countries, is predominantly agrarian, with crop production being the main driver of the agriculture sector. More than 80% of growers are smallholder farmers, and their practices are characterized by low labor input and low technology use, high rain-dependence and a low adoption of irrigation. Less than 2% of arable lands in Ghana is under any form of irrigation. Thus, the over-dependence on quantity and pattern of rainfall for crop production in Ghana exposes the economy and livelihood of citizens to fluctuation in production. This has been exacerbated by growing unpredictability of weather caused by climate change. For example, the drought of 1983 cut cereal production by some 15% leading to widespread poverty, hunger and deaths.



A World Bank&nbsp;<a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/ghana/climate-risk-country-profile-ghana#:~:text=Ghana%20will%20continue%20to%20get,and%20drought%20across%20the%20country." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a>&nbsp;just last year revealed that temperatures in Ghana have risen by almost 1°C since the 1960s, with Ghana projected to increase mean temperatures by 1.0°C to 3.0°C, by 2050 and upwards of 2.3°C to 5.3°C by the year 2100. The alarming data also showed that climate change is expected to raise the risk and intensity of water scarcity and drought across Ghana. Water, agriculture, forestry, and human health are the main sectors affected across the country. Ghana’s rainfall itself is highly inconsistent and should remain variable over the next 75 to 80 years with heavy rainfall events looking to increase over time.



In recent years, effects of climate change on food production has been especially felt in the dry Guinea Savannah spanning the five northern regions of Ghana, which has only 1 rainy season compared to the 2 rainy seasons of southern Ghana. Farmers in the north continuously adapt their practices with the pursuit of weather and climate information for informed decision-making. However, the widespread changes in weather patterns, has not only reduced agricultural productivity, but also caused flood events &#8211; recent one in August 2021 that destroyed about 6,880 acres of farmland in the Upper West Region, affecting a total of 6,623 farmers – that have significantly impacted livelihoods of inhabitants. A lot needs to be done to address the impact on climate change on crop production in these regions. The government, in an attempt to reduce famers’ over-reliance on rainfall,&nbsp;has initiated the&nbsp;construction of the 1 billion USD&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vra.com/pwalugu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Pwalugu Multi-Purpose dam</a>&nbsp;for the irrigation of 25,000 hectares of hectares of agricultural lands, as well as the&nbsp;rehabilitating existing irrigation facilities with the capacity to irrigate 7,817 hectares of farmlands.&nbsp;The government also&nbsp;began their “One Village, One Dam” policy in 2017, where every village in northern Ghana is to be provided with an earth dam to facilitate year-round crop production. Though helpful, these initiatives will only barely move the needle, and thus more integrative approaches should be adopted to&nbsp;markedly slow down the impact of climate change and improve agricultural output in northern Ghana



<a>Significantly, the interplay between crop production and climate change is bi-directional:&nbsp; sustainable crop production can contribute to mitigating climate change by sequestering carbon, reducing the use of inorganic fertilizers and hence climate-warming nitrous oxide emissions, reducing flooding-related methane emissions.</a>&nbsp;New innovations and technologies will have to be introduced so that Ghanaian farmers can have more effective crop management systems, which will increase food production, lower overall costs, while slowing down climate change by reducing greenhouse emissions and sequestering more carbon.&nbsp;<a>Very critical to this is the i</a>ntroduction of climate smart agriculture (CSA) interventions which the FAO defines as farming techniques that transform agri-food systems towards green and climate resilient practices, and include on-farm actions such as:&nbsp; planting varieties that are high-yielding and tolerant to biotic and abiotic cues; using innovative Ag technologies that improve crop growth and physiology;&nbsp; encouraging farming practice such as– intercropping, crop rotation, mixed cropping, increased use of organic fertilizers and manures, effective irrigation.



At the national level, two significant programs have been formulated with the long-term goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. First, the <a href="https://greenghana.mlnr.gov.gh/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Green Ghana Project</a>, launched in June 2021 to restore Ghana’s depleted forest cover through tree planting, has resulted in the planting of some 25 million trees across the country. Secondly, under Ghana’s Integrated Power Sector Master Plan 2019, the government is committed to scaling up the penetration of renewable energy by 10% by 2030; thus, gradually moving away from fossil-based energy production. These policies would ultimately reduce greenhouse emissions, slow down the devastating effect of climate change, and improve agriculture output and food security.



Kwame Acheampong, PhD was born in Ghana and is Director of R&amp;D and Field Operations at Opti-Harvest

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Ghana’s Crop Production Continues to be Devastated by Climate Change

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="547" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GettyImages-930104554-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-417764" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GettyImages-930104554-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GettyImages-930104554-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GettyImages-930104554-135x90.jpg 135w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GettyImages-930104554-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GettyImages-930104554-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GettyImages-930104554-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>Children working in Kasulu, Tanzania. (Photo by: BSIP/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>



“We shouldn’t wait for development to end child labour. On the contrary, ending child labour is key to sustainable development.” says ILO Assistant Director-General and Regional Director for Africa, Cynthia Samuel Olonjuwon.



With 92 million girls and boys in child labour — one in five children — Africa is the most-affected region in the world. Eliminating child labour worldwide will not be achieved without a breakthrough here.



This is not justifiable. Children have the right not to work. Children trapped in child labour today are the unskilled labour force of tomorrow. Ending child labour is key to sustainable development. Urgent measures to end child labour should be viewed as an investment for the future.



Is there hope to end this situation? Absolutely Yes! As the ILO Director-General Guy Ryder said “Optimism relies on political will. You don’t have to be a dreamer to be optimistic. You need to have good reasons to be optimistic”. In Africa, we have 92 million reasons to be optimistic about ending child labour.



So, what should be done? The recently concluded 5th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour that took place in South Africa reiterated the need to focus on prevention. This is particularly true for Africa &#8211; a young continent with a fast-growing population. If we don’t act now, we should expect 105 million children will be in child labour in Africa in 2025, which will worsen in the following years.



It is critical to tackle the root causes of child labour in our continent. These include: the lack of access to free quality education; high levels of poverty and vulnerability of households; limited decent work opportunities for parents and young people as well as very high levels of informality and inequalities. In Africa, four out of five children in child labour live in rural areas and work in agriculture, a sector where workers are often functionally dependent on the unpaid work of children. In addition, Africa is one of the regions most affected by crisis linked to conflict and disasters as well as climate change. The Durban Call to Action demands for scaled-up action in six key areas to address these root causes, among which are: the need to ensure free quality education, to promote decent jobs for young people and adults and to the need to invest in social protection as a means to reduce poverty and vulnerability. This year on the World Day on the Elimination of Child Labour, I would like to focus on the critical importance of social protection to end child labour in Africa.



Exposure to shocks (sudden job loss or illness or injury to family members) increases the chances that a child will work. Social protection reduces vulnerabilities and empowers communities by ensuring that children attend and remain in school, and that parents have the income to sustain their development and education. A newly published ILO-UNICEF report shows that social protection reduces child labour and facilitates schooling.



There are regions in the World where child labour has been reduced over time. Some countries have been more successful in lowering child poverty and in raising levels of social protection for children and their families. However, Africa faces a double challenge in comparison to other continents. It is the continent with the highest prevalence and the largest numbers of children in child labour and the lowest social protection coverage. In Africa, 83% of the population has no social protection at all. Similarly, within Africa: Western, Central and Eastern Africa are the three sub-regions with the largest proportion of children in child labour and also have the lowest social protection coverage.



Universal social protection and the elimination of child labour are both priorities in the regional agenda of the African Union, governments, workers’ and employers’ organizations, the ILO and other development partners. In Africa, anchored in the 2019 Abidjan Declaration, the ILO aims to accelerate social protection coverage to reach 40% by 2025, especially for informal and rural populations.



We see emerging models of interventions designed to simultaneously contribute to improving social protection coverage and ending child labour. In Côte d’Ivoire, for instance, the ILO supports the National Health Insurance Fund to extend universal health coverage to smallholder farmers working in cocoa. Through a supply chain approach, the existing sourcing and operational structure of the value chain is used as an alternative distribution channel, thereby increasing access to services and improving client experience.



Cooperatives and their commercial partners have supported the National Health Insurance Fund in organizing awareness raising and enrollment campaigns as well as exploring financing strategies to cover the payment of contributions. The model also focuses on the delivery of quality services by health service providers at the community level, building trust and reducing reluctance.



As a result 1,815 smallholder cocoa farmers have been enrolled in the universal health coverage scheme and have received a social security number. This is just the beginning. The model is now being replicated in other districts of Côte d’Ivoire with the support of several private sector companies. Moreover, this African good practice is being adapted and replicated in two other African countries, Ghana and Nigeria. Working closely with other development partners, models like this are being scaled up as a crucial part of the implementation of the Africa Regional Social Protection Strategy 2021-2025.



By demonstrating high-level political will and African home-grown, innovative models of interventions, our continent sends a strong message to the world: we are aware of the challenge, we are working on it as a matter of priority and as a region, we are driving the change.



By Cynthia Samuel-Olonjuwon, ILO Assistant Director-General, Regional Director for Africa

Child Labor

We can end child labour in Africa. Here’s how.

“Mama” Joyce Katushabe lives in the Buliisa region of Western Uganda. For most of her life she lived in a one-room grass-thatched hut without electricity or running water. Every day, she would trek miles under the scorching sun to chop down wood and fetch water. Exhausted, she would then begin the process of preparing her family’s meal.



Today, Mama lives in a new neighbourhood in a modern house fitted with electricity, running water and all other basic amenities that previously seemed like unattainable luxuries. Her home is the result of the new buzz of economic activity following the discovery of oil in her previously quiet and impoverished district. Schools, roads and health centres have sprung up to serve her community where previously there were none. Even a new airport is being constructed.



The hubbub surrounds the new oil project currently being developed by the Ugandan government in partnership with France’s Total Energies and China’s CNOOC. It will include a pipeline that runs from Uganda to Tanzania, known as EACOP (East African Crude Oil Pipeline).&nbsp;



Millions like Mama Katushabe stand to benefit. The project is integral to Ugandan ambitions become a middle-income economy that can sustain the increasing demands of its population for health services, education, transport infrastructure, employment and basic social services. Such economic growth is critical as Uganda seeks to industrialise in the wake of the pandemic. With EAPOC delivering the project across East Africa, the project is a tremendous opportunity for the rest of the region too.



Unfortunately, not everyone sees it that way.



Ever since Uganda found oil, environmental activists have sought to hamper the project, without any consideration for what it means for Ugandans or East Africans more broadly.



Nor is it the first time they have sought to block Uganda’s development.&nbsp; Foreign activists hampered the building of our hydro-electric dam in Bujagali. In the 1990s, they said it would damage our environment, destroy local cultures and displace communities. As a result of their disruptive activities, the project took a decade to complete. Of course, our local cultures and communities were unaffected. And now those same activists who then flew in from Europe to oppose a hydro-electric project are back again to oppose EACOP and calling for renewables. It seems Africans aren’t allowed to use any kind of energy at all.



These activists demonstrate no understanding of the daily reality for Africans, especially the crippling energy poverty. Perhaps most galling they presume to speak for us, denying us our own agency when it comes to defining our interests. Meanwhile they beam neon lights against the side of banks, intimidating and campaigning against those who would finance our energy supply.



While we are accustomed to bearing the brunt of the activists’ actions, we are tired of hearing the lies. So here are the facts:



First: The world will need fossil fuels for the foreseeable future. This is particularly true of Africa, the combined population of which is set to double by 2050, and which simply cannot switch to costly and unreliable renewables overnight. Mama Katushabe and millions like her still need affordable, available and reliable energy to live – and they need it now. Africa contributes so little to global emissions in the first place; we should be able to use what we have at our disposal.



Second: Few countries are more committed than Uganda to protecting biodiversity, agriculture and the environment – our economic mainstay long before the discovery of our oil and long after all the oil is gone. Our ambitious reforestation programme, which aims to replenish forest back to 24% of Uganda’s landmass by 2040 has already grown cover from 9% to 12.5% in just five years.



Third: Uganda’s commitment to protecting its environment is reflected in the partners it chose for its oil project. Total Energies has committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2050 and only engages in new hydrocarbon projects with a low breakeven point and low greenhouse gas emissions. By reducing its footprint in our National Park from the 10% land area approved in the project’s extensive Environment and Social Impact Assessment reports to less than 0.05%, Total Energies is walking the walk.



Finally, the project itself is one of the most environmentally friendly that has ever existed. It will use no routine flaring, but instead renewable power supplied by the national grid. &nbsp;Excess gas from the project will be used to produce Liquified Petroleum Gas, which will supplement the Ugandan market and reduce national energy costs while contributing to the reduction of deforestation by removing the need for charcoal and firewood.&nbsp;Greenhouse gas emissions intensity of the Ugandan projects stands at 13 kg of CO2 per barrel – significantly lower than the industry average of 20kg per barrel.



All this while providing a critical, post-pandemic opportunity for economic advancement to one of the poorest regions in the world. 16 business sectors around the project have been ring-fenced for local communities and businesses, ensuring they will reap the rewards.



Small wonder the actions of the activists are leaving an unpleasant taste in African mouths. At best, they are tone deaf.



Mama Katushabe’s daughter will live a better life than she did. She can bathe in her home with water from a tap. She can do her homework at night, studying for her future, by electric light. Her neighbourhood already now has a paved road. Soon it will have a playground too. But her future is only bright if those agitating in her name against her economic advancement lose. Environmental activism need not come at the cost of our development.



 The Writer is a Senior Partner in Kampala Associated Advocates, Trustee of the Uganda Chamber of Mines and Petroleum and Chairman of the Private Sector Foundation&nbsp;of Uganda.

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Environmental activism need not come at the expense of Africa’s development

Sub-Saharan Africa has the potential to generate inclusive growth and eradicate poverty, according to the latest World Bank overview of the continent’s economic prospects.1



“Sub-Saharan Africa, home to more than&nbsp;1 billion people, half of whom will be under 25 years old by 2050, is a diverse continent offering human and natural resources that have the potential to yield inclusive growth and eradicate poverty in the region. With the world’s largest free trade area and a market of 1.2 billion consumers, the continent is creating an entirely new development path, harnessing the potential of its resources and people,” the World Bank says.



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However, between the recognition of this potential and its realisation – the day when all Africans are freed from poverty – an enormous amount of work remains to be done. As the continent marks Africa Day today, it is useful to consider what is required.



A 2021 Economic Development in Africa Report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) states that one condition for achieving inclusive growth in Africa is that workers must acquire better skills to respond to evolving labour market demands.2



It says inclusive development relies on the capacity of social, economic and political systems to provide the circumstances for well-being on a sustainable, long-term basis.



“Therefore, inclusive development should be measured along the interconnected dimensions of human, social and economic development and environmental considerations,” the report says.



In addition, inclusive growth requires higher rates of female participation, yet women remain marginalised in the labour market in Africa.



The private sector has a major role to play in enabling inclusive growth. It is both the engine of economic development and dependent on a flourishing continent for its own success.



At Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA), our aim is to create greater shared opportunity for the business and the communities we serve across the value-chain, and our social and community ambitions address some of the most immediate needs in Africa.



We believe in creating inclusive growth opportunities for communities, with our focus on women and youth. More relevant in Africa than any other continent, women are integral to our continent’s shared success and are often the decision drivers behind consumer spending trends.



We seek to empower women both in the workplace and through community programmes throughout our markets on the continent.



We support female entrepreneurs to thrive through the provision of financial support, mentoring and training.



An example is the Entoto women empowerment programme in Ethiopia, which was launched in 2020. It has enabled more than 260 women to earn higher incomes by collecting and selling used plastic bottles and distributing The Coca-Cola Company’s products – and in turn also aided our environmental initiatives in relation to recycling.



As we see significant growth potential in Ethiopia, we established nine new intensive training centres to increase the amount of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) collected, resulting in more than 400 women having received intensive training on PET reuse and recycling.



In addition, we also embarked on a market development programme which empowered over 800 women business owners through the provision of coolers to sell more products and expand their businesses.



On the youth front, empowering young people and enabling their inclusion in the economy is critical if we are to achieve our vision of making Africa a better place for all.



We empowered over 15&nbsp;000 youth in 2021 across various of our markets to help make them active participants in the economy.



In South Africa, as an example, we established an enterprise development initiative in 2015, known as Bizniz-in-a-Box, to make a sustainable impact on youth unemployment by creating an ecosystem of viable micro-businesses offering complementary products and services in township communities.



Using the spaza shop as the anchor, each business operates out of a custom-designed container, covering various core needs of the local community. The programme offers young entrepreneurs an opportunity to learn business skills to enable them to grow and run their own business.



We have trained over 720 young entrepreneurs and rolled out over 220 Bizniz-in-a-Box outlets since the inception of the programme, of which 47% are female owned businesses.



Communities where we operate benefit by gaining access to more and/or better resources, which over time enable them to become more self-sufficient and sustainable.



Many members of these communities get employment opportunities they would otherwise not have, and some go on to start their own sustainable businesses through our enterprise development initiatives.



We understand the importance of nurturing from the grass roots level up and in Ethiopia, near one of our factories, we built a fully operational public school that accommodates up to 1,000 students. We built a similar school facility in Bahrdar community in 2019, and we are on track to complete our third school, which is located near our Ambo plant, for the local community.



Creating shared value is mutually beneficial to CCBA, as these individuals ultimately become CCBA consumers, with a real sense of Coca-Cola brand loyalty given the impact CCBA has had on their personal lives.



We continue to work with our supply chain to improve sustainable and ethical local sourcing practices, including a continued commitment to protect human rights.



As at the end of 2020, our local sourcing was at 83%, exceeding the global Coca-Cola target to source locally, 80% of the raw materials usually imported by 2022. This translates into increased opportunity for African suppliers, entrepreneurs and industrialists, helping to develop local economies, diversify goods made in Africa and support inclusive growth.



We continue to support our suppliers to upskill and improve the quality of materials to meet our high standards.



An example is in Ghana, where we sourced 100% of raw materials locally by 2020. Initially local suppliers didn’t have the necessary technical equipment and expertise to produce preforms, closures and labels according to our specifications and high standards.



We proactively supported local suppliers with technical skills and contractual off-take agreements which enabled them to purchase the required machinery to improve their standards.



With increased local sourcing, we saved costs on shipping, customs, clearing and inventory management, driving bottom line profitability – illustrating how economic inclusion can be beneficial to both businesses and local economies.



Another example is in South Africa, where we sourced 98% locally, including sugar.



Increasingly as the African Continental Free Trade Area takes effect, opportunities will open up for local manufacturers to produce higher-value goods and the development of intra-continental value chains that spur inclusive growth.



Companies like CCBA will play a significant part in empowering entrepreneurs, workers and communities to take full advantage of these opportunities.



<ol class="wp-block-list" type="1"><li><a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/region/afr/overview#1">https://www.worldbank.org/en/region/afr/overview#1</a></li><li><a href="https://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/aldcafrica2021_en.pdf">https://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/aldcafrica2021_en.pdf</a></li></ol>

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Africa Day should spur action to end poverty and empower the continent to reach its full potential

The food price crisis of 2007-2008, Covid-19, the Russia – Ukraine War, and climate change have exposed the fragility of food systems. The greatest risk lies in refusing to learn from lessons of the past.&nbsp;



At the start of 2022, we were already facing the prospect of a food crisis. Even before the first Russian tank rolled across Ukraine’s borders on 24 February, food prices had tipped record highs as the world struggled to recover from Covid-19 to repair disrupted supply chains and soaring fuel and gas prices. But a conflict involving two of the world’s largest wheat exporters, and major producers of fertilizer, maize and vegetable oil, have inevitably driven prices even higher and, once again, pushed the issue of global food security into sharp focus.



Russia and Ukraine together account for roughly 30 per cent of the world’s wheat and barley exports, a fifth of its corn trade and almost 80 per cent of sunflower oil exports. Most of their wheat production is imported by countries in the Middle East and Africa, with some 50 countries depending on Russia and Ukraine. Warfare, port blockades and international sanctions have reduced these exports, and supply uncertainties have already pushed wheat prices to around $11 per bushel, a level last seen in 2008. The FAO food price index soared last week to a record high.



The situation is further compounded by rising energy prices, and disruptions to the supply of fertilisers, the prices of which are already fluctuating at levels unseen since the global financial crisis because of higher gas prices. &nbsp;Russia and Belarus produce more than a third of global potash. Russia is also the world’s biggest exporter of fertilizers and the war with Ukraine has disrupted the export of fertilizers and driven up prices for natural gas, which is an important ingredient of nitrogen-based fertilizers. Fertilizer prices (DAP) are surging towards 1000 USD per ton, with a significant increase in the last 6 months, and a 40% jump since the invasion. This will hurt rich and poor farmers alike, due to the clear link between rising costs and reduced production.&nbsp;



The US-based Center for Global Development estimates that higher food and fuel prices will push 40 million more people into extreme poverty.&nbsp; Lower income households, who were already spending between 60 and 80 per cent of their earnings on food, face stark choices, including how many meals to eat in a day. In Tunisia, the fear of food shortages combined with the imminent arrival of Ramadan, caused panic buying and emptied supermarket shelves. Kenyans are protesting rising food prices on social media with the hashtag #lowerfoodprices. Thousands of maize farmers in Ethiopia have been protesting soaring fertilizer prices. And let’s not forget that it was rising food prices that led to the 2019 Sudan coup and the Arab Spring rebellion of 2008.



The food crisis of 2007-8 suggests important lessons for us to mitigate a food crisis this year.



First, remember that cooperation between countries matters, sending important signals to markets that governments and the private sector take the problem seriously.&nbsp;



Second, take concerted action to trade more, easier, faster.&nbsp; Allow food to be traded and attack non-tariff barriers that are the most serious limitations to trade.&nbsp;&nbsp; Africa has shown leadership in the creation of the African Continental Free Trade Area – these principles must be fast tracked to allow as friction-free trading system as possible.&nbsp;



Third, governments and development partners should urgently plan for the social and humanitarian consequences of a food crisis.&nbsp; Social safety nets should be strengthened at least temporarily, and humanitarian aid planned for the most vulnerable.&nbsp;



Last and perhaps most importantly, governments and partners must go back to basics: that African economies and livelihoods are built on agriculture. More than 70 per cent of the population is involved in farming, but the vast majority of these are smallholdings with significant exposure to environmental and economic shocks. These farmers and their contributions can be transformed by shorter value chains that share some of the value with farmers, a digital revolution that puts farmers, and strong government agenda and support.&nbsp;



African farmers, if given the opportunities that their European, Asian and North American counterparts have, can increase massively their productivity and grow their businesses.&nbsp; An emergency plan to build support for farmers now can send important signals to markets and increase production this year.&nbsp; Give farmers access to productive, climate smart seeds, the knowledge they need to become more productive, and innovative financial tools to invest.&nbsp; Then help them get their products to market. Proven models are already used by many partners – millions of farmers can be lifted quickly in this way.



At the same time, soaring fertilizer prices must be addressed with urgent action to increase efficiency.&nbsp; AGRA has promoted technologies that can reduce cost to the farmer including the use of blended fertilizers, as we already see in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda. The same is true in the use of micro-dosing.&nbsp; Both give much more ‘bang for the buck’ and can be much more environmentally friendly. This is also an opportunity to promote greater use of farmers’ traditional practices of regeneration and organic fertilization.



This is the time for African governments to give a strong signal of support to the agriculture sector.&nbsp; Start by reducing redundant regulation, and support SMEs and farmers’ cooperatives with credit guarantee programmes.&nbsp;



We learned from the last food crisis that we should not be afraid of a food crisis.  What we should be worried about is lack of action once we understand the problem. Governments should lead and coordinate, private sector should target investment on proven solutions, and unlock African farmers’ potential. 



The writer is the President of AGRA (the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa).

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Inadequacy and fragility of food systems becomes more apparent with every food crisis. The question we must answer is “Where do we go from here?”

The COVID-19 pandemic and the current shock to the system from the war in Ukraine have left African economies hanging by a thread.



National debt <a href="https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2022/04/30/debt-repayment-costs-are-rising-fast-for-many-african-countries">has reached distressed levels</a> across the continent, with even formerly high-performing economies such as Ghana, Egypt, and Tunisia on the verge of defaults, bailouts, or both. &nbsp;



Next week’s <a href="https://africities.org/about-the-summit/">9th Africities Summit</a>, in Kisumu, Kenya, will therefore be taking place against a particularly gloomy macroeconomic backdrop.



Yet Kisumu itself – a vibrant, upcoming city which has become a hub for international trade – should give delegates real cause for optimism.



Indeed, Kenya has benefited from being an <a href="https://www.kara.or.ke/Kenya%27s%20Popular%20Version%20on%20New%20Urban%20Agenda.pdf">early adherent</a> of the <a href="https://unhabitat.org/the-new-urban-agenda-illustrated#:~:text=The%20New%20Urban%20Agenda%20highlights,or%20renewal%20policy%20and%20strategy.">New Urban Agenda</a>: UN-Habitat’s armoury of solutions for helping states, city planners and communities to manage urban challenges and needs, whether that’s planning, financing, waste management and housing.



These solutions have evidently been of value to Kisumu, and I believe the Agenda could not be more relevant for African policymakers navigating such perilous economic headwinds.



Why? Because while urban areas <a href="https://unhabitat.org/sites/default/files/2020/10/wcr_2020_report.pdf">constitute 55% of the global population</a>, they account for more than 80% of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP).



In other words, our cities are an engine of economic growth – growth that Africa needs badly and needs now.



However, while the most must be made of the undeniable dynamism of our urban areas, choosing to live in a city cannot be a zero-sum game. No African should ever have to expose themselves to environmental and social strife to climb the economic ladder.



Put simply, our mission must be the resilience and the sustainable economic growth of our cities: the key that can unlock a more prosperous, equal and secure future for all Africans.



Our team at UN-Habitat have never underestimated the challenge at hand.



The world’s urban centres are veritable hotspots of vulnerability, with <a href="https://unhabitat.org/programme/rise-up-resilient-settlements-for-the-urban-poor">more than 1 billion people</a> now living in informal settlements, placing themselves at the mercy of extreme weather events.



While new cities are emerging in Africa, we need to learn to ensure challenges are well anticipated with proper planning and provision of basic services. The best approach might be by finding a balance between big city and secondary cities. Secondary cities are under less pressure and can develop sustainable urban solutions faster.



Quick fix and often exclusionary solutions like slum clearance and community relocation have proven redundant in the face of such a challenge.



UN-Habitat’s advocates an inclusive and participatory approach, with our staff getting out into the field to assist stakeholders with anything from building the climate resilience of city centres to setting up employment schemes and vocational training.



<a href="https://unhabitat.org/programme/rise-up-resilient-settlements-for-the-urban-poor#:~:text=The%20UN%2DHabitat%20flagship%20programme,spatial%20inequality%20and%20resilient%20settlements.">RISE-UP: Resilient Settlements for the Urban Poor</a> – one of UN-Habitat’s flagship programmes – exemplifies this research-driven, holistic approach to generating sustainable socio-economic progress in African cities.



Since 2019, the RISE-UP team have built up a database of locations under severe threat from extreme weather events, whether that be an informal settlement in West Africa or a coastal city in South-East Asia.



With this data in hand, UN-Habitat has lobbied for and then leveraged large scale investments to build, augment, and reinforce the climate resilience of each vulnerable community. This is an essential step in the cementing their economic viability.



As an example of RISE-UP at its best, UN-Habitatflagged the grave threat of flash floods and strong winds to schools in Mozambique in 2020. Our field operatives then worked day and night to ensure that classrooms from Maputo to Beira could withstand them.



Given the global political and economic upheavals, it is important that we stay firmly on the course of sustainable urban development and ensure support is available for the development of secondary cities in Africa. And this is what I will be focusing on in Kisumu next week.



&#8216;With these communities in mind, it is imperative that organisations operating at the supranational level like UN-Habitat stay the course. While the focus of governments on sustainable economic growth might waver, ours will not and we have the expertise to keep them moving forward, despite the undeniable obstacles they face.

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OP-Ed Africa’s Secondary Cities Can be the Engine of Sustainable Economic Growth

From ecosystems to species, biodiversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. For development to be sustainable, conserving and restoring biodiversity is not only essential but it’s also vital for the fabric of life.



However, Africa’s rich biodiversity is facing imminent risk. And climate change induced issues such as desertification, wildfires, severe storms and floods are exacerbating the continent’s exposure to biodiversity loss.



Take black rhinos. At one point, the population of black rhinos may have been as high as 850,000. But the numbers have dropped dramatically from an estimated 65,000 in 1970 to about 2,600 now, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-24/rhino-bond-is-sold-by-world-bank-in-first-issuance-of-its-kind">according to the World Bank</a>. This is partly due to habitat loss and excessive poaching.



Rhinos play a crucial role in <a href="https://www.thegef.org/newsroom/press-releases/wildlife-conservation-bond-boosts-south-africas-efforts-protect-black">shaping entire ecosystems</a> in which other species depend. But gaps in conservation financing has <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/infographic/2022/03/23/mobilizing-investors-to-protect-endangered-rhinos">limited the activities of programs</a> that aim to protect endangered rhinos and grow their populations.



Although there’s a growing awareness of the need to enhance biodiversity by protecting wildlife as the majority of investment in nature is derived from governments with little involvement from the private sector.



On average, biodiversity loss is costing the global economy <a href="https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/world-needs-usd-81-trillion-investment-nature-2050-tackle-triple">10 percent of its output</a> every year. But in order to tackle the world’s growing biodiversity crisis, there needs to be an increase in nature-based funding.



Last year, <a href="https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/world-needs-usd-81-trillion-investment-nature-2050-tackle-triple">UNEP released a report</a> on the state of finance for nature and found that the global annual spending to protect and restore nature needs to triple to roughly $350 billion by 2030. And by 2050, global yearly spending needs to <a href="https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/world-needs-usd-81-trillion-investment-nature-2050-tackle-triple">increase to $536 billion</a>.



To achieve these loft goals, a shift in mindset from governments and the private sector is needed in order to safeguard environmental systems.



Enter ‘rhino bonds’.



In recent times, new and innovative financing mechanisms designed to tackle the issue of biodiversity loss are emerging.



In March, the World Bank issued the world’s first <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2022/03/23/wildlife-conservation-bond-boosts-south-africa-s-efforts-to-protect-black-rhinos-and-support-local-communities">Wildlife Conservation Bond</a> raising $150 million to fund efforts to increase the black rhino population – an endangered species – in South Africa.



This innovative outcome-based financial mechanism differs from a conventional bond as it measures the increase in black rhino populations and will pay returns depending on the rate of growth in black rhino populations in two South African reserves.



The Rhino bond harnesses investment from capital markets to directly support endangered species and conservation efforts. Further, the bond is the first of its kind as it not only has financial outcomes but also conservation ones – in this case, the increase in black rhino populations.



While development finance continues to play a crucial role in tackling Africa’s growing biodiversity issues, there’s an increased need to tap into alternative modes of financing.



Capital markets offer a way to respond to Africa’s climate-induced biodiversity issues by linking capital markets to biodiversity conservation through climate financing mechanisms such as rhino bonds.



This is particularly important given Africa’s mounting climate-induced challenges.



From a climate perspective, rhino bonds could serve as a blueprint for other countries struggling with biodiversity loss to follow suit.

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How wildlife bonds can protect and boost biodiversity

As the South African economy is slowly and cautiously emerging from the devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic, organisations are starting to look to the future and what emerging trends hold for their business.



One such trend is the concept of the Metaverse which, in essence, represents the convergence of digital and physical world.&nbsp; It’s a 3D virtual space where users can gather as a group of avatars, interacting with one another in surroundings that replicate the physical world with select modifications.



It’s almost sounds like the real world and Sci-Fi is finally starting to cross paths, and ironically the idea is based on a Neal Stephenson’s book&nbsp;Snow Crash&nbsp;published 30 years ago.&nbsp;



The Metaverse concept opens a world of opportunities for users to try out various activities from travelling, shopping, trying on clothes and attending virtual concerts. And already major brands are entering the Metaverse, so to speak, eager to find a place in this immersive Internet experience.



Preparing for the Metaverse



The world is going through major digital and technological changes, which in turn means organisation must keep up with current customer demand while also remaining agile and ready for future economic environments.



And whilst the Metaverse is still a concept for now, given its immersive nature, it can present a myriad of opportunities for companies. Organisations must be ready to bring their digital presence to the next level once the Metaverse becomes a reality.



The opportunities are exiting, with the post-Covid hybrid or remote working environments, organisation should leverage these increasingly creative virtual business experiences to connect and collaborate with their own people, enhance their business process, and maintain a competitive edge.



Bringing the Metaverse Closer to the Edge



The Metaverse will undoubtedly be persistent and comprise of large amounts of information. Connecting to this digital reality will require fast and reliable online speed to manage the requisite bandwidth and interoperability demand.



However, latency can also become a major concern, and this is where edge computing bridges the gap. The Metaverse trend will further drive the adoption of edge computing as it is a key infrastructure that enables the Metaverse to reach full potential, enabling providers to scale their offerings sustainably.



A sustainable, virtual world



Unfortunately, with the increase in data volume, bandwidth, and continuous operations, comes higher energy usage and even more heat release from IT gear.



Leveraging existing infrastructure can help to reduce the formation of new and bigger data centres that could potentially negatively impact the environment. Already the pandemic resulted in an increase in data centre functionality, with the construction of hyperscale data centres spreading across the world due to the surge in cloud services that require large-scale servers and storage.



If the pandemic can bring about such a massive leap, the realisation of this virtual world integrating with our daily functions will require super computing power and sophisticated, edge computing-powered data centres.



It is therefore important that as companies move towards the Metaverse, and commission more data centres to support their individual offerings, they should work with experts to organise and prioritise data centre sustainability.



Organisations should review their current energy mix and consider clean technologies to address their carbon footprint and prepare for future expansion efforts like the Metaverse.

Why big business is pumping billions into the metaverse

Opinion piece: The post-pandemic era and the Metaverse – are we ready?

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="710" height="473" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Agriculture-image-FAO.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-416761" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Agriculture-image-FAO.jpg 710w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Agriculture-image-FAO-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Agriculture-image-FAO-135x90.jpg 135w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 710px) 100vw, 710px" /><figcaption>Photo: via FAO</figcaption></figure>



The <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/04/food-prices-fao-index-cereals-commodities-exports/">rising</a> global food prices, compounded by Russia’s debilitating invasion of Ukraine, are yet another catalyst to spur agricultural development in Africa.



Agricultural <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/agriculture">development</a> in Africa is critical to reach its current needs as well as the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 – particularly, ending hunger, creating jobs and growing economies; and thereby <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2021/04/30/economic-diversification-in-africa-how-and-why-it-matters-pub-84429">diversifying</a> Africa’s economies from extractive mineral resources.



The ramifications of the Russia-Ukraine War, coupled with <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/assessment-report/ar6/">climate change</a> and pandemic-related disruptions to agriculture in Africa, have led to the current threat to food <a href="https://news.trust.org/item/20220328114910-rn628/">security</a> in Africa. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations <a href="https://www.fao.org/worldfoodsituation/foodpricesindex/en/">revealed</a> that the food price index hit a historical high in March 2022.



Given the current context, a concerted <a href="https://news.trust.org/item/20220328114910-rn628/">effort</a> from governments and individuals is needed to boost agricultural productivity in Africa.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-from-the-cities-to-the-farms">From the Cities to the Farms</h2>



Seeing the potential in agriculture, many Africans from the cities are heading back to the farms. Teresa Ndanga, a successful journalist in Malawi decided to venture into large scale farming in 2018. She said: “I am currently doing maize, groundnuts and soy beans. I also want to get into irrigation for beans”.



Malawi, a peaceful country with the moniker “the warm heart of Africa”, has an <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/malawi/overview#1">economy</a> that is highly reliant on agriculture. The agriculture sector absorbs 80% of the country’s working population. In 2021, the Malawian economy grew to 2.4% from 0.8% in 2020. According to <a href="https://www.mwapata.mw/about">MwAPATA</a> Institute, an agriculture-focused think tank in Malawi, the Russia-Ukraine War is set to cause a <a href="https://www.mwapata.mw/_files/ugd/dd6c2f_a93e1dba50ef4e7280ee0998d77af9b0.pdf?index=true">shock</a> to the country’s agriculture sector due to high global fuel prices, an increase to fertilizer costs because Russia and Ukraine are major producers of chemical fertilizers.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Dependency on Food Imports and Agricultural Inputs &nbsp;</h2>



As both individuals and countries brave the current situation and seek alternatives to Russia’s supply of fertilizer, Nigeria has come to the fore. Nigeria <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/04/12/1092251401/russia-ukraine-war-worsens-fertilizer-crunch-risking-food-supplies">opened</a> Africa’s largest fertilizer plant in <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/23/business/dangote-fertilizer-plant-food-crisis-lgs-intl/index.html#:~:text=The%20fertilizer%20factory%20sits%20on,fertilizer%20plant%20in%20Lagos%2C%20Nigeria.">March 2022</a>. The newly opened fertilizer factory has an important role to play in bridging and boosting access to fertilizers for farmers on the African continent, especially in Nigeria. And its launch comes at a pertinent time for the world and Africa, in particular.



Food insecurity on the continent is <a href="https://news.trust.org/item/20220328114910-rn628/">exacerbated</a> by the lingering Russia-Ukraine War. <a href="https://www.afdb.org/en/news-and-events/press-releases/africa-must-prepare-inevitability-global-food-crisis-says-african-development-bank-president-akinwumi-adesina-51173">According</a> to the African Development Bank (AfDB), “90% of Russia’s $4 billion exports to Africa in 2020 was made up of wheat; and 48% of Ukraine’s near $3 billion exports to the continent was made of wheat and 31% of maize.” &nbsp;



Nigeria <a href="https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/nigeria-agriculture-sector">imports</a> US$10 billion worth of agricultural produce to make up for its food deficit. A Nigerian farmer – who in 2017 moved from the USA to Nigeria – recently made the following remarks: “I saw an opportunity in a very undeveloped sector. Agricultural products are always in demand and food based industrial products are rarely produced in Nigeria. The ability to make a significant return on investment while also making a significant contribution to society are major reasons why I am back in Nigeria”.



The African Development Bank (AfDB) is ramping up its efforts to improve food production in African countries through its African Food Crisis Response and Emergency <a href="https://www.afdb.org/en/news-and-events/press-releases/africa-must-prepare-inevitability-global-food-crisis-says-african-development-bank-president-akinwumi-adesina-51173">Facility</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Digitalization for Agriculture in Africa</h2>



In Nigeria, and Africa as a whole, technology is being used to support the agriculture sector. One of Africa’s major challenges in the agriculture space is capturing data. Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) have the propensity to curb data challenges and increase agricultural productivity across the continent. The Nigerian farmer explained: “For our company, we have used ICTs to capture data at scale to reduce risk of operating in our region &#8230; We monitor fuel usage of our equipment through apps such as Hello Tractor, which also allows us to earn additional income from idle assets. Drone scouting has allowed us to visibly see our farm and areas that are underperforming or have been attacked by pests.”



<a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/12613">ICTs</a> represent an opportunity to make significant strides in agriculture for farmers, especially at this moment. Significant investment is required to support farmers, especially <a href="https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/why-smallholder-farmers-need-funding/">smallholder</a> farmers’ use of ICTs because despite the efficiency of <a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/12613">ICTs</a> in agriculture; accessibility and affordability remain a challenge for many smallholder farmers who are not benefiting from the efficiency of ICTs.



<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X2100067X?via%3Dihub#!">Research</a> by the FAO shows that smallholder farmers around the world feed <a href="https://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/1395127/icode/">one-third</a> of the world. One of the strategies to ensure food security for Africa and the world, particularly at a time when food security hangs on the balance with soaring food prices, is sufficient investment and support with ICTs to farmers, and smallholder farmers in particular, to enable them to increase their crop yields. &nbsp;



Seeing the significant potential in digitalization for agriculture in Africa, the AfDB launched the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) <a href="https://www.afdb.org/en/topics-and-sectors/initiatives-partnerships/technologies-african-agricultural-transformation-taat">programme</a> in 2018 as part of the AfDB’s “Feed Africa Strategy 2016 -2025” to increase agricultural output .



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">From the Farm to the Fork</h2>



Food production is but one step in the agricultural supply chain to get from farm to fork. What comes into play are sourcing requirements and the international or regional agricultural supply chains. This was demonstrated in January 2022 where despite <a href="https://cipotato.org/annualreport2019/stories/potatoes-for-prosperity/#:~:text=In%20Kenya%2C%20potato%20is%20now,to%20significantly%20boost%20farm%20incomes.">potatoes</a> being a key food crop in Kenya (grown by about 800,000 of small-holder farmers) KFC Kenya <a href="https://twitter.com/KFCinKenya/status/1477930454036594769?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1477930454036594769%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theafricareport.com%2F163972%2Fkenya-kfc-spud-shortage-sparks-hot-potato-over-sourcing%2F">announced</a> that it had a shortage of potato chips that are <a href="https://www.theafricareport.com/163972/kenya-kfc-spud-shortage-sparks-hot-potato-over-sourcing/">imported</a> from Egypt.



On the debate regarding the sourcing of potatoes by KFC in Kenya, Dennis Nangabo, a Kenyan farmer, said support to local potato farmers by international food companies, such as KFC Kenya, would be mutually beneficial to the companies themselves and the local farmers. The mutually beneficial relationship would inadvertently benefit the country’s economy.



Also weighing in on this was Elsayed Afify, an Egyptian farmer, who said: “I remember the supply chain disruption experienced by KFC as they import potatoes from Egypt. Although the industry of farming potatoes in Egypt is huge enough to export the crop to other countries, Kenya and other countries should be considered”.



<a href="https://howwemadeitinafrica.com/kenyas-kfc-potato-drama-farmers-can-only-meet-standards-if-there-are-some/">Quality standards</a> of the local potatoes is the reason the international fast food company in Kenya does not source locally. For inclusive food value chains, it is important for local farmers to be informed of the quality control requirements of major food companies so that local farmers also have an opportunity to meet the standards and thereby grow their businesses.



Afify and his family grow grapes on their farm in Egypt that is located in Al Noubaria and distributes the grapes locally to mediators. According to him: “&#8230; The mediators take care of distributing [the grapes] to the markets and sells them to food companies in Egypt”.



Food production in Africa has significant potential – the continent has <a href="https://www.devex.com/news/opinion-time-to-reset-agriculture-s-relationship-with-nature-in-africa-100183#:~:text=productivity%2C%20necessitating%20expansion.-,Africa%20is%20estimated%20to%20be%20home%20to%2060%25%20of%20the,many%20additional%20threats%20to%20nature.">approximately</a> 60% of the world’s arable land. Nangabo – who farms the following crops: coffee, sugarcane, maize and tomatoes – said: “I started farming [because] the availability of agricultural land made it easy to start small and grow the business”.



Increasing food production in Africa is vital and efforts by individuals in this regard is both necessary and commendable. These individual efforts require strategic support by African governments and development institutions such as the AfDB to make Africa’s potential in food production a reality.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Agricultural Development an African Imperative</h2>



A thriving agriculture sector in Africa is not only a developmental goal for the continent, it is also an imperative, chiefly at a time of skyrocketing global food prices. With Africa’s population <a href="https://www.economist.com/special-report/2020/03/26/africas-population-will-double-by-2050">expected</a> to double by 2050, demand for food will also <a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/16624/769900WP0SDS0A00Box374393B00PUBLIC0.pdf?sequence=1&amp;isAllowed=y">double</a>. Agricultural development presents an opportunity to generate wealth for Africans and consequentially for African countries, but also to provide food security for the continent.

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With Skyrocketing Global Food Prices Agricultural Development in Africa Is An Imperative

Earth Day poses important questions for the African continent as it seeks to balance the need for sustained economic growth to improve the quality of life of its people, on the one hand, while protecting the environment, on the other. This means balancing the important Ps, namely People, Profit and our Planet &#8211; Earth.



Africa is a continent of extraordinary potential, expected to enjoy the second-fastest economic growth in the world over the next ten years – faster than North America, Latin America, Europe and the global average. It also has the fastest-growing population, with Africa expected to account for 47% of the world’s population growth over the next 10 years, and 53% of the growth in the global working-age population.



When these demographic fundamentals are combined with the continent’s abundance of natural resources and improving governance, it is easy to see how Africa, under the right conditions, could match the economic transformation of China in the coming decades.



Yet Africa, while contributing the least to global greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, is also expected to be among the worst-affected regions.



According to projections from the Sixth Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Africa faces an increase in life threatening temperatures above 40°C, from 10 to 140 days a year, depending on the scenario and region.



Conditions will be drier in most regions, and there will be more droughts, but also more flooding. A current 1-in-100-year flood event could become 1-in-10 or -20 years by 2050, and 1-in-5 years to annually by 2100, even under moderate warming.



Much of Africa is already water-stressed, at current temperature levels. To make matters worse, a recent report from the UN University noted that little of Africa&#8217;s wastewater is treated, and access to water for drinking and hand-washing is worsening for hundreds of millions of people.



It is clear that to both stimulate the economic growth required to offer dignity and prosperity for all its people, and to do so in a manner that is environmentally sustainable, Africa must find ways to decouple economic growth from over-exploitation of natural resources like water and reduce the use of fossil fuels.



These are complex and far-reaching challenges requiring a whole-of-society response that is not subject to fickle economic or political cycles. Fortunately, Africa has adopted, and is making steady if uneven progress towards implementation of, Agenda 2063, which includes Goal 7: Environmentally Sustainable, Climate Resilient Economies and Communities, as well as the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which are designed to be a blueprint to achieve a better and sustainable future for all.



While governments can contribute to creating an enabling environment, the private sector and communities themselves have a critical role to play.



This is among the reasons that Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) has made sustainability integral to its business strategy – so much so that it has been incorporated into the short and long-term incentives of our leadership. We understand that our business can flourish only if our continent flourishes too.



The CCBA Group is committed to reducing carbon emissions in line with the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement. We are also contributing to The Coca-Cola Company’s global ambition of reducing absolute carbon emissions and decoupling growth from increased greenhouse gas emissions.



This is an absolute target, meaning it will apply regardless of our volume growth, and reflects an ambitious decoupling of our greenhouse gas emissions from our sales growth.



The biggest contributions to our carbon footprint reduction will come from investing in renewable energy to improve energy efficiency in our plants, rethinking our packaging by making it more recyclable and increasing the use of recycled material, shifting to energy efficient cooler systems, rethinking how and where we source our ingredients, and also improved fuel efficiency in our fleet. Our efforts in waste management and water replenishment also contribute significantly to reducing our overall footprint across the value chain.



Water Stewardship is another integral focus area for us, and we are aligned to The Coca-Cola Company’s Water Strategy 2030. Broadly, the strategy ensures that we have regenerative operations, healthy watersheds and enhanced community resilience. In 2020, we achieved a replenishment rate of 76%, with the aim to get to 100% over the long term. In all our operations, we aim to improve water usage efficiency by at least 2 percent annually, treat our waste-water and, re-use or recycle treated waste water for other beneficial uses.



We are prioritising investment in water replenishment initiatives in our plants that are located in high water security risk regions, with clear plans to increase water use efficiency in all our plants.



Importantly in Africa, we also have a keen focus on water access, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) &nbsp;projects to give communities access to clean water.&nbsp;



The Coca-Cola Foundation’s Replenish Africa Initiative (RAIN) benefited 6 million people in Africa through various water access and sanitation projects, while delivering additional health, climate and empowerment benefits. Over 3 million of those who benefitted from RAIN are in countries where CCBA operates.



Through Coca-Cola’s global World Without Waste initiative, we have also committed to recover the equivalent of every can and every bottle that we sell for recycling and reuse by 2030.



The recyclability of our packaging is already at more than 95%, tracking ahead of The Coca-Cola Company’s global target of 100% by 2025.



We are improving the recyclability of our packs through a strong emphasis on shifting to homogeneous and clear bottles and have made significant progress on this already.



Over 20% of our revenues are already coming from returnable or refillable packs. We are strategically looking to increase the use of homogenous returnable packs in our portfolio – which has the added benefit of being more economical for our consumers to help drive affordability, and also more economical for ourselves.



We have already made significant progress towards our collection and recycling rate of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles. Our biggest challenge on recycling is accelerating the collection of plastic bottles to increase PET bottles feedstock for recycled PET supply to enable higher recycled content in our bottles.



To date, in South Africa we are at 17% recycled PET content, and we have 15% recycled PET content in 2&nbsp;litre bottles in Namibia, Mozambique, Botswana and Zambia.



One example of how we are getting communities involved is in Kenya. Here we leveraged our partnerships to launch the Recycling PET Bottles initiative, getting 400 schools to participate in the collection of PET bottles. A total of over 90 000kg, or 4.5 million PET bottles, were collected and recycled as a result of this initiative.



We know we cannot change the world alone, and are therefore working in partnership with fellow producers, retailers, consumers and governments so that, together, we create an environment that ensures we can achieve more.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="779" height="800" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Tshidi-pic-2-779x800.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-415663" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Tshidi-pic-2-779x800.jpg 779w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Tshidi-pic-2-292x300.jpg 292w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Tshidi-pic-2-88x90.jpg 88w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Tshidi-pic-2-768x789.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Tshidi-pic-2-1496x1536.jpg 1496w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Tshidi-pic-2-scaled.jpg 1995w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 779px) 100vw, 779px" /><figcaption>Tshidi Ramogase is the CCBA Group Public Affairs, Communications and Sustainability Director</figcaption></figure>

Tshidi-pic-2

Earth Day is a reminder to Africa to grow in harmony with the environment  

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="800" height="800" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Priceless-Planet-Coalition-expands-forest-restoration-effort-800x800.png" alt="" class="wp-image-416616" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Priceless-Planet-Coalition-expands-forest-restoration-effort-800x800.png 800w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Priceless-Planet-Coalition-expands-forest-restoration-effort-300x300.png 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Priceless-Planet-Coalition-expands-forest-restoration-effort-90x90.png 90w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Priceless-Planet-Coalition-expands-forest-restoration-effort-768x768.png 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Priceless-Planet-Coalition-expands-forest-restoration-effort.png 1081w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></figure>



Africa, 20 April 2022: Mastercard is expanding the reforestation work of the Priceless Planet Coalition to include 15 new restoration projects – including three in Africa &#8211; for a total of 18 globally. These projects will help accelerate progress toward the Coalition’s goal of restoring 100 million trees. Consumer desire to support initiatives that drive positive change for the environment is growing around the world; according to the Mastercard Economics Institute*, consumer donations to environmentally focused charities grew 48.4% globally in 2022 when compared to pre-pandemic 2019 levels, overall outpacing donation growth to other organizations.



Reforestation is widely acknowledged as one of the most impactful and cost-effective ways to positively counteract climate change. The Priceless Planet Coalition project portfolio includes a diverse geographical representation with Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Madagascar and Malawi among the 15 new sites globally. The restoration in Madagascar will serve as a flagship project, with a target of 2 million trees. In Malawi, 1.25 million trees are planned, and in Democratic Republic of Congo 1 million.



In addition to these three new African sites, the project portfolio of the Priceless Planet Coalition also includes representation in the&nbsp;Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa&nbsp;region (Kenya, UAE),&nbsp;Asia Pacific&nbsp;(Australia, Cambodia, China, India, Philippines);&nbsp;Latin America&nbsp;(Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala);&nbsp;Europe&nbsp;(France, Portugal, Spain and Scotland); and&nbsp;North America&nbsp;(Mexico, United States). The expansion builds on the Coalition’s existing planting progress underway in Australia, the Amazon in Brazil, and restoration of a total of 890,400 trees is already underway in Kenya’s Makuli-Nzaui landscape of Makueni County, with community-led work supported by the Green Belt Movement, founded by Nobel Laureate Dr. Wangari Maathai.



The Priceless Planet Coalition is not only focused on planting trees, but on re-growing forests in places with the greatest need and the most potential to have positive impact on climate, community and biodiversity goals. Guided by its restoration partners, Conservation International and World Resources Institute, the Coalition employs science-based best practices to identify new project sites, select the appropriate tree species and ensure long-term forest health through ongoing monitoring, while also providing economic opportunities for local communities.&nbsp;



“The Priceless Planet Coalition is focused on addressing the urgent global climate crisis by restoring the right trees in the right places,” says&nbsp;Jorn Lambert, Chief Digital Officer, Mastercard.&nbsp;“By collaborating with our global network of Coalition partners, we are able to further scale our forest restoration work and create collective action for the planet.”



Uniting in climate action



The Priceless Planet Coalition unites companies, communities and consumers in climate action and now includes more than 100 partners globally, including sustainably minded merchants, fintechs and global banks. Each partner is helping to fund the forest restoration through consumer engagement and donation campaigns that encourage people to take climate-friendly actions or make direct contributions through a donation platform. Recent partners to join the Coalition in Sub-Saharan Africa include Premier Bank in Somalia, NMB Bank Plc in Tanzania, Faisal Islamic Bank in Sudan, and Salaam African Bank in Djibouti. Faja Lobi is the implementation partner in DRC, with Wells for Zoë in Malawi and Conservation International Madagascar in Madagascar.



“There’s growing acknowledgement that investing in the preservation and restoration of the natural world around us is critical also to tackling climate change,” says&nbsp;Bo Lidegaard, historian, diplomat, former climate change negotiator, and advisor to the Coalition. “The Priceless Planet Coalition is designed in a way to maximize impact for the planet, rooted firmly in the best science and quality planning and monitoring.”



Building a sustainable digital economy



Through innovation and trusted partnerships, Mastercard is committed to building a more inclusive and sustainable world with a digital economy that works for everyone, everywhere. The company accelerated its&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mastercard.com/news/press/2021/november/advancing-the-future-of-sustainable-commerce/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">net zero timeline</a>&nbsp;to 2040 and recently expanded its&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mastercard.com/news/perspectives/2022/esg-goals-and-employee-compensation/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">compensation model for all employees</a>, linking it to three priorities across Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG). Through its Global Sustainability Innovation Lab, Mastercard is also developing a range of products to enable more sustainable commerce, as well as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mastercard.com/news/press/2022/february/mastercard-expands-consulting-with-practices-dedicated-to-crypto-open-banking-and-esg/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">services</a>&nbsp;to help its customers bring more eco-conscious solutions to consumers around the world.



To learn more about the Priceless Planet Coalition, visit&nbsp;<a href="http://www.pricelessplanet.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">PricelessPlanet.org</a>.



*The Mastercard Economics Institute analysis looked at aggregated and anonymized transactions made to charities within the Mastercard network, focusing on markets with robust data quality accounting for history and volume of the market.



END

Priceless-Planet-Coalition-expands-forest-restoration-effort

Mastercard expands the Priceless Planet Coalition’s forest restoration effort

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="547" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/26020842807_c49de5f57b_o-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-416351" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/26020842807_c49de5f57b_o-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/26020842807_c49de5f57b_o-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/26020842807_c49de5f57b_o-135x90.jpg 135w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/26020842807_c49de5f57b_o-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/26020842807_c49de5f57b_o-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/26020842807_c49de5f57b_o-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>Photo: via IWMI/CGIAR on Flickr</figcaption></figure>



As Africa enters a critical decade, with the clock ticking on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, the multiple threats to the continent’s food, land and water systems are undermining efforts to reduce hunger, malnutrition and poverty.



The challenges Africa faces are increasingly connected to the rest of the world. History tells us that increased food insecurity can start and prolong&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.org/article/hunger-and-war/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">wars</a>,&nbsp;spark&nbsp;<a href="https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199679362.001.0001/acprof-9780199679362-chapter-14" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">revolution</a>&nbsp;and reverse economic development, all of which is made more likely by the impact of the pandemic, climate change and civil strife. Africa urgently needs a path forward that meets major threats to food, land and water systems with commensurate science, technology and innovation.



In a mutually beneficial manner, Africa is as important to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cgiar.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CGIAR</a>,&nbsp;the world’s largest publicly funded agricultural research partnership,&nbsp;as CGIAR is to Africa. For more than five decades,&nbsp;CGIAR has made huge contributions to shaping the science behind Africa’s agricultural development. The institutional reforms and the strengthening of Africa’s research capacities over the same timeframe have been phenomenal.



While Africa may appear to be&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fao.org/publications/sofi/2021/en/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">losing ground</a>&nbsp;in meeting its targets for food and nutrition security, the current scenario would be far more desperate without the impact and influence of CGIAR. Breakthroughs in upstream science including genetics, agronomy and environmental and resource management are helping farming communities better cope with today’s extreme conditions and unpredictability.



To build on this life-saving legacy and stay relevant to an Africa facing new and ever more complex challenges, CGIAR must continue to evolve. The transition to One CGIAR is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform CGIAR so it can deliver the science and innovations needed to build a food-secure future in Africa and beyond. There is an absolute necessity to continuously counter known and unknown shocks to the agrifood system whenever they are encountered. Farmers and all stakeholders must remain equipped with appropriate technologies and policy instruments to meet these challenges head on. The One CGIAR transition offers such clear benefits in reducing biotic and abiotic stressors.



From an organizational change point of view, integrating CGIAR’s governance into a more unified system provides a single entry-point for engagement and clear mechanisms to respond to locally relevant opportunities, priorities and needs – something long demanded by funders and country partners alike. In this context, while research and innovation work is carried out, as before, in a decentralized way, administration and management become streamlined in a way that engenders efficiency of resource utilization. In addition, the One CGIAR transition also aims to double current funding, unlocking more investment for its work and partners in priority regions, half of which cover Africa. In 2021, close to USD$1 billion was pledged to CGIAR by funders, a major vote of confidence in the reform.



At the same time, the drivers of Africa’s food insecurity are multi-dimensional, which means that understanding the specificities of Africa is crucial for the successful implementation, application and unpacking of the One CGIAR reform in Africa. With&nbsp;around half of the countries in which CGIAR works in Africa and with four One CGIAR research centres headquartered on the continent,&nbsp;One CGIAR can only be a success if it is a success in and for Africa.



Transformational change on the scale needed can only be delivered in the context of transdisciplinary partnerships with national, regional research and donor partners. With this in mind,&nbsp;the African Development Bank (AfDB) and&nbsp;FARA recently brought together the African Union Commission, regional economic communities (RECs) and representatives of agricultural research for development institutes, with CGIAR, at a meeting in Abidjan to ensure that the necessary One CGIAR reforms reflect the needs of African farmers.



In the space between the Abidjan meeting and high-level consultations planned in Dakar in May, there is great hope for the elaboration of a consensus position on the direction for food science and innovation coordinated by the African Union Commission, AfDB and FARA as part of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cgiar.org/news-events/news/cgiar-to-launch-advisory-panel-and-consultations-to-boost-partner-engagement/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ongoing consultations</a>, CGIAR can move forward in its reforms with confidence.



Transforming Africa’s food systems can only be achieved as a joint effort. That is why&nbsp;CGIAR is embracing the opportunity and invitation to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cgiar.org/news-events/news/cgiar-to-launch-advisory-panel-and-consultations-to-boost-partner-engagement/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">boost its engagement</a>&nbsp;with its country and regional partners.&nbsp;Its&nbsp;<a href="https://storage.googleapis.com/cgiarorg/2022/04/CGIAR-System-Board-Communique-Retreat-26-27-March-202274.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">leadership is committed</a>&nbsp;to&nbsp;ensuring that the perspectives of all its partners are meaningfully reflected in the One CGIAR transition and future, leveraging shared history and relationships to respectfully build on the important legacy of the first fifty years.



Ultimately, people do not survive on MoUs or partner agreements, they survive on functioning food systems that provide safe, sustainable and equitable diets and livelihoods. As leading agricultural research organisations, whose success depends on country and regional partnerships, CGIAR and FARA are unwavering in their pursuit of a united and successful way forward for Africa.



Dr. Yemi Akinbamijo, Executive Director of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) Dr. Claudia Sadoff,&nbsp;Managing Director, Research Delivery and Impact of the&nbsp;CGIAR&nbsp;System Organization (CGIAR)

26020842807_c49de5f57b_o

Transforming Africa’s food systems is a joint enterprise

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="547" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Fridah-Mogoi-a-Clinical-Officer-at-Amref-Kibera-Health-Centre-checks-Derrick-Amwai-9-months-while-his-mother-Scovia-Kayege-holds-him-42-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-416298" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Fridah-Mogoi-a-Clinical-Officer-at-Amref-Kibera-Health-Centre-checks-Derrick-Amwai-9-months-while-his-mother-Scovia-Kayege-holds-him-42-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Fridah-Mogoi-a-Clinical-Officer-at-Amref-Kibera-Health-Centre-checks-Derrick-Amwai-9-months-while-his-mother-Scovia-Kayege-holds-him-42-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Fridah-Mogoi-a-Clinical-Officer-at-Amref-Kibera-Health-Centre-checks-Derrick-Amwai-9-months-while-his-mother-Scovia-Kayege-holds-him-42-135x90.jpg 135w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Fridah-Mogoi-a-Clinical-Officer-at-Amref-Kibera-Health-Centre-checks-Derrick-Amwai-9-months-while-his-mother-Scovia-Kayege-holds-him-42-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Fridah-Mogoi-a-Clinical-Officer-at-Amref-Kibera-Health-Centre-checks-Derrick-Amwai-9-months-while-his-mother-Scovia-Kayege-holds-him-42-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Fridah-Mogoi-a-Clinical-Officer-at-Amref-Kibera-Health-Centre-checks-Derrick-Amwai-9-months-while-his-mother-Scovia-Kayege-holds-him-42-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>Photo: via  Amref Health Africa</figcaption></figure>



Deliveries of COVID jabs to Africa have been ramped up in recent months, but the poor provision of health services in rural areas threatens to undermine vaccination efforts.



While we urge rich countries to quicken the pace of vaccine distribution to Africa – which remains unpredictable and erratic – there must be simultaneous efforts to ensure that hundreds of millions of Africans living in villages and other remote areas are not overlooked as rollouts gain momentum.



Failure to do so will continue to leave countries in the region vulnerable to the virus and new variants, even if donors substantially boost deliveries of jabs to the continent.&nbsp;



Already, there are alarming signs of vaccine distribution inequalities within countries. In Kenya for example, 40-50% of people in urban areas are vaccinated, compared to less than 10% in rural parts of the country, according to health ministry data.



46% of Kenyan doctors are located in or around Nairobi, home to less than a fifth of the national population.&nbsp; It’s the same <a href="https://www.unaids.org/sites/default/files/media_asset/African2mCHW_en.pdf">picture</a> in Angola and South Africa. &nbsp;The rural shortages are exacerbated by health worker migration. Doctors choose to practice in Europe, the US, Asia and the Middle East, where they are better paid: 63% of newly-trained doctors in Africa end up practicing abroad.&nbsp;



The root of the geographic inequalities is the chronic underfunding of Africa’s healthcare systems.&nbsp; While the US spends $10,000 per capita on health, the corresponding figure in Africa is just $70.



We have fewer healthcare workers per population than anywhere else in the world. There are, on average, three physicians per 10,000 population, compared to ten times that number in OECD countries.



Too often in rural areas women end up giving birth without skilled medical assistance while children with&nbsp;pneumonia or malaria struggle to get treatment because the nearest hospital is too far away.&nbsp;



Logistical difficulties are also limiting COVID vaccination rollouts. And the problem is compounded by donor deliveries of consignments of vaccines with short expiry dates. Overstretched urban healthcare workers struggle to use them in time, never mind their more remote counterparts.&nbsp;



Clearly, as a priority, Africa needs more vaccines and certainly ones with longer shelf lives. But no less important, a large increase in the number of healthcare workers, especially in rural areas, is needed. The COVID19 Africa Commission, chaired by President&nbsp;Ramaphosa, is creating an Africa Health Workforce Task Team to evaluate the health workforce needs of the continent and set targets on how to bolster their ranks.



It’s a commendable initiative. But we are running out of time. Right now, we need urgent interventions to ensure more equitable distribution of COVID jabs, or risk seeing all the good vaccination work in towns and cities unravel as they succumb to new outbreaks originating in largely unvaccinated rural areas.



Encouragingly, there have been some innovative solutions driven by governments and civil society organisations.



In the US and much of Europe, pharmacists did most of the heavy lifting in vaccinating the population. In many African countries, only doctors and nurses are legally permitted to administer jabs, but Zimbabwe trained pharmacists to offer vaccinations.



At the same time, Amref has flown&nbsp;thousands of vaccines out of Nairobi to remote and insecure parts of Kenya. We also run outreach at health facilities on weekends for the vast majority of people too busy making a living the rest of week when routine vaccinations, including COVID vaccination, are offered.&nbsp;



In one Saturday, outreach in Kibera, the informal settlement in Nairobi, our team jabbed 350 people in six hours at a health centre that vaccinates a handful of people on a weekday. Taking vaccines to the people while paying attention to their lives makes good sense. &nbsp;



Ultimately, Africa needs to spend much more per capita on healthcare to begin to really address the urban-rural medical provision divide. We hope the Africa Health Workforce Task Team will provide valuable data on continent-wide needs.



Countries can also fill the urban rural gap by employing community-based health officers who would complement &nbsp;essential appropriate primary care services at the village level.&nbsp; There should be an expansion of mobile phone–based “telemedicine” and diagnostics that connect health workforce and rural communities.



In Rwanda and Ethiopia, community health workers from villages were trained to give primary care and refer people to higher health facilitiesfor serious illness. (<a href="https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2016/09/15/an-african-trailblazer">source</a>). By 2016, there were 45,000 of these community health workers in Rwanda and 35,000 in Ethiopia.



At Amref, we have innovated mobile vans, which can be equipped with coolers to transport refrigerated vaccines, medicines and lab samples to and from faraway health clinics.



But, in the meantime, the international community must support and encourage local government and NGO initiatives to address current vaccine distribution inequalities. Individual interventions may be limited in scope but together they could significantly improve vaccination rates in rural areas.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Dr. Githinji Gitahi is Group CEO of Amref Health Africa. Charles Okeahalam is Chairman of Amref Health Africa&#8217;s international board of directors

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Opinion

Sound governance and good investments are what will move Africa to a place of greatness

Patient capital for African agriculture gives back far more than it receives

On my mind: The Fed capitulates

Sociopathic economists and the coming high fertility debt crisis

Ghana’s Crop Production Continues to be Devastated by Climate Change

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Environmental activism need not come at the expense of Africa’s development

Africa Day should spur action to end poverty and empower the continent to reach its full potential

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OP-Ed Africa’s Secondary Cities Can be the Engine of Sustainable Economic Growth

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With Skyrocketing Global Food Prices Agricultural Development in Africa Is An Imperative

Earth Day is a reminder to Africa to grow in harmony with the environment

Mastercard expands the Priceless Planet Coalition’s forest restoration effort

Transforming Africa’s food systems is a joint enterprise

Rural health worker shortage threatens Africa’s COVID vaccine rollout

News Tips

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