scholarly journals Does reducing food losses and wastes in sub-Saharan Africa make economic sense?

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 483-494 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emerta Aragie ◽  
Jean Balié ◽  
Cristian MoralesOpazo
Keyword(s):  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Food Type ◽  
Calorie Intake ◽  
Balance Sheets ◽  
Adequate Knowledge ◽  
Food And Agriculture ◽  
Food Requirement ◽  
Food Losses ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Sub Saharan

Reducing food losses and waste (FLW) is one of the sustainable ways of closing the food requirement gap in developing countries. However, there is not yet adequate knowledge on the extent of FLW by commodity type and stage of the food supply chain (FSC). Focusing on ten agrarian countries in Africa and building mainly on the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Food Balance Sheets (FBSs), this study generates some new insights on the level of FLW by country, FSC and food type. Across the FSC, we find that these countries lose a cumulative amount equivalent to 28% (641 kilocalories per capita per day – kcal/cap/day) of the current calorie intake. Within the FSC, the production and post-harvest handling stages contribute the greater shares of the total losses with 38% or 244 kcal/cap/day and 34% or 218 kcal/cap/day, respectively. Our results also show that farm incomes would increase by 20% if the avoidable losses and waste were recovered. These results are troublesome given the level of poverty and food insecurity in these countries and suggest inefficient and unsustainable use of natural resources (water and cropland) associated with the FSC losses.

Efficiency and Resource Implications of Food Losses and Waste in sub-Saharan Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 002190962110204
Author(s):  
Emerta Aragie
Keyword(s):  
Balance Sheet ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Food And Agriculture ◽  
Food And Agriculture Organization ◽  
Food Losses ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Food Commodities ◽  
Rich Data ◽  
United Nations Food

Reducing the huge level of food losses and waste is arguably one of the sustainable ways of closing the food requirement gap in developing countries. Examining selected sub-Saharan Africa countries and utilizing the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations’ Food Balance Sheet data, this study suggests that these countries lose over 29% (58.8 million tons) of the primary equivalent component of food. Exploiting the rich data on water and land footprints of food commodities, this study also identified considerable losses in resources – 21% of total water use and 15% of cropland use – associated with the food supply chain losses, with noticeable implications for agricultural sustainability.

scholarly journals Assessing Future Water Demand and Associated Energy Input with Plausible Scenarios for Water Service Providers (WSPs) in Sub-Saharan Africa

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 2169
Author(s):  
Pauline Macharia ◽  
Nzula Kitaka ◽  
Paul Yillia ◽  
Norbert Kreuzinger
Keyword(s):  
Water Supply ◽  
Water Demand ◽  
Energy Input ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Water Losses ◽  
Water Service ◽  
Current State ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Sub Saharan

This study examined the current state of water demand and associated energy input for water supply against a projected increase in water demand in sub-Saharan Africa. Three plausible scenarios, namely, Current State Extends (CSE), Current State Improves (CSI) and Current State Deteriorates (CSD) were developed and applied using nine quantifiable indicators for water demand projections and the associated impact on energy input for water supply for five Water Service Providers (WSPs) in Kenya to demonstrate the feasibility of the approach based on real data in sub-Saharan Africa. Currently, the daily per capita water-use in the service area of four of the five WSPs was below minimum daily requirement of 50 L/p/d. Further, non-revenue water losses were up to three times higher than the regulated benchmark (range 26–63%). Calculations showed a leakage reduction potential of up to 70% and energy savings of up to 12 MWh/a. The projected water demand is expected to increase by at least twelve times the current demand to achieve universal coverage and an average daily per capita consumption of 120 L/p/d for the urban population by 2030. Consequently, the energy input could increase almost twelve-folds with the CSI scenario or up to fifty-folds with the CSE scenario for WSPs where desalination or additional groundwater abstraction is proposed. The approach used can be applied for other WSPs which are experiencing a similar evolution of their water supply and demand drivers in sub-Saharan Africa. WSPs in the sub-region should explore aggressive strategies to jointly address persistent water losses and associated energy input. This would reduce the current water supply-demand gap and minimize the energy input that will be associated with exploring additional water sources that are typically energy intensive.

Economic freedom and tax revenue performance in sub-Saharan Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 610-638 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Oladapo Alabede
Keyword(s):  
Capita Income ◽  
Economic Freedom ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Tax Revenue ◽  
Traditional Theory ◽  
Per Capita Income ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Tax Effort ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Sub Saharan

Purpose This study aims to expand the conventional tax effort model to incorporate relevant economic freedom variables to investigate whether economic freedom fosters tax revenue performance in `sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Design/methodology/approach This study uses data from 42 countries across the four sub-regions of SSA from the period 2005 to 2012 with 252 year-country observations in an unbalanced panel method. The data were statistically treated using feasible generalised least square (FGLS) and panel-corrected standard errors (PCSE) estimate techniques. Findings The findings are twofold. First, the principal finding of the study suggests that economic freedom promotes tax revenue performance. Precisely, the FGLS analysis indicates that property rights freedom, freedom from corruption and investment freedom, as well as the composite economic freedom, exerted positive significant impact on tax revenue performance. This implies that country, which attained high degree of economic freedom, is likely to have higher tax-to-GDP ratio than a country with low level of economic freedom. Secondly, the results of most conventional variables conform to the prediction in the traditional theory except per capita income. Specifically, agriculture share in GDP and per capita income indicate negative significant relationship with tax revenue performance. Originality/value Because little is known empirically about the connection between economic freedom and tax revenue performance, this study extended the conventional tax effort model to incorporate the economic freedom to bridge the knowledge gap due to the absence of empirical evidence on the relationship between economic freedom and tax effort.

scholarly journals Carbon Lock-In and Sustainable Growth Challenges : Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

2020 ◽  
pp. 01-25
Author(s):  
Aminatou Kemajou Pofoura ◽  
Huaping Sun ◽  
Maxwell Opuni Antwi ◽  
Charles Kwarteng Antwi
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Emissions ◽  
Path Dependency ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Financial Resources ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Income Per Capita ◽  
Short Run ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Lock In

This research seeks to investigate the risks of carbon lock-in by examining the potential factors influencing carbon dioxide emissions levels in Sub-Saharan Africa. Given this, we employed a panel Sub-Saharan Africa comprised of 35 countries in the sub-region, from 2000 to 2014 with cross-sectional dependence among variables. We used the Two-step robust System Generalized Method of Moments to estimate the influencing factors of carbon emissions level that create path dependency. The main findings are: (1) income per capita, urbanization, and financial resources contribute to the increase of carbon emissions level in the Sub-Saharan Africa countries, in the short-run; (2) we noticed that in the short-run, the impacts of fossil fuels per capita, energy intensity and total energy consumption are insignificant; (3) in the long-run, income per capita, urbanization and financial resources increase carbon emissions level; (4) from various factors that increase carbon emissions level, these factors form a path dependency that slow the introduction of low-carbon systems, thus, creating carbon lock-in in the Sub-Saharan Africa countries. Considering this, policymakers and governments should ensure the strict compliance of environmental regulations by financial institutions and organizations, promote low-carbon cities during economic transformation, and encourage investments in low-carbon projects. The government should also educate and build awareness on the effects of environmental pollution on population health, provide incentives for energy conservation and promote the use of clean products to avoid future risks of lock-in in the sub-region.

A Comparative Analysis of South Africa as a Semi-Industrialised Developing Country

1988 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 473-493 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. B. Knight
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Developing Economies ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Industrialised Countries

South Africa has neither a developed nor a typical underdeveloped economy. Too often it has been wrongly classified, along with, say, Australia and New Zealand, as one of the peripheral developed countries, because only a part of the economy and population have the characteristics we associate with that group. Yet its economy is distinctly different from others in sub-Saharan Africa. South Africa falls squarely into the category which the World Bank classifies as ‘upper middle-income’ developing economies, with G.N.P. per capita in 1982 ranging from $2,000 to $7,000 and averaging $2,500, thereby including South Africa, with $2,700.1 (By contrast, Kenya's G.N.P. per capita was $400 and Britain's $10,000). The World Bank's group includes Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, South Korea, Venezuela, and Yugoslavia. South Africa shares many structural economic characteristics with these semi-industrialised countries.

scholarly journals Human fertility in relation to education, economy, religion, contraception, and family planning programs

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Götmark ◽  
Malte Andersson
Keyword(s):  
Family Planning ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Gdp Per Capita ◽  
World Population ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Health Food ◽  
Family Planning Programs ◽  
Five Factors ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Sub Saharan

Abstract Background The world population is expected to increase greatly this century, aggravating current problems related to climate, health, food security, biodiversity, energy and other vital resources. Population growth depends strongly on total fertility rate (TFR), but the relative importance of factors that influence fertility needs more study. Methods We analyze recent levels of fertility in relation to five factors: education (mean school years for females), economy (Gross Domestic Product, GDP, per capita), religiosity, contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR), and strength of family planning programs. We compare six global regions: E Europe, W Europe and related countries, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Arab States, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia. In total, 141 countries are included in the analysis. We estimate the strength of relationships between TFR and the five factors by correlation or regression and present the results graphically. Results In decreasing order of strength, fertility (TFR) correlates negatively with education, CPR, and GDP per capita, and positively with religiosity. Europe deviates from other regions in several ways, e.g. TFR increases with education and decreases with religiosity in W Europe. TFR decreases with increasing strength of family planning programs in three regions, but only weakly so in a fourth, Sub-Saharan Africa (the two European regions lacked such programs). Most factors correlated with TFR are also correlated with each other. In particular, education correlates positively with GDP per capita but negatively with religiosity, which is also negatively related to contraception and GDP per capita. Conclusions These results help identify factors of likely importance for TFR in global regions and countries. More work is needed to establish causality and relative importance of the factors. Our novel quantitative analysis of TFR suggests that religiosity may counteract the ongoing decline of fertility in some regions and countries.

scholarly journals HIV/AIDS and Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danjuma Maijama'a ◽  
Shamzaeffa Samsudin ◽  
Shazida jan Mohd Khan
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Time Lag ◽  
Hiv And Aids ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Growth Equation ◽  
Solow Model ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Sub Saharan

<p>This study investigates the effects of the HIV and AIDS epidemic on economic growth in 42<br />sub-Saharan African countries using data spanning from 1990-2013. Unlike previous studies,<br />we use a longer data horizon and take the time lag effect of the epidemic’s incubation period<br />that is, after it might have developed to AIDS into consideration in our estimations. We<br />estimated an empirical growth equation within an augmented Solow model and applied the<br />dynamic system GMM estimator. The results suggest that current HIV prevalence rate –<br />associated with rising morbidity, has a negative effect on GDP per capita growth, conversely<br />AIDS – associated with higher mortality in addition to morbidity, increases per capita GDP<br />growth.</p>

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