Water and sanitation in Africa: current status, trends, challenges and opportunities

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Kararach ◽  
Tito Yepes
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Rural Poverty ◽  
Water Security ◽  
River Basins ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Institution Building ◽  
Infrastructure Development ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Hydrological Variability ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities

Africa faces difficult water/sanitation legacies in the form of high hydrological variability and a multiplicity of transboundary river basins alongside poor sanitation. These challenges impeded the continent’s economic growth. Balanced investments in water resource and sanitation infrastructure and institutions are needed to increase productive uses of water, to mitigate the effect of recurrent floods and droughts, and to achieve basic water security as a platform for Africa’s economic growth. Priority should be given to investments that (a) focus on growth, (b) reduce rural poverty, (c) build climate resilience and adaptation, and (d) foster cooperation in international river basins. Because most African countries have low stocks of hydraulic infrastructure, emphasizing investments in infrastructure is appropriate for them. However, institution building and reform, improvements in water/sanitation management and operations, and strengthening of water information systems must complement growth in infrastructure. Development of institutions should be advanced in parallel with infrastructure investment.

scholarly journals Cities and Water Security in the Anthropocene: Research Challenges and Opportunities for International Relations

2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 521-544 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joana Castro Pereira ◽  
Miguel Rodrigues Freitas
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Environmental Politics ◽  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
Human Security ◽  
Water Security ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Research Challenges ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities

Abstract Cities have become important actors in international relations, and integral to security and environmental politics. We are living in an increasingly urban world, dominated by human settlements and activities. The central role now played by humans in shaping the planet has led us into an uncertain, unstable, and dangerous geological epoch – the Anthropocene – that poses great and additional challenges to security. Local and global spheres are connected as never before, generating ‘glocal’ issues in which water plays a central role. Water is the element that interconnects the complex web of food, energy, climate, economic growth, and human security. In a rapidly urbanising world, cities influence the hydrological cycle in major but uncertain ways, affecting water resources beyond their boundaries. There is no doubt that these issues are highly relevant to the discipline of International Relations (IR). However, IR scholars have been slow to engage with them, and most academic studies of cities and water security still emanate from the natural sciences. This article examines the ways in which cities in the Anthropocene challenge water security, and why IR needs to reinvent itself if it wants to sustain its contribution to global security.

scholarly journals Bringing Pankaj Ghemawat to Africa: Measuring African economic integration

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-102
Author(s):  
Adrian David Saville ◽  
Lyall White
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
East Africa ◽  
Economic Integration ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Survey Period ◽  
Human Welfare ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
The World ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities

A wealth of literature dealing with trade liberalisation, capital market liberalisation, labour mobility and related issues concerning globalisation asserts that economies that are more integrated with the global economy and, more specifically with their neighbours, tend to enjoy higher sustained levels of growth. Empirical evidence with solid quantitative findings recently conducted by Pankaj Ghemawat has confirmed that more ‘open and connected’ economies display higher rates of economic growth, higher per capita income levels and greater levels of human welfare. Against this backdrop, it is notable that the available evidence – whilst incomplete – suggests that African economies are amongst the least integrated in the world. Given that integration and connectedness matter, and that there are material gaps in the evaluation of integration for African economies, it is important to develop better measures of African economies’ connectedness with their neighbours and with the world, how this connectedness is evolving and establish more comprehensive and robust means of economic integration compared to those historically available. Using Ghemawat’s framework, which measures flows of trade, capital, information and people (TCIP) to determine connectedness, we develop the Visa Africa integration index to provide a more comprehensive and detailed gauge of economic integration for 11 African countries in three clusters: East Africa, West Africa and Southern Africa. The index results suggest that African economies are emerging off a modest base, with some economies demonstrating progressive structural improvements toward higher levels of integration with their respective regions and the world. East Africa, in particular, shows signs of rising connectedness over the survey period. The index also illustrates that some countries are more integrated globally than regionally and vice versa, which is important information for policy makers toward improving deeper and broader integration in their respective regions. The index builds on previous research in the broad area of integration and helps us better understand the challenges and opportunities presented by Africa’s economic changes and some of the implications for economic growth.

scholarly journals Infrastrukturális beruházások Afrikában – Kína és az új tengeri selyemút

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1-3.) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katalin Kis
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Emerging Economies ◽  
Direct Investment ◽  
Energy Supply ◽  
Infrastructure Development ◽  
African Region ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Maritime Silk Road ◽  
Development Objective

Infrastructure deficit is one of the biggest obstacles to economic growth in developing countries. With regard to the built-up infrastructure for transport, telecommunications and energy supply, the African region is poorly performing. In the absence of adequate domestic financing, African countries rely heavily on sources outside the continent. The purpose of the study is to outline possible solutions to the problem of infrastructure deficit in Africa. For this reason, it pays particular attention to the infrastructure development objective of aid and Foreign Direct Investment. Apart from classical donors, the emerging economies, especially China, are already financing Africa’s development. However, China’s perception of Africa is very heterogeneous. In order to ensure more balanced Sino-African relations and the effective functioning of the New Maritime Silk Road, attention should be paid not only to quantitative, but also to qualitative aspects of Chinese developments in the future.

scholarly journals Assets, Prosperity, and Data in Rural Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 23-43
Author(s):  
Dan Brockington ◽  
Christine Noe
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Rural Population ◽  
Rural Poverty ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Rural Africa ◽  
Productive Assets

This chapter explains why assets are interesting. It first outlines contrary interpretations of change in rural African societies, some of which see rising wealth, and others which see persistent rural poverty. Then it considers how those changes can be known, what data inform those debates. The chapter shows that using measures of poverty based on consumption then recent economic growth in many African countries has not been inclusive, particularly in rural areas. This is certainly the case in Tanzania. However it also shows that these measures of poverty deliberately exclude all forms of investment in productive assets. A rural population would look poor even if it was accumulating assets according to these measures. The chapter examines other studies of changes in assets in other rural societies in African contexts.

scholarly journals A Review of the 21st Century Challenges in the Food-Energy-Water Security in the Middle East

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 682 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maysoun Hameed ◽  
Hamid Moradkhani ◽  
Ali Ahmadalipour ◽  
Hamed Moftakhari ◽  
Peyman Abbaszadeh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Population Growth ◽  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Water Security ◽  
Political Stability ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Food Energy ◽  
Country Level

Developing countries have experienced significant challenges in meeting their needs for food, energy, and water security. This paper presents a country-level review of the current issues associated with Food-Energy-Water (FEW) security in the Middle East. In this study, sixteen countries in the Middle East are studied, namely Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Turkey, and the Arabian Peninsula (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia (KSA), United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Yemen). Here, we conduct a comprehensive assessment to study and evaluate the emerging drivers of FEW systems in the region. The investigated drivers include water security, extreme events, economic growth, urbanization, population growth, poverty, and political stability. The results suggest that most of the studied countries are facing FEW resource insecurity or weak planning/management strategies. Our evaluation further revealed the current status of each country with respect to each factor, and suggested that climatic and socioeconomic factors have contributed to the subsequent stress on FEW resources, specifically on the water sector. In general, and with respect to the water-energy security, it was found that energy production in the Middle East is highly constrained by water deficiency, drought, and/or economic growth. The water-food security in the region is mainly affected by drought, water scarcity, population growth, urbanization, and/or political unrest.

scholarly journals Fintech and Islamic Finance-challenges and Opportunities

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 581-590
Author(s):  
Irum Saba ◽  
Rehana Kouser ◽  
Imran Sharif Chaudhry
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Business Processes ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Islamic Finance ◽  
Cyber Attack ◽  
Financial Industry ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Islamic Financial Institutions

Fintech is the merger of two terms: finance and technology. Islamic finance provides financial services to the customers in accordance to the rules and regulations prescribed by Shariah. As Islamic finance is growing by leaps and bounds since the last two decades, and so is FinTech, in the last decade. The main objective of Islamic finance is to enhance the economic growth in the society with the use of Shariah compliant financial solutions.  Likewise, FinTech provides cost effective solutions for the companies and especially startups that help in the reduction of their costs and improvement in business processes. Financial industry is a very elusive yet important sector in the society, and hence heavily regulated by the regulators. The introduction of FinTech in countries, especially developing countries like Pakistan can help to boost economic growth but this will increase the workload of regulators as they must ensure stability of the financial system and to protect it from frauds/crises. Hence, proper monitoring by the regulatory authorities is crucial to avoid cyber-attack, data leakages and data theft as it can lead to misuse of the information. For the good results of FinTech, not only the users but the regulators have to be aware with the structure and functioning of the system and the regulations should be in place proactively. This paper focuses on the three main aspects namely: explaining the FinTech, opportunities for Islamic financial institutions and the challenges/issues faced by the institutions in implementing FinTech solutions. The paper also provides the current status of FinTech application globally and the potential in it to serve the poorer segments of society. The review of literature approach is used for the paper.

Analysis of the two-way causal nexus between macroeconomic factors and infrastructure development: the experience of selected African countries

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chukwuebuka Bernard Azolibe
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Foreign Aid ◽  
Granger Causality Test ◽  
Infrastructure Development ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Causality Test ◽  
Macroeconomic Factors ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Causal Nexus ◽  
Control Of Corruption

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to analyze the two-way causal nexus between macroeconomic factors such as foreign aid, industrialization, economic growth, population growth, urbanization, control of corruption and the infrastructure development index of the top-ranking African countries from 2003 to 2018.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopts various econometric tools such as cross-sectional dependence test, panel unit root and cointegration test and Dumitrescu and Hurlin panel Granger causality test in ascertaining the relevant relationships between the variables under consideration.FindingsThe main findings of the Granger causality test result revealed a bidirectional causal relationship between foreign aid and infrastructure and between urbanization and infrastructure. The study also found unidirectional causality running from population growth to infrastructure while a zero causal relationship existed between industrialization and infrastructure, economic growth and infrastructure and lastly, between control of corruption and infrastructure. The study concludes that the major macroeconomic factors that influence infrastructure development in these selected African countries are foreign aid, population explosion and urbanization. Also, their high infrastructure development index has causal influence in only attracting more foreign aid and also promoting urban expansion.Originality/valueTo the best of the author's knowledge, the study is unique as it is the first to determine the two-way causal nexus between macroeconomic factors and infrastructure development using a sample of the top ten African countries in infrastructure ranking. The findings reflect the current situation in Africa.

scholarly journals Infrastructure in India: The Present Status and Its Constraints

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 117-124
Author(s):  
Rudra P. Pradhan
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Economic Growth ◽  
State Level ◽  
Infrastructure Development ◽  
Quarter Century ◽  
The Past ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
Sustainable Economic Growth

Provision of adequate infrastructure, in terms of both quantity and quality, is very essential for the rapid achievement of sustainable economic growth, both by increasing productivity and by providing amenities that enhance the quality of life. The objective of this paper is to investigate the role played by infrastructure, grouped under physical, social and financial, in determining economic development in India over the different time periods. An attempt is also made to find out the existence of intra-regional disparities, in terms of infrastructure, among the states of India. Using Factor analysis and regression analysis, the paper finds that infrastructure plays a significant role in determining the inter-state level of development in India during the past quarter century. The paper at the end discusses various challenges and opportunities for the infrastructure development in India and its link with sustainable economic growth.

scholarly journals Agricultural Distortions and Economic Growth in Southern Africa: Evidence from Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe (1970-2011)

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-45
Author(s):  
Douglas Ncube
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Panel Data Analysis ◽  
Rural Poverty ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Per Capita Gdp ◽  
Agriculture Sector ◽  
The World ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Determinants Of Economic Growth

Introduction:The first decade of 2000 was considered Africa’s decade of unprecedented growth as it was the fastest growing region in the world. This growth is believed to have largely been a benefit of the commodity super-cycle which is beginning to tail-off. Analysts perceive that growth in Africa is currently more threatened by global trends and region specific risks around agriculture and politics.Statement of the problem:It has been noted that African countries have experienced stagnant or declining agricultural productivity growth rates, increasing rural poverty, hunger and malnutrition coupled with low competitiveness in global markets over the decades.Methodology:Using the database on Distortions to Agricultural Incentives, the World Development Indicators and the Penn World Tables, the determinants of economic growth in Southern Africa and the impacts of a pro or anti agricultural policy regime on economic growth were investigated. In this study, three Southern Africa countries were investigated, that is, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe.Results:The Panel Data Analysis results suggest that 1% decrease in the degree of anti-agriculture policy bias results in a 0.1% increase in real per capita GDP. Further, 1% increase in the share of gross capital formation in GDP results in 0.04% increase in real per capita GDP.Conclusion:The study showed that reducing direct and indirect, implicit and explicit taxation to agriculture relative to non-agriculture sector would result in improved economic growth in the three Southern African countries of Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

The Contribution of Foreign Direct Investment for Economic Growth of Ethiopia: Time Series Analysis

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (02) ◽  
Author(s):  
Addissie Melak
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Time Series ◽  
Foreign Direct Investment ◽  
Time Series Analysis ◽  
Direct Investment ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
Annual Growth Rate ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Series Analysis ◽  
Integration Test

Economic growth of countries is one of the fundamental questions in economics. Most African countries are opening their economies for welcoming of foreign investors. As such Ethiopia, like many African countries took measures to attract and improve foreign direct investment. The purpose of this study is to examine the contribution of foreign direct investment (FDI) for economic growth of Ethiopia over the period of 1981-2013. The study shows an overview of Ethiopian economy and investment environment by the help of descriptive and econometric methods of analysis to establish empirical investigation for the contribution of FDI on Ethiopian economy. OLS method of time series analysis is employed to analyse the data. The stationary of the variables have been checked by using Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) Unit Root test and hence they are stationery at first difference. The co- integration test also shows that there is a long run relationship between the dependent and independent variables. Accordingly, the finding of the study shows that FDI, GDP per capita, exchange rate, total investment as percentage of GDP, inflow of FDI stock, trade as percentage of GDP, annual growth rate of GDP and liberalization of the economy have positive impact on Ethiopian GDP. Whereas Gross fixed domestic investment, inflows of FDI and Gross capital formation influence economic growth of Ethiopia negatively. This finding suggests that there should be better policy framework to attract and improve the volume of FDI through creating conducive environment for investment.

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