Implications of ‘BITs’ for Cross-border Insolvency Regulation in Sub-Saharan Africa

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-85
Author(s):  
Benhajj Shaaban Masoud
2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 20-40
Author(s):  
Akem Forkusam

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has become the top priority for international funders and they are now increasing their cross-border funding to microfinance institutions (MFIs) in the region. This foreign funding is considered an additional source of capital for MFIs in the region who are facing difficulties in meeting the demand of the poor. However, these funds are provided by public and private funders who each have different motives. The paper examines the impact of these different sources of funding on microfinance performance and mission drift in SSA, which is the world’s poorest region. The study utilizes data from 212 MFIs in 30 SSA countries accessed over a three-year period (i.e. 2007, 2009, and 2011). The findings show that cross-border funding does not affect either the social or financial performance of MFIs when time and country effects are accounted for.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
ZHIKAI WANG ◽  
YANGYANG LU ◽  
SIMIN ZHANG ◽  
ENGIDAW SISAY NEGASH

The “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI) has been launched by the Chinese government in 2013. The aim was to stimulate cross-border economic development in massive geographical areas covering Asia, Oceania, Europe, Africa, and Latin America which accounts for 80% and 40% of the world population and gross domestic product (GDP), respectively. The BRI has devised an extension of the “going global” strategy to reconfigure China’s overseas sector in order to extend its spillovers, and create more development opportunities for participating countries. In practice, cross-border infrastructure was a comprehensive role to reduce transportation cost; however, the BRI was vast by nature that includes financial support, policy cooperation, investment, trade facilitation, and people-to-people exchanges for the humanitarian strategy. Against this backdrop, the overarching objective of this study was to analyze the impact of the BRI and Chinese outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) on the bilateral trade between China and Sub-Saharan Africa countries. The investigation was carried out using a trade gravity model, balanced panel dataset, and multivariate regression estimation strategy for robustness checks covering 16 years. The result showed that Chinese OFDI, home, and host country’s GDP and GDP per capita income variables have a positive and statistically significant impact on the bilateral trade. Moreover, the BRI has explained positively on the bilateral trade; however, it does not have enough evidence to stimulate significantly, and it usually takes a long time for the effects of the BRI investment on trade and OFDI. The study also found that geographical distance and official exchange rates have explained negatively and statistically significant impact on the bilateral trade.


Author(s):  
Matteo Legrenzi ◽  
Fred H. Lawson

Regional dimensions of international security have become increasingly salient since the end of the Cold War. Some groups of states have coalesced into regional formations that resemble classic security communities. Several analytical concepts have been proposed to explain this trend, including revised theories of security community, security regimes, security complexes, and modes of security governance. Regional security complexes offer a useful framework for explicating the dynamics of interstate threats and governments’ coordinated responses to external danger. The utility of the concept can be illustrated by surveying recent scholarship on the cross-border spread of civil wars and disputes over water. Regional security complexes also provide insight into the formation and resurgence of regional security organizations, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.


Author(s):  
Andre Renzaho

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has spread quickly across the globe with devastating effects on the global economy as well as the regional and societies’ socio-economic fabrics and the way of life for vast populations. The nonhomogeneous continent faces local contextual complexities that require locally relevant and culturally appropriate COVID-19 interventions. This paper examines demographic, economic, political, health, and socio-cultural differentials in COVID-19 morbidity and mortality. The health systems need to be strengthened through extending the health workforce by mobilizing and engaging the diaspora, and implementing the International Health Regulations (2005) core capacities. In the absence of adequate social protection and welfare programs targeting the poor during the pandemic, sub-Saharan African countries need to put in place flexible but effective policies and legislation approaches that harness and formalise the informal trade and remove supply chain barriers. This could include strengthening cross-border trade facilities such as adequate pro-poor, gender-sensitive, and streamlined cross-border customs, tax regimes, and information flow. The emphasis should be on cross-border infrastructure that not only facilitates trade through efficient border administration but can also effectively manage cross-border health threats. There is an urgent need to strengthen social protection systems to make them responsive to crises, and embed them within human rights-based approaches to better support vulnerable populations and enact health and social security benefits. The COVI-19 response needs to adhere to the well-established ‘do no harm’ principle to prevent further damage or suffering as a result of the pandemic and examined through local lenses to inform peace-building initiatives that may yield long-term gains in the post-COVID-19 recovery efforts.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. e0156674 ◽  
Author(s):  
Godfrey Bwire ◽  
Maurice Mwesawina ◽  
Yosia Baluku ◽  
Setiala S. E. Kanyanda ◽  
Christopher Garimoi Orach

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerasimos Tsourapas

Can labor emigration form part of a state’s foreign policy goals? The relevant literature links emigration to states’ developmental needs, which does not explain why some states choose to economically subsidize their citizens’ emigration. This article explores for the first time the soft power importance of high-skilled emigration from authoritarian emigration states. It finds that the Egyptian state under Gamal Abdel Nasser employed labor emigration for two distinct purposes linked to broader soft power interests: first, as an instrument of cultural diplomacy to spread revolutionary ideals of Arab unity and anti-imperialism across the Middle East; second, as a tool for disseminating development aid, particularly in Yemen and sub-Saharan Africa. Drawing on Arabic and non-Arabic primary sources, the article identifies the interplay between foreign policy and cross-border mobility, while also sketching an evolving research agenda on authoritarian emigration states’ policy-making.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eldrede Kahiya ◽  
Djavlonbek Kadirov

© The Author(s) 2020. We provide a literature review and a conceptual framework on informal cross border trade in Sub-Saharan Africa. Informal cross border trade (ICBT) refers to commercial exchanges conducted across borders by individuals operating as unregistered sole traders. ICBT is a burgeoning part of the informal markets in Sub-Saharan Africa and its existence and persistence carry substantial socio-economic implications. We use “summarizing” and “delineating” techniques to discuss seven themes of ICBT, and cast them as the manifestations of a substratum marketing system - a foundational structure instead of an auxiliary system. We underline implications for scholarship and for policymakers and non-governmental organizations charged with formulating initiatives to manage both ICBT and formal markets.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (146) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Mathieu ◽  
Marco Pani ◽  
Shiyuan Chen ◽  
Rodolfo Maino

Using data collected from pan-African banks’ (PABs), balance sheets and other sources (Orbis, Fitch), this study identifies some key patterns of cross-border investment in bank subsidiaries by key banking groups in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and discusses some of the determinants of this investment. Using a gravity model relating the annual value of a banking group’s investment in the net equity of its subsidiaries to a set of explanatory variables, the analysis finds that cross-border banking is in part driven by a search for yield, diversification, and expansion for strategic reasons.


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