Population prospects for Sub-Saharan Africa: determinants,consequences and policy

Population projections for nine Sub-Saharan African countries (excluding southern Africa) are reviewed for the period to the year 2020. Consideration is given to the determinants of fertility and to the consequences of rapid population growth. Suggestions for population policies that will resolve population-related development problems are discussed.     

Promoting business in Africa: How Nepad can help

The formation of the Nepad Business Group has provided a platform for South African business to use its skills to promote and develop business on the continent.     

Arrested development? Sub-Saharan Africa in the stratified world economy 1965–2015

ABSTRACT

The central concern of this paper is with Sub-Saharan Africa's (SSA) standing in the stratified world economy. Country standings are determined for the period 1965 through 2015, based on the Arrighi and Drangel method of calculating world-system position. We find that the region as a whole remained in the bottom of the global economic hierarchy and was particularly sensitive to macroeconomic-historical changes and pressures. Of note too is the clear link between the SSA countries that are performing well in the semiperiphery of the global economic hierarchy and those with a concentration of natural resources.     

The local impacts of large-scale land acquisitions: a review of case study evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

Large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs) are controversially discussed with respect to their local impacts. On the one hand, they are regarded as an opportunity for employment creation and a transfer of knowledge and technology, which enhances productivity and output in agriculture. On the other hand, they are said to impair food security and to foster land conflicts and environmental degradation. Despite the existence of numerous case studies, systematic evidence on the impact of LSLAs on local communities is not available. In this paper we review the existing literature in order to provide a summary of the characteristics of LSLAs and of the impact they have on local livelihoods. We find that while positive effects arise through employment creation and the provision of public goods and services, these benefits are offset by inadequate compensation, land conflicts, and environmental degradation. Overall, most case studies find a negative impact of LSLAs on local livelihoods.     

Restoring degraded landscapes: Assessing the utility of biodiversity offsets for the business sector in Africa

Abstract

Increasing pressure for the conversion of tropical and sub-tropical wetlands and forests to alternative land usage raises the possibility that biodiversity offsets will increasingly take centre stage in biodiversity conservation planning and ecosystem restoration discourses. This article explores the major discourses on and utility of biodiversity offsets in the African context with a view to identifying and articulating some of the challenges and opportunities evident in attempts to operationalise the concept in practice. The discussion establishes that as intuitively pleasing as they have become in recent years, with potentially large benefits expected to be derived from offset initiatives, several significant hurdles need to be overcome for them to become well established practice in Africa. For instance, some observers have argued strongly that, in practice, land use and wetland mitigation in most countries have come nowhere near achieving the goal of ‘no-net-loss’. There are also enduring questions about the credibility of the formulae used to calculate net-losses and net-gains in biodiversity offset schemes. In the light of these and other outstanding questions, the article concludes that biodiversity offsets may seem simple but are much more complex to design and implement to the extent that they become really convincing as a conservation tool for businesses in Africa.     

Social cohesion for the unfinished business of land reform in South Africa

Abstract

This article aims to discuss social cohesion as an alternative instrument to address the ever dragging land question in South Africa. Although there are various activities that have been undertaken and policy programmes that have been proposed, all those initiatives have not been able to completely translate land reform policy into practice as intended. Other than recognising the ‘willing seller-willing buyer’ policy which appears not to have been internalised by the stakeholders concerned, this article also presents a transformative approach for both white land owners and black emerging farmers to work together in a tolerant and amicable manner. The most critical step that is required for land reform in the whole country is a public consultation process for government to be able to engage with all parties and to put a list of informed alternatives on the table for discussion. Obviously, that includes the willing seller willing buyer policy. Based on the outcomes of such discussions, the government has to play a mediation role to heal the racial division caused by the Natives Land Act of 1913. In short, this discussion presents social cohesion to heal the past without land owners perceiving transformation policies as apartheid in reverse.     

Chinese networks and enterprise development: Malaysian investments in China

This study assesses the argument that common ethnic identity has facilitated the creation of transnational business networks leading to the rise of a new economically powerful “global tribe” comprising ethnic Chinese from East and Southeast Asia. The primary contention in this article is that a network with the economic clout of a “global tribe” would entail interlocking stock-ownership ties, a sharing of resources and cooperation to the point of merger. Through an in-depth analysis of investments in China by ethnic Chinese from Malaysia, this article proves that even major Chinese-owned companies have little or no interlocking stock ownership and directorate links, either domestically or across borders, with other Chinese-owned companies. The growing inflow of investments into China by ethnic Chinese from Southeast Asia is primarily due to endeavours by government leaders in the region and China to encourage businesses to invest in the Mainland.     

The chimera of redistribution in post-apartheid South Africa: 'Black Economic Empowerment' (BEE) in industrial fisheries

Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) is an attempt to marry redistributiveand neo-liberal economic policies. The South African state,however, has differing degrees of power to force redistributionon different sectors of the economy. Fisheries is one of thesectors where state allocation of licenses, exploitation rightsand quotas makes the prospects for BEE promising. In this article,we examine redistributive processes in the hake trawl industry.We conclude that BEE, despite its redistributive intentions,has been doubly conducive to the interests of large-scale SouthAfrican capital. To begin with, it has by and large confirmedthe historical share of fishing rights to incumbent, largelywhite-controlled, operators. Second, it has created a layerof ‘black captains of industry’ to whom incumbentsare increasingly outsourcing primary production in a volatile,high-risk and currently loss-leading sector. While fishing operationsare being outsourced under the banner of redistribution, thefish trade remains under the effective control of white capital.     

Ubuntu as public policy in South Africa: A conceptual framework

ABSTRACT

Beginning with an overview of the origin and core elements of ubuntu, this article focuses on the idea that the analytic process required to illustrate how a social theory and a political ideal can be extracted and developed out of their constitutive elements has not been given the rigorous attention it deserves. Without such rigour it is extremely difficult to recommend a coherent conceptual framework for political action. It then suggests guidelines for policy development and implementation, confident that nuanced variations in the various understandings of ubuntu are not so fundamental as to prevent trend-data analysis and generalisation.     

Chinese eyes on Africa: Authoritarian flexibility versus democratic governance

This article seeks to shed more light on the consequences of China's aid to and trade with African states. It attempts to answer two questions: First, does China's ‘no-strings-attached’ policy in Africa constitute a challenge to Western aid paradigms? Second, is there as an emerging state-sponsored Chinese model of ‘effective governance’, guided by a south-south vision of mutuality, equality and reciprocity at work? It is argued that China's Africa watchers are cautious, not wanting to project any false hopes into bilateral relationships with African countries. In the light of China's reform experience, these analysts propose that indigenous contexts should determine what developmental model to choose. China is unwilling to force its experiences of ‘a market economy with Chinese characteristics’ upon other nations. The article concludes by arguing that, although not unproblematic, there is reason to be positive about China's higher profile in Africa.     

Medicine in Africa as I have seen It

This address by Dr. Smith was given before a joint meeting ofthe Royal African Society and the Royal Empire Society withLt.-Col. Sir Stewart Symes in the chair. Dr. Smith is May Readerin Medicine at Oxford University and Physician-in-Charge ofthe tuberculous Meningitis Unit at the United Oxford Hospitals.She formerly worked with Sir Hugh Cairns at the Radcliffe Infirmary,and was associated with him in starting certain research projectsin Africa concerned with various aspects of tuberculosis.