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tralac’s Daily News selection
The selection: Friday, 22 January 2016
Next week's African trade and development policy debates: Tripartite Private Sector Dialogue on Rules of Origin (28-29 January), East African Legislative Assembly plenary (24 January - 5 February)
Four trade and development infographics:
Competitiveness Index: Africa profiles for tech, innovation and financial development (Quartz)
GED Fact Sheets for 26 African countries: how do mega-regional trade deals like the TTIP and TPP affect your country? (Bertelsmann Stiftung)
Great fall of India’s exports (Livemint)
EU/US/JP/China imports from SS Africa falling rapidly; less for manufacturing than for other goods (@DWteVelde)
Three new UNU-WIDER working papers:
Demographic, employment, and wage trends in South Africa
This paper looks to uncover the growth traps and opportunities for the South African economy, with a focus on underlying labour market dynamics. We explore the potential of South Africa’s demographic dividend. We also consider the structure of the labour market and the growth-employment interactions, which uncover the skills-biased labour demand path of the economy and a rising trend in the use of labour brokers to source temporary workers. Finally, we show a new labour market trend has emerged: a rise in the share of public sector employment along with higher conditional returns to public sector workers than to those in the private sector.
Estimating utility-consistent poverty in Madagascar, 2001–10
Estimating utility-consistent poverty in Ethiopia, 2000–11
Factory Southern Africa? SACU in global value chains (World Bank)
The World Bank report has three core recommendations in order to promote SACU as a gateway for global value chain development in Southern Africa:
Promotion of regional economic densification: This recommendation boils down to trade facilitation measures that need to be improved drastically in the region in order to bring markets and people closer to one another by decreasing cost and time associated with trade. The focus is on transport infrastructure, trade policy harmonisation, liberalising the movement of labour and the promotion of special economic zones.
Skills, services and infrastructure competitiveness: This recommendation focuses on improving the productivity of the Southern African labour force by focusing on technical and management skills, improving cross-border services trade and improving the reliability of electricity and the quality and affordability of ICT infrastructure.
Promoting open regionalism and institutional co-ordination: The report firmly recommends close co-operation on policy efforts between institutions at the regional level. [Download]
Namibia: Is local barley not good enough? (Namibia Economist)
Africa’s growth dividend? Lived poverty drops across much of the continent (Afrobarometer)
Though Africa has recorded high levels of economic growth over the past decade, previous Afrobarometer surveys of citizens found little evidence that this growth had reduced levels of poverty in any consistent way. However, new data from Afrobarometer Round 6, collected across 35 African countries, suggest a very different picture. While “lived poverty” remains pervasive across much of the continent, especially in Central and West Africa, we now see evidence that the decade of economic growth seems to have finally delivered broad-based reductions in poverty.
“Lived poverty” (an index that measures the frequency with which people experience shortages of basic necessities) retreated across a broad range of countries. In the roughly three-year period between Round 5 (2011/2013) and Round 6 (2014/2015) surveys, our data suggest that “lived poverty” fell in 22 of 33 countries surveyed in both rounds. However, these changes show no systematic relation to recent rates of economic growth. While growing economies are undoubtedly important, what appears to be more important in improving the lives of ordinary people is the extent to which national governments and their donor partners put in place the type of development infrastructure that enables people to build better lives. [Download]
Central Africa's ICE session: agriculture, structural transformation to dominate experts’ session (UNECA)
From 24-26 February in Douala, Cameroon’s economic capital, experts from Central African States as well as those from international organisations, will deliberate on where countries of the sub-region should put their energies to leverage their agricultural potential in order to give new impetus to the sector’s value chain and effectively contribute to structural transformation. The 32nd ICE session of Central Africa will be held back-to-back with an Ad Hoc Expert Group meeting billed for 22 to 23 February 2016 to review a report prepared by ECA on the theme: “Promoting intra-regional trade in Central Africa with the aid of Information and Communication Technologies.”
Jacob Zuma at Davos: ‘Africa needs African solutions’ (IOL)
The global economic crisis and major advances in technology should be tackled head-on by a cohesive African response, driven by the African Union, says President Jacob Zuma. Zuma intends using the 26th AU Summit to strongly lobby for a self-reliant continent unshackled from its colonialist links. With regards to the WEF theme - the Fourth Industrial Revolution - Zuma questioned if any real solutions had come out of last year’s gathering. He questioned if constructs like the World Economic Forum held any real quantifiable value for the continent. “We had a theme last year on the growing gap between rich and poor. Twelve months later and now we are doing something else. Why are we not talking and dealing with this widening gap and the inequality that exists?” [Text, as prepared]
Two profiled international policy processes announced at Davos:
High-Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment (UN)
The Panel will provide recommendations for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to improve economic outcomes for women and promote women’s leadership in driving sustainable and inclusive, environmentally sensitive economic growth. It will provide recommendations for key actions that can be taken by governments, the private sector, the UN system and other stakeholders, as well as policy directives needed to achieve the new targets and indicators in the Sustainable Development Goals which call for the economic empowerment of women. The panel is backed by the United Kingdom, the World Bank Group and UN Women.
Global Commission on Business and Sustainable Development (Economic Times)
The Global Commission on Business and Sustainable Development, created by former UN Deputy Secretary General Mark Malloch-Brown and Unilever CEO Paul Polman, brings together international leaders from business, labour, financial institutions and civil society. "They will present a comprehensive report in one year's time, outlining new business and financial models, as well as market opportunities for companies who are invested in sustainable approaches," a statement said.
Witney Schneidman: ‘An end to the never-ending South African poultry dispute?’ (Brookings)
A positive outcome to this trade dispute would create welcome momentum in U.S.-South African trade relations. As South Africa assesses its relationship with China and the other BRICS, a successful resolution to the poultry dispute would be a useful reminder of the value that both sides attach to their commercial partnership. It could also create the context for dealing with other thorny issues about which the US is concerned, including the Private Security Bill, which would require 51% local ownership of international security firms, and the erosion of U.S. export competitiveness due to the Economic Partnerships Agreement between the Southern Africa Development Community, of which South Africa is a member, and the European Union.
Botswana: Local AGOA textile exports drop 11% (Mmegi)
Nigeria: NEPC identifies 13 national strategic export products to replace oil (The Eagle)
Olusegun Awolowo, the Executive Director of Nigerian Export Promotion Council, has identified 13 National Strategic Export Products targeted at replacing crude oil. Awolowo told the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja on Tuesday that the NSEPs were also to shore up the country’s foreign exchange earnings. He said the products were grouped into three categories: agro industrial, mining related products and oil and gas industrial products.
Related: Nigeria to increase budget gap as oil falls below benchmark (Bloomberg), Africa, a vital region for sourcing petroleum products for India (NetIndian)
Kenya's Blue Economy: calling the bluff and swimming with the sharks (CapitalFM)
With the creation of a Maritime Affairs Department under the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, and the nomination of Ms. Nancy Karigithu as the PS, a trail-blazer who has spent her entire working life on maritime issues, I have no doubt that with the requisite support, we will move to execution of our maritime integrated plan and unlock value for all of us. This is the bigger picture that our leaders need to align their words, actions and vision to.
Benguela Current Commission update (The Namibian)
The overarching objective of the Benguela Current Spatial Management and Governance (MARISMA) project is to ensure the sustainable use of marine life of the BCLME and biological resources is strengthened by improving the capacities of the Benguela Current Commission and its member states in relation to Ecologically Significant Areas and Marine Spatial Planing, said the project's regional technical adviser, Rod Braby. He said the BCLME is very important to the economies of the three SADC countries. The BCC is a multi-sectoral initiative between Namibia, Angola and South Africa, aimed at promoting integrated and sustainable use of the BCLME, and was recently established. Braby further explained that an amount of 8,9 million euros has been pumped into the project, which will last until April 2020.
On the road to middle class: a look back and a look ahead for Ghana (World Bank Blogs)
As our report warns, however, future efforts to lower the incidence of poverty in Ghana will require containing regional disparities and vulnerabilities, as well as broadening access to opportunities for all citizens, particularly those in the north. Indeed, location has been found to be a major contributor to poverty in Ghana. Case in point – the rising income inequality between north and south is a striking demonstration of diverging employment opportunities across the regions. While poverty rates have fallen below 20% in the large area that spans Ashanti, eastern, Greater Accra and western regions, southern Brong Ahafo and coastal Volta regions, rates remain far above 40% in most northern districts.
China, Egypt sign MoU on boosting cooperation under Belt and Road Initiative (China Daily)
The Portuguese-speaking world needs a Development Bank - academic (Club of Mozambique)
SA, Liberia keen to boost trade ties (IOL)
Egypt’s tourism receipts down 15% in 2015 on back of security, currency woes (Ahram)
The incidence of fiscal policy in Tanzania (Commitment to Equality)
Urban resilience: challenges and opportunities for African cities (World Bank)
What are the 10 biggest global challenges? (WEF)
Virtual currencies and beyond: initial considerations (IMF)
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