Analysis

Secretary of State-designate Antony Blinken doesn't have a lot of time to put together a new agenda for U.S. foreign policy in the post-Donald Trump era. Assuming, he gets through the U.S. Senate confirmation process, which in his case is probably quite likely, he's got just a ...

The Guardian this week published a fascinating analysis of how the increasing diplomatic tensions between China and Australia could impact Africa. There are fears that recent Chinese crackdowns on Australian wine, barley, coal, and other commodities could be visited on the country’s exports of iron ...

Agriculture and food systems are a concept that aims at breaking down silos between the agriculture value chain, health, nutrition, and environmental sustainability. Agri-food systems are essential in managing and preserving biodiversity, adapting to and tackling climate change, realizing sustainable food systems, and achieving the Sustainable Development ...

China's COVID-19 vaccine distribution plan in Africa is slowly starting to come into focus. Yesterday's news that Cainiao (菜鸟网络科技有限公司), the powerful logistics arm of e-commerce giant Alibaba, is teaming up with Ethiopian Airlines to build an international cold-chain network with hubs in ...

In a single file, farm workers carry up to 25 kilogrammes of Virginia leaf tobacco on their shoulders.  Titus Gurupira (45), a farmer on a farm in Mvurwi, 100 km north of Harare, pleads with his workers to hurry with the picking ahead of the hectic marketing ...

A palpable sense of anxiety is emerging from a number of African capitals that when COVID-19 vaccines are finally available, poorer, lesser-developed countries are going to once again be at the end of the line.  We saw this earlier this week ...

This week saw yet another African leader (this time my own president, Cyril Ramaphosa,) calling for international measures to soften the current debt crisis confronting poor countries in Africa and beyond. None of these measures are outrageous. Considering that seven out of the top 10 fastest-growing economies ...

New trade data for the January-October period this year confirms that China's economic rebound from earlier this year is going surprisingly well, all things considered. Exports are actually up, albeit slightly, by 0.6% compared to the same period last year and imports fell by 1.8% year-on-year. 

By Jinyu Chen, Research Analyst at Development Reimagined Trilateral cooperation, a buzzword in the field of aid and development cooperation, refers to a “development relationship in which a DAC donor and/or multilateral agency ‘partners’ with a so-called ‘pivotal’ country (e.g. ...

The last few weeks have been marked by a pervasive gloominess about Africa's future.  As Zambia was defaulting on its Eurobond debt, the G20 was praising itself effusively for coming up with a debt response unlikely ...

Written together with Emma Mawdsley, Director of the Margaret Anstee Centre for Global Studies at Cambridge Univeristy In the hugely popular movie, Wolf Warrior II, the arch-villain confronting our muscular hero, Leng Feng, is a white man called ‘Big Daddy’. The ...

African policymakers will soon look back at the past ten years - the pre-COVID-era - with rosy nostalgia. How wonderful it was to sit under the Chinese tree and watch the fruits of loans, trade, and investment all fall with abundance.  ...