United Nations Economic Commission For Africa Research Articles

Assessment of socioeconomic and ecosystem services of the blue economy in Tanzania using the UNECA's Blue Economy Valuation Toolkit

Even though Tanzania has been engaging in domestic and international sea-based economic activities for centuries, there are no specific statistical data on the contribution of the blue economy to the Tanzania’s economy reinforcing the importance of this work. The purpose of this paper is to present economic, social, and ecosystem values that the blue economy resources generate in mainland Tanzania by using the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) Blue Economy Valuation Toolkit (BEVTK). In 2020 the major blue economy industries in Tanzanian contributed USD 7.2 billion to the gross value added (GVA) and employed over 2 million individuals. The value of ecosystem services was approximately USD 104.24 billion in the year 2020, with large permanent freshwater lakes contributing significantly (74.87%). The Composite Social Index Value of BE was estimated at 48.64, indicating that the blue economy contributes positively to the social development of mainland Tanzania. Among the negative outcomes of social indicators, the BEVTK generated a youth unemployment (12.2%) and a gender inequality index (53.0). The BEVTK presented here can be applied to another country context where decision-makers have similar interests in assessing the blue economy components and their contribution to the national economy.

Mapping digital health ecosystems in Africa in the context of endemic infectious and non-communicable diseases

Investments in digital health technologies such as artificial intelligence, wearable devices, and telemedicine may support Africa achieve United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal for Health by 2030. We aimed to characterize and map digital health ecosystems of all 54 countries in Africa in the context of endemic infectious and non-communicable diseases (ID and NCD). We performed a cross-national ecological analysis of digital health ecosystems using 20-year data from the World Bank, UN Economic Commission for Africa, World Health Organization, and Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients were used to characterize ecological correlations between exposure (technology characteristics) and outcome (IDs and NCDs incidence/mortality) variables. Weighted linear combination model was used as the decision rule, combining disease burden, technology access, and economy, to explain, rank, and map digital health ecosystems of a given country. The perspective of our analysis was to support government decision-making. The 20-year trend showed that technology characteristics have been steadily growing in Africa, including internet access, mobile cellular and fixed broadband subscriptions, high-technology manufacturing, GDP per capita, and adult literacy, while many countries have been overwhelmed by a double burden of IDs and NCDs. Inverse correlations exist between technology characteristics and ID burdens, such as fixed broadband subscription and incidence of tuberculosis and malaria, or GDP per capita and incidence of tuberculosis and malaria. Based on our models, countries that should prioritize digital health investments were South Africa, Nigeria, and Tanzania for HIV; Nigeria, South Africa, and Democratic Republic of the Congo (DROC) for tuberculosis; DROC, Nigeria, and Uganda for malaria; and Egypt, Nigeria, and Ethiopia for endemic NCDs including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, respiratory diseases, and malignancies. Countries such as Kenya, Ethiopia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Angola, and Mozambique were also highly affected by endemic IDs. By mapping digital health ecosystems in Africa, this study provides strategic guidance about where governments should prioritize digital health technology investments that require preliminary analysis of country-specific contexts to bring about sustainable health and economic returns. Building digital infrastructure should be a key part of economic development programs in countries with high disease burdens to ensure more equitable health outcomes. Though infrastructure developments alongside digital health technologies are the responsibility of governments, global health initiatives can cultivate digital health interventions substantially by bridging knowledge and investment gaps, both through technology transfer for local production and negotiation of prices for large-scale deployment of the most impactful digital health technologies.

Position Paper and a Common List of Demands for Representatives of the Civil Society From Africa to Propose a Reform of International Corporate Taxation in the Fight Against Illicit Financial Flows

This position paper recommends the stand that representatives from civil society from Africa should take on the fight against Illicit Financial Flows (IFF). It is envisaged that tackling IFF from Africa requires reform of international corporate taxation. This tax system has many loopholes, and Transnational Corporations (TNCs) have exploited them. Profit shifting, and transfer pricing remain the primary drivers of corporate tax practices that facilitate IFF. Yet, these practices have not been adequately dealt with at both the international and regional fora. Estimates from the African Development Bank reveal that IFF have resulted in corporate tax losses in excess of a trillion dollars from Africa since 1980. The Tax Justice Network (TJN) and the IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department estimate these losses at $500bn and $200bn respectively per annum. In 2015, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) published its High Level Panel Report on Illicit Financial Flows (HLP Report) in which it reported that Africa is losing more than $50 billion annually in IFFs. The Report asserted that this estimate may well fall short of reality because accurate data does not exist for all African countries, and these estimates often exclude some forms of IFFs that by nature are secret and cannot be properly estimated, such as proceeds of bribery and trafficking of drugs, people and firearms as well as corruption. In July 2018, at the High Level Policy Dialogue on Development Planning in Africa the Head of Development Planning and Statistics at the Economic Commission for Africa reported that $100 billion a year is illegally earned, transferred, or used due to mis-invoicing. These Tax losses resulting from IFF have become too serious to neglect anymore.

Impact of Leadership and Governance on Poverty Alleviation in Africa

Leadership is one of the most observed and least understood phenomena on earth (Afegbua & Adejuwon, 2013). A call for a focus on leadership and is timely, important and no doubt topical, reflecting the worldwide thrust toward political and economic liberalization (Afegbua & Adejuwon, 2013). The ubiquity of the phenomena in contemporary times has made most African and indeed, global multilateral organizations, like the World Bank, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) to become governance infatuated by giving prescription and insisting that is the key to economic growth and development in Africa (Essien, 2012). Nonetheless, after two decades of unprecedented economic growth, how much have the lives of African families improved? A plethora of its citizens wallow in poverty hinged on the declining quality of governance, and indeed the spatial culture of non-existent leadership in Africa. The latest estimates from the World Bank suggests that the share of the African population in extreme poverty did decline- from 56% in 1990 to 43% in 2012. These are staggering numbers. In fact, the search for aptness in government and that is oriented toward development, the common good and well-being of the people of Africa has become something of a scandal and simply ironic (Anyanwu, 1998: 148). This paper engages in a conceptual examination of the nexus between leadership and focusing on the impact of their interaction on poverty alleviation. Using selected key indicators such as government effectiveness and control of corruption, voice and accountability, budgetary transparency, resource allocation and targeting of benefits, and the rule of law and human rights, this paper investigates the contents of member states, its Impact and the extent which it can transform leadership and promote good as a basis for achieving poverty alleviation in Africa.

A journey through a fellowship at ITC

The Mo Ibrahim Fellowship has been described as a programme designed to mentor future African leaders. For example, fellows receive mentoring from the current leaders of key multilateral institutions: the International Trade Centre (ITC), the African Development Bank (AfDB) and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).

Democracy and Development in Africa: What Africans Require

According to the 2009 African Governance Report (AGR II), by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), many democracies in Africa are suffering from an authoritarian hangover. Many African countries adopted the system of democracy because it enjoys global endorsement as the best form of government and panacea for underdevelopment. But it is a truism that development in Africa remains impeded. This is because many African leaders are ignorant and negligent of the philosophical principles upon which democracy is formed. This paper seeks to discuss, within an African framework, the link between democracy and development. The clamour for democracy all over the globe is not accidental. Those who go about agitating for democracy are convinced that no society desirous of development can ignore democracy. The democratic experience of developed nations lends credence to the truth of this claim. There is a close link between democracy and development. This is not to say that a country cannot develop without democracy, but where both exist, the outcomes are better.

Bibliography

Bibliography

An African Pioneer Comes of Age: Evolution of Information and Communication Technologies in Uganda

Introduction A specific international discourse dominated development theory and practice in much of the 1990s. The issues were framed around the utility of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for socioeconomic development. This attracted the attention of many developing countries especially in Africa still reeling from the effects of the lost decade of the 1980s and structural adjustment programs. Also, there was continental interest in the prospects of information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D). This was expressed by organizations such as the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD). Unlike many countries in Africa, Uganda responded to the ICT4D debates early on. However, while it was pioneer by getting head start through its various initiatives and programs, it was not until 2005 that it finally articulated systematic policy on ICTs as fundamental tools for socioeconomic development. The began with the Ugandan Communication Act, enacted in 1997. It was response to the 1996 mandate of the UNECA-sponsored African Information Society Initiatives (AISI) for African countries to formulate policies that would accelerate their advancement toward the global information society. For many countries, the interest in creating an information society immediately led to the deregulation of the telecommunication sector. Policies on the telecommunication also provided oversight to the Internet sector at the initial stage. The creation of an appropriate policy framework for both the telecommunication and Internet sectors was the central purpose of the Ugandan Communication Act. The Act was itself implemented through the highly influential Ugandan Communications Commission (UCC). Uganda presents an interesting case for an examination of the application of ICTs for development in an African for two major reasons. First, the was one of the earliest to respond to the discourse that made the connection between ICTs and socioeconomic development. While some countries were still trying to understand the substance of the debates, the Ugandan government had already enacted the Communication Act to provide a framework for the development of telecommunication sector in the country (UNECA, 2009). That act unwittingly set model for ICT policymaking in other African countries where telecommunication policies became the proxies of state interventions in the sector. An important part of the Communication Act was the role that it assigned to the Ugandan Communications Commission (UCC) The UCC implements the provisions of the Ugandan Communication Act by controlling and promoting developments in the partially deregulated telecommunication sector (broadly defined to include all ICTs). The Commission's major mandate was the integration of universal access provisions in the delivery of communication and information services in the country. The Commission works to improve communication services generally and to ensure equitable distribution of services throughout the country (Ugandan Communications Commission [UCC], 2008, p. 10). Another aspect of its mandate was the establishment of the Rural Communication Development Fund (RCDF) which was expected to prevail on telecommunication operators to provide 2.5% of their growth revenues for rural communication services. The evolution of ICTs in Uganda and the gradual journey toward an information society--at least going by the standards of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)--raise important issues for research, some of which we explore in this article. Arguably, there is nothing significantly remarkable about the growth of ICTs in Uganda. Yet there is sense of measured and progressive steps toward the future as the different technologies continue to diffuse widely over the years. Our study examines this spread of ICTs in Uganda with an emphasis on Internet connectivity and the manner in which access to the Internet has become coping mechanism, if not conflict resolution strategy, in war-torn Northern Uganda. …

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) and its Tribunal: Reflexions on a Regional Economic Communities‘ Potential Impact of Human Rights Protection

It was in the 1960s, when the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) encouraged African states to incorporate single economies into sub-regional systems with the ultimate objective of creating a single economic union on the African continent. In order to realise this aim, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU, predecessor of the African Union, AU) identified the need to enhance regional integration within the organisation, recognising that each country on its own would have little chance of, inter alia , attracting adequate financial transfers and the technology needed for increased economic development.1 Africa has, since then, taken various steps towards enhancing the process of eco2 nomic and political integration on the continent. The road has been paved by several decisions and declarations relating to regional economic and political integration, especially by the Abuja Treaty, realising the establishment of the African Economic Community, the African Union's economic and umbrella institution for Regional Economic Communities (RECs). The Abuja Treaty was adopted in June 1991, and came into force in 1994. Since then, 52 out of the 53 AU member states have signed the Treaty, while 49 4 have ratified it.

Hilda Tadria: proponent of gender equality and maternal health

By the time Hilda Tadria had left school she knew she wanted to help women empower themselves. As a girl growing up in Uganda in the 1960s she tagged along on her mothers visits to the village of Rugyeyo to teach rural women literacy and nutrition skills. Tadrias commitment to bringing about social change led her to set up the womens activist organisation Action for Development in 1985 and co-found the African Womens Development Fund in 2001. Since 1997 and her appointment as a senior regional adviser on gender issues at the Ethiopia-based United Nations (UN) Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) Tadria has worked to show the link between gender inequality and maternal health. (excerpt)

Available water for hydropower generation in Swaziland

A study of available water for hydropower generation was carried out in Swaziland as part of the national water study commissioned by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). The study was carried out in 2004/05 and it involved field assessment of major hydropower stations, hydrological assessment of the major water courses where hydropower generation plants are located, climatic changes over the last 10 years and an assessment of the demand for electricity in Swaziland. The study showed that more than 90% of the electricity which Swaziland Electricity Board (SEB) provides to its customers is produced by hydropower while a small proportion is produced by diesel power. The study also showed that the capacity of SEB to generate hydropower is limited mainly by low water flows. It was found out that due to limited capacity to generate hydropower, SEB imports most of the electricity from ESKOM in South Africa and that in 2004 the imported power was more that 84% of the total electricity consumed in Swaziland. It was found out that the causes of low water flows were upstream abstractions and long-term drought conditions. This indicated that hydropower generation is now less favourable in Swaziland than it was in the 1970s, when the existing schemes were built or studied. The other cause for reduced availability of water for hydropower generation is deforestation and increasing land use pressure in the catchment leading to high sedimentation levels in reservoirs. It was concluded that, while the future of locally generated hydropower is limited by dwindling water flows, the capacity to generate more power can be increased by constructing additional dams. It was also recommended that deforestation and intensive cultivation of the catchment areas need to be controlled to reduce the sedimentation of hydropower reservoirs and that more dams should be constructed to counteract the effects of droughts on river flows.

THE AFRICAN PEER REVIEW MECHANISM

The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) is perhaps the most innovative aspect of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). For the APRM to serve its full potential, it is important that the application of the peer review process meet the criteria of credibility, integrity and professionalism. This paper sets out clarifications by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) on the nature and content of the APRM process. However, we first offer a brief summary of the concept and international experience related to peer reviews as best practice for the APRM.

The Economic Empowerment of Nigerian Women: Some Determinants of Access to Resources

This paper investigates some key determinants of the economic empowerment of Nigerian women.' In recent years, the development community has focused increasing attention on the empowerment of women as a result, among other things, of the debilitating effects of structural adjustment programs (SAPs) in Africa in the 1990s and the growing feminization of poverty. Bearing in mind the disproportionate share of responsibilities borne by women, as they seek to combine both productive and reproductive responsibilities within an inadequate resource base, women in Africa are among the poorest of all and are increasingly marginalized in Africa's current economic crisis and under structural adjustment policies. Kate Young reported that considerable evidence has accumulated throughout the 1980s of increasing maternal poverty as result of debt and SAPs and ... this has been accompanied by the feminization of poverty.2 While many reasons have been advanced for Africa's economic crisis, the general consensus in many quarters is that SAPs have rendered more visible the failure of orthodox top-down development paradigms.3 Consequently, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) proposed the Africa Alternative Framework to Structural Adjustment (AAF-SAP) as a human-centered strategy of recovery and self-reliant development for the continent. The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in 1989 recommended a bottom-up strategy of empowerment of community organizations, peoples' organizations, and women's groups in order to enhance their access to resources and to strengthen their participation in decision making at all levels.4 These views were adopted as the African Charter for Popular Participation in Development and Transformation at the Arusha Conference of Ministers of Planning and Finance in 1990 and were also endorsed by the heads of states of the Organization of Unity (OAU).

Prospects for Recovery and Sustainable Development in Africa

Tables and Figures Preface Introduction: Are Alternative Development Strategies Suitable for Africa to Remedy Its Deepening Crisis? by A. Y. Yansane International Institutions Experts' Views Prospects for Africa's Economic Recovery and Development by Michel Doo Kingue National Capacity Building and Long Term Development: The Role of Technical Cooperation in Africa by Stephen Adei Comments of Discussants Responses to and Impact of the Crisis of Development in Africa: Regional and Sectoral Perspectives Extent of the Crisis and Structural Adjustment in Cote D'Ivoire, Senegal, and Guinea: Implications for One Another by A. Y. Yansane Nigeria: Priorities and Prospects for the 1990s by Chukwuma F. Obidegwu The Effects of Adjustment Measures on Nigerian Labor by Tayo Fashoyin Global Formulae, Local Responses, Rural Economic Differentiation in Ghana by Gwendolyn Mikell Macro-Modeling Aspects of Adjustment Policy Planning by Charles N'Cho-Oguie Comments of Discussants Reformulation of Models An Alternative Framework for Adjustment with Transformation and Major Policy Directions and Policy Instruments by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) Toward an Alternative Development Strategy by Ann Seidman The World Bank versus the Economic Commission of Africa: Is this Really a Conflict as to Development Strategy? by Robert S. Browne Comments of Discussants Writers' Views of Development in Africa Is Development a Purely Empirical Concept or Also Teleological: A Perspective from We the Underdeveloped by Sylvia Wynter Comments of Discussants Conclusion by A.Y. Yansane Selected Bibliography Index