Economic growth alone won’t end hunger. Good policies and programmes are needed, too. Scientists and researchers have a role to play in these initiatives.
Barrels in Nigeria used for transporting oil to communities.
Stakeholder Democracy/Flickr
It is important to nurture local companies and increase domestic participation in Africa’s emerging oil economies.
Professor Amivi Kafui Tete-Benissan (left) teaches cell biology and biochemistry at the University of Lomé, in the capital of Togo.
Stephan Gladieu/World Bank/Flickr
Getting more women into science, technology, engineering and maths fields is a process that involves many parts of a society. Several African countries are setting the pace.
African countries are facing a huge problem brought on by a sovereign debt crisis.
Shutterstock
It is normal for resistance movements to adopt rough survival strategies and techniques while fighting an oppressive regime. Unfortunately that culture takes root and is permanently nurtured.
An Angolan soldier administers a yellow fever vaccine to a child at “Quilometro 30” market, Luanda.
EPA/Joost de Raeymaeker
South Sudan is not the only oil-dependent country suffering from the fall in oil prices. Nigeria and Angola are also having difficulties. One solution is for them to diversify their economies.
High-rise buildings amid shacks in Luanda. President Dos Santo has announced plans to retire amid growing unease among Angolans over deepening poverty despite a recent oil boom.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
Angola’s Dos Santos is buying time. His promise to step down is an attempt to diffuse growing political tensions, as repression continues. He might relinquish his position, but not his power.
Cine Petro Atletica, once Huambo’s finest cinema, was destroyed during fierce fighting in Angola’s bloody civil war.
Reuters/John Chiahemen MH/WS
Apartheid South Africa started a war in which it could not maintain a strategic advantage. It misread the quest for national liberation and international opinion that undermined its effectiveness.
Champagne being served in a bar on McCarthy Street in Lagos.
Reuters/Akintunde Akinleye
It’s easy to dismiss Africa as a place that is, at best, a provider of commodities, land and labour. A closer look shows that the continent is innovative and offers a lot more opportunities.
The Nairobi-Thika highway is being built by China Wuyi, Sinohydro and Shengeli Engineering Construction, and is funded by Kenya, China and the African Development Bank.
Reuters/Thomas Mukoya
China offers an alternative to traditional donors and investors in low- and middle-income countries. Adding to its appeal is its focus on infrastructure projects.
The Angolan government failed to use revenues when the oil price was high to tackle massive social and economic challenges.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
As the oil price crisis deepens, Angolans are beginning to ask what actually happened to the glut of oil dollars. Very little has come from the oil boom of 2004-14.
Robert Mugabe, the nonagenarian Zimbabwean president, is the poster boy for Africa’s ageing leaders.
Reuters/Philimon Bulawayo
Why is Africa so saddled with ageing presidents who ought to be enjoying their retirement in peace when the continent desperately needs young, agile and innovative leaders equal to its challenges?
Is the sun setting on West African oil? A platform in Limbe, Cameroon.
VirginieVV
After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the US made a point of diversifying its sources of oil to reduce dependence on the Middle East. It was a strategic move which promised a huge boost to West African…