The IMF’s April 2025 Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa presents a clear warning: regional growth is slowing, debt pressures are mounting, and donor assistance is declining. Yet the report outlines critical opportunities particularly in domestic revenue mobilization, structural reform, and private sector activation that can shape a more resilient …
Using Africa's vast agricultural resources to help tackle climate change could earn the continent $1.5 billion a year, a World Bank head said on Tuesday. The region should also tap its underexploited renewable resources, particularly hydropower, to meet increasing energy demand and boost both growth and development. "It is essential …
East Africa should tap its large cogeneration potential, burning waste from its sugar and tea output to cut reliance on hydro power, which is increasingly hit by drought, an energy analyst said on Wednesday. Stephen Karekezi, Director of the African Energy Policy Research Network (AFREPREN), said the region was relying …
It is agriculture that brought malaria with it if humans had not abandoned their nomadic ways for agriculture, two important events would be missing from the history of civilization: deforestation and domestication of animals. Man would also not have heard of diseases like aids and swine flu. In 2007, the …
Europe could pay poor countries up to 15 billion euros ($22 billion) a year by 2020 to persuade them to help battle climate change, the European Union's executive arm said on Thursday. Developing countries say industrialized nations should shoulder most of the cost of tackling a problem they caused in …
Most of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are facing extreme or high risk of food shortages, according to a Food Security Risk Index ranking of 148 nations. Pakistan, ranked 11th on the index, is at
The United Nations should set up a war chest to help process the billions of dollars poor countries will be paid to slash their greenhouse gas emissions, the European Union has proposed. The facility would sit separately from an existing "Adaptation Fund," which aims to soften the impact of climate …
This booklet captures some key developments in agricultural biotechnology in Africa. Contrary to the strongly held belief that the continent is not ready to embrace new technologies, much has been accomplished in agricultural biotechnology. The document narrates notable scientific breakthroughs, political support, policy formulation, capacity building and awareness creation on …
Farmers worldwide managed 32.2 million hectares of agricultural land organically in 2007, nearly 5 percent more than in the previous year and a 118-percent increase since 2000. Organic farming is now reported in 141 countries; about two thirds of this land area is in industrial countries, and nearly half of …
While world environmental risk analysts have expressed fears over extreme climate changes in South Asian nations including Sri Lanka, U.N. climate panel chairman said the world could still cap global warming at far lower levels than widely expected if nations
The heaviest rainfall in 90 years in the African state of Burkina Faso has triggered heavy flooding and forced thousands of people to flee their homes, the government said Wednesday. "We have been able to find shelter for about 110,000 people but there are others who have taken refuge with …
The current issue of the UGEC Viewpoints was conceptualized at the end of the 7th Open Meeting of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change which was held in Bonn, Germany between April 26-30. The conference was deemed a great success with nearly 1,000 participants including researchers, NGOs, …
International investors have recently shown a fast-growing interest in land in developing countries. The IIED, the FAO and IFAD drew attention to the phenomenon of large-scale real estate purchases. In this article, two of the study's authors bemoan that international media coverage has since emphasised the risks involved-without much regard …
While developing countries face the most serious threats of any nations from the physical, economic and social impacts of climate change, there also exist enormous opportunities for these countries to adopt new technologies and sustainable development frameworks that will significantly reduce global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The predominant view of …
Oil in the Bangtar area under Samdrupjongkhar dzongkhag, copper, gold and silver in the black mountain area of central Bhutan and tungsten in Sarpang are the potential minerals an American businessman J Matthew Fifield has offered to prospect for and, if found viable, then extract them. He has also proposed …
Least developed countries (LDCs), the worst victims of global warming, are far from raising effective voice thus failing to reap expected success from the ongoing negotiations of climate change due to fragile diplomacy, experts opined. The UN climate conference in Copenhagen in December, to be attended by heads of the …
"The best thing you could do for the Amazon is to bomb all the roads." That might sound like an eco-terrorist's threat, but they're actually the words of Eneas Salati, one of Brazil's most respected scientists. Thomas Lovejoy, a leading American biologist, is equally emphatic: "Roads are the seeds of …
Aug. 27: Tata Steel is planning to acquire iron ore and coal mines in Africa, Brazil and Canada, which could contribute 50 per cent captive raw material by 2015. Addressing the annual general meeting of Tata Steel on Thursday, Mr Ratan Tata, the chairman of Tata Sons, said: "The acquisition …
African zoologists are in Colombia to advise local authorities on what to do with dozens of hippos roaming around the abandoned zoo of late drug lord Pablo Escobar in the north of the country. Colombia was shocked last month at news that one of the giant beasts, who had escaped …
Illegal fishing is depleting the seas and robbing poor nations in Africa and Asia of resources, but a lack of global cooperation is undermining efforts to track rogue vessels, an environmental group said on Tuesday. The Pew Environment Group, a Washington-based think-tank, has found that a United Nations scheme to …
