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 …
This publication by the Programme for the Promotion of Household and Alternative Energy sources in the Sahel (PREDAS) is a summary of a series of surveys and analyses conducted in the Sahelian countries of Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Chad.
The current world food crisis is the result of the combined effects of competition for cropland from the growth in biofuels, low cereal stocks, high oil prices, speculation in food markets and extreme weather events. The crisis has resulted in a several-fold increase in several central commodity prices, driven 110 …
This report is an output of the project small-scale producers and standards in agrifood supply chains. The project explored ways to create opportunities and identify favourable outcomes for smallscale producers in developing countries to participate in international horticultural supply chains
This paper synthesizes the findings of a study carried out by Ecoagriculture Partners and the International Institute for Environment and Development on behalf of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation to explore opportunities for sustainable development in East Africa. It is based on a survey of nearly 200 leaders in …
According to this latest global report on wind energy, total worldwide installations in 2008 were more than 27,000 MW, dominated by the three main markets in Europe, North America and Asia. The United States passed Germany to become world #1 in wind power installations, and China
Coastal waters support 90 per cent of global fisheries and are therefore an important food reserve for our planet1. Eutrophication of these waters, due to human activity, leads to severe oxygen depletion and the episodic occurrence of hydrogen sulphide
Date: 21-Jan-09 Country: UK Author: Michael Szabo LONDON - A new advisory firm launched on Monday seeks to boost carbon emissions trading in sub-Saharan Africa and raise the continent's lagging profile in the $120 billion global carbon market. CarbonStream Africa, a joint venture between South African state-owned CEF Carbon SA …
Debate rages on. Alarmists insist that anthropogenic global warming threatens human health and welfare, plant and animal species. Challengers argue that there is no crisis, and humans play a relatively minor role in climate change. A more urgent issue receives insufficient attention: initiatives passed in the name of stabilizing Earth
Climate, social and economic conditions, markets, consumer values and technology are only a few of the areas of change that the World Water Development Report (WWDR3) describes and discusses in detail. This case study volume complements and compounds the analyses provided in the report by taking a critical look at …
With their kitchen gardens in local communities, women are responsible for the food crops that secure the food supply. Cash crops and monetary income are, on the other hand, defi ned as masculine. The construction of women
This publication aims to contribute to the knowledge of socio-economic impacts of the adoption of biotechnologies, focusing on non-transgenic biotechnologies (i.e. biotechnologies other than genetic engineering). The first paper discusses some approaches used in innovations
This report is based on a series of 15 international case studies conducted between September and November 2008 under a joint initiative of FAO and the PISCES Energy Research Programme Consortium funded by DFID. The case studies focussed on developing an improved understanding of the linkages between Livelihoods and small-scale …
Agrobiodiversity and indigenous knowledge represents a strategic force to combat poverty and food insecurity. Women's income from shea nut tree products pays for children's school fees, clothing, food and items of daily use, while the oil itself nourishes the family. In times of drought and famine, the shea tree typically …
The primary objective of this report is to provide practical guidance to World Bank teams advising on the design and implementation of reforms of urban water supply and sanitation (WSS) sectors. The reform of urban WSS sectors is needed to increase access to the infrastructure, improve efficiency of operations, and …
The aim of this capacity building programme is to improve the efficiency and positive impact of urban, community-managed water and sanitation schemes. The manual was originally developed in collaboration with the Dar es Salaam Water and Sewerage Authority
Wetlands perform many essential ecosystem services—carbon storage, flood control, maintenance of biodiversity, fish production, and aquifer recharge, among others—services that have increasingly important global consequences. Like biodiversity hotspots and frontier forests, the world’s largest wetlands are now mapped and described by an international team of scientists, highlighting their conservation importance …
