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 …
As South Africa struggles with an ongoing power crisis, the state power utility Eskom has said electricity prices need to double in the next two years. In a submission to the National Electricity Regulator of South Africa, Eskom bade to increase electricity prices by 53 per cent this year saying …
Seeking to secure supply of coal for its upcoming future projects to meet the energy targets, National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), has decided to hunt for coal blocks in South Africa, Mozambique and Indonesia. NTPC's aggressive posture for securing fuel supplies comes close on the heels of its competitors in …
Rejecting recent attempts to link trade to climate change, the government said that countries like India would not accept any move by industrialised countries to use climate change to restrict trade. Prime Minister's special envoy Shyam Saran said that India rejected all attempts to push developing countries to cut their …
South Africa's government was urged on Tuesday to implement an immediate review of its land reform policies in a hard-hitting report from a leading think-tank that said the current approach had a dismal record and threatened to lead to a crisis. Without a rapid and thorough change of policy towards …
A payments for ecosystem services (PES) system came about in South Africa with the establishment of the government-funded Working for Water (WfW) programme that clears mountain catchments and riparian zones of invasive alien plants to restore natural fire regimes, the productive potential of land, biodiversity, and hydrological functioning. The success …
More than 20 United Nations development agencies joined the World Bank and the World Trade Organization this week in Bern, Switzerland, to discuss emergency humanitarian aid and other measures to combat the growing world food crisis. The World Food Programme says it needs an extra US$755 million just to meet …
More than 30 people suffering from extreme- or multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (tb) in South Africa ran away from a hospital in Port Elizabeth in the last week of March. The patients forced their way out of the Jose Pearson Hospital after taking off their protective masks and intimidating security guards. …
it's usually believed that climatic factors like temperature and rainfall have a big say in birds selecting their breeding and feeding ranges. But a new aspect of bird behaviour has come to light with a study published in Conservation Biology (Vol 22, issue 1, February 2008). It reveals that some …
Dubai: In a renewed effort to achieve a global trade deal under Doha Round of multilateral talks, trade ministers of India and the US will meet next week to bridge differences on farm subsidies and opening markets for industrial and agricultural products. "I am meeting USTR (Susan Schwab) on May …
authorities failed to act when they became aware of a waterborne epidemic following the breakdown of water treatment facilities. The deaths occurred in the Eastern Cape province last October but have only come to light now after the leak of a report into the epidemic. Children died from diarrhoea and …
Edie Scientists call for radical changes to agriculture (22 April 2008) Food production will have to change radically to continue to feed the world in the face of climate change, a major new report by more than 400 scientists has said. The study, published by the International Assessment of Agricultural …
New Delhi, Apr 18 Foreign secretary Shivshankar Menon is scheduled to leave for Beijing on Sunday to participate in a meeting of senior officials of the Group of Five (G-5) countries. The meeting scheduled for April 21-22 is expected to focus on the likely approach the G-5 must adopt for …
GMR Infrastructure, the Bangalore-based infrastructure firm, is expected to pay around Rs 620 crore by September 2008 to acquire 50 per cent stake in a coal mining firm in South Africa. GMR Infrastructure, which is into development of airports, power projects and roads, through its wholly-owned subsidiary GMR Energy on …
South Africa has launched a pilot project to introduce solar water heaters. With an objective to exploit one of its abundant resources, sunshine, the project aims to create awareness and introduce solar water heaters in households in the Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape provinces. South Africa receives about 2,500 hours …
disease-causing bacteria are gaining resistance to antibiotics by producing enzymes that deactivate them. A study has decoded the structure of the enzyme that helps bacteria gain resistance to a specific class of antibiotics. This is crucial because this class of antibiotics was the only remaining lot so fat to be …
European gas oil prices set a new high above $1,000 a tonne on Tuesday, boosted by a fire in a key European refinery last week and unexpectedly strong demand. Power blackouts in South Africa, Chile and China have forced many companies to run diesel generators to offset electricity supply interruptions, …
WHO's 60th anniversary celebrations have left Africa in the cold. Across the continent countries face high mortality rates and deep misery, and the regional office of the UN's specialised health organisation
"Agriculture can do more than just focus on production," says Bob Watson, director of the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD), the project that he hopes will change agriculture forever when the final draft of its report is published on 15 April. "Farming can help supply …
