Category: Africa

Source: APO – Report:

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To hear women’s voices in the political process, Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General for Political Affairs (DSRSG-P), Stephanie Koury, held a dedicated meeting with women community leaders in Bani Walid last Saturday.  

Participants underscored that presidential elections are essential to resolving the political impasse and called for the dissolution of all armed groups, asserting that unified security forces in the western region are crucial for enabling credible elections. 

“As women in Bani Walid, we suffer from marginalization; our voices are not heard,” said one participant. They noted the absence of women’s empowerment offices at all levels, including within the municipality where the person responsible for social affairs is a man. The Social Affairs officer is responsible for overseeing all aspects of family compensation and addressing issues related to women and children.  

DSRSG-P Koury took note of the concerns raised by women during the meeting. She also discussed the importance of meaningful engagement of all Libyan women in the political process. 

Ms. Koury briefed participants on the four options put forward by the Advisory Committee in May to move the political process forward. As outlined in the  Executive Summary of the Advisory Committee’s report,  the options include:  

1. Conducting presidential and legislative elections simultaneously;  
2. Conducting parliamentary elections first, followed by the adoption of a permanent constitution;  
3. Adopting a permanent constitution before elections; or  
4. Establishing a political dialogue committee, based on the Libyan Political Agreement to finalize electoral laws, executive authority and permanent constitution.  

Participants shared local initiatives to promote women’s empowerment, emphasizing the need for representation, inclusion, and meaningful participation of women across Libya. They also expressed a strong demand for the unification of state institutions.  

Additionally, participants raised pressing socioeconomic issues, especially in the education and health sectors, noting the ongoing toll on women and children. “We want to end the injustice of war for the next generation,” said one woman. 

Throughout the public consultations in Bani Walid, participants expressed deep frustration over the absence of national reconciliation and human rights violations.  

While acknowledging that customs and tribal structures continue to shape local governance, participants stressed the need for greater public awareness around elections and civic responsibility.  

“The social and security situation is deteriorating,” said one participant. “While we value preserving our traditions and norms, but this must go hand in hand with empowering women in public life and allow them to assume leadership roles.”

– on behalf of United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL).

Source: APO – Report:

Urban areas across Africa are growing at a remarkable pace, but many city governments are being asked to deliver more with limited fiscal space and constrained access to capital.

Despite these pressures, some city administrators say they are “seeing real progress,” as explained by James Muchiri, Deputy Governor of Nairobi City County: “In the last financial year alone, Nairobi’s local revenue rose by one billion shillings, and the year before, by nearly the same amount.”

This view is shared by Chilando Chitangala, Mayor of Lusaka, who noted that the city has long struggled with revenue leakages but is now learning how to build stronger systems – “how to collect more effectively and manage what we collect with greater accountability.”

The two city leaders were speaking at the close of a high-level side event co-organized by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), UN-Habitat, and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) on the margins of the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) in Seville.

The session focused on how African cities can mobilize domestic resources and strengthen financial systems to support the Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2063.

Both Nairobi and Lusaka are among six African cities participating in the DA-15 project, a joint initiative led by ECA in partnership with UN-Habitat and UNCDF. The project supports city administrations in evaluating their financial performance, identifying reform priorities, and building the tools needed to strengthen public finance at the local level. Other participating cities include Addis Ababa, Dar es Salaam, Kigali, and Yaoundé.

The first phase of the project involved in-depth financial assessments across the six cities. The findings revealed significant gaps in revenue collection, expenditure management, and investment planning, but also surfaced promising areas for reform.

“By using ECA’s methodology, we got a report that was independent of our own systems,” said Mr Muchiri. “That helped surface issues we hadn’t seen before, and gave us something concrete to act on.”

To support implementation, ECA has also developed the Fiscal Space Performance and Monitoring Dashboard, a digital tool that enables city officials to track real-time indicators such as liquidity, solvency, and revenue collection efficiency.

The dashboard is designed to strengthen transparency and support evidence-based decision-making at the local level.

“The dashboard enhances transparency, strengthens accountability, and supports smarter financial decisions,” said Hana Morsy, Deputy Executive Secretary of ECA. “It’s a practical tool city can use to stay on top of their fiscal health.”

While digital tools and financial diagnostics are central to the DA-15 approach, both Nairobi and Lusaka emphasized the importance of local capacity and political will.

“We now have the skills and structure to move forward,” said Ms Chitangala. “And we hope this knowledge can benefit other cities across Zambia as well.”

“Ultimately,” added Mr Muchiri, “we want to reduce our dependency on central government transfers. That means we have to build strong, reliable systems that let us collect and manage our own revenue with confidence.”

Ms Morsy called on national governments, development partners, and the private sector to invest not just in infrastructure, but in the financial systems and institutions that make local governance work.

“What if we stopped viewing cities as beneficiaries,” she said, “and started empowering them as leaders?”

Atkeyelsh Persson, Chief of Urbanization and Development at ECA, stressed the importance of ensuring that capacity gains are shared more widely.

“It’s encouraging to see the impact being felt on the ground,” said Ms Persson. “The capacity built through this work shouldn’t stop with just Nairobi or Lusaka. It has the potential to scale across other cities in Kenya, Zambia, and beyond.”

– on behalf of United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).

Source: APO – Report:

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The Chairperson of the Select Committee on Economic Development and Trade, Ms Sonja Boshoff, has expressed grave concern over the impending 30% tariff imposed by the United States government on key South African exports, as the tariffs will have far-reaching consequences for exporters and on the broader ailing South African economy.

Ms Boshoff said the US tariff order, which was signed yesterday and is set to come into effect on 1 August 2025, undermines the historical US–SA trade cooperation and poses a serious threat to strategic sectors such as citrus, macadamia, automotive components, steel and aluminium. “These industries are not abstract economic indicators; they are lifelines for tens of thousands of workers, particularly in rural and small-town South Africa,” emphasised Ms Boshoff.

She said South Africa’s citrus industry alone supports more than 35 000 jobs and contributes over R38 billion annually to the economy. “A tariff of this magnitude threatens not only the profitability of our exporters, but the livelihoods of workers and the economic stability of entire agricultural regions,” stressed Ms Boshoff.

She said the tariff order also casts a dark shadow over the future of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which has long facilitated preferential access to US markets. With the new duty effectively neutralising those preferences, there is growing uncertainty for producers who depend on predictable market access to plan, invest and grow.

“It is critical that trade agreements are honoured in good faith. No country can plan its industrial or export strategy under a cloud of sudden and unilateral tariff hikes” said Ms Boshoff.

The committee recognises that the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) is pursuing negotiations with its US counterparts, reportedly offering strategic Liquefied Natural Gas procurement in exchange for a more reasonable tariff ceiling. However, such engagements must be swift, transparent and rooted in the national interest.

“We cannot afford diplomatic dithering. Every delay will deepen the uncertainty in our export industries. The government must urgently finalise a sustainable trade path with the United States and, simultaneously, accelerate diversification into new markets across the EU, Asia and Africa,” stressed Ms Boshoff.

The committee calls on the DTIC and the Department of Agriculture to provide support packages and market reorientation strategies for the most affected industries. This must include logistics relief, export finance support, and new market facilitation, particularly for emerging farmers and SMEs.

“At a time when South Africa is battling record unemployment and low growth, punitive tariffs by our biggest trading partners are not just economic risks, they are catalysts for deeper inequality. We must respond with urgency, precision and policy agility,” Ms Boshoff noted.

This unprecedent development cannot be approached with a “let it go” attitude, Ms Boshoff said. She called on the South African government to urgently send a high-level delegation to Washington to undertake repair of diplomatic ties and to reaffirm South Africa’s commitment to constructive engagement.

President Trump signed the tariff order on Monday, 7 July, after the withdrawal of US grant funding for critical programmes in South Africa. The tariff order, which will apply to all South African products entering the US market, will come into effect from 1 August 2025.

– on behalf of Republic of South Africa: The Parliament.

Source: APO – Report:

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In the context of high global uncertainty, tighter global financial conditions, and rising borrowing costs, concerns about sub-Saharan Africa’s debt vulnerabilities are mounting. But the region is tackling this issue head-on and public debt ratios have stabilized on average. Our analytical note in the IMF’s latest Regional Economic Outlook for sub-Saharan Africa uses a new data set to highlight when, how often, to what extent, and how debt stabilization was achieved.

Surprising frequency

Contrary to perception, countries in the region have often been able to stabilize or reduce their debt ratios without debt restructuring. With more than 60 debt reduction episodes (defined as periods of two or more years during which the public debt-to-GDP ratio fell), the probability that a country will experience such an episode in any given year is one in four. And these episodes have occurred even amid an unfavorable external environment, including in the aftermath of the commodity super cycle and in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The debt decline in many cases was economically significant and persistent: most episodes involved a decrease of more than 10 percentage points of GDP, and almost half of those episodes lasted four or more years. For example, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s debt ratio fell by 15 percentage points of GDP during 2010–23, and Cabo Verde’s debt ratio decreased by more than 30 percentage points over 2021–23.

Sustained debt reduction typically reflects both budgetary consolidation and real economic growth. Often these two drivers go together—budgetary consolidation (that is, an increase in primary balances) is itself more likely when growth is rapid. In fragile and conflict-affected states, however, as well as low-income countries, growth is the predominant driver of many successful reductions in debt.

Securing success

Debt reduction is more likely, more significant, and more persistent if three conditions hold: the country has a solid domestic institutional framework and enjoys a supportive domestic business environment; global growth is buoyant; and global borrowing costs are low. A debt decline is also more likely when an IMF-supported arrangement is present, pointing to the importance of international financial and policy support. Relatedly, budget consolidation must be sustained over time to translate into debt consolidation. While exchange rate stability can support successful debt stabilization, maintaining an overvalued exchange rate can prove counterproductive since it is likely to lower growth and hamper overall macroeconomic stability.

By way of example, in Mauritius, a favorable domestic and external environment, solid growth, and a stable currency saw a reduction in the debt ratio of almost 20 percentage points during 2003–08.

The road ahead

The key message for policymakers is that fiscal adjustment is likely to result in stronger, more durable reductions in debt when complemented by pro-growth structural reforms and by measures to strengthen institutional frameworks. Such measures should include well-designed fiscal rules to ensure that off-budget fiscal operations do not undermine debt reduction. Efforts to cut debt are also more likely to prove successful in a context of macroeconomic stability, including low and stable inflation.

Countries aiming to sustainably reduce debt should seize the opportunity to tax and spend more efficiently. The focus should be on strengthening fiscal balances in a growth-friendly manner by broadening the tax base, removing inefficient tax exemptions, and ensuring that money is well spent.

Support from the international community, including through technical support but also through concessional financing, is critical to helping the region succeed. Most countries—especially fragile states and low-income countries—face difficult trade-offs between short-term macroeconomic stabilization, longer-term development needs, and making reforms socially acceptable. External support can make these difficult trade-offs less daunting.

– on behalf of International Monetary Fund (IMF).