Development and Economic Growth

Former South Korean minister of trade, Dr. Taeho Bark has encouraged African countries to learn from South Korea by focusing on exports.  Dr. Bark, a senior visiting scholar, Korea project at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfar Center stated this during a lecture on South Korea’s new external economic strategies at the Kennedy School.  “At beginning of […]

As Zimbabwe heads to the polls in April 2023, spokesperson for the opposition Citizen Coalition for Change, Fadzayi Mahere, has stated that it is time for the youth to take over the mantle of leadership in the country. Mahere was speaking during an interview with Africa Policy Journal in Cambridge, Massachusetts. There are more than […]

While CBDCs hold tremendous potential in closing the financial inclusion gap in LAC, they will also encounter many roadblocks generated by cultural, social, and economic determinants. Central banks and other authorities will be tasked with no less than integrating the vulnerable and marginalized into the financial system.  Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) have recently taken […]

In this #APJChat, Africa Policy Journal Editor-In-Chief Ada Ezeokoli speaks with Claude Grunitzky, CEO and Managing Partner of The Equity Alliance Fund, and Founder of TRUE Africa, about his journey as a serial entrepreneur, and what he hopes to contribute to building Africa’s future.

Notwithstanding COVID-19’s sudden and damaging blemish on African Foreign Direct Investment, the continent has been subject to consistently increasing foreign investment in recent history. From US$ 1.1 billion per year in the 1970s to US$ 2.2 billion in the 1980s to more than US$ 35 billion on average during the 2000-2008 period, multinationals are looking […]

After decades of inaction, humanity faces potential extinction through an ecological collapse of its own making.1 Climate change, ocean acidification, mass extinction, soil depletion, acid rain, rising seas, extreme weather, unstoppable wildfires, pollution, deforestation, and desertification would each be immense challenges for global governance individually—thecombination seems insurmountable, but because all share an underlying cause, there […]

On March 13th, SPJ hosted its first virtual discussion of the Spring semester. It was motivated by the announcement of Singapore’s Green Plan 2030, a cross-ministry initiative promoting ‘sustainable development’ in the city-state. In light of this, the discussion centered around the tensions and tradeoffs between the environment and the economy.

We must revisit the question of alternatives to development aid. Amid the crisis of the pandemic, mutual aid, which has been utilized as a political survival tactic throughout history, has re-emerged as an alternative to institutional aid. How can this concept be applied to the development context?

The current COVID-19 pandemic has placed a stranglehold on the world economy, and China has been no exception. Significantly, these effects have rippled across many countries that have benefitted from China’s lending spree over the past two decades, and whose economies have now taken a plunge. Many, if not all, are now in desperate need […]

On January 30th, 2020, a few moments after Mexico’s Statistical Agency (INEGI) released its advance estimate of the country’s economic growth, Mexico’s President–Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO)–stood in front of reporters for his daily morning press conference. It had become harder for AMLO to dodge the concerns posed by analysts and journalists about the perception of Mexico’s lack of economic growth.

Quad Research conducted a survey from 1-4 April 2020 on Singaporeans’ perceptions on a range of societal issues and how their views impact their political choices. This executive summary details some of their research findings.

Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar have increased their geopolitical influence in the Middle East in the last decade. In the case of Syria, the foreign policy of Gulf monarchies the past years has been on of rapprochement towards the regime of Damascus after initially opposing it firmly and funding some armed opposition groups. This article analyzes the potential economic and political implications of the return of Gulf investments in Syria. It argues that Gulf investments would have consequences on the political economy of Syria by deepening its reliance on projects in short-term profit-seeking sectors, mostly in trade, real estate and services. At the same time, significant obstacles to Gulf investments in Syria will persist.