Development and Economic Growth

This post is part of a series of reviews summarizing discussions that took place at the 2013 Harvard Arab Weekend. For more information about this event, the largest pan-Arab conference in North America, please visit http://harvardarabweekend.org/ Panel Speakers:   Nafez Dakkak, Manager, Online Education Initiative, Queen Rania Foundation Adel bin Mohammad Fakeih, Minister of Labor, Saudi Arabia […]

This post is part of a series of reviews summarizing presentations and discussions that took place at the 2013 Harvard Arab Weekend. For more information about this event, the largest pan-Arab conference in North America, please visit http://harvardarabweekend.org/ Panel Speakers:   On November 11 a panel of three regional experts came together during Harvard Arab […]

Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan gave a keynote address on November 7th at the Harvard Arab Weekend stating she felt optimistic about the future of the Arab world and unveiled an new digital education platform for the region. HM Queen Rania opened her remarks by quoting Charles Dickens A Tale of Two […]

Interview conducted on Tuesday, October 22, 2013 Mpumelelo Nxumalo (Africa Policy Journal Editor-in-Chief), and Elizabeth Bennett (Africa Policy Journal Senior Editor of Interviews), recently had a chance to sit down with Dr. Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, the Chief Executive Officer of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) Planning and Coordinating Agency. Their conversation covered a […]

By Will Hickey The time has come for sovereign wealth funds to produce some meaningful value. Now conservatively valued at around 6 trillion dollars, sovereign wealth funds, or SWFs, are massive state-owned investment vehicles of stocks, bonds, property, precious metals and other financial instruments, including private equity. They are overwhelmingly funded through oil and gas […]

By Guido van Garderen Revised for the Harvard Africa Journal. September, 2013. Abstract Liberia is still tainted by images of war and poverty, even though the country has been at peace for over a decade under the leadership of President Johnson-Sirleaf. The current brand image deters tourists, business executives and potential investors from visiting the country. […]

BY TANYA KHOKHAR  Guaquitepec is a small village in Chiapas, the southernmost state in Mexico and by most estimates the poorest in the country. It is a humid, tropical area perhaps best known for the large-scale rebellion staged two decades ago by a leftist revolutionary group called Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN), or as […]

Abstract: The Arabian Gulf region has the most prodigious energy reserves in the world. However, the region’s massive industrialization and expanding demography are also increasing energy consumption at unsustainable rates, leading to natural gas deficits across the region. This article argues that the pressures of economic development and industrial diversification are steadily eroding the comparative […]

The development challenges for contemporary democratic states of Africa are enormous. This somewhat sweeping phrase takes for granted the question of whether those countries claiming to be democratic are so in organisation and practice. For instance, only Mauritius was categorised as full democracy out of 44 sub-Saharan African countries evaluated in Democracy Index, 2010; 8 […]

Overview: illustrating the challenge in supporting producers and consumers through agricultural policies A pressing challenge facing Ethiopia today is one that has long been a dilemma facing many African governments. This paper discusses the challenge of supporting smallholder farmers while ensuring benefits for consumers. Attaining a balance often involves a tradeoff when policy and economic […]

BY SHLOKA NATH Driving from Rae Bareli to Amethi, two districts in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (UP), you will be hard pressed to find evidence of India’s strident economic progress. Everywhere you turn, roads are terrible, electricity is sparse and poverty and destitution run deep. With more than 200 million people, UP […]

A man in a freshly pressed Calvin Klein suit, sporting Aviator sunglasses, stands on the corner of a busy street cradling his laptop case and yelling over the din into his Blackberry.  Moments later he gets into his new Honda and races away.  This could be an observation made on the streets of New York […]