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Monday, August 10, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Trade and poverty: Facts beyond theory
ECONOMY: "Africa Is Paying Most for a Crisis Not of its Making"
The global economic crisis has hit the African continent especially hard despite not being involved in its making, civil society organisations gathered in the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo heard at the fifth people’s summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).Q&A: Cross-Border Links to Boost Women’s Economic Empowerment
The Professional Women, Executives and Businesswomen’s Forum (PROWEB) organised a unique investment conference last week in Zimbabwe’s capital where businesswomen from South Africa and Zimbabwe got the opportunity to not only network but forge what may be a unique African association among businesswomen across national borders.
AFRICA: "Have Your Own Policies, as Long as They’re Like Ours"
The controversial conditionalities attached to World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans over the past 20 years may, from the World Bank’s point of view, no longer be necessary as African countries are of their own accord imposing similar policy restrictions on themselves.SOUTHERN AFRICA: "Women Can Be More Than Small-Scale Farmers"
"Government must lead in breaking down the stereotypes of women as tuck-shop owners, candle-makers, peasant farmers, teachers and nurses and create the reality in which they become hoteliers, large-scale commercial farmers, miners and proprietors of retail chains."ECONOMY-ZIMBABWE: “Indigenising Without Kicking Investors Away”
Eager to restore Zimbabwe's moribund economy, the country's government has been soliciting investment globally. But the troubled southern African country finds itself in an unenviable balancing act between protecting its economic interests while attracting foreign investors.WORLD: "Mini-Ministerial Meeting Should Change WTO Tack on Food"
A group of 125 non-governmental organisations from 50 countries is calling on the governments participating in the mini-ministerial trade talks in India over the next two days to reject the further liberalisation of food and rather promote policies that will achieve food security and rural development and safeguard farmers’ livelihoods.SOUTH AFRICA: Price Fixing Can Land Company Directors in Jail
A series of high-profile cases in which big South African companies have been found guilty of fixing the prices of even basic foodstuffs have led to the adoption of a new law that will allow directors and managers to be sent to jail for 10 years or receive a fine of 45,000 euros.TRADE: 2010 Soccer World Cup May See More Snorting than Kicking
It is the middle of the day but 25-year-old Lyle Arendse of Athlone on the Cape Flats, Cape Town’s sprawling hinterland, is at home. He left school nearly 10 years ago and has since been unemployed. "It is because of drugs -- tik (methamphetamine or "crystal meth") and heroin -- that I left school," he acknowledges.Q&A: “African Farmers Benefit When They Organise Themselves”
Research into an initiative to improve the lot of Ghanaian farmers shows how important it is that farmers organise themselves to improve their bargaining power with buyers.ZIMBABWE: Use of Foreign Money Becoming Political Football Again
Dorothy Tembo wears a look that tells a story of years of hard work. She dotes on her grandchildren and enjoys talking about the past. A keen observer of the history happening around her, she easily narrates Zimbabwe's trials and tribulations from the pre-independence years to the present, of which she says she has never seen so much death and suffering.
Q&A: “South Africa’s Black Economic Empowerment Has Failed”
Moeletsi Mbeki, brother of former South African president Thabo Mbeki, believes that the government’s centrepiece policy of black economic empowerment was in fact the creation of the country’s white economic oligarchs to co-opt black leaders.
Q&A: Regional Trade Integration Is About Give and Take
It’s "do or die" for the world’s oldest customs union. Disagreement over the development consequences of the EU’s proposed economic partnership agreements (EPAs) with African states has threatened to split the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) a year before its centenary in 2010.TRADE: France Conned EU’s Controversial Subsidies Scheme
The European Commission is demanding that the French government pays back 500 million euros spent on aid to French farmers. The scheme is in breach of European competition law as it financed competition with France’s neighbours by providing vegetable and fruit producers with hefty subsidies for more than a decade.
TRADE: Namibia Caught in Stand-Off Between South Africa and EU
Access to the European markets is not a goal Namibia wants to accomplish at all costs. Neither is the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) holy. What counts in the country’s realpolitik approach is a close relationship with its neighbours, especially regional economic powerhouse South Africa but also oil-rich Angola.
ZIMBABWE: Small-Scale Farmers Gearing Up to Take Cotton Buyers on
Zimbabweans like to believe that there is strength in numbers, which is the idea behind a local non-governmental organisation’s attempt to organise small-scale rural cotton farmers in cotton producer associations.NIGER: Foreign Investments in Uranium Polluting Politics
The reform of Niger's constitution to allow president Mamadou Tandja to remain in power beyond his original mandate and even become president for life, was motivated by the hundreds of millions of dollars flowing into the West African country as a consequence of opaque foreign, especially French, investments in the local uranium mines.Q&A: EPAs Will Provide Africa With "Better Export Opportunities"
The European Union has pressurised Ghana to sign an economic partnership agreement (EPA) despite civil society concerns being raised about the detrimental effects further trade liberalisation will have on development in the West African country.AFRICA: UNCTAD Recommends Privatisation to Mali
How can an African country define its own policy without getting lost in dozens of treaties and international commitments and the jungle of studies prepared by foreign donors and so-called experts, compounded by policy interference by international financial institutions and governments in the North?WORLD: Fishy Fishing Practices Threaten the Environment
For years, fishing communities along Africa’s 30,000 km-long coastline have been raising the alarm on the depletion of their fish stocks, to no avail. Over- fishing by foreign vessels has been wiping out the livelihood of West African fishers, contributing to desperate migration attempts into Europe.CHINA: U.S. Nervous About China's Growing Footprint Across Africa
China’s "no strings attached" financial assistance to developing countries in Africa and Asia has come under scrutiny during the recent high-level talks between Chinese and US leaders.
Q&A: The South Can Also Be Consumers of Fair Trade Products
Fair trade is moving into a different era as developing countries become consumers and not just producers of fair trade products. South Africa is the first country from the South to initiate this shift.« Previous Page — Next Page »
Trade has historically been a geopolitical tool, creating significant economic imbalances in developing countries. However, many countries in East Asia and Latin America have been able to alleviate poverty due to increasing trade. Tackling poverty has proven to be much harder in low income countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America, and their dismal trade performance is one important reason for that. They remain at the margins of world trade and indeed of the world economy. These articles are aimed at informing readers about the complexities of trade and its varying effects on development, with a special focus on the consequences of the global economic crisis, the potential of fair trade and the gender implications of trade policies.
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