Kristin Palitza interviews NICKY NEWTON-KING, the first female chief executive officer of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

Johannesburg Stock Exchange CEO Nicky Newton-King. / Kristin Palitza/IPS

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Apr 17 (IPS) – More than three years after the start of the global economic crisis, which has had a considerable impact on African trade, investments [...]

By Claire Ngozo

Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world: 74 percent of the population here lives on less than 1.25 dollars a day. / Claire Ngozo/IPS

LILONGWE, Apr 15 (IPS) – She has been in office for less than a week but Malawi’s, and the region’s, first female president, Joyce Banda, has [...]

By Damon Van der Linde

Emmanuel Kargbo, a 26-year-old farmer, pushes a motorised soil tiller recently given to his farming cooperative. / Damon Van der Linde/IPS

LAMBAYAMA, Sierra Leone, Apr 12 (IPS) – In the eastern Sierra Leonean community of Lambayama, rice paddies are carved far into the landscape before being abruptly halted by distant hills. [...]

By Kristin Palitza

Recycling cooperative member Andiswa Konco sorts garbage. / Kristin Palitza/IPS

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Apr 11 (IPS) – Nokwanda Sotyantya sits among heaps of garbage and patiently sorts through it, separating cardboard, plastic, glass, paper and metal, piece by piece. The recycled piles of trash are then weighed and sold to packaging [...]

By Ousseini Issa

Onion producers in Niger face huge problems selling their crop because the market is saturated. / Sustainable Sanitation/CC BY 2.0

NIAMEY, Apr 10 (IPS) – Bitterness is written all over Boureïma Hamado's face as he prepares to return home after selling his onion crop at the Katako market in the Nigerien capital, [...]

By Claire Ngozo

Malawi’s Army Commander General Henry Odillo hands over the presidential sword to President Joyce Banda at her swearing in ceremony. / Claire Ngozo/IPS

LILONGWE, Apr 8 (IPS) – It would be too simplistic to think that Malawi’s problems have ended with the death of President Bingu wa Mutharika. But it is an opportunity [...]

By Ravi Kanth Deverakonda

Industrialised countries have voiced their unhappiness with theUNCTAD's policy advice to developing nations. / Einberger/argum/EED/IPS

GENEVA, Apr 6 (IPS) – Industrialised countries have mounted an unprecedented campaign to stop the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development from providing policy advice to the poorest countries in Africa and across the globe.

As UNCTAD [...]

By Ravi Kanth Devarakonda

The G20 is not representative of the WTO because the poorest countries have no say in setting the trade agenda. / Kim Cloete/IPS

GENEVA, Apr 2 (IPS) – Trade ministers of the BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, China, India and South Africa – say that at the G20 trade ministerial summit later [...]

By Ravi Kanth Devarakonda
GENEVA, Mar 30 (IPS) – Brazil and South Africa have experienced a widespread contraction of their manufacturing industries, with the latter suffering massive unemployment as well, thanks to the rampant volatility and misalignment of dominant global currencies like the dollar, trade experts from the two countries say.

South Africa's unstable exchange rate made [...]

By Servaas van den Bosch

Rail networks in Africa remain underdeveloped only 10 percent of transport goes via rail. Here a train crossing the Namib Desert. / Servaas van den Bosch/IPS

JOHANNESBURG, Mar 29 (IPS) – South Africa’s membership of the bloc of leading emerging economies and its unique position in Africa heralded the country’s role [...]

By Souleymane Gano
DAKAR, Mar 28 (IPS) – Analysts say that Senegal’s outgoing President Abdoulaye Wade was made to pay for his failure to respond to popular demands, particularly arising from the high cost of basic commodities, a lengthy strike by teachers, and high youth unemployment, by loosing his bid for a third term of office.

Fifty-one-year [...]

By Simba Shani Kamaria Russeau
CAIRO, Mar 26 (IPS) – Recent shifts in the Middle East and North Africa have presented several economic challenges such as high unemployment, an exodus of migrants from Libya and a reduction of tourism revenues. Given that economic discontent played a vital role in the Arab uprisings, economic growth has become [...]

By Ravi Kanth Devarakonda
GENEVA, Mar 24 (IPS) – Trade envoys of India, Brazil, and South Africa have warned industrialised countries not to hijack the Doha multilateral trade negotiations by adopting the controversial plurilateral approach to liberalise trade in services.

A plurilateral agreement allows member countries to voluntarily agree to new rules. In contrast, in a multilateral [...]

By Ravi Kanth Devarakonda
GENEVA, Mar 24 (IPS) – Trade envoys of India, Brazil, and South Africa have warned industrialised countries not to hijack the Doha multilateral trade negotiations by adopting the controversial plurilateral approach to liberalise trade in services.

A plurilateral agreement allows member countries to voluntarily agree to new rules. In contrast, in a multilateral [...]

By Mantoe Phakathi
 

Margaret Gamedze earns a living doing laundry for people in her community in Msunduza, Swaziland. / Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

MBABANE, Mar 18 (IPS) – Margaret Gamedze earns a living doing laundry for people in her community in Msunduza Township, which lies about a kilometre outside Swaziland’s capital city of Mbabane. But since the country’s [...]