By Ngala Killian Chimtom

A farmer in Cameroon. The closure of Nigeria's border with northern Cameroon has had a negative economic impact on this region. / Fanny Pigeaud/IRIN

YAOUNDE, Feb 7 (IPS) – Ahmadou Lamine has been forced to close his business selling fuel imported from Nigeria, known locally as "zoa-zoa", because of the Islamic [...]

By Claire Ngozo
 
LILONGWE, Feb 3 (IPS) – The black market for foreign exchange and fuel is booming in the midst of an acute scarcity in Malawi. The shortage is so severe that even the Consumer Association of Malawi, an influential consumer rights body, has come out in support of the black market.

The queue outside a [...]

By Nasseem Ackbarally

Mauritians are abandoning shopping at dirty and disorganised cooperatives in favour of shopping malls. / Nasseem Ackbarally/IPS

PORT-LOUIS, Jan 21 (IPS) – Amateurism, high prices, mismanagement, and a limited product range have discouraged Inderjeet Rajcoomarsingh, the former chairman of the Mauritius Agricultural Cooperative Federation, from shopping at cooperative stores.

Instead you can find [...]

By Miriam Gathigah

Kenyan tea and coffee farmers remain disgruntled about the minimal profits they make selling their cash crops. / Nalisha Kalideen/IPS

NAIROBI, Nov 24 (IPS) – Kenyan tea and coffee farmers remain disgruntled about the minimal profits they make selling their cash crops, the country’s leading foreign currency earners, as the government receives millions [...]

By Meena Bhandari

Environmental damage in the Niger Delta. / Dulue Mbachu/IRIN

FREETOWN, Nov 18 (IPS) – There is a new oil rush off the coast of West Africa. But there are fears that the sector is not sufficiently regulated, and watchdog groups are raising concerns about transparency and governance in the region.

Anticipation is building in [...]

By Ravi Kanth Devarakonda
GENEVA, Nov 17 (IPS) – The convergence of leading countries from the global South – China, India, Brazil and South Africa, among others – to assist the poorest countries in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere constitutes a new "dynamic" in the emerging global economic partnerships, says the United Nations Conference on Trade and [...]

By Kristin Palitza
 
CAPE TOWN, Nov 17 (IPS) – South African health experts are calling on governments to use legally available mechanisms to promote the production or import of generic drugs in their countries.
 

Pharmaceutical patents continue to drive up drug prices, making it expensive to treat patients. This often leads to limited access to health care, [...]

By Kristin Palitza
CAPE TOWN, Nov 4 (IPS) – African heads of state have ambitious plans to create a free trade zone, encompassing 26 countries and more than 600 million people on the continent. But economic experts warn the project is a bold step that comes with a plethora of legal, administrative and political [...]

By Ravi Kanth Deverakonda
GENEVA, Nov 1 (IPS) – When the G20 leaders meet for their fifth summit in Cannes, France, on Thursday, they will be confronted with several worsening global economic and trade issues. Among them is how to strengthen the international trading system and how to overcome the developmental deficit that continues to create [...]

By Kristin Palitza

Workers at Shinning Century Ltd in Maseru fear for their jobs. / Kristin Palitza/IPS

MASERU, Oct 28 (IPS) – Lesotho’s textile sector – the country’s largest employer – is regarded by many as the only way out of the poverty trap in a tiny kingdom where more than half of the population lives [...]

By Zukiswa Zimela
JOHANNESBURG, Oct 18 (IPS) – As the India Brazil and South Africa Summit of heads of state and government starts Tuesday, editors from the respective countries have resolved to provide better coverage of the economic body.

"This meeting was very important and critical. As we know there has been a major shift in the [...]

By Ravi Kanth Devarakonda

Will the World Trade Organization remain multilateral?

GENEVA, Oct 14 (IPS) – Developing countries, particularly from Africa, are concerned about attempts by industrialised nations to change the negotiating dynamic of the World Trade Organization.

They are worried that developed countries want to introduce new issues at the multilateral body’s eighth ministerial meeting later [...]

By Ravi Kanth Devarakonda
Geneva, Oct 7 (IPS) – The poorest countries in Africa are not merely the victims of natural calamities. They are also ravaged by the continued denial of market access as promised in the Doha trade negotiations, say African trade diplomats.

Almost six years ago at the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Hong Kong ministerial [...]

By Servaas van den Bosch

Namibia is looking to diversify its beef exports to countries in the global South in order to lessen its dependency on the lucrative EU market. / Servaas van den Bosch/IPS

WINDHOEK, Oct 4 (IPS) – Botswana and Namibia are set to lose preferential access to the European Union, which wants African, [...]

By Charlton Doki*

Southern Sudanese soldiers from the armed faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement. / Peter Martell/IRIN

JUBA, Oct 3 (IPS) – The communities living on the South Sudan-Sudan border may face genocide if the conflict between the two countries disputing control of oil reserves is not resolved.

There have been recent clashes between [...]