Recent Posts

Sociolingo's Africa

Return To Blog Listing

I live in Mali in West Africa and I collect news and information about African countries. I started this blog as a way of keeping all my African material together.

I hope you find something here that interests you. I usually include short snippets from

Recent Posts Tagged With 'economics'

• South Africa IMF : Finance and Development — March 2008: ‘Commodity Boom: How Long Will It Last?’

  Posted on Friday July 25th, 2008 at 06:52 in academic, africa, african countries, african economics, african economy, african papers reports, economics, imf, south africa

  A recent query asked for IMF papers on South Africa.  Here is one that was published recently which has an article on South Africa. Finance and Development — March 2008: ‘Commodity Boom: ...

• Guinea IMF: Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility report 2008

  Posted on Friday July 25th, 2008 at 04:29 in academic, africa, african countries, african economics, african economy, african papers reports, african poverty, economics, guinea, imf

  Source: IMF Statement by an IMF Mission to the Republic of Guinea Press Release No. 08/68 April 2, 2008 An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission, led by Mr. Le Dem, visited the Republic of Guinea ...

• Mali: Poverty reduction strategies - bilaterals and multilaterals

  Posted on Monday July 21st, 2008 at 09:00 in africa, african countries, african development, african economics, african economy, african poverty, economics, imf, mali

  Source: Rural Poverty Portal Multilaterals Délégation de la commission européenne Stratégie de coopération et programme indicatif 2003-2007 International Monetary Fund ...

• Rural poverty in Mali

  Posted on Monday July 21st, 2008 at 08:53 in africa, african countries, african development, african economics, african poverty, african rural development, economics, mali

  Source: Rural Poverty Portal Rural poverty in Mali National poverty reduction strategies have reduced the proportion of the country’s poor people from 68.3 per cent in 2001 to 59.2 per...

• Mali: IMF Country Report 08/113

  Posted on Monday July 21st, 2008 at 04:16 in academic, africa, african countries, african economics, african economy, african papers reports, economics, imf, mali

  Country Report No. 08/113: Mali: Sixth Review Under the Three-Year Arrangement Under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility and Request for Waivers of Nonobservance of Performance Criteria and Re...

• Mali: African hibiscus harvest success story

  Posted on Sunday July 20th, 2008 at 03:54 in academic, africa, african agriculture, african countries, african crops, african economics, african employment, african environment, african plants, african poverty, african research, african rural development

  Source:http://www.herbs.org/current/hibworld.html African hibiscus harvest success story Over the past two years, HRF has been working with the Africa Bureau of the US Agency for International Develop...

• Mali: Mangoes, Mangoes, Mangoes

  Posted on Thursday July 17th, 2008 at 09:32 in africa, african agriculture, african countries, african crops, african environment, african food, african life, african shopping, african society, economics, environment, mali

  One of the things my kids (now grown up with kids of their own) reminisce about from their life in West Africa is mangoes fresh from the tree. They both loved green mangoes, a peculiarly teenage pheno...

• Academic paper : The impact of high oil prices on African economies

  Posted on Tuesday July 15th, 2008 at 11:25 in academic, africa, african countries, african economics, african oil, african papers reports, economics

  Source: ELDIS The impact of high oil prices on African economies How African countries could use local currency pricing and foreign aid to cope with high oil prices Authors: H. Bouakez; D. Vencatach...

• UNDP Annual Report 2008 : Will industrialized nations stop their developing and least developing neighbors from reaching MDGs?

  Posted on Tuesday July 15th, 2008 at 06:36 in africa, african countries, african development, african economics, african papers reports, economics

  Source: Development Gateway In early 2007, the world economy was seen in its third year on the path of rapid economic growth making way for praiseworthy levels of poverty reduction. Performance of lea...

• Academic paper : Towards an Employment-centred Development Strategy for Poverty Reduction in The Gambia - Macroeconomic and Labour Market Aspects

  Posted on Tuesday July 15th, 2008 at 05:41 in academic, africa, african countries, african economics, african economy, african employment, african papers reports, economics, gambia

  Towards an Employment-centred Development Strategy for Poverty Reduction in The Gambia: Macroeconomic and Labour Market Aspects According to the authors, growth in Gambia has not been pro-poor. Weak p...

• Free resource : Chain-wide learning for inclusive agrifood market development - a guide to multi-stakeholder processes for linking small-scale producers to modern markets

  Posted on Tuesday July 15th, 2008 at 05:26 in academic, africa, african agriculture, african countries, african economics, african environment, african free resources, african papers reports, african rural development, african training materials, economics, environment

  Although this guide is not Africa-specific I hope it may be of some interest. Download the guide from : http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/?doc=37583&em=020708&sub=agric Chain-wide learning for inclu...

• Lesotho sees growth from diamonds and water

  Posted on Friday July 4th, 2008 at 04:00 in africa, african countries, african diamonds, african economics, african economy, african environment, african mining, african water, economics, environment, lesotho, water

  Some good news from Lesotho. LONDON, July 3 (Reuters) - Lesotho sees its economic growth rising in coming years due to diamond mining and a new water project, its trade minister said on Thursday, alth...

• World Bank : New ways for Sub-Saharan Africa to finance development

  Posted on Monday June 30th, 2008 at 15:21 in africa, african countries, african economics, economics, foreign aid, world bank

  Through the Development Cafe I came across a couple of World Bank papers which sound interesting.  They present positive ideas of how Sub-Saharan African countries can raise funding for themselves. ...

• Togo : New World Bank Project June 2008

  Posted on Monday June 30th, 2008 at 05:30 in africa, african countries, african development, african economics, african economy, economics, togo, world bank

  TOGO: Interim Strategy Note and Economic Recovery and Governance Grant to Assist Togo - Please click link below: http://go.worldbank.org/NW3DSZW7D0 Bank and Development Partners Support Europe-based A...

• Burkina Faso : New World Bank Projects June 2008

  Posted on Monday June 30th, 2008 at 04:57 in africa, african countries, african economics, african economy, burkina faso, economics, world bank

  BURKINA FASO: World Bank Approves US$20 million for Health and the creation of an Engineering Institute http://go.worldbank.org/55KYJFQ750 Burkina Faso: World Bank Approves US$15 million for Basic Edu...

• Academic paper: Africa - Poverty and environment indicators

  Posted on Wednesday June 25th, 2008 at 10:44 in academic, africa, african countries, african development, african economics, african environment, african papers reports, african poverty, economics, environment

  Source: ELDIS Poverty and environment indicators Produced by: Capability and Sustainability Centre, University of Cambridge (200 The aim of this report is to explain technical aspects in using and d...

• Academic paper : Africa and its demographic challenges - an uncertain future

  Posted on Wednesday June 25th, 2008 at 10:05 in africa, african countries, african development, african economics, african papers reports, economics

  Source: ELDIS Africa and its demographic challenges: an uncertain future Authors: Vimard,P. Produced by: Agence française de développement (200 This collective work aims to underline the major dem...

• Finalists of the 2008 Social Entrepreneur Award for South Africa Announced at the World Economic Forum on Africa

  Posted on Saturday June 21st, 2008 at 08:01 in academic, africa, african countries, african economics, african prizes, economics, south africa

  On June 4th 2008 the five finalists for the Social Entrepreneur Award for South Africa 2008 were announced at the world economic forum on Africa. Here they are: (Source: World Economic Forum) The Soci...

• Academic paper: The Growth-Poverty Nexus in Tanzania - From a Developmental Perspective

  Posted on Saturday June 21st, 2008 at 05:59 in academic, africa, african countries, african economics, african papers reports, african poverty, economics, tanzania

  Source: DG Communities The Growth-Poverty Nexus in Tanzania: From a Developmental Perspective This paper will be useful to those who would like to gain an overview of the issue of growth and poverty f...

• CARE charts a new path in Africa

  Posted on Monday June 9th, 2008 at 05:12 in africa, african civil society, african countries, african economics, african environment, african good causes, african life, african ngos, african poverty, african rural development, african social activism, african sustainable development

  I’ve been exploring the CARE in Africa website. I noticed CARE in relation to the ‘Keyhole’ gardens in Lesotho article on the BBC NEWS website which I did a post about recently. So I...

• Coca Cola speaks out about democracy in Africa

  Posted on Sunday June 8th, 2008 at 12:46 in africa, african countries, african economics, african poverty, economics

  Interesting post on All Africa about Coca Cola caught my eye. The worldwide CEO of Coca Cola gives his view about the drink company’s prospects in Africa and on the way discusses democracy in Af...

• Academic paper: Enterprises needed to stimulate growth and reduce poverty in Zambia

  Posted on Thursday June 5th, 2008 at 12:41 in academic, africa, african countries, african economics, african papers reports, economics, zambia

  Source: id21 Enterprises needed to stimulate growth and reduce poverty in Zambia Zambia is one of the poorest countries in the world. Private sector development is seen as increasingly necessary to st...

• Academic paper: How market institutions shape urban food supply in Africa

  Posted on Thursday June 5th, 2008 at 12:35 in academic, africa, african countries, african economics, african economy, african environment, african food security, african papers reports, economics

  Source: id21 How market institutions shape urban food supply in Africa As the urban share of Africa’s population increases, it is crucial to understand how food supply in cities is shaped by mar...

• Academic paper: Agricultural trade policy reform in South Africa

  Posted on Thursday June 5th, 2008 at 12:05 in academic, africa, african agriculture, african countries, african economics, african environment, african papers reports, economics, south africa

  Source: ELDIS Agricultural trade policy reform in South Africa Authors: Chitiga,M.; Kandiero,T.; Ngwenya,P. Produced by: African Development Bank (200 This paper empirically investigates the impact ...

• Academic paper: South Africa and China - the agricultural and fisheries trading relationship

  Posted on Thursday June 5th, 2008 at 12:02 in academic, africa, africa china, african countries, african economics, african economy, african papers reports, african politics, economics, south africa

  Source: ELDIS Authors: Sandrey,R.; Fundira,T. Produced by: Trade Law Centre for Southern Africa (200 A feature of world trade over the last ten years has been the dramatic growth of China’s t...

• Madagascar: Governance and institutional development project

  Posted on Wednesday June 4th, 2008 at 05:45 in africa, african countries, african development, african economics, african economy, economics, madagascar, world bank

  The World Bank Group’s Board approved the second Governance and Institutional Development Project (PGDI – II) in Madagascar: This US$40 million financing will enhance reforms initiated under the P...

• Ghana: 2008 budget receives US$145 million support from the World Bank

  Posted on Wednesday June 4th, 2008 at 05:42 in africa, african countries, african economics, african economy, economics, ghana, world bank

  Ghana’s 2008 budget receives US$145 million support from the World Bank: Poverty Reduction, Food and Agriculture, Energy, Decentralization,Natural Resource and Environmental Governance (including EI...

• Sustainable Development Report on Africa (SDRA)

  Posted on Tuesday June 3rd, 2008 at 05:48 in academic, africa, african countries, african development, african economics, african papers reports, african sustainable development, economics

  Sustainable Development Report on Africa (SDRA) The Economic Commission for Africa has released the second edition of its flagship publication, the Sustainable Development Report on Africa (SDRA). Thi...

• IMF Executive Board Approves US$45.7 Million PRGF Arrangement for Mali with Front-Loaded Disbursement to Address Higher Food and Fuel Prices

  Posted on Monday June 2nd, 2008 at 10:25 in africa, african countries, african economics, african economy, economics, imf, mali

  Press Release: IMF Executive Board Approves US$45.7 Million PRGF Arrangement for Mali with Front-Loaded Disbursement to Address Higher Food and Fuel Prices http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2008/p...

• IMF Mozambique: Second Review Under the Policy Support Instrument (PSI)

  Posted on Monday June 2nd, 2008 at 10:23 in academic, africa, african countries, african economics, african economy, african papers reports, economics, imf, mozambique

  Press Release: IMF Completes Second Review Under the Policy Support Instrument (PSI) for Mozambique http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2008/pr08123.htm...