foreign aid
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Looking for compromise on Ethiopia’s Renaissance Dam
Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan are struggling to strike a deal over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, a $4.8 billion project in the works since 2011. Situated on the Blue Nile, the dam would triple Ethiopia’s electricity production and generate much-needed economic growth. But Egypt has ancient ties to the great river, as well as more recent political and economic interests in shaping how its waters are dispersed through the Nile basin. At stake is also American influence in the region: if the parties can’t reach an agreement in the U.S.-led process, Russia and China may be tempted to step in.
Challenges and opportunities for Africa’s health systems
While some countries in sub-Saharan Africa have made tremendous progress in improving their health systems, the region still lacks adequate healthcare on the whole. The situation is especially dire in countries with large populations in remote areas. Moreover, a declining flow of developmental assistance could make it increasingly difficult for ...
GIS Dossier: Europe as a global player: The Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa
The most important part of Europe’s security perimeter in the 21st century may be its southern rim. The migration crisis of 2015 was only a foretaste of the demographic, economic and political pressures that are building up in the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa. Yet the approaches tried by European powers ...
Opinion: African democracy’s long and winding road
Since the collapse of communism, Western powers have kept urging African countries to establish democracies by holding elections. Yet democracy is a complex institution that does not adapt well to multiethnic, impoverished societies – especially when it is imposed from outside. Too often the trappings of centralized democracy have been ...
Opinion: Dilemmas of development aid
Like other areas of public policy, development aid has had its recurrent fads. The pendulum has swung from socialist-style big-push schemes to pro-market reforms and their latest iteration, results-based aid. This micro-oriented approach has recently come under attack for neglecting the wider “macro” environment of states and institutions. Decades after ...
