Africa in the news: Zambian election, impacts of the Taliban’s Afghanistan takeover, and health updates
Zambian opposition leader Hichilema wins presidential election
On Monday, Zambia’s electoral commission declared opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema the winner of the southern African nation’s recent presidential election. Hichilema garnered 2.8 million votes, or 50.1 percent of the total, narrowly eclipsing the 50 percent mark needed to win without recourse to a second round. Addressing the nation on Monday, the current president, Edgar Lungu, announced that he would “comply with the constitutional provisions for a peaceful transfer of power.” On July 14, Lungu had criticized the elections as “not free or fair,” but he ultimately earned only 1.8 million votes, a sum that the Financial Times suggests was insufficient to support a legal challenge to the result.
Since the election was called, the value of the kwacha has risen nearly 11 percent against the U.S. dollar. The prices of Zambia’s defaulted U.S. dollar-denominated bonds have also risen. Now, Hichilema will try to navigate Zambia out of its current debt crisis, which has it paying 30 to 40 percent of its revenue on interest payments after becoming the first African country during the pandemic to default on its obligations.
The Taliban’s takeover in Afghanistan will likely have implications for Africa
According to Deutsche Welle (DW), the Taliban’s recent takeover of Afghanistan has heightened worries that extremist groups in Africa will be emboldened by that victory. In fact, in a recent radio interview, Kwesi Aning, director of the faculty of academic affairs and research at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre in Ghana, warned that the events in Afghanistan “can potentially put all of us in Africa and the Sahel at risk.” DW notes that many Islamic militant groups in the region have an affiliation to al-Qaeda, which was formerly based in Afghanistan.
Recent years have seen surges in extremist activities across the continent despite national government efforts to stamp out such activities and the presence of thousands of U.N. troops in extremist hot spots. In fact, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari suggested this week that the war on terror is not over but is moving to Africa. Nigeria itself has been fighting Boko Haram since 2009 and that conflict has spread to areas in Cameroon, Chad, and Niger. Just earlier this month, in northern Burkina Faso, suspected extremists ambushed a government convoy, killing 30 civilians and 17 soldiers. Other extremist groups in Africa include al-Shabaab in Somalia, Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) in the Sahel, and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).
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The Taliban’s resumption of power in Afghanistan comes after the U.S. withdrawal from the region after 20 years of military presence and has raised questions over other foreign military pullouts in many African hot spots. For example, in July of this year, France announced that it will reduce its military presence in the Sahel, withdrawing over 2,000 troops from the region. Some experts, including Ryan Cummings, a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, warn that France should now reconsider its decision to avoid a potential repeat of the Afghanistan scenario.
In related news, Uganda has agreed to take 2,000 Afghan refugees at the request of the United States. Uganda’s camp Bibi Bidi is the world’s largest refugee camp, and Uganda alone currently hosts about 1.4 million refugees escaping conflict. Afghan refugees will be housed temporarily in Uganda until relocated by the U.S., but, at this time, there is not a set date for when the refugees will be moved.
Vaccine inequity; confirmed case of Marburg virus in Guinea; Ebola in Côte d’Ivoire; cholera in Nigeria
On Wednesday, health officials in the U.S. announced plans to begin rolling out COVID-19 booster shots in October to all U.S. citizens. In response, Africa director for the World Health Organization (WHO), Matshidiso Moeti, criticized the decision, stating that such actions “make a mockery of vaccine equity” since wealthy countries have, on average, distributed more than 103 vaccine doses per 100 people, while in Africa only six doses have been distributed per 100 people. In other words, less than 2 percent of Africa’s population is fully vaccinated.
Indeed, vaccine access in the region remains difficult as well as controversial. While the region has demonstrated that it has the capability to mass produce the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccines through manufacturers like Aspen in South Africa, many of those doses have been exported to Europe. In fact, as The New York Times reported this week, South Africa waived the right to ban vaccine exports from the country, sparking outrage from health activists like Fatima Hassan of the Health Justice Initiative, who called the decision to export the vaccines “scandalous, immoral, and unconstitutional.” While wealthy countries have promised to donate shots through the COVAX program, most of them will not be delivered until next year.
Meanwhile, as Guinea deals with its third COVID-19 wave, on July 25, doctors confirmed West Africa’s first-ever case of Marburg virus, two months after the country declared a new outbreak of the Ebola virus. Guinean health officials continue to monitor 172 people who were in contact with Marburg patient zero, who died on August 2. The Marburg virus, which is in the same family as Ebola, causes symptoms similar to Ebola and is transmitted between humans through bodily fluids. The government of Guinea, its neighbors, and the WHO are using the control system developed within the country to deal with Ebola in an attempt to stop the spread. In related news, neighboring Côte d’Ivoire declared its first case of Ebola in 27 years this week. The patient had traveled from Guinea last week and is currently being treated in intensive care.
Also in West Africa, Nigeria is currently responding to a cholera outbreak with more than 30,000 cases and 800 reported deaths this year. The disease is waterborne and is spread by poor access to clean water, open defecation, poor sanitation, and other hygiene issues, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). The NCDC instructs Nigerians to only drink or use water that is boiled and stored safely to prevent infections.
Digital technology and African smallholder agriculture: Implications for public policy
COVID-19 has exacerbated challenges to Africa’s food and agriculture sector and to its millions of smallholder farmers. At the same time, the pandemic has accelerated innovative efforts to develop and deploy the transformative power of digital technology to address these problems in ways that leapfrog past practices and traditional solutions. Emerging evidence from Asia and Africa suggests that digital technology holds promise to dramatically enhance smallholder productivity and incomes by increasing on-farm and off-farm efficiency, enhancing traceability, reducing vulnerability to counterfeit products, and improving farmers’ access to output, input, and financial markets. The change is driven by the introduction of new forms of intermediation and the collection, use, and analysis of massive amounts of agriculture data to disrupt existing business models. New strategic partnerships between the public and private sectors are an essential component for reaping the positive impacts of digital technology and avoiding unintended and unwelcome secondary effects.
Digital technology as a transformational force to drive scale
Digital technology is transforming the agricultural sector through the application of innovative tools and new business models. For the first time, many people in the value chain, including smallholder farmers, have access to real-time data and computational power making possible more effective selection and timing of product-to-market decisions, provision of credit, and access to micro-insurance.
Digitized agriculture data is also creating network effects to drive scale. Coupled with the increasing embrace of the sharing economy, digitization and artificial intelligence make possible new business models and e-commerce platforms that connect farmers directly with markets, service providers, and aggregators, thereby shortening the value chain and increasing the profitability of smallholder farming. The sharing economy has also made it possible for smallholder farmers to efficiently access mechanized tools to improve their crop yields.
Importantly, the benefits go beyond increased yields: Given that digital technology holds particular appeal for younger workers, integrating it into agriculture through entry points like precision farming, equipment leasing, service provision, and e-commerce can address the major challenge of attracting job-seeking and entrepreneurial youth. Given that 70 percent of sub-Saharan Africa’s population is under 30 years of age, nowhere is the job creation challenge more acute.
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Already, Asia has moved ahead quickly on the use of digital innovations in smallholder agriculture. Africa is demonstrating it has the potential to do the same. Digital technologies can provide the following potential benefits in agriculture:
Empower smallholder farmers to leapfrog and harness new business models such as the sharing economy (e.g., HelloTractor, a Nigerian agricultural technology (AgTech) company that offers a farm equipment sharing application similar to Uber) or the fast-paced growth of e-commerce such as Pinduoduo in China (one of the largest e-commerce platforms for agriculture) that has grown to 800 million customers in six years.
Derive value from agriculture data and create the network effect to drive scale. A good example is Twiga in Kenya, a business-to-business, mobile-based, e-commerce marketplace platform that delivers food produce to the mass market by digitizing the supply chain, cutting out layers of middlemen, eliminating food waste, and reducing food prices.
Gain efficiency and reduce transaction costs through the digitalization of different processes to create transparency. Tanihub Group, one of the largest AgTech companies in Indonesia that connects farmers to consumers by removing the middlemen as well as providing financing to smallholder farmers is one example.
Democratize access to market intelligence to create an integrated mobile platform of digital services for farmers. DigiFarm, powered by Safaricom in Kenya and which has expanded to Tanzania, Nigeria, Pakistan, India, and Myanmar, offers farmers one-stop access to lower-priced farm inputs, loans, learning content on farming, as well as access to markets.
Create jobs for the new generation of tech-savvy farmers driving on-farm and off-farm opportunities such as Million Farmers in Kenya and Millennial Farmers in Indonesia. These programs are designed by the ministries of agriculture in their respective countries to encourage the technology-savvy youth to become farmers.
Implications for public policy
One way to understand the process of productivity enhancement is as three interlocking gears: innovation, delivery platforms for goods and services, and the intermediation that results in moving specific innovations into wider use (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Prioritizing “intermediation”—the broken part of the innovation value chain
Source: Authors’ illustration.
Evidence suggests that the most vexing problems limiting smallholder agriculture in Africa—and thus the biggest opportunities for dramatic breakthroughs—concern this middle gear, intermediation, which actually includes a number of different, vital functions (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Functions of intermediation in the innovation value chain
Source: Authors’ illustration.
Here, especially, digital technology can play an important role, but obstacles persist. Indeed, unlike other technology-based markets where these intermediation functions are performed by venture capitalists and equity investors, the financial incentives to intermediation in smallholder agriculture have so far proven elusive in Africa.
At the same time, while public policy has an essential role to play in changing the incentives for transformational intermediation, one of the risks of enhancing the incentives for intermediation through subsidies and licensing agreements is the creation of, or acquiescence to, monopolies and monopsonies with the potential to concentrate power in ways that are politically unacceptable or potentially detrimental to the interests of the smallholders. There are, however, emerging examples of ways to address these issues through a combination of regulatory actions and stimulating enhanced competition from a new generation of innovators.
In addition, while digital technology can provide significant benefits in agriculture, it can potentially deepen the digital divide by excluding those who do not have access to connectivity or mobile phones. Therefore, it is essential to design multistakeholder partnerships between government, academia, and the private sector to support smallholder farmers across the entire agriculture value chain.
The pandemic has raised the urgency of food security for Africa. Simultaneously, there has been the overnight shift toward online digital services such as e-commerce, digital payment, and contactless experience during the COVID-19 lockdown. With the readiness of technology, we could accelerate the adoption of technology to increase the productivity, efficiency, and resilience of agricultural value chains and food systems across the African continent.
Africa in the news: Ethiopia updates, Zambia elections, and Africa’s many Olympic achievements
War in Tigray continues, and Ethiopia rejects Sudan’s mediation attempts
Ethiopia’s conflict in Tigray has escalated after the government, on August 6, warned that it could deploy its “entire defensive capability” in the region. In fact, on August 10, the government called for all capable citizens to join the country’s military to combat resurgent forces in the region, ending the ceasefire declared in June. These announcements come after the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPFL) rejected calls to retreat from the Afar and Amhara regions. The Tigray conflict began back in November after fallout between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the leaders of the Tigray region, who had previously dominated the national government.
In recent days, Oromo Liberation Army leader Kumsa Diriba struck a military alliance with the Tigray forces, saying, “We have agreed on a level of understanding to cooperate against the same enemy, especially in military cooperation.” Moreover, Diriba stated, “The only solution now is overthrowing this government militarily, speaking the language they want to be spoken to.” The alliance is notable as, during the TPFL’s decades of control of the federal government, its leaders ostracized and committed violence against the Oromo people.
In related Ethiopia news, tensions between Ethiopia and Sudan, already high over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, have continued to rise over the war in Tigray. In fact, early this week, Sudan recalled its ambassador to Ethiopia because the Ethiopian government rejected its efforts to broker a ceasefire in the Tigray region. Meanwhile, Ethiopia stated that trust in Sudan and its leaders has eroded and accused the Sudanese army of invading its territory. In addition to Sudan’s mediation efforts, the United States and other international powers have also called for the withdrawal of Tigray forces from the Amhara and Afar regions in recent months.
Now, according to the World Health Organization, the humanitarian crisis in the Tigray region has become dire, with food and medicine deliveries blocked due to a blockade by Addis Ababa as well as insurgent and militia violence. Meanwhile thousands of refugees have fled to Sudan to escape the war-torn region. According to the Atlantic Council, more than 60,000 Tigrayan refugees have fled to Sudan and 80 percent of the citizens in Ethiopia have been cut off from humanitarian assistance.
For more on U.S. policy on this crisis, see Brookings Foreign Policy Senior Fellow and Africa Security Initiative Co-Director Vanda Felbab-Brown’s recent commentary, “Dangerous trends in Ethiopia: Time for Washington’s tough love.”
Zambia holds presidential elections in tight race
On Thursday, August 12, Zambia held its presidential elections in which incumbent President Edgar Lungu, primary opposition rival Hakainde Hichilema, and 14 other candidates faced off. As of Friday, according to Reuters, the results of the election were too close to call, and the Electoral Commission of Zambia has indicated that it aims to declare a winner by the end of Sunday. Zambia has a runoff system, so the country will return to the polls a second time if no candidate receives a majority of the votes. As of this writing, no winner has been announced.
High voter turnout and long queues at voting stations characterized Thursday’s highly anticipated election. More than half of registered voters are under the age of 35, a demographic that has seen an acute rise in unemployment during the pandemic. Among other issues, Zambia’s recent default on its debt has raised concerns from citizens over the $12 billion that Zambia owes to creditors, as the country now spends 30 to 40 percent of the its revenue on interest payments.
The election has seen some violence: After two members of his party were killed in a rally last week, Lungu, who is seeking his third term (he was first elected in a by-election in 2015 after the death of President Michael Sata), deployed the military in Lusaka and select hotspots in the western, northwestern, and southern provinces of the country. Deployment of the army has drawn criticism from citizens who fear the intimidation and organizations like Amnesty International, stating that the use of force, “is an increasingly brutal crackdown on human rights, characterized by brazen attacks on any form of dissent.”
Six-time presidential candidate Hichilema said on Wednesday that he experienced irregularities during the campaign, including being restricted twice in the past week from campaigning in the populous Copperbelt province. There were also reports from NetBlock of social media blockages on election day across Zambia that included WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
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African athletes achieve historic wins at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, despite many COVID-related challenges
African athletes brought home a host of medals and historic firsts from the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, which concluded last Sunday, August 8. This year, 13 African nations won, altogether, 37 gold, silver, and bronze medals.
Notably, the games featured many women who were the first in their nation to win gold in their events—and for some, the first-ever gold for their country as well. Among African countries, Kenya earned the most medals, placing 19th worldwide by winning 10 medals (four gold, four silver, and two bronze), followed by Egypt, which won six medals (one gold, one silver, and four bronze). Highlights from the games include:
Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge defended his title with another gold medal in the marathon run, finishing the event in 2 hours, 8 minutes, and 38 seconds. He also became the third man to win gold in the marathon in back-to-back games.
Tunisian teenager Ahmed Hafnaoui won gold in the 400 meter men’s freestyle, the country’s first gold in swimming.
Uganda’s Peruth Chemutai became the first woman to win a gold medal for the country, winning the 3,000 meter steeplechase. Joshua Cheptegei won the men’s 500 meter track race, becoming the first Ugandan to win two Olympic gold medals.
Feryal Abdelaziz’s gold medal in women’s karate kumite +61kg event was the first gold won by any Egyptian woman.
Despite these celebrated achievements, COVID-19 continued to loom over the games, as nations like Guinea pulled out of the competitions completely due to safety concerns for their athletes as COVID-19 cases surged in Tokyo. The South African team also faced difficulties during the games, as three members of its soccer team tested positive for the virus after arriving in the Olympic village. The entire team was placed under quarantine before they began to play, and their coach cited issues of stigmatization stating, “when people come across us, you see people running away. I think that’s disrespectful.”
Africa in the news: Politics, security, and wildlife poaching updates
South Sudan’s Machar deposed as head of party; South Africa’s Zuma hospitalized
On Wednesday, the military wing of South Sudanese Vice President Riek Machar’s political party (the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition) announced that it had deposed him as party head after a three-day meeting of senior officials. The military wing indicated that Machar had “completely failed” to strengthen the party’s position since forming a coalition government with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, the party of current President Salva Kiir. In Machar’s place, the military wing named its chief of staff, First Lieutenant General Simon Gatwech Dual, the interim leader of the opposition party. The political reshuffling comes at a time when the world’s youngest country faces its worst hunger crisis since independence.
Elsewhere on the continent, former South African President Jacob Zuma was scheduled to appear in court on August 10 to resume his suspended corruption case, but his appearance is now uncertain after his hospitalization—the cause of which was not disclosed—on Friday following a routine medical appointment. Zuma, currently in jail serving a 15-month unrelated sentence, had been given permission to attend the hearing in person after his lawyers complained that a video-call trial was unconstitutional. Sixteen charges of fraud, graft, and racketeering still face Zuma, whose court appearances have, according to al-Jazeera, incited violence in South Africa that has seen the deaths of at least 337 people.
Ethiopia suspends two aid groups in Tigray region; conflicts continue in Niger, CAR, and Nigeria
On July 30, the Ethiopian government suspended part or all operations of two international aid groups, Doctors Without Borders and the Norwegian Refugee Council, further injuring the hundreds of thousands of civilians facing famine-like conditions in the Tigray region. The Ethiopian government claims that these aid groups were spreading misinformation, did not have appropriate work permits, and were using satellite radio equipment not authorized by the government. United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths rejected the claims, stating that blanket accusations, “need to be backed up by evidence if there is any and, frankly, it’s dangerous.”
Meanwhile, conflict continues in Ethiopia as forces in the Tigray region expand into neighboring regions of Amhara and Afar, forcing around 250,000 people to flee the region. On Thursday, Tigrayan forces took control of a town called Lalibela, located in northern Ethiopia, although with no reported fighting. The town contains 11 monolithic churches constructed out of rock over 900 years ago and a historical holy site for Ethiopian Orthodox Christians as well as a major tourist destination.
Other African nations continue to face internal conflict as well. In southwestern Niger, jihadist rebels attacked a military supply mission on Saturday, killing at least 15 soldiers. In the Central African Republic, rebels from the Funali ethnic group killed six civilians and wounded several others in the village of Mann last Saturday. Russia has sent at least 500 instructors to assist the Central African Republic’s army, but their deployment has been controversial as the U.N. claims that the instructors participate in “indiscriminate killings and lootings”.
Nigeria, too, faces internal conflicts with the separatists of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). Violence within the southeast region has escalated this year, resulting in at least 127 civilians, gunmen, and security forces dead. Amnesty International blames the government forces, namely the Eastern Security Network, for escalating the violence with arbitrary arrests, ill treatment, and torture of civilians.
Illegal animal and plant trade rising in Nigeria and South Africa
On Wednesday, Nigerian officials seized a substantial amount of pangolin scales, claws, and elephant tusks worth 22 billion naira ($54 million) in a recent attempt to combat the illegal trading of these items. Notably, pangolin has become one of the most trafficked mammals on earth due to the demand of its scales for traditional Chinese medicine. In 2019, according to Reuters, Nigeria became Africa’s staging ground for the illegal trade, with two-thirds of major seizures of the animals coming from the country in 2018, doubling the 2016 number.
In South Africa, rhino poaching has increased as lockdown restrictions have eased. According to South Africa’s Minister of Environment Barbara Creecy, in the first half of 2021 alone, 249 rhinos have been poached in South Africa, leading to a total of 125 arrests. In addition to protecting South Africa’s threatened southern white rhino and endangered black rhino populations, scientists are also trying to save the northern white rhinos from complete extinction. There are only two known living northern white rhinos in the world, both of which are female and living in Kenya.
Also in South Africa, officers from the Stock Theft and Endangered Species Unit arrested an individual smuggling boxes of Conophytums, succulents indigenous to the region, in the latest example of succulent poaching driven by demand particularly from collectors in Korea and China. Poaching has increased during the pandemic, as some plants can sell for thousands of dollars a piece. Poaching of this plant is most prolific in the Northern Cape and Western Cape provinces, which offer dry, arid climates in which succulents grow best. As officials crack down on poaching in these areas, botanists are struggling to deal with what to do with newly confiscated plants, with some facilities receiving about 2,500 plants per week.
CFA franc zone: Economic development and the post-COVID recovery
Comprising many of the poorest countries in Africa, the CFA franc zone faces particularly daunting challenges to economic development and growth in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Encompassing 14 countries in francophone West and Central Africa, the CFA franc zone faces climate change, poverty traps, demographic pressures, and natural resource management hurdles. Furthermore, the trifecta of high energy costs, financing constraints, and expensive transport creates barriers to competitiveness. In addition, despite decades of international aid flows, the region has struggled to gain the upper hand in reducing poverty. The COVID-19 pandemic has further amplified the challenges faced by the countries of the CFA franc zone and has simultaneously led to questions about the fiscal and monetary policies most conducive to driving recovery and growth as the world economy adapts to post-COVID-19 market realities.
Since the 1940s, the CFA has been pegged to European currencies—first to the French franc, and, since 1999, to the euro. Until recently, the CFA countries deposited 50 percent of their reserves in the French Treasury in return for a convertibility guarantee. While this arrangement generally resulted in lower inflation than other countries in Africa and some degree of fiscal restraint, it significantly limited the macroeconomic policy options available to its member countries. The trade-off for lower inflation has been slower per capita growth (Figure 1) and diminished poverty reduction.
However, the current exchange rate regime presents several macroeconomic problems that impede these countries’ ability to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic. First, the anchor to a strong currency diminishes private sector competitiveness by effectively subsidizing imports and penalizing exports. As measured by a simple CGE model, in 2020 the CFA franc in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU, or UEMOA in French) was 20 percent overvalued, and in the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (known by its French acronym, CEMAC) it was 30 percent overvalued. Second, exchange rate rigidity forces adjustments to trade shocks on the fiscal side via cuts to public investment or additional debt accumulation. Third, the current system worsens inequality between urban elites and rural poor by constraining incentives for commercial agriculture. Fourth, since the monetary policy is fixed, the CFA countries face credit constraints and are unable to use interest rate policy to stimulate small and medium enterprise development. Finally, the currency union has failed to accelerate growth for the poorest members as seen in the lack of economic convergence over time (Figure 2).
As the CFA member countries plan for a post-COVID-19 future, taking the next step on meaningful currency reform must be part of the package. Specifically, while the Macron-Ouattara reform of 2019 ended the reserve deposit obligation and removed French representatives from the Central Bank of West African States (known by its French acronym, BCEAO), it stopped short of overhauling the exchange rate framework. Modernizing the system must include a serious discussion about alternative exchange rate frameworks that would enable greater monetary flexibility while improving competitiveness, opening the door to export-led growth, and realigning incentives for agricultural producers.
For more on this issue, see my book, “CFA Franc Zone: Economic Development and the Post-Covid Recovery,” in which I lay out a policy road map with a number of steps. First, the exchange rate regime should evolve from the peg to the euro, to a basket (tripartite) peg to the euro-dollar-renminbi that reflects West Africa’s changing trade patterns with the world. For CEMAC, which is an oil-rich region, I propose a peg to a basket, including the euro, dollar, and price of oil. This reform will balance stability and flexibility, make the currency more market-based, and support African exporters and entrepreneurs. In the CEMAC zone, it will help the countries adjust to oil price volatility, while in the WAEMU zone, the countries can even embrace integration with specific anglophone countries like Ghana and create a stronger economic space. Second, it is important to modernize the French convertibility guarantee for the CFA franc, which is unclear, and negotiate a clear swap line with the European Central Bank to provide a financial buffer during the transition period and downturns.
Finally, the ultimate goal of the reforms is to have greater African sovereignty and widen the options for fiscal and monetary management in a post-pandemic world. A richer and more prosperous CFA zone will be beneficial not only for West and Central Africa but also for France and the world at large.
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Training and support for female entrepreneurs in Vietnam: What do women want and need?
Considered one of the world’s poorest countries in the 1980s, Vietnam today has emerged as a rising star in Asia with impressive economic and social progress. By 2035, Vietnam aims to graduate from lower- to upper-middle income status, and become a prosperous, creative, equitable, and democratic society. As women are half of the population and women’s economic empowerment increases social and economic benefits, creating more female entrepreneurs is a central part of the government’s agenda. According to the National Strategy on Gender Equality for 2021-2030, the Vietnamese government expects to see more women business owners in the coming years, accounting for 27 percent of all enterprises by 2025 and 30 percent by 2030.
Reality
Over the past three decades, Vietnam has shown steady signs of progress in increasing its number of women entrepreneurs. Beginning with the Private Enterprises Law introduced in 1990, legislation has moved toward being more comprehensive and gender-inclusive, with women-owned SMEs (small- and medium-sized enterprises) mentioned for the first time in the Law on Support for Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises in 2017. In 2020, Vietnam ranked second in Southeast Asia and 25th globally in terms of women’s business ownership, according to the Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs.
The statistics, however, are not very encouraging if we take a deeper look at women’s entrepreneurial participation. The percentage of women-owned business is still lower than the indicator set for 2020 (26.5 versus 35), and 99 percent of these are micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises concentrated in lower productivity sectors. In the economic downturn due to the COVID-19 pandemic, half of these enterprises were partially suspended or temporarily dissolved. Furthermore, the rate of women-owned businesses reporting decline in revenues of 75 percent or greater in the first quarter of 2020 was almost double that of their male counterparts.
The question is, what is holding back Vietnamese women entrepreneurs?
The question is, what is holding back Vietnamese women entrepreneurs? The literature shows a multitude of challenges faced by female entrepreneurs in Vietnam, including discriminatory social and cultural norms and beliefs, limited access to financing, inadequate knowledge of information and communication technologies (ICTs), lack of social networks and opportunities for capacity building, and gender-biased or even gender-blind legislation. These challenges obviously affect women’s ability to realize their entrepreneurial ambitions.
Action
A startup’s success is correlated with its founder’s investment in knowledge. Education, therefore, becomes a gateway to a brighter future for women entrepreneurs. While lack of access to training represents a significant hindrance for women, the wrong types of training and support can be an even bigger barrier. In other words, developing suitable interventions and policy strategies is no easy feat. A review of capacity building for women entrepreneurs in Vietnam conducted in 2020 revealed that existing training programs are neither demand-driven nor gender-sensitive.
Prior research suggests that training programs can fail if we do not understand learner wants and needs from the beginning. This is especially true for entrepreneurship training, as the needs and preferences of learners may vary depending on gender, stage of venture development, and the environment within which the entrepreneurs operate. Evidence, therefore, is needed to better understand Vietnamese female entrepreneurs’ learning needs and preferences to inform practices and support policies for more effective women’s entrepreneurship education and training.
To fill this gap, I will dedicate my time at Brookings as an Echidna Global Scholar to building the evidence base around Vietnamese women entrepreneurs’ perceived learning needs and preferences—the starting points for the intervention and policy development process. My hope is that the findings that emerge from qualitative interviews with participants from a women’s entrepreneurship training program in Vietnam and successful women in business, as well as state and nonstate policy actors, will support the development of future gender-responsive policies and programs for women’s entrepreneurship in Vietnam. This in turn will accelerate the growth of women-owned businesses to achieve the national development agenda.
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Africa in the news: Natural resource update, security updates, and COVID-19’s third wave in Africa
OPEC forecasts 2022 return to pre-pandemic oil demand and DRC introduces cobalt price floor
On Thursday, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) announced it anticipates that global oil demand will return to pre-pandemic levels in 2022, a move that will affect oil-rich African OPEC members Algeria, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Libya, Nigeria, and the Republic of the Congo. Hinging on expectations of COVID-19 containment and ensuing global economic growth, OPEC forecasts daily demand for oil will exceed 100 million barrels per day (mbpd) next year. This rising demand reflects a sharp reversal from pandemic levels of global oil demand, which sank to approximately 91 mbpd in 2020 from the 2019 peak of nearly 100 mbpd. Facing low global gas prices, OPEC and its allies, known as OPEC+, instituted coordinated supply cuts that have raised the price of oil more than 40 percent this year. Yet, with optimistic forecasts of rising demand on the horizon, OPEC+ agreed to gradually ease their output cuts.
In other news, this week the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) announced that the state-run Entreprise Generale du Cobalt, which buys and resells cobalt from artisanal miners, will place a price floor on the commodity of $30,000 per ton. Undercutting the market price, which is currently set at approximately $50,000 per ton, the DRC is expecting to augment government revenue by tapping into the mostly informal sector and cutting out its unregulated middlemen. The DRC currently produces more than 70 percent of the world’s cobalt, an important metal whose demand is set to double by 2030 due to its use in batteries for electric cars.
Rwanda deploys troops to Mozambique, conflict continues in Tigray, and South Africa sends troops to contain riots and protests
On July 9, Rwanda’s defense ministry announced in a statement that it has begun to deploy 1,000 soldiers to Mozambique in order to “restore Mozambican state authority by conducting combat and security operations, as well as stabilisation and security-sector reform.” The deployment is meant to deal with an insurgency in Cabo Delgado that began in 2017 and has since led to more than 2,500 deaths and 800,000 displaced civilians. However, the operation has drawn concern from the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) over the deployment of troops without the organization’s approval – particularly since SADC had also sent troops to the region as of July 15. Rwanda is not an SADC member but has agreed to aid Mozambique’s government in part due to a memorandum the two countries signed in 2018. The European Union has also agreed to set up a two-year mission in Mozambique to train and support Mozambican armed forces in Cabo Delgado.
Meanwhile, conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region continue as the government accuses humanitarian aid groups of arming the Tigray fighters. Ethiopia’s government has also denied restricting aid to Tigray, which remains inaccessible to most aid groups that supply much-needed food and water to the embattled region. The worsening humanitarian situation has put over 400,000 people in famine conditions, mostly women and children. Earlier this week, Tigray leaders rejected a cease-fire announced by Ethiopia’s government, renewing fighting in the south and west regions of Tigray. The U.N. Human Rights Council announced a resolution on Tuesday calling for an immediate halt to all human rights violations and the withdrawal of Eritrean troops from the region.
Turning elsewhere on the continent, on Thursday, the South African government deployed 25,000 soldiers to deal with violence and riots that followed the imprisonment of former President Jacob Zuma. The riots, mainly carried out in major South African cities like Johannesburg and Pretoria, have led to more than 117 deaths and 2,000 arrests. Meanwhile, in Nigeria, 140 students were kidnapped from a boarding school in the northwestern state of Kaduna on Monday, bringing the total number of students that have been kidnapped since last December to nearly 1,000. The recent mass kidnappings have led to the closure of 13 schools that the Kaduna State Schools Quality Assurance Authority determined to be most vulnerable to future attack.
Agencies sign tech-transfer deal for antigen rapid test as COVID-19’s third wave hits Africa
On July 15, FIND, the global alliance for diagnostics, and Unitaid announced two new deals that have the potential to expand Africa’s capacity to manufacture diagnostic tests, including those used to detect COVID-19. Beginning in early 2022, Senegal will produce antigen rapid tests for diagnosing COVID-19 following a new tech-transfer agreement. According to the agreement, South Korea’s Bionate and the United Kingdom’s Mologic will share production know-how with Senegal’s DIATROPIX. Housed at the Institute Pasteur de Dakar, DIATROPIX will aim to produce 2.5 million tests per month next year, assuming it can receive regulatory approval from the Senegalese government. In addition, South Africa’s Xixia Phramaceuticals (a subsidiary of drugmaker Viatris) has partnered with Chinese medical diagnostic company Guangzhou Wondfo Biotech to enable commercialization and distribution of rapid tests to low- and middle-income countries.
This announcement comes at a time when COVID-19 deaths in Africa have risen by 43 percent over the last week as the continent deals with its third wave of the virus. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), COVID-19 cases have risen for eight straight weeks in Africa. WHO attributes the recent rise in cases to inadequate vaccine supplies. Africa has vaccinated about 52 million people this year, with only 18 million of those people fully vaccinated, equating to just 1.5 percent of the continent’s population.
Of the continent’s 6 million confirmed cases, 1 million have been recorded over the past month, making this the fastest COVID-19 surge the continent has seen. Recently, Rwanda has put Kigali under total lockdown for 10 days effective July 17 to suppress a rapid rise in cases. The country has also banned nonessential movement in the districts of Gicumbi, Burera, Musanze, Kamonyi, Nyagatare, Rwamagana, Rubavu, and Rutsiro. Moreover, Tunisia is also struggling to cope with a recent jump in COVID-19 cases, recording its highest single-day coronavirus death toll at 157 on Tuesday.
Africa in the news: COVID-19 spreads, Jacob Zuma sentenced, and climate change mitigation efforts enhanced
COVID-19 cases continue to rise while countries double down on expanding vaccine capacity
Reported COVID-19 cases continue to surge in Africa, increasing by almost 200 percent from June to July and surpassing the region’s second-wave peak at the beginning of this year. Countries like Rwanda, Kenya, and Uganda have reported the presence of the Delta variant, which is becoming the most dominant strain of the virus. As of July 7, the positivity rate in Rwanda stands at 9.6 percent, with 16 reported deaths that day—the highest number since March 2020. South Africa has been hit hardest and contains nearly a third of Africa’s current active cases. The recent outbreak has led to “level four” containment measures announced by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in late June that include an extended curfew, no social gatherings, and no leisure travel in densely populated regions.
Other African countries are quickly looking to implement new measures to mitigate the spread. For example, this week Uganda introduced a plan to spend $1.1 billion to vaccinate 22 million citizens, nearly half of its population, before reopening the economy and is set to purchase 2 million Johnson and Johnson vaccines. Kenya has also set an ambitious vaccination plan that targets 26 million of its citizens to be fully vaccinated by the end of June next year and has just been approved for a $31.1 million grant from the Global Fund to support their efforts. Meanwhile, current vaccination rates remain stagnant with approximately 1 percent of African citizens fully vaccinated and 2.5 percent having received their first dose according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). African politicians like Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni view an overreliance on vaccine imports from North America, Europe, and Asia as part of the issue and have pushed for local production facilities.
Indeed, local capacity building for fighting the virus is on the rise. In addition to recent announcements of future vaccine manufacturing facilities, training has begun across 12 African Union member states on SARS-CoV-2 sequencing that is aimed to provide rapid and representative data on the variations of the virus. The Africa CDC has also launched a campaign with media groups to encourage people to continue practicing preventative measures like wearing masks, washing hands, and social distancing.
Former South African President Zuma handed prison sentence
On Wednesday, former South African President Jacob Zuma turned himself in to local authorities to begin serving his 15-month prison sentence, the result of a ruling by the nation’s Constitutional Court that held Zuma in contempt of court for not complying with its instructions to produce evidence in his high-level corruption case. Zuma’s case before South Africa’s highest court stems from two corruption charges related to his time in office. The first alleges that Zuma, while president, illegally conspired with several wealthy businessmen. A separate corruption charge relates to a $5 billion arms deal with Thales, a French defense firm, while Zuma was deputy president in 1999. Zuma denies these allegations, describing them as a “politically motivated witch-hunt.” The former president’s legal defense has appealed the Constitutional Court to repeal his sentence, which will be heard on July 12, 2021, although Zuma will be eligible for parole after four months.
More climate financing for Africa and tree growth in Uganda
This week, BlackRock Inc, the world’s biggest asset manager, announced it has raised over $250 million out of a targeted $500 million for its climate financing fund since its inception in September of 2018. This fund, called Climate Finance Partnership, was created to invest in select countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America to aid in renewable power generation, energy strorage solutions, and electrified transportation services. The Climate Financing Partnership is composed of 10 investors including France, Germany, and Japan. This investment is timely as the U.N. Sustainable Development Report 2021 recently highlighted the need for substantial investment and international financing for renewable energy in the developing world. Moreover, according to Bloomberg, with energy demand in emerging markets on target to double by 2050, the world continues to require significant capital for improving climate infrastructure, such as renewable power, to help reduce carbon emissions, especially in less developed regions.
In other climate news, new data released by Uganda’s state-run National Forestry Authority (NFA) in May showed that the proportion of the country covered by trees rose from 9 percent in 2015 to 12.4 percent in 2017. Reuters reported on Thursday that by helping people grow their own trees to cut down instead of clearing valuable rainforest, Uganda has found a way to reverse deforestation. In Uganda, tree loss exacerbates disastrous weather patterns in the country, resulting in more than 700,000 Ugandans living near water sources being displaced due to unusually severe flooding from heavy rain. The goal of the NFA is to have 24 percent of Uganda’s territory covered with trees by 2040.
Africa in the news: Eswatini protests, upgrades to Rwanda’s health system, and energy and environment updates
Eswatini citizens protest for democracy
On Tuesday, June 29, SABC News reported that King Mswati III had fled Eswatini for South Africa, amid protests for democracy throughout the country. However, as of this writing, the location of King Mswati III of Eswatini remains unclear, as the government denies that the king has left the country: Following the allegations, the government of Eswatini tweeted: “His Majesty King Mswati III is in the country and continues to lead in working with the government to advance the Kingdom’s goals.”
The ongoing pro-democracy protests started in May following the death of law student Thabani Nkomonye allegedly at the hands of the police. Protesters are demanding democratic reforms and accuse the king of repression. In Mazini, the country’s largest city, there have been reports of protesters barricading roads and setting fires at businesses owned or linked to the royal family. In response, on Tuesday, the government of Eswatini imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew. The military and police were also deployed, which resulted in violent clashes between authorities and protesters. According to Amnesty International, political activism has been consistently suppressed in the Kingdom of Eswatini—the last absolute monarchy on the African continent—due to repressive laws in the country. These laws include the 1938 Sedition and Subversive Activities Act (SSA Act) and 2008 Suppression of Terrorism Act (STA). Political parties were banned in 1973. Moreover, the current status of political parties is unclear under the 2006 constitution.
The controversial King Mswati III has been in power since 1986, and many Africa experts have criticized him in the past for his extravagant lifestyle. See, for example, former AGI Director Mwangi S. Kimenyi’s 2012 commentary, “The Human Development Cost of the King of Swaziland’s Lifestyle and his ‘Bevy’ of Wives.”
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Rwanda receives EU funding to bolster vaccine production capacity
On Thursday, Rwanda and the European Union (EU) signed a $3.6 million deal to assist the East African country in upgrading its laboratory capacity, acquiring modern laboratory equipment, and attracting investors to manufacture mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. The deal also earmarks funding to bolster the Rwanda Food and Drug Administration’s quality control capacity for medical products, specifically enabling the country’s medical regulator to qualify for World Health Organization (WHO) certification. The WHO certification, a necessary qualification for producing vaccines, will also build investor confidence in Rwanda’s manufacturing and regulatory capacity. The Rwanda-EU deal follows a joint EU-G-20 Global Health Summit initiative to allocate $1.1 billion in funding for African vaccine manufacturing capacity, as well as improvements in health technology and vaccine access.
In other Rwanda news, on Thursday, the country’s legislature legalized the use of medical cannabis. The new ministerial order outlines the legal criterion for growing, processing, importing, exporting, researching, and using cannabis for medical purposes. The Rwandan government anticipates the new high-value agriculture and agro-processing sector will generate substantial employment opportunities and export revenue. The Africa Regional Hemp and Cannabis Report in 2018 valued Africa’s cannabis market at $37.8 billion and estimates that the continent accounts for 11 percent of the world’s legal cannabis market. Recreational consumption of the drug remains illegal.
Nigeria passes oil-industry reform bill, and South Korea signs energy agreement with AfDB
On Thursday, July 1, the Nigerian Senate passed an oil-industry reform bill aimed at overhauling nearly every aspect of oil and gas production in the country. The bill has now passed both chambers but still awaits being signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) has been under debate for nearly two decades and, according to the Senate president’s spokesman, is a “landmark feat,” meant to provide new fiscal incentives, as well as simplify taxes and royalties for oil companies working in Nigeria. The PIB also aims to help local underdeveloped communities dealing with environmental damage from oil production by allotting communities hosting an oil facility 3 percent of the facility’s operating budget. A report by Financial Derivatives Company Limited argues that this bill can save Nigeria over $15 billion annually as it might again attract past potential investors that instead have approached other countries.
In other energy news, on Tuesday, the Korean Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Export-Import Bank of Korea signed a $600 million agreement with the African Development Bank to co-finance various energy projects throughout Africa. The agreement was arranged through the Korea-Africa Energy Investment Framework pact and will direct funding toward the generation, transmission, and distribution of renewable energy. Specific projects within the agreement focus on deploying off-grid, mini-grid, and solar home systems in an effort to accelerate rural electrification. The Korean Ministry of Economy and Finance stated that the agreement “is expected to help African countries transition to green energy while simultaneously improving access to energy.”
Meanwhile, as Ghana’s capital Accra battles extensive plastic pollution, a plastic manufacturing firm called Nelplast has begun building homes with bricks made out of plastic. Since their debut in 2019, plastic bricks serve as a more durable and affordable alternative to cement. The company aims to utilize discarded plastic—particularly plastic bags, which were blamed for causing a flood by clogging the city’s storm drains in 2015. According to Nelson Boateng, CEO of Nelplast, the new prototype house built from plastic can address Ghana’s housing deficit, allowing low-income earners to have affordable housing. Notably, the effort also provides employment opportunities for women: About 98 percent of Nelplast’s employees are women.
Africa in the news: A COVID-19 third wave, solar energy in Togo, and security updates
Africa faces third wave, COVAX’s limitations, and vaccine technology transfer hub in South Africa
As the third wave of COVID-19 sweeps through the continent, African governments are struggling to contain the virus, with only 1.12 percent of the African population vaccinated. With the virus’s rapid surge, the World Health Organization (WHO) projects the virus will outpace cases from the second wave by early July. DNA sequencing by the WHO of recent COVID-19 cases in the DRC and Uganda revealed most cases were tied to the Delta variant of the virus. The Delta variant has also been identified in 12 other African countries. With at least 20 nations entrenched in a third wave of the pandemic, many countries are reporting severe oxygen shortages—an essential component of treating high-risk cases—which are causing preventable deaths. African CDC Director John Nkengasong expressed concern regarding the severity of the third wave, stating, “We are not winning in Africa this battle against the virus.”
The COVAX program, a global vaccine-sharing scheme devised by the WHO, is facing shortages in the midst of the heightened need by African countries. COVAX has “delivered 90 million doses to 131 countries”—40 million of which have been administered in Africa—but many of these countries have already or nearly exhausted their supplies. Facing uncertainty about vaccine supplies, many COVAX-participating countries are halting or slowing their vaccination efforts to ensure their citizens are not left partially vaccinated. The Biden administration, hoping to accelerate the pandemic’s end, has responded by announcing a donation of 500 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine to low-income countries.
In a bid to resolve longstanding vaccine shortages in Africa, the WHO announced Monday that it is negotiating the development of a technology transfer hub in South Africa. The hub will provide companies from low- and middle-income countries with the knowledge and licenses to manufacture mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, but relies on a consortium of companies with the mRNA technology, such as Pfizer and Moderna, to participate in the technology transfer.
Largest solar plant in West Africa opens in Togo; Mozambique receives grant for agro-processing enterprises
The largest solar plant in Western Africa opened on June 24 in Togo. The plant, which is located in the Centrale Region of Togo, will provide electricity to 158,333 households given its 50-megawatt capacity. Any electricity that is not consumed locally will be diverted to parts of Ghana and Nigeria. The plant is also the country’s first private utility solar park and was built by Dubai-based AMEA Power. The company chose Togo because of the country’s “renewable-friendly” regulations that allowed the project to be completed in just 18 months. AMEA Power was given further assurance when the project was supplied with $8 billion in pre-funding from Togo’s National Development Plan. The project also provided local training and job opportunities, as 80 percent of the construction workforce was Togolese.
In other news, the African Development Bank (AfDB) announced the approval of a $1 million grant on June 24 that will support small- and medium-sized agro-processing enterprises in Mozambique. The grant, which is financed by the Italian Technical Cooperation Fund, will assist approximately 300 businesses to boost their productivity and improve quality control. The project also seeks to enable transformative infrastructure growth and agriculture transformation, two strategic pillars outlined in the AfDB’s Mozambique’s Country Strategy Paper. Italian Ambassador Gianni Bardini commented that the grant improves bilateral relations and “can act as a catalyst to extend it to the private sector where it exists a huge and largely untapped potential.”
Ethiopia holds elections amid violence; combating terrorism in Mozambique and the Sahel region
Ethiopia held elections this past Monday despite ongoing violence in the Tigray region and all regions not participating in the vote. The day after the elections, dozens of people were killed in a government airstrike that hit a market in Tigray, one of the deadliest events in an ongoing war that first broke out in November 2021 and that has continued to create instability and now famine in the region. As of this writing, there are no preliminary results from the election. This is the first test of Abiy Ahmed’s power since the war started due to the election being delayed twice.
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In other news, leaders from 16 southern African nations have agreed to send troops to Mozambique on Wednesday with the goal to “combat terrorism and acts of violent extremism.” In addition, an EU military mission to Mozambique could be approved next month with the aim of training Mozambican troops to tackle the ongoing insurgency. The EU hopes to have the mission up and running within the next several months after countries in addition to Portugal (which has already supplied some troops) offer military aid.
Reports of attacks linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State are on the rise throughout the Sahel region—despite the presence of U.N peacekeepers. In Burkina Faso, a police unit was ambushed late on Monday leaving 11 polices officers dead, and according to Reuters, about 1.2 million people in the nation have been displaced by violence. In Nigeria, since attacks escalated 12 years ago, nearly 350,000 people have died as a result of conflict with insurgents, according to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Projections by UNDP suggest that if the conflict continues to 2030, more than 1.1 million people may die.