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Africa Has the Demography for Dividends, But Will it Get the Policy Right?
›In recent years, the demographic dividend has garnered enormous traction in African policy circles, and leaders and policymakers have begun to see it as a strategy for achieving their economic growth targets.
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Changing the Narrative on Fertility Decline in Africa
›Today, Africa has the world’s highest fertility rates. On average, women in sub-Saharan Africa have about five children over their reproductive lifetime, compared to a global average of 2.5 children. Research shows that the “demographic transition,” the name for the change from high death and fertility rates to lower death and eventually lower fertility rates, has proceeded differently here from other regions in the developing world.
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Keith Schneider, Circle of Blue
Durban’s Decentralized Water and Sanitation System Sets Global Standard
›DURBAN, South Africa — Arguably the most elegant aspect of an inelegant subject is how this city of 3.2 million residents, South Africa’s second largest, is solving monumental water and waste challenges in its jammed informal settlements.
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Water and Security Hotspots to Watch in 2016 [Infographic]
›The ongoing violence in Syria exhibits the potential for water problems – a historic drought, in this case – to exacerbate existing social and political problems and contribute to humanitarian crises. In a recently released infographic, Circle of Blue combined data from the European Commission Joint Research Center’s Global Conflict Risk Index and the World Resources Institute’s Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas to identify 10 hotspots around the world where water “could play a role in developing or exacerbating humanitarian crises” in 2016.
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Keith Schneider, Circle of Blue
Drought Pushes South Africa to Water, Energy, Food Reckoning
›January 7, 2016 could hardly have been worse in this thunderously beautiful, water-parched, and economically reeling nation of 55 million residents at the bottom of Africa.
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Falling Costs, Rising Opportunities: Scaling Up Renewable Energy in the Developing World [Part Two]
›“Clean energy has gone from being the ‘right thing to do’ in combating climate change, to being the most cost-effective option for many energy-insecure countries,” said Carrie Thompson, deputy director of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Regional Development Mission for Asia, during a day-long conference on renewable energy at the Wilson Center on October 27 (read part one of our coverage here).
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The Environmental Democracy Index: Ranking Access to Information and Justice
›June 2, 2015 // By Carley ChavaraConventional wisdom has been that wealthier countries have better environmental protections than poorer countries. However, a new annual report launched this year, the Environmental Democracy Index, reveals that a strong economy does not necessarily ensure strong environmental rights.
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Cooperation Is Not Enough: Why We Need to Think Differently About Water
›In 2003, the United Nations General Assembly declared 2005 to 2015 to be the decade of “water for life” as a way to encourage countries to reach their water-related targets under the Millennium Development Goals. In summing up the last 10 years, it was noted that water cooperation had been promoted widely, featuring at international fora and in government initiatives and development agendas. Water cooperation is described as having the potential to enable peace and sustainable development. However, just as focusing on “water wars” might undermine the everyday challenges of securing safe and adequate supplies of water, focusing only on “more cooperation” may well simplify the problem at hand.
Showing posts from category South Africa.