The story of Africa is mainly told through numbers we do not own. These numbers represent each child born, each teenager entering the workforce, each adult marrying and starting a family, and each death from a disease that has been eradicated in richer countries. These numbers currently belong not to our national statistical offices, but, …
Across the developing world, enterprising people are sifting through garbage bins to build small businesses through recycling. It is in the informal economy, yet they have developed an economic system. This “waste economy” is providing new opportunities for people like Vusi Memela. He heads out at 2 a.m. seeking a paycheck by beating the formal economy–the …
YAMOUSSOUKRO – The billions of dollars in aid delivered to Africa annually may do the continent much good, but it cannot deliver a solution to poverty. Only creating more high-quality jobs can do that. The question is how. Africa boasts a large and creative labor pool, buttressed by a youth population that is expected to double, to over …
Africa is ripe for its own industrial revolution, but with 70 percent of Africans dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods, it must be a green one. We have been latecomers with the world's previous waves of industrialization; now we are catching up because necessity and the birth of new technologies are fostering a continent of innovators. The …
There is a certain level of acceptance that health policy decisions need to be based on sound evidence. Ebola and other epidemics demonstrated that to have an impact, we truly need data to make the most with every dollar spent. If we were to rebuild the health system of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, we …