African Studies Blog

The World Bank has released “Africa Development Indicators 2008/09.”  The data in this publication have been assembled from a variety of sources to present a broad picture of development across Africa. Data are presented from 1965 to 2006 for 53 African countries and 5 regional country groups, arranged in separate tables or matrices for more than 450 indicators of development covering basic indicators; national accounts; balance of payments; inflation; Millennium Development Goals; Paris Declaration indicators; private sector development; trade; infrastructure; human development; rural development and agriculture; environment and climate change; labor, migration and population; HIV/AIDS; malaria; capable states and partnerships; governance and polity; and household welfare.

Included in the ADI is an essay titled “Youth and Employment in Africa: the Potential, the Problem, the Promise.” It addresses one of the challenging issues in Africa today. Some of the assertions made are that youth make up 40 percent of Africa’s working age population, but 60 percent of total unemployed. The share of unemployed youth among the total unemployed can be as high as 83% in Uganda, 68 percent in Zimbabwe, and 56 percent in Burkina Faso. In all, 72 percent of African youth live on less than $2 a day.

Full Report

 A new issue of Journal of African Economies  is available online: March 2009; Vol. 18, No. 2

 Articles

 Daniel Gbetnkom Forest Depletion and Food Security of Poor Rural Populations in Africa: Evidence from Cameroon

 S. Jules-Armand Tapsoba Trade Intensity and Business Cycle Synchronicity in Africa

  Songqing Jin and Klaus Deininger Key Constraints for Rural Non-Farm Activity in Tanzania: Combining Investment Climate and Household Surveys

From ELDIS:

Author: M. Ueyama

Publisher: International Food Policy Research Institute, 2008

More than 30 percent of school-aged children have lost at least one parent in Malawi. Lack of investments in human capital and adverse conditions during childhood are often associated with lower living standards in the future. Therefore, if orphans face an increased risk of poverty, exploitation, malnutrition, and poorer access to health care and schooling, early intervention is critical so as to avoid the potential poverty trap. Using household panel data from Malawi, this paper investigates the impacts of orphanhood/parental death on children’s mortality risks, migration behaviors, and schooling outcomes.

The study finds the following:

• maternal and double orphans are more likely to face higher mortality risks and they tend to move out from original households
• maternal and double orphans are more likely to have lower schooling outcomes than other children however, being paternalorphans has no significant and negative impacts on schooling outcomes
• investments in human capital are more affected by maternal death – being a paternal orphan seems not to have a significant impact on human capital investments and mobility decision.

The authors conclude that the magnitude of impacts of maternal and double orphanhood on schooling outcomes differs by characteristics of the children. First, older children losing their mothers are more likely to facenegative impacts on school enrollment. This result suggests that the school enrollment decision of younger children is less likely to be affected by orphan status because of the introduction of a universal primary education policy in 1994.

Full text of document

BJ980 .P47 2008.

Persons in community : African ethics in a global culture. Scottsville, South Africa : University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2008.

DT14 .P675 2008.

Power and nationalism in modern Africa : essays in honor of Don Ohadike. Durham, N.C. : Carolina Academic Press, c2008.

DT511 .R4 2007.

Reindorf, Carl Christian. History of the Gold Coast and Asante. 3rd ed. Accra : Ghana Universities Press, 2007.

DT515.45.O33 O56 2008.

Okonta, Ike, When citizens revolt : Nigerian elites, big oil, and the Ogoni struggle for self-determination. Trenton, NJ : Africa World Press, c2008.

HC995 .D48 2008x.

Developing a sustainable economy in Cameroon. Dakar, Senegal : Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa, c2008.

HD1009.Z8 B366 2008.

Mbah, Emmanuel M. Land/boundary conflict in Africa : the case of former British Colonial Bamenda, present-day north-west province of the Republic of Cameroon, 1916-1996. Lewiston : Edwin Mellen Press, c2008.

HD2117 .A363 2008.

Agriculture, human security, and peace : a crossroad in African development. West Lafayette, Ind. : Purdue University, c2008.

HD5840.5.A6 .P65 2008x.

Pollin, Robert. An employment-targeted economic program for Kenya. Cheltenham, UK ; Northampton, MA : Edward Elgar, c2008.

HV640.4.T34 L36 2008.

Landau, Loren B. (Loren Brett). The humanitarian hangover : displacement, aid, and transformation in Western Tanzania.  Johannesburg : Wits University Press, 2008.

HV801.S62 S688 2007.

The South African index of multiple deprivation for children : census 2001. Cape Town : HSRC Press ; [Chicago, Ill.] : distributed in North America by Independent Publishers Group, 2007.

HV6433.A35 T38 2006x.

Terrorism and counter-terrorism : an African perspective. Ibadan, Nigeria : Heinemann Educational Books, 2006.

JQ1875 .A7235 2008.

Africa and the third millennium. Trenton, NJ : Africa World Press, c2008.

LA1502 .S88 2008.

Sutherland-Addy, Esi. Gender equity in junior and senior secondary education in Sub-Saharan Africa. Washington, D.C. : World Bank, Africa Region Human Development Dept., c2008.

LC180.S6 C67 2008.

Cossa, Jos Augusto. Power, politics, and higher education in Southern Africa : international regimes, local governments, and educational autonomy. Amherst, N.Y. : Cambria Press, c2008.

PN1998.2 .A758 2008.

Armes, Roy. Dictionary of African filmmakers. Bloomington : Indiana University Press, c2008.

PQ3988.5.C27 T66 2008.

Toman, Cheryl. Contemporary matriarchies in Cameroonian francophone literature : ‘on est ensemble’. Birmingham, Ala. : Summa, 2008.

PR9344 .O35 2008.

Palmer, Eustace. Of war and women, oppression and optimism : new essays on the African novel. Trenton, NJ : Africa World Press, c2008.

RC606.7 .L86 2008.

Lumumba Osewe, Patrick. Improving access to HIV/AIDS medicines in Africa : Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights flexibilities utilization. Washington, DC : World Bank, c2008.