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Begin New Search Topic Debt Political Geography Africa Content Type Policy Brief

1. Strategies to future-proof Zambia: Debt relief and beyond

Author:
Vincent Obisie-Orlu
Publication Date:
07-2023
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Good Governance Africa (GGA)
Abstract:
Debt relief negotiations are currently taking place, with Zambia expected to be the first country to receive debt relief under the newly created G20 Common Framework. However, the process faces challenges, with China and the United States trading accusations of impeding the process. Some of Zambia's creditors have also been unwilling to agree to write off some of the country's debt. Positively, innovative approaches to debt relief have been proposed that would support Zambia's net-zero ambitions and promote sustainable development, such as debt for nature swaps. The integration of Zambia into the European Union's Critical Minerals framework could further support and assist Zambia in attaining a deal. Without a deal, Zambia risks being plunged into further macroeconomic uncertainty at a time when the country needs investment to capitalise on opportunities presented by political stability and structurally higher prices for copper and other critical minerals with which Zambi a is endowed.
Topic:
Debt, Development, Natural Resources, Political stability, Mining, and Macroeconomics
Political Geography:
Africa and Zambia

2. Ghana’s Oil Sales: Using Commodity Trading Data for Accountability

Author:
Alexander Malden and Denis Gyeyir
Publication Date:
12-2020
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Natural Resource Governance Institute
Abstract:
The coronavirus pandemic has severely impacted the Ghanaian economy, with the IMF projecting that growth will slow to just 1.5 percent in 2020 compared to December 2019’s projection of 5.8 percent. The country, like many oil-rich states, is facing the challenge of responding to the pandemic with reduced government revenues resulting from the oil price crash. The coronavirus has also exacerbated the country’s debt sustainability issues, which were already on the rise prior to the pandemic. Ghana is still a relatively new oil producer, with first production from its Jubilee field occurring in November 2010 and the first cargo sold in early 2011. However, the sector represents a significant source of revenue. Ghana’s oil revenues totaled USD 938 million in 2019. Around USD 802 million of this amount, or 86 percent, came from cargos of oil sold by the Ghana National Petroleum Company (GNPC). This oil represents the state’s share of production that it derives from in-kind royalty payments and GNPC’s carried and participating interest (CAPI) in the three oil-producing projects in the country. GNPC oil sales equaled a full nine percent of Ghana’s government revenue in 2019. Responding to the pandemic with reduced government revenues makes it more important than ever that citizens are able to analyze GNPC’s oil sales activities. In this context, in this report the authors demonstrate how publicly available data on the state’s oil sales activities can be used by civil society organizations (CSOs), government, media and other oversight actors to hold the government, GNPC and trading companies accountable for how they sell and manage Ghana’s oil and its revenues. Commodity trading activities are often opaque and do not receive the same level of scrutiny as a state’s upstream operations. This opacity can create opportunities for governance and corruption risks that result in the loss and mismanagement of potential revenues. However, Ghana is one of the most transparent countries in reporting on its commodity trading activities. GNPC, the Ministry of Finance, the Bank of Ghana, the Public Interest and Accountability Committee and Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GHEITI) all disclose information on the state’s oil sales activities. As one example, the MoF has disclosed information on the volume, unit price, date of sale and value for every cargo sold by GNPC to date.
Topic:
Debt, Oil, Accountability, Commodities, Trade, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
Africa and Ghana

3. Are Interest Payments on Debt Derailing Fiscal Consolidation?

Author:
Shebo Nalishebo and Florence Banda-Muleya
Publication Date:
06-2018
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Zambia Institute for Policy Analysis and Research (ZIPAR)
Abstract:
This policy brief provides a review of the performance of the first quarter of the 2018 National Budget. The paper provides context by looking at both the revenue and expenditure trends during the last three years when Government instituted some fiscal adjustment measures to bring the country back to a path of fiscal fitness. In analysing the 2018 Budget, the first quarter preliminary outturns are compared to the approved Budget for 2018, the projected performance for the first quarter as well as the first quarter of 2017. We assess fiscal fitness over the last three years and determine that fiscal consolidation had begun. While fiscal performance was generally high, budget credibility and sustainability were low. In the first quarter of 2018, revenues were higher than planned and most expenditures were within the projected amounts. Nonetheless, interest payments were much higher than expected and are likely to be a major source of spending overruns in 2018.
Topic:
Debt, Government, Budget, Public Debt, and Revenue Management
Political Geography:
Africa and Zambia

4. Botswana's Debt Sustainability: A Brief Narrative

Author:
Haile Taye
Publication Date:
03-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Botswana Institute for Development Policy Analysis
Abstract:
In terms of basic macroeconomic indicators, Botswana is, on the whole, in an enviable position relative to many African countries. The recent economic crisis notwithstanding, its growth rate has been more than average and its Balance of Payments position (as reflected in its foreign exchange reserves) has been impressive. Further, its exchange rate has been relatively stable compared to many middle and low income countries. Some of the weak points of the economy in recent years have been: (a) high inflation, even though it declined to a single digit in the last year (from 15% to about 7%); (b) relatively high unemployment for a fast growing economy (about 20%, according to the 2007 Informal Sector Survey); (c) stable financial sector, but with a wide spread between deposit and lending interest rates; and (d) lack of diversification, a heavy reliance on a few mineral products.
Topic:
Debt, Macroeconomics, Sustainability, and Economic Crisis
Political Geography:
Africa and Botswana

5. Emerging Africa: How 17 Countries Are Leading the Way

Author:
Steven Radelet
Publication Date:
09-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
There's good news out of Africa. Seventeen emerging countries are putting behind them the conflict, stagnation, and dictatorships of the past. Since the mid-1990s, these countries have defied the old negative stereotypes of poverty and failure by achieving steady economic growth, deepening democracy, improving governance, and decreasing poverty.
Topic:
Debt, Democratization, Development, Economics, and Poverty
Political Geography:
Africa

6. Oxfam Publishing: Meeting Real Needs: A major change for donors to the Democratic Republic of the Congo 2006

Author:
Eva Smets
Publication Date:
02-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is at a critical point in its history. While the forthcoming elections offer the country new opportunities, it is also facing rising tensions, and at least 42 million people still endure appalling poverty and suffering.
Topic:
Debt and Humanitarian Aid
Political Geography:
Africa and Democratic Republic of the Congo

7. Beyond Victimhood: Women's Peacebuilding in Sudan, Congo and Uganda

Publication Date:
06-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
Peacebuilding cannot succeed if half the population is excluded from the process. Crisis Group's research in Sudan, Congo (DRC) and Uganda suggests that peace agreements, post-conflict reconstruction, and governance do better when women are involved. Women make a difference, in part because they adopt a more inclusive approach toward security and address key social and economic issues that would otherwise be ignored. But in all three countries, as different as each is, they remain marginalised in formal processes and under-represented in the security sector as a whole. Governments and the international community must do much more to support women peace activists.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, International Relations, Debt, and Diplomacy
Political Geography:
Uganda, Africa, Sudan, and Democratic Republic of the Congo

8. Fiscal Policy for Poverty Reduction, Reconstruction, and Growth

Author:
Matthew Smith, Alan Roe, and Tony Addison
Publication Date:
06-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
An effective state is able to mobilize revenue and spend it on infrastructure, services, and public goods that both enhance human capital and the well-being of communities (especially the poor), as well as stimulating investment and employment creation by the private sector. An effective state also manages public finance to ensure that macroeconomic balance is maintained—with policy neither too restrictive to discourage private investment and growth, nor too accommodative to create high inflation and crowd out private investment. Fiscal issues are therefore at the heart of the state's role in the development process and failure in this policy area—whether it is in taxation, public expenditures, or in managing the fiscal deficit and public debt—can quickly undermine growth and poverty reduction. Fiscal weakness can also be fatal to social peace when one or more ethnic, religious, or regional groups are taxed unfairly—or receives too little in the allocation of public spending.
Topic:
Debt, Development, Economics, and Poverty
Political Geography:
Africa and Asia

9. The G-8 Debt Deal: First Step On A Long Journey

Author:
Debayani Kar and Neil Watkins
Publication Date:
06-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Foreign Policy In Focus
Abstract:
Jubilee campaigns and debt cancellation advocates can be proud of their efforts. The Finance Ministers of the eight rich country governments as represented at the Group of 8 (G-8) have announced a deal on 100% debt cancellation of International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and African Development Fund debt for some impoverished nations.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Debt, Development, and Economics
Political Geography:
Africa

10. Nigeria's Paris Club Debt Problem

Publication Date:
08-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
Intense domestic pressure has convinced Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo to seek a deal that would eliminate the country's $31 billion of debt owed to the governments of the U.K., France, and other aid-giving countries that use the Paris Club process to restructure debt that countries cannot repay. The Paris Club creditors have proposed an unprecedented operation—its first-ever buyback at a discount—that would cancel all of Nigeria's debt to them in exchange for a cash payment of roughly $12 billion.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, International Relations, and Debt
Political Geography:
Africa, United Kingdom, Paris, France, and Nigeria