Youth (Un)Employment in Africa
Youth (un)employment is one of the greatest drivers shaping African politics over the next generation. Joblessness is endemic in Africa, especially among the young. Youth unemployment and underemployment in some countries is as high as 80 per cent, including relatively well performing states such as Mozambique and Ghana. And by 2025, nearly one quarter of the world's young people (under the age of 25) will be from sub-Saharan Africa - an extraordinary statistic. And many of them will be living in Africa's cities. With a urbanisation rate, in some African countries, as high as (or over) 10 per cent per annum, keeping ahead of the need for jobs for new entrants demands annual economic growth rates much higher than any African country has achieved in recent years.
The Brenthurst Foundation in conjunction with the governments of Mozambique, Zambia and Swaziland is undertaking a major research project examining the youth unemployment challenge faced by each of these countries, with a view to further work in select African countries over the coming years. The project initially comprised three high-level seminars in Maputo (Mozambique), Mbabane (Swaziland )and the Royal Zambezi Lodge (Zambia), which informed a Report by the Brenthurst Foundation to be published in 2011.
The South Sudan Precedent
'Africa' will almost certainly, in the coming years, have to confront more 'secessionist crises'. Although the South Sudan case - which resulted in the formal independence of South Sudan as an independent sovereign state on 9 July 2011 - may seem sui generis, it probably constitutes one "extreme" among a variety of ways critical overloads of faultlines in Africa can be dealt with. Demands may fall short of calling for secession as long as access to resources, power and varying degrees of self-determination are accommodated.
The Brenthurst Foundation in partnership with the Konrad Adenaur Stiftung is currently undertaking research into identifying key principles and/or indicators which could guide an elaboration of policies and guidelines for national, regional and international actors in this regard. The building blocks required for a successful South Sudan and the respective internal and potential external providers could form one way of approaching this.
An international forum including senior officials and experts from Africa - including South Sudan and the AU, as well as other countries subject to secessionist or self-determination movements, such as Somalia Somaliland - will be held in Italy in September 2011. Details of report will be available soon.
The Development Options to Liberal Capitalism
Addressing the fundamental question central to debates within emerging economies globally and which has, in particular, vexed key members of the current South African government, especially in the wake of the global financial crisis: what is the appropriate level of state intervention in the economy to achieve the levels of growth deemed necessary to increase national prosperity and tackle growing unemployment and inequality in society? In other words, is there increasing convergence globally on the macro-economic fundamentals needed to promote growth and development or is this rather increasingly contested? This follows and builds on our work at Como with African and Latin American officials on the indigenisation/nationalisation debate.
Together with partners in Latin America, Asia and Africa, we will convene the first high-level forum in South Africa in late September 2011.
China and Small Business in Africa
The Brenthurst Foundation is conducting a major interview-based study of small and medium-scale Chinese businesses in several African countries. The aim of the study is to examine how Chinese-owned businesses have developed and grown in recent years, and better understand their own perceptions of the opportunities and challenges in operating in African business environments.
More information will be available soon.
