Our Continent, Our Future

Our Continent, Our Future

Author: P. Thandika Mkandawire

Publisher: IDRC

Published: 2014-05-14

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 155250204X

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Our Continent, Our Future presents the emerging African perspective on this complex issue. The authors use as background their own extensive experience and a collection of 30 individual studies, 25 of which were from African economists, to summarize this African perspective and articulate a path for the future. They underscore the need to be sensitive to each country's unique history and current condition. They argue for a broader policy agenda and for a much more active role for the state within what is largely a market economy. Finally, they stress that Africa must, and can, compete in an increasingly globalized world and, perhaps most importantly, that Africans must assume the leading role in defining the continent's development agenda.


Structural Adjustment and Women Informal Sector Traders in Harare, Zimbabwe

Structural Adjustment and Women Informal Sector Traders in Harare, Zimbabwe

Author: Rodreck Mupedziswa

Publisher: Nordic Africa Institute

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 132

ISBN-13: 9789171064356

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Most attempts to study the informal sector have tended to emphasize uniformity of experiences. Where an effort has been made to develop a more nuanced understanding, the assumption has always been that people move from lower to higher level activities that coincide with increased opportunities for accumulation. This report challenges both notions. Drawing on the experiences of women informal sector traders in Harare, Zimbabwe, and using a longitudinal study approach, the authors document differentiation within the sector amidst generalized decline in working and living conditions. Far from being a site of accumulation, the authors show that the informal sector during the era of adjustment is a site of bare survival in which people work ever longer hours for ever-diminishing incomes on which many competing claims are made within and outside the household.


IMF and World Bank Sponsored Structural Adjustment Programs in Africa

IMF and World Bank Sponsored Structural Adjustment Programs in Africa

Author: Kwadwo Konadu-Agyemang

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-10-24

Total Pages: 457

ISBN-13: 135180958X

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This title was first published in 2001: Bringing together geographers, planners, political scientists, economists, rural development specialists, bankers, public administrators and other development experts, this volume questions the benefits of Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs). It critically assesses the impact of SAPs from a wider perspective than a purely economic one, highlighting concerns about impacts of adjustments on the more vulnerable elements of society such as social welfare, the environment, labour, gender and agriculture. Revealing both the costs and benefits of the economic restructuring programme, the book also suggests alternatives to current development models, and how SAPs can be made more sustainable. An original and comprehensive addition to the collections of both students and practitioners of development.


The Politics of Economic Reform in Ghana

The Politics of Economic Reform in Ghana

Author: Richard Aidoo

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-05-13

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 1351018965

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This book explores the significant economic transformation of Ghana over the three decades since the end of the Cold War, focusing on the role of political-economic change and reform. The Politics of Economic Reform in Ghana presents a range of perspectives from scholars drawn from both academia and policy-making on the way Ghanaian economic reforms have been shaped by various political and economic actors. First, it establishes and debates the uniqueness of Ghana as a case study in Africa, and the developing world. Second, the book offers a broad account of how global and domestic political or institutional actors have contributed to shaping economic development in Ghana. Drawing on theoretical perspectives, the volume assesses how major political-economic changes have affected Ghana’s economic development. This book will be of interest to students, scholars, policymakers, and organizations interested in the economic and political advancement of Africa, as well as African Politics and Economics.


The Gendered Impacts of Liberalization

The Gendered Impacts of Liberalization

Author: Shahra Razavi

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2009-01-13

Total Pages: 391

ISBN-13: 1135911215

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This volume addresses key issues and questions surrounding the debates about globalization and liberalization policies, including whether states have the capacity to remedy the social distress unleashed by liberalization and whether the proposed social policy reforms can redress gender-based inequalities in access to resources and power.


A Handbook on Using the Mixed Survey for Measuring Informal Employment and the Informal Sector

A Handbook on Using the Mixed Survey for Measuring Informal Employment and the Informal Sector

Author: Asian Development Bank

Publisher: Asian Development Bank

Published: 2011-03-01

Total Pages: 293

ISBN-13: 9290922672

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This handbook presents a cost-effective and reliable data collection strategy for measuring and analyzing informal employment and the informal sector. The cornerstone of this methodology is a version of the mixed survey that is anchored to the Labor Force Survey conducted regularly by developing countries. The Handbook draws from experience in the implementation of the mixed survey in Armenia, Bangladesh, and Indonesia under regional technical assistance 6430: Measuring the Informal Sector. It discusses viable methodologies and processes by which data collected from the mixed survey can be utilized to generate statistics on informal employment and the informal sector. The empirical evidence that will be produced can solidify the efforts on these topics, from research to policy making.


Internationalisation andEnterprise Development inGhana

Internationalisation andEnterprise Development inGhana

Author: John Kuada

Publisher: Adonis & Abbey Publishers Ltd

Published: 2000-05-09

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 1912234416

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Policy makers and scholars consider private enterprise development as one of the most promising avenues of economic growth in Africa. To grow, enterprises must improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their operations, often through internationalisation. It is generally believed that internationalisation enhances the technological and managerial capacities of firms and also helps them to leverage other types of resources not immediately available within their own countries. In recent years, there has been an upsurge of interest in exploring the extent to which African firms are integrated into global business networks, and the benefits, if any, derived from such integrations. The above informed the need for an empirical investigations in Ghana from 2002-2003, the results of which are presented in this book. Based on the experiences in Ghana, contributors to the volume explore the issues of internationalisation in Africa by focusing on firm-level activities and inter-firm relations rather than on macro issues. They draw on dominant theories of internationalisation to explore issues such as sustained competitive advantages of firms, management and business relations in export processing zones, organisational structures, competence and leadership; culture, learning and cross-border inter-firm linkages as well as finance and stock exchange performance in Ghana. Internationalisation and Enterprise Development is a major contribution to the body of knowledge on enterprise development in Africa in general, and Ghana in particular. It is a must-read to all who are interested in Africa's enterprise development including the role played by internationalisation in that process.


The Long Shadow of Informality

The Long Shadow of Informality

Author: Franziska Ohnsorge

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2022-02-09

Total Pages: 397

ISBN-13: 1464817545

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A large percentage of workers and firms operate in the informal economy, outside the line of sight of governments in emerging market and developing economies. This may hold back the recovery in these economies from the deep recessions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic--unless governments adopt a broad set of policies to address the challenges of widespread informality. This study is the first comprehensive analysis of the extent of informality and its implications for a durable economic recovery and for long-term development. It finds that pervasive informality is associated with significantly weaker economic outcomes--including lower government resources to combat recessions, lower per capita incomes, greater poverty, less financial development, and weaker investment and productivity.


Urban Informality in South Africa and Zimbabwe

Urban Informality in South Africa and Zimbabwe

Author: Inocent Moyo

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-01-09

Total Pages: 178

ISBN-13: 3030654850

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This book adds to the research of urban informality in the Global South with a specific focus on South Africa and Zimbabwe. It addresses the agency and the potential transformative capacity of the phenomenon of urban informality in connection with Southern African cities and towns. It adopts a political economy approach to analyse the evolution of informality in cities and its implications for urban planning. It brings to bear how the South African and Zimbabwean historical and/or ideological and contemporary political and economic trajectories have impacted on the ever changing nature of urban informality, both spatially and structurally and/or compositionally; thus resulting in unique urban materialities, which are aspects that have scarcely been studied or discussed in the extant literature. This book, therefore, seeks to close the academic gap by dealing with the dearth of literature on spatial (re)locational discourses of urban informality. The work positions urban informality as a resilient force with potency in terms of political mobilisation and (re) shaping urban spaces. Though these are fundamental issues, they have received comparatively little attention, especially in literature that focuses on the Southern African region. Accordingly, undergraduate and post-graduate students, as well as academics in the fields of Urban Geography, Political Science, Development Studies, Sociology, Town and Regional Planning among others, will find the range of topics and depth of coverage in this book particularly valuable. Similarly, practitioners and activists on issues of urban informality and urban governance will find the book very useful.