Africa in Focus

An employee cleans a machine inside the factory of the baobab Fruit Company Senegal in Thies, Senegal June 22, 2018. Picture taken June 22, 2018. REUTERS/Mikal McAllister

Reconciling economic growth and youth employment creation in Senegal

Ahmadou Aly Mbaye, Fatou Gueye, Abdou Khadir Dia, and Massaer Mbaye · Monday, July 26, 2021

A boy collects water from a shallow well on the Kenyan side of Moyale, June 11, 2009. Prolonged drought, lack of water and limited pasture have led to conflict between the Somali and Borena ethnic groups in southern Ethiopia ? that left hundreds of people dead in February this year. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) says it needs some 100 million Swiss francs to prevent conflict, famine and epidemics as well as restore the livelihoods of 2.5 million people in the Horn of Africa. Picture taken June 11, 2009. REUTERS/Irada Humbatova (KENYA SOCIETY CONFLICT HEALTH)

Addressing Africa’s extreme water insecurity

Leo Holtz and Chris Heitzig

Friday, July 23, 2021

FILE PHOTO: People walk through a crowded market on a rainy day amidst the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Mumbai, India, July 14, 2021. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas/File Photo

What lessons can Africa learn from India’s COVID-19 crisis?

Jamie MacLeod, Vera Songwe, Stephen Karingi, Hopestone Chavula, Jean Paul Boketsu Bofili, Sokunpanha You, and Veerawin Su

Friday, July 23, 2021

Accra, Ghana.- In the photo taken on March 1, 2021, Ghana kicked off a COVID-19 vaccination campaign with vaccines from the COVAX initiative. Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, and their spouses took the first doses in the West African country.

What India’s COVID-19 crisis means for Africa

Jamie MacLeod, Vera Songwe, Stephen Karingi, Hopestone Chavula, Jean Paul Boketsu Bofili, Sokunpanha You, and Veerawin Su

Thursday, July 22, 2021

Pipelines are seen at Zueitina oil terminal, in west of Benghazi, Libya February 3, 2020. Picture taken February 3, 2020. REUTERS/Esam Omran Al-Fetori

Africa in the news: Natural resource update, security updates, and COVID-19’s third wave in Africa

Mary Blankenship, Leo Holtz, and Tamara White

Saturday, July 17, 2021

Residents walk through a walkway as a man connects electricity above the power transformer in a village in the Kibera slums in Nairobi, Kenya April 2, 2021. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya

COVID-19 and poverty’s impact on electricity access in sub-Saharan Africa

Monday, July 12, 2021

A medical worker gives a dose of AstraZeneca's coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine to a man, at the Ruaraka Uhai Neema Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya, April 8, 2021. REUTERS/Baz Ratner

Africa in the news: COVID-19 spreads, Jacob Zuma sentenced, and climate change mitigation efforts enhanced

Mary Blankenship, Leo Holtz, and Tamara White

Saturday, July 10, 2021

King Mswati III of Swaziland waits to address attendees during the 70th session of the United Nations General Assembly at the U.N. headquarters in New York, September 29, 2015. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

Africa in the news: Eswatini protests, upgrades to Rwanda’s health system, and energy and environment updates

Tamara White, Leo Holtz, and Mary Blankenship

Saturday, July 3, 2021

The Insurance Company of Africa is pictured in Monrovia, Liberia, October 12, 2017. REUTERS/Thierry Gouegnon

Capturing Africa’s insurance potential for shared prosperity

Friday, July 2, 2021

Driver of a Golf Club Car drives to the main building of the Aqua Safari Resort. Relax at a luxury beach resort. Modern architecture. Travel and vacation in West Africa. Ghana, Volta, Ada – Jan14,2017

Addressing youth unemployment in Ghana by supporting the agro-processing and tourism sectors

Ernest Aryeetey, Priscilla Twumasi Baffour, and Festus Ebo Turkson

Tuesday, June 29, 2021

A solar panel is pictured on the roof of Jean-Noel Kouame's house, on the outer limits of the main city Abidjan's vast urban sprawl, Ivory Coast December 18, 2017. Picture taken December 18, 2017. REUTERS/Thierry Gouegnon

Africa in the news: A COVID-19 third wave, solar energy in Togo, and security updates

Leo Holtz, Mary Blankenship, and Tamara White

Saturday, June 26, 2021

One of the founders of Wash Me Please Mobile Carwash shows how to use their mobile app that can be downloaded from play store to book a carwash appointment.The wash me please is a Kenyan startup company that offers convenient mobile carwash services from the comfort of your home or workplace as a way of helping fight the spread of Covid-19. Wash me please is detailing and Carwash Company which was started in the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. They offer carwash mobile services to clients through a mobile app that clients use to request their service. This service has offered a safe space for women and the elderly who would fear to take their cars at a conventional carwash places that are normally crowed, in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic. The service has helped in fighting the spread of the virus by bringing the services to the clients homes and workplace thus saving them time and risk of contracting the covid-19 virus. According to the founders of the Wash me please Carwash Company, using their online app and their electric Tuk Tuk has helped in conserving water since they use less in cleaning cars, reducing noise pollution and carbon footprints emitted by the use of fuel thus offering clean and safe environment when serving clients. (Photo by Boniface Muthoni / SOPA Images/Sipa USA)No Use Germany.

Figure of the week: The rise of African tech startups

Leo Holtz and Christina Golubski

Wednesday, June 23, 2021

U.S. President Joe Biden talks with South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa as they arrive for a working session during G7 summit in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, Britain, June 12, 2021. Leon Neal/Pool via REUTERS

Charting a new course in US-Africa relations: The importance of learning from others’ mistakes

Liz May and Andrew Mold

Monday, June 21, 2021

FILE PHOTO: The Blue Nile River is seen as the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam reservoir fills near the Ethiopia-Sudan border, in this broad spectral image taken November 6, 2020. NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo/File Photo

Africa in the news: COVID-19, Côte d’Ivoire, and energy updates

Tamara White, Leo Holtz, and Mary Blankenship

Saturday, June 19, 2021

Nairobi, Kenya -June 13th 2017: Electric engineers laying down Electric transmission lines in rural Kenya, Africa. This lines transmit high power electricity to different regions countrywide.

Figure of the week: Increasing access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa

Mary Blankenship and Christina Golubski

Friday, June 18, 2021