Africa in Focus

A delegate uses her cell phone to buy a M-Akiba bond during the launch of the first mobile-phone-based government bond at the Treasury building in Nairobi, Kenya March 23, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya - RTX32CAC

Africa in the news: Kenya’s debut mobile bond, regional hydropower plans, and South Africa’s credit rating drop

Friday, April 7, 2017

Doctor Sekou Kanneh speaks during an interview with Reuters TV in the Hastings ebola treatment centre at a neighbourhood in Freetown, December 21, 2014. Conditions at Kanneh's treatment centre, the only Ebola unit in the country run by local staff, contrast to the purpose-built facilities where foreign volunteers who have flocked to Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia work. Kanneh has received no official training to treat the virus that has killed over 7,000 people in West Africa. Still, he works up to four hour shifts in the stifling heat of the red zone, a ward where healthcare workers have direct contact with the highly contagious Ebola patients. In contrast, workers in foreign-run facilities are well trained and well-funded; with limits on the time spent in the red zones to not more than two hours. Picture taken December 21, 2014
. REUTERS/Baz Ratner (SIERRA LEONE - Tags: HEALTH POLITICS) - RTR4J3GL

Figure of the week: Findings from the Brookings Health Governance Capacity report

Friday, April 7, 2017

Construction workers build a new bridge against the skyline of Mozambique's capital Maputo April 15, 2016. REUTERS/Grant Lee Neuenburg - RTX2BG6Y

How development finance institutions can align the private sector with urban planning in Maputo

Mathew O’Sullivan and Quinn Rask

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

South Africa's outgoing Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan holds a copy of an intelligence report that President Jacob Zuma used as justification to fire him, during a media briefing at their offices in Pretoria, South Africa, March 31,2017. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko - RTX33IUO

Africa in the news: Zuma sacks Finance Minister Gordhan, Côte d’Ivoire seeks additional IMF funds, and violence in DRC escalates

Friday, March 31, 2017

A street is seen after the city was taken last week by mutinous soldiers, in Bouake, Ivory Coast January 13, 2017. REUTERS/Thierry Gouegnon - RTX2YSFI

Figures of the week: Natural resources-driven urbanization and urban primacy in Africa

Friday, March 31, 2017

A worker carries cassava roots after they were pulled from the ground during a harvest at the farm of Aolil Pedro in Murrupula Mozambique on August 9th 2016. Pedro took part in an AGRA cassava farmers program that allowed him to gain access to a small amount of land and new varieties of cassava that are resistant to disease that plagues older forms of cassava that are traditionally grown in Mozambique. The AGRA program helped to develop 11 new varieties of cassava that are now being used around the country. The program also connected farmers with resources to find places to sell their cassava.

Encountering Africa’s agriculture challenges in its cities’ morning traffic

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

A general view shows the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting in Baden-Baden, Germany, March 17, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach - RTX31HJ4

Africa in the news: G-20 talks on Africa, oil news in Nigeria and South Africa, and Kenya’s domestic unrest

Christina Golubski

Friday, March 24, 2017

A man counts Nigerian Naira as he waits for customers at a local foodstuff market in Lagos, Nigeria November 2, 2016.REUTERS/Akintunde Akinleye - RTX2RIT8

Figures of the week: Human development progress in Africa and globally

Friday, March 24, 2017

Farmers display organically grown cocoa beans, also known as Bio cocoa, at the Toumbakro farm in Yamoussoukro, capital of Ivory Coast, June 11, 2008. The organically grown cocoa is produced without the usage of any pesticide. World cocoa production is expected to grow faster than demand in the coming few years, and prices will decline, International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO) Executive Director Jan Vingerhoets said on Tuesday. REUTERS/Luc Gnago - RTX6SZ5

Africa in the news: South Africa’s welfare dispute, the effects of low cocoa prices on Côte d’Ivoire, and President Buhari’s return to Nigeria

Friday, March 17, 2017

Electricity pylons carry power from Cape Town's Koeberg nuclear power plant, South Africa, July 17, 2009. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings/File Photo - RTX2RP5N

Figures of the week: Benefits of off-grid electricity solutions

Christina Golubski

Friday, March 17, 2017

Cranes are seen at a construction site in Sandton outside Johannesburg

Financing African infrastructure through pension funds

Christina Golubski

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Customers operate an Equity ATM cash machine in Kenya's capital Nairobi November 11, 2015. REUTERS/Noor Khamis - RTS9OD8

Why French should become the new lingua franca of African private equity

Abdoulaye Toure and Thomas Flahive

Monday, March 13, 2017

U.N. Secretary general Antonio Guterres (R) and Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed arrive for a joint news conference after their meeting in Somalia's capital Mogadishu March 7, 2017. REUTERS/Feisal Omar - RTS11RK7

Africa in the news: Guterres visits East Africa while South Sudan increases NGO fees, Lesotho parliament dissolved, Somalia to print new banknotes

Christina Golubski

Friday, March 10, 2017

The entrance of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is seen in The Hague, Netherlands, March 3, 2011. REUTERS/Jerry Lampen/File Photo - RTX2QTCY

Figure of the week: African indictments and withdrawals from the International Criminal Court

Thursday, March 9, 2017

Children sing a song of welcome at a primary school in Dagahale, one of several refugee settlements in Dadaab, Garissa County, northeastern Kenya, October 9, 2013. REUTERS/Siegfried Modola (KENYA - Tags: SOCIETY EDUCATION) - RTX144JA

Transactional and transformational changes to improve girls’ education globally

Tuesday, March 7, 2017