Akrofi, Mark McCarthy, and Sarpong Hammond Antwi. “COVID-19 Energy Sector Responses in Africa: A Review of Preliminary Government Interventions.” Energy Research & Social Science 68 (2020): 101681–101681. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2020.101681.

The COVID-19 pandemic has unleashed unprecedented shocks across all facets of society, from strained healthcare systems to the closure of schools and economies. The energy sector is of no exception, with several concerns being raised about the ramifications that will arise for the clean energy transition. The goal of the study is to review how governments in Africa have responded to this challenge in the energy sector. The authors used an internet search to gather information from government policy statements/briefs, and websites of international organizations such as the IMF,WHO, KPMG, and the World Bank. Their review showed that the majority of preliminary responses were short-term and include the provision of free electricity, waiver/suspension of bill payments, and VAT exemptions on electricity bills. These measures were more pronounced in sub-Sahara Africa while oil-rich countries of the North mostly have broad economic measures that target their oil and gas sectors. Economic stimulus packages prepared by most countries do not explicitly mention energy sector companies/institutions, especially the Renewable Energies (RE) sector. Only three countries (Nigeria, Kenya, and Burkina Faso) had specific interventions for renewables. Overall, interventions were mostly fiscal/financial and short-term, with medium to long term measures often broad without being specific to the energy sector. As governments take measures to bolster their economies, they must pay particular attention to the challenges posed by the pandemic in the energy sector and capitalize on the opportunities that it presents to drive the clean energy transition.

Source: Article's abstract

Makina, Daniel. Extending Financial Inclusion in Africa. London: Academic Press, 2019.

Extending Financial Inclusion in Africa unveils the genesis and transformation of Africa's financial sector and its ability to provide finance for all. Contributors of the Book traverse the whole spectrum of African financial systems, examining their depth and breadth and empirically evaluating their appropriateness and effectiveness to achieve inclusive financial services

Source: book description by publisher

Kimari, Wangui, and Henrik Ernstson. “Imperial Remains and Imperial Invitations: Centering Race within the Contemporary Large‐Scale Infrastructures of East Africa.” Antipode 52, no. 3 (2020): 825–46. https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12623.

Authors combine infrastructure studies and black radical traditions to foreground how imperial remains deeply inform the logics that bring forth contemporary large‐scale infrastructures in Africa. The objective, prompted by the ongoing avid promotion of such architectures on the continent, is to contribute to an analysis that centres race in these projects. They argue that these initiatives have to be understood in relation to inherited material and discursive scaffoldings that remain from the colonial period, through what they refer to as imperial remains and imperial invitations. These remains and invitations demonstrate how recent mega infrastructures inhere, in their planning, financing and implementation, a colonial racialism, despite rhetorical claims to the opposite. Empirically, they draw principally on China built and financed infrastructure projects from Kenya, and theoretically upon black radical traditions to foreground a longer genealogy of black pathologizing and resistance to it on the continent.

Source: adapted from article's abstract.

Enns, Charis, and Brock Bersaglio. “On the Coloniality of ‘New’ Mega‐Infrastructure Projects in East Africa.” Antipode 52, no. 1 (2020): 101–23. https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12582.

This article responds to a preference for short‐term history in research on the infrastructure turn by engaging with the longue durée of East Africa’s latest infrastructure scramble. It traces the history of LAPSSET in Kenya and the Central Corridor in Tanzania, revealing the coloniality of new and improved transport infrastructure along both corridors. This exercise demonstrates how the spatial visions and territorial plans of colonial administrators get built in to new infrastructure and materialise in ways that serve the interests of global capital rather than peasant and indigenous peoples being promised more modern, prosperous futures. The article concludes by suggesting that a focus on the longue durée also reveals uneven patterns of mobility and immobility set in motion during the colonial scramble for Africa and reinforced after independence. These “colonial moorings” are significant as they shape political reactions to new mega‐infrastructure projects today and constrain the emancipatory potential of infrastructure‐led development.

Source: Paper abstract.

Alden, Chris, and Lu Jiang. “Brave New World: Debt, Industrialization and Security in China–Africa Relations.” International Affairs (London) 95, no. 3 (2019): 641–57. https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiz083.

China's ties with Africa are evolving into a multi-faceted relationship of increasing complexity. After nearly two decades of debt-financed infrastructure development, Beijing's exposure to African debt is reaching disquieting proportions with an estimatedUS$132 billion owed to China in 2016. Managing this new role as Africa's creditor poses uncomfortable questions for creditor and debtor alike. Concurrently, the quiet surge of Chinese investment in manufacturing in Africa is transforming local economies in ways that are beginning to alter the continent's position within the global economy. Finally, the proliferation of Chinese businesses and migrants across Africa is inspiring greater Chinese involvement in UN peacekeeping and private security initiatives. This article examines how these structural changes are challenging core practices and principles which guided China–Africa relations in its formative decades. For instance, under the banner of an alternative to western policies China promoted the absence of conditionalities attached to its concessional loans and grants. Equally, promotion of industrialization of African economies marks a key shift away from China's resource-centric engagement with the continent. And, in the case of security, Beijing's commitment to avoid intervention in domestic affairs is being set aside with implications for its principles, and ultimately status, in Africa.

Source: Paper abstract.

Hilson, Abigail, Gavin Hilson, and Suleman Dauda. “Corporate Social Responsibility at African Mines: Linking the Past to the Present.” Journal of Environmental Management 241 (July 2019): 340–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2019.03.121.

This paper traces the origins of the 'brand' of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) employed at large-scale mines across sub-Saharan Africa. Conceived within fortified resource enclaves, the policies adopted and actions taken in the area of CSR at many of the region's large-scale mines today have had had minimal effect on community wellbeing. Further examination reveals that contemporary CSR strategy in the region's mining sector is often a 'repackaging' and 'rebranding' of moves made by major operators during the colonial period and early years of country independence to pacify and engage local communities. Today, this work is being championed as CSR but failing to deliver much change, its impact minimized by the economic and political forces at work in an era of globalization, during which extractive industry enclaves that are disconnected from local economies have been able to flourish. As case study of Ghana, long one of the largest gold mining economies in sub-Saharan Africa, is used to illustrate these points.

Source: Paper abstract.