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10 reasons why Africa must take the electric vehicle battery market by storm

11/01/202311/01/2023 by akaraticha-admin

By Abel Akara Ticha Africa’s natural capital puts it in pole position to drive carbon neutral development. But there’s a time-bound catch, and it must rush to cash-in on a global battery electric vehicle (BEV) industry, ballooning towards $8.8 trillion by 2025. Below are 10 reasons to get cracking. 1) Beneficiating the DRC’s gargantuan reserves … Read more

I chop, I chouk, I lick? [A tale of school meals and the cost of living crisis]

23/12/2022 by akaraticha-admin

By Abel Akara Ticha As the world trudges through the global food chain crunch, which has already triggered violent protests in Africa – with Sierra Leone topping the casualty charts, children, especially those of school going-age, are bearing the brunt. Given the situation at hand, I found it most tempting to highlight the plight of … Read more

Ten sticks and a carrot – a fair proportion of the climate messaging mix

25/11/2022 by akaraticha-admin

This piece is in response to Charlotte Horler’s LinkedIn post titled “We’ve got a marketing problem” [on climate change messaging]. The post can be found here: https://bit.ly/3NONsJg Your (Charlotte Horler’s) concern is founded but don’t you think mainstream media have already showcased the paucity of actions to roll back climate change? The question is: where … Read more

Evaluating Agenda 2030: Is SDG 13 to reverse climate change on track?

10/10/202208/10/2022 by akaraticha-admin

By Abel Akara Ticha I) Introduction Among the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which morphed out of a rather checkered bid by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to transform the world by 2015, SDG 13 (“take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts”) is key. A prima facie look at the … Read more

World Press Freedom Day with Journalism under Digital Siege?

05/05/202203/05/2022 by akaraticha-admin

By Abel Akara Ticha Is “Journalism under digital siege”? Well, UNESCO says yes! The organisation chose that as the theme of this year’s World Press Freedom Day (WPFD) on 3 May, to call on Governments and other powerful actors to refrain from using big data collection tools and artificial intelligence to track journalists, curtail their … Read more

Lake Chad Basin: Going Beyond Military and Shortermist Development Diplomacy to Fix Water-Livelihood Stress

11/09/202225/04/2022 by akaraticha-admin

A POLICY BRIEF by Abel Akara Ticha This policy brief first appeared on impactnews-wire.com and kapitalafrik.com on 24 April 2022 Executive Summary To achieve lasting solutions to the Lake Chad Basin (LCB) water and security crisis, it is not enough to proffer diplomatic and military solutions sprinkled with palliative development support to the millions of … Read more

Copy, tweak and paste: How Central African Economies can benefit from elsewhere experiences to build skills for economic diversification

11/09/202212/04/2022 by akaraticha-admin

STEM education photo, talking development

By Abel Akara Ticha

INTRODUCTION

Inadequate skills development and low productivity are hobbling the competitive edge and economic diversification potential of Central African countries. However, if they draw inspiration from the recent steps taken by Ethiopia to foster education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEMs) , and learn from the track record of countries such as Japan and South Africa, among others, then the sub-region can also promote a skills revolution in the training and deployment of human resources to respond better to the challenges and opportunities for economic diversification in Central Africa.

4 key reasons why Africa must embrace 5G now

11/09/202210/04/2022 by akaraticha-admin

By Abel Akara Ticha

No need for the chicken-and-egg debate about which should come first at the moment in Africa: basic infrastructure/amenities or the deployment of 5G broadband. Africa already has general sustainable development issues to grapple with, but the 5G promises to become the eye of the digital economy whirlwind which will pepper-up multiple sectors for sustainable development on the continent.

Why Central African countries must put natural capital accounting at the centre of their development

11/09/202210/04/2022 by akaraticha-admin

Image of Central African forest for Natural capital accounting-talking international development

By Nadia Ouedraogo, Issoufou Seidou, Abel Akara Ticha and Antonio Pedro*

The paradox of Central Africa is that it constellates countries extremely rich in natural resources needed for global development, yet these countries cannot finance their development agendas without recourse to expensive loans and aid with attached strings. The situation becomes dire when faced with externalities such as plummeting commodity prices or a pandemic such as COVID-19. But this ought never to be so!