The Regional Economic Communities (RECs) are regional groupings of African states. The 1980 Lagos Plan of Action for the Development of Africa and the 1991 Abuja Treaty proposed the creation of RECs as the basis for wider African integration. Each with their own role and structure, the RECs aim to facilitate regional economic integration between members of the region and through the wider African Economic Community (AEC), established under the Abuja Treaty. They are increasingly involved in coordinating African Union Member States’ interests in wider areas such as peace and security
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The mandate of the RIWG is to address how to better employ research and innovation to address global challenges; to promote science, technology, innovation, and international cooperation for sustainable development; share knowledge, experiences, and best practices; and to reduce gaps in the access to and the production of science, technology, and innovation.
Higher energy demands in Africa has led to a wide expansion of the number of hydropower sites, mainly between the 1960s and 980s. The construction of dams causes impoundments of rivers and reservoirs in the region of dam influence with higher evaporation and water temperatures due to increased water surfaces. This map shows the aggregated surfaces (sqkm) of reservoirs subject to hydropower production per country, as of 2016. It includes reservoirs of associated hydropower plants with installed capacities above 5MW. Apart from this, only reservoirs with a detected dam-caused impoundment of
The hydropower installed capacity indicates the amount of energy a hydropower plant can produce in its turbines. In 2016, hydropower accounted for 54% of the installed capacity in Eastern Africa, 58% in Central Africa and 30% in Western Africa with fourteen countries having a hydropower share above 50% and eight countries above 70%. These highly hydropower-dependent countries are particularly prone to electricity cuts due to the lack of water caused by severe drought. This map shows the installed capacities (MW) of hydropower plants with an installed capacity above 5MW, aggregated for each
How do development projects influence the geographic distribution of economic activity within low-income and middle-income countries? Existing research focuses on the effects of Western development projects on inter-personal inequality and inequality across different subnational regions. However, China has become a major financier of economic infrastructure in Africa. This dataset geo-locates Chinese Government-financed projects between 2000 and 2014. It captures 3,485 projects worth $273.6 billion in total official financing. It includes both Chinese aid and non-concessional official
