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The Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ) and #PayTheGrants are challenging the South African government's appeal against a High Court ruling that found the SRD grant system unconstitutionally exclusionary. The High Court previously ruled that the online-only application and bank verification processes were illegal and that the government must increase the grant's value and means-test threshold. The IEJ argues that the current grant of R370 and a frozen means-test of R624 are insufficient given that the food poverty line is R855 per month. The document highlights a worsening socio-economic crisis, including 43.7% unemployment in Q1 2026 and rising inflation, warning that the government's failure to provide adequate social assistance could lead to social unrest.

The document outlines Tunisia's trajectory from independence in 1956 through the 2010 Freedom and Dignity Revolution and the subsequent democratic transition. It highlights a recent period of democratic regression since 2021 under President Kaïs Saïed, alongside deteriorating economic conditions characterized by rising public debt, high youth unemployment, and stalled IMF negotiations. The text notes that while Tunisia has a skilled labor force, its development is hindered by structural weaknesses and the impacts of climate change on water security and agriculture.

Sudan possesses significant potential due to its strategic location, diverse mineral deposits, and arable land, yet it remains one of the world's poorest countries. Decades of authoritarian rule and internal conflict, culminating in the civil war since April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, have led to the collapse of state institutions and a catastrophic humanitarian crisis. Despite its history as a petro-state prior to South Sudan's 2011 secession, the economy suffers from a lack of diversification and chronic trade deficits.

Niger is a low-income, landlocked country in Western Africa facing severe developmental challenges, ranking 189th out of 191 countries on the 2024 Human Development Index. The country is characterized by extreme heat and rainfall variability, with desertification and climate change increasing vulnerabilities. Politically, Niger has experienced a history of instability, most recently marked by a July 2023 military coup that deposed President Mohamed Bazoum. This shift led to the withdrawal of French and US military forces and Niger's exit from ECOWAS and the G5 Sahel to join the Alliance of Sahel States and the Confederation of Sahel States. Despite seeking new partners like Russia, China, and Türkiye, the security situation remains precarious due to Islamist insurgent activity and internal dissent from groups such as the Patriotic Liberation Front.

The document argues that Indonesia's critical minerals industry, particularly nickel, is characterized by 'green extractivism' where global decarbonization narratives mask local ecological destruction and human rights abuses. It highlights the role of National Strategic Projects (PSN) in bypassing environmental protections and the heavy dominance of Chinese capital and technology in the supply chain. The report documents severe impacts including fatal workplace accidents, massive deforestation in North Maluku, health crises such as spikes in respiratory infections, and the systemic impoverishment of local communities.

The report examines the Democratic Republic of the Congo's current development path and simulates eight sectoral scenarios to identify pathways toward inclusive growth by 2043. It highlights the country's extreme poverty and dependence on commodity exports, while projecting that a combined policy push across manufacturing, governance, and agriculture could significantly increase GDP and reduce poverty.

The document describes Mozambique as a low-income country with significant mineral and marine resources but persistent structural challenges. While the country saw rapid growth between 1993 and 2015 and improvements in health and electricity access, it has struggled with a narrow productive base and high poverty levels. Recent growth has slowed due to the 'hidden debt' scandal, insurgency, and climate shocks. The report highlights the risk that gas megaprojects may not lead to inclusive development without strategic governance and economic diversification.

Malawi is a low-income, landlocked country in Southern Africa facing severe economic and climatic vulnerabilities. Despite a stable democratic governance structure and the long-term 'Malawi Vision 2063' blueprint, the nation struggles with high poverty rates, a heavy reliance on agriculture, and significant fiscal deficits. Recent shocks, including El Niño-induced droughts in 2024 and the 2025 freezing of USAID funds, have exacerbated food insecurity and budgetary pressures.

The document examines the rapid expansion of private schooling in Africa since the 1990s, noting that while it provides a quality alternative to failing public systems in some areas, it often exacerbates inequality and is increasingly driven by profit-seeking and foreign investment rather than charity.

The report details a randomized control trial (RCT) involving 242 SunCulture customers in Kenya to test whether providing free electric pressure cookers (EPCs) powered by solar irrigation batteries could reduce reliance on polluting fuels. The pilot found that while EPCs are feasible and generally liked, their adoption is hindered by intra-household gender dynamics—where men typically control battery use while women control cooking—and competition with other appliances like televisions. Although the intervention increased EPC usage by 49 percentage points, the impact on displacing traditional fuels like firewood and charcoal was not statistically significant, likely due to the availability of LPG among the relatively wealthier study participants. The authors recommend integrating secondary-use mechanisms into solar irrigation programs, redirecting LPG subsidies toward e-cooking, and developing 'priority ports' to ensure energy is allocated to cooking.

The Amazon Basin hosts over 2,700 fish species, representing 15% of global freshwater fish biodiversity, with 65% being endemic. These fishes provide critical ecosystem services, such as seed dispersal for rainforest regeneration, and are essential for the food security and livelihoods of millions of people. However, they are threatened by habitat fragmentation from dams, deforestation, pollution (particularly mercury from gold mining), overfishing, and climate change. The report advocates for a shift from isolated national strategies to a unified, basin-wide governance framework that integrates scientific data with Indigenous and traditional knowledge to protect river connectivity and sustainable fisheries.

The gender assessment for the FORECCSA+ project in Ecuador reveals deep-seated structural inequalities and patriarchal norms that limit rural women's access to land, credit, and decision-making power. Despite a progressive national legal framework, including the 2023 Violet Economy Law, rural women continue to face a double burden of productive and unpaid care work, with significant gaps in land ownership and technical training. Survey data indicates that approximately 20-25% of men surveyed hold sexist attitudes that normalize the subordination of women and certain forms of gender-based violence. The report identifies these gaps as strategic opportunities for the project to implement gender-transformative adaptation measures, focusing on the empowerment of rural women and youth to enhance community resilience and food security.

The Youth For Tax Justice Network and AFRODAD argue that unsustainable sovereign debt and unfair global tax rules hinder the potential of Africa's youth, demanding a UN Tax Convention and a UN Framework Convention on Sovereign Debt to prioritize people and the planet over creditors.

The report analyzes how climate change acts as a driver of conflict in Nigeria, specifically through resource competition, livelihood loss, and displacement. It details the interaction between environmental stressors and security issues, such as farmer-herder clashes and recruitment into armed groups like Boko Haram. The document proposes a five-step sequence to mainstream conflict sensitivity and peacebuilding into the National Adaptation Plan (NAP), ranging from institutional framework development to the inclusion of peacebuilding markers in monitoring and evaluation.

The report examines Indonesia's energy transition through a lens of national interest, highlighting a significant gap between the high investment needs for Net Zero Emissions (NZE) and the limited availability of domestic and international funding. It argues that foreign climate finance often arrives as debt rather than grants, potentially exacerbating Indonesia's chronic fiscal deficits and public debt. The document analyzes the capacity of the Indonesian banking sector to fund renewable energy projects, finding that while capital adequacy is generally high, systemic bottlenecks in foreign exchange liquidity and long-term stable funding persist. It also evaluates the nascent Indonesian carbon market, noting a lack of clear emission caps (PTBAE) and low carbon prices. The authors propose 'The Indonesian Way,' a strategy focusing on eight action paths, including the dekarbonization of transport and electricity, targeted subsidies, and the development of a domestic green manufacturing ecosystem to reduce technological dependency.

The study identifies a nonlinear efficiency frontier in the Argentine Dry Chaco where transitioning from low- to intermediate-intensity land-use systems allows for significant production gains with minimal conservation losses. A 'land sharing with conservation' scenario (70% intermediate-intensity systems and 30% undisturbed forests) was found to optimize both avian habitat and agricultural productivity. The research categorizes landholders into preproductivist, multifunctional, and productivist groups, noting that while preproductivists may endogenously transition to multifunctional regimes to increase productivity by 35-65% without harming avian habitat, productivists require exogenous incentives to adopt similar regimes that could increase conservation outcomes by 30-50% without significant productivity loss.

The study finds that charcoal production in the Argentine Dry Chaco is dominated by individual or small-scale producers often associated with forest land cover, while larger kiln clusters are linked to cleared land for cultivation. While overall regional production has remained stable for 50 years, there has been a redistribution of activity from wealthier to poorer provinces. The authors conclude that small-scale production by poor rural populations currently provides the only market incentive for forest preservation, though it is characterized by inefficiency and forest degradation.

The research investigates how social capital influences the transformation of livelihoods for low-income farmers in Mexico's peri-urban areas as they adapt to increasing urbanization. The findings highlight the role of informal institutions and non-institutional mechanisms in regulating and distributing resource access in these regions.

The 2025 City Profiling Report for Cape Town describes a city with strong institutional governance and high service delivery standards relative to other SADC cities, yet one plagued by deep structural inequality and chronic traffic congestion. While the city maintains a clean audit record and high human development indices, it faces significant challenges in youth unemployment, informal settlement growth, and climate vulnerability, particularly regarding water scarcity and fire risk.

The Lilongwe City Profiling Report 2025 provides a comprehensive analysis of the capital city of Malawi, detailing its urban geography, governance, socio-economic status, and service delivery. The report highlights a city facing significant challenges including high poverty levels, limited infrastructure, and a governance structure where the local council has minimal de facto control over essential services like health and education, which remain managed by the central government.