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The document examines China's shift from extractive industries toward diversified economic co-operation in West Africa, specifically in agriculture. It contrasts Chinese assistance with Western aid, highlighting a 'win-win' South-South model based on China's own domestic agricultural success. While traditionally focused on technical assistance and food crops, recent trends show an increase in state-owned enterprise (SOE) involvement in cash crops and biofuels. The authors recommend that China focus on equitable investments and that West African governments encourage agro-industrial upgrading to add value to the regional agro-business chain.

The document evaluates the Open Government Partnership (OGP) against other peer-review mechanisms like the APRM, UPR, and OECDA, highlighting the OGP's flexibility, civil society involvement, and potential for harmonisation with existing governance reviews to benefit African states.

The document examines China's deepening security role in Africa, shifting from traditional military concerns to non-traditional threats. It analyzes how China protects its citizens from crime and terrorism, its response to the 2014 Ebola outbreak, and its dual role in the illegal wildlife and timber trades. The authors argue that these transnational challenges are compelling China to increase its engagement with multilateral organizations and move beyond its traditional policy of non-interference.

The report evaluates the Makeni Project, a 400 million EUR sugarcane bioethanol investment by Addax Bioenergy Sierra Leone (ABSL). While the project has introduced infrastructure, formal wage labour, and high-productivity rice cultivation through its Farmer Development Programme, it has also created challenges including labour scarcity during growing seasons, price inflation, and increased competition for water and food. The study concludes that while FDI can provide significant capital and technology, it cannot replace the public sector, and the transformative potential of such investments is diminished without supporting government investment and strong governance.

The Makeni Project has provided significant infrastructure, employment, and agricultural training in Sierra Leone, but its transformative potential is limited by poor government oversight and risks to local resource access.

The report addresses the critical shortage of local climate data in fragile states, where conflict and weak governance often destroy meteorological infrastructure. It categorizes climate information into historical, current, and prospective data, and provides a directory of satellite-based alternatives and international forecasting centers. The document argues that integrating these data into different humanitarian planning horizons—from immediate relief to long-term strategic planning—is essential for sustainable peacebuilding. It concludes by outlining priorities for rebuilding national meteorological services, using examples from Haiti and Sierra Leone.

The document examines the AU Panel of the Wise (PoW) as a key pillar of the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA), focusing on its use of preventive diplomacy in crisis-prone elections. It argues that while the PoW can attenuate violence and promote peaceful outcomes, such interventions often prioritize immediate peace over electoral legitimacy, potentially deferring structural conflicts to future cycles. The author emphasizes that the success of preventive diplomacy depends on the timing of 'early action' and the commitment of political stakeholders, noting that long-term governance transformation is necessary to resolve deep-rooted conflicts.

The document assesses the capacity of SADC to implement post-conflict reconstruction and development (PCRD), arguing that the organisation is currently constrained by a state-centric security model and structural silos. It examines South Africa's role as a regional power, noting that while South Africa has significant capacity, its efforts are often hindered by perceptions of hegemony and inconsistent diplomacy. By comparing SADC with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the paper highlights the benefits of a human-security approach and suggests that South Africa should move from bilateral to multilateral PCRD implementation via SADC and the South African Development Partnership Agency (SADPA).

The report examines the gap between Africa's strong rhetorical commitment to regional integration and the limited actual progress achieved. Using APRM data from 17 countries, it identifies systemic barriers including reluctance to cede national sovereignty, overlapping memberships in multiple regional economic communities (RECs), inadequate infrastructure, and a lack of private sector involvement. While some blocs like the East African Community (EAC) show more progress, most have not advanced beyond free trade areas or customs unions, and intra-African trade remains low compared to trade with external partners like the EU and China.

The document provides a practitioner-focused guide to securing community land rights in Africa, detailing case studies on resolving land conflicts, strengthening local governance, and resisting forced resettlement. It emphasizes the importance of community self-definition, the use of Biocultural Community Protocols, and the necessity of multi-pronged advocacy strategies involving legal education, media engagement, and the building of alliances between grassroots movements and sympathetic government actors.

The report provides an 'Afro-realistic' analysis of accountability in Africa, contrasting the potential of continental initiatives like the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) and Agenda 2063 with the practical challenges of domestic implementation. It investigates the roles of the African Union (AU), national parliaments, ombudsman offices, and civil society in curbing executive power and ensuring sustainable peace. The text highlights a tension between economic development and democratic governance, noting that while some states achieve growth, it often occurs at the expense of human rights.

The report examines the intersection of energy poverty and gender inequality in West Africa, highlighting how socially determined roles lead to differential access to and use of energy services. It identifies significant barriers for women in the energy workforce and entrepreneurship, including gaps in STEM education and limited access to land and finance. The document assesses the existing regional and national policy landscapes, noting a general lack of gender-disaggregated data and limited collaboration between energy and gender ministries. It argues for a gender-responsive approach to energy planning to maximize the impact of interventions and achieve universal energy access by 2030.

The report evaluates the Makeni Project, a 400 million EUR sugarcane-to-ethanol investment by Addax Bioenergy Sierra Leone (ABSL). While the project has introduced formal wage labour, new infrastructure, and agricultural support through the Farmer Development Programme (FDP), it has also created pressures on natural resources, such as fuelwood and water, and highlighted significant gaps in local skills and government governance. The study concludes that while FDI can catalyze development, it cannot replace the public sector, and the transformative potential of the project is limited by weak institutional capacity and a lack of coordinated public investment to complement private efforts.

The document examines the political vacuum created by the departure of Blaise Compaoré, who served as both a mediator and a source of instability in West Africa for 27 years. It analyzes his specific influence in Togo, Côte d’Ivoire, and Mali, as well as his role in negotiating the release of Western hostages from Islamist groups in the Sahel. The author suggests that while no single leader can replace Compaoré's personal networks, his exit provides an opportunity for ECOWAS to strengthen its institutional conflict resolution mechanisms.

The IISD Guide to Negotiating Investment Contracts for Farmland and Water is a comprehensive tool designed for governments and communities to manage foreign investments in agricultural land. It emphasizes the primacy of domestic law over investment contracts and international treaties, while providing a model contract to fill gaps where domestic laws are weak. The guide outlines a preparatory phase involving investor screening, community engagement, and impact assessments, and proposes specific contractual provisions covering tenure, financial obligations, social development, and environmental protections. It strongly advocates for transparency, the avoidance of stabilization clauses, and the use of domestic courts for dispute resolution to protect the national interest and ensure long-term project viability.

The document analyzes the 'vertical' healthcare approach favored by Western nations—which targets specific diseases—versus the 'horizontal' approach traditionally used by China, which focuses on infrastructure and integrated systems. While both provided short-term emergency aid during the Ebola crisis, the author argues that China's long-term strategy of building healthcare infrastructure is more sustainable for African states. The brief suggests that an ideal response combines both systems and calls for increased cooperation between China and the West, alongside regular UN Security Council meetings on public health, to strengthen global health security.

The document analyzes the African Group's engagement at the UN Human Rights Council, noting a tension between a desire for regional leadership and a tendency to grant accused governments veto power over resolutions. While some 'human rights-friendly' states consistently support country-specific resolutions, others systematically abstain or oppose them, leading to an uneven response to crises across the continent and globally.

The policy brief argues that Nigeria is experiencing a self-inflicted decline in its diplomatic standing within Africa. Despite being the continent's nominally largest economy as of May 2014, Nigeria's foreign policy is described as inchoate and ambiguous, hampered by a 'perverse hiatus' between its domestic ecology—marked by corruption and the Boko Haram insurgency—and its international ambitions. The author contends that Nigeria has lost its pre-eminence in Africa, failing to command respect even within ECOWAS and falling behind South Africa in governance and infrastructure. The document recommends that Nigeria prioritize domestic stability, clean government, and a recomposed social contract to restore its leadership role.

The document assesses South Africa's role as an emerging global actor in peace and security, specifically its interactions with the UN peacebuilding architecture (PBC, PBSO, and PBF). It highlights South Africa's experience in mediation and peacekeeping in countries like the DRC and Burundi, while noting a lack of systematic staffing of South Africans in the UN system. The paper emphasizes the potential of South-South cooperation, exemplified by the IBSA Fund, and recommends that South Africa leverage the 2015 UN peacebuilding review to promote African perspectives and national ownership of peace processes.

The document proposes a new analytical framework for understanding organised crime, suggesting that criminal networks act as 'parallel sovereigns' that exercise authority in spaces neglected by formal institutions. It argues that the global neoliberal market has replaced the state as the primary referent of sovereignty, allowing criminal networks to commoditise influence and political connectivity to integrate themselves into governance.