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The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) possesses vast natural wealth, including the world's largest cobalt production and the second-largest tropical rainforest, yet remains one of Africa's poorest nations. Since independence in 1960, the country has been characterized by political instability, authoritarian rule under Mobutu Sese Seko, and devastating conflicts such as the Great African War. Recent history has seen a transition toward democratic elections, though the administration of President Félix Tshisekedi continues to face challenges regarding economic stability and violence in the eastern region.

The Centre for Environmental Rights (CER), on behalf of several partner organisations, submitted a formal comment to the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) regarding the proposed "Flexible Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) system." The CER argues that the shift from a rules-based system to one based on administrative discretion risks violating constitutional rights to a healthy environment and just administrative action, potentially weakening environmental protections and public participation.

The report forecasts that sub-Saharan Africa's population will grow to 1.962 billion by 2043, with a significant shift toward urbanization. While regional GDP is projected to increase substantially, reaching between US$6.2 trillion and US$6.7 trillion, GDP per capita growth is tempered by rapid population increases. The region is expected to face increasing food insecurity as agricultural demand outstrips production. Energy production is projected to shift toward renewables, yet total carbon emissions are forecast to rise by over 146% by 2043, with Nigeria expected to overtake South Africa as the region's largest emitter.

The East African Community (EAC) is a regional economic community comprising eight member states with a combined 2023 GDP of US$296 billion. While the EAC has established a customs union, common market, and monetary union protocol, its ultimate goal of a political federation has seen progress stall, partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic and regional instability.

The Combined Agenda 2063 scenario, integrating 11 sectoral reforms, is projected to significantly increase COMESA's GDP per capita to US$10,235 by 2043 and nearly eradicate extreme poverty. While driving substantial economic growth, particularly in Malawi and Ethiopia, the scenario is also expected to increase carbon emissions to 380 million metric tons by 2043.

The report details specific multipliers and targets for Burundi across several development scenarios. Key interventions include improving government effectiveness, reducing child and maternal mortality, increasing vocational training, boosting agricultural yields, and expanding renewable energy and ICT infrastructure. The document compares these projected outcomes against averages for low-income African countries and historical benchmarks from other African nations.

The research paper examines the 'fintech revolution' in Africa, focusing on how mobile money services like M-Pesa have allowed the continent to bypass traditional banking infrastructure. It details the economic impacts of digital finance, including poverty reduction and GDP growth in sub-Saharan Africa, while noting remaining challenges in cross-border payments and regulatory oversight.

Germany's coffee industry, worth EUR 20 billion annually, faces significant risks as over 98% of its imports originate from countries highly or moderately vulnerable to climate change. Climate-induced supply shocks led to a 43% increase in roasted coffee prices for German consumers in 2025. To counter this, Germany utilizes climate finance through bodies like GIZ and BMZ to fund adaptation projects, such as agroforestry and regenerative techniques, in producing regions. Examples include the Yayu Forest Biosphere Reserve project in Ethiopia and the Coffee++ initiative in Asia and Africa, which aim to stabilize yields and diversify supply sources to reduce dependence on volatile markets like Brazil and Vietnam.

The document analyzes the stagnation of African agricultural productivity, attributing it to historical factors like slavery, colonialism, and a lack of tenure reform. It contrasts a 'Current Path' forecast—characterized by increasing food import dependence and low yields—with an 'Agriculture scenario' where targeted interventions in AgTech, irrigation, and soil health lead to significant poverty reduction and GDP growth. The report emphasizes the need for food self-sufficiency and value addition within Africa over a reliance on raw commodity exports.

The report details systemic gender discrimination in African households, highlighting the prevalence of child marriage, the disproportionate burden of unpaid care work on women, and legal and cultural barriers to equal divorce and inheritance rights.

The report highlights a significant gap between the skills of African graduates and the requirements of the modern job market, particularly in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). It notes that sub-Saharan Africa has low enrollment in vocational programmes compared to global averages, though some countries like Angola perform better. The text argues for a balance between academic and vocational training to support agribusiness and manufacturing, while warning that poor foundational education in sub-Saharan Africa creates a lack of 'readily trainable workers' for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The report examines education spending in Africa, noting that while many countries exceed the African Union's 20% budget allocation target, funding remains inadequate due to inefficiencies and declining international aid. It highlights significant regional disparities in per-student spending and a critical disconnect between high expenditure and educational performance, largely because budgets are dominated by recurrent costs like salaries rather than capital investments.

The FSF ACCT is a blended finance programme targeting cocoa and coffee supply chains in 10 countries. It combines a USD 200 million investment facility for pre-harvest working capital loans with a USD 12 million Technical Assistance Facility (TAF). The programme aims to mitigate 8.47 million tCO2e and benefit over 8.7 million people over 15 years by promoting agroforestry and regenerative agriculture.

The Climate Litigation Lab report summarizes discussions from a 2025 event in Magaliesburg, South Africa, focusing on Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) and the legal challenges facing environmental defenders in Africa.

The Public Affairs Research Institute (PARI) argues that South Africa's Public Procurement Act (2024), specifically sections 30 and 31, provides a statutory mandate for civil society to monitor procurement. To translate this into practice, PARI proposes piloting civic observers for high-risk contracts, expanding community-led social audits for local service delivery, and adopting the Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) for machine-readable transparency. The paper emphasizes that these measures shift oversight from retrospective audits to real-time risk mitigation and suggests that National Treasury can begin implementation using existing powers under the PFMA and MFMA even while the new Act is challenged in court.

Between 2021 and 2024, 24 major European banks provided US$41.9 billion to companies developing new gas plants, with 63% of this funding coming from seven banks in France and the UK. The report contends that gas power is not a 'transition fuel' but a source of severe air pollution, price volatility, and long-term greenhouse gas emissions lock-in. It highlights that 78% of this financing is directed toward OECD and European countries, where power sectors are expected to be carbon neutral by 2035. The document concludes that banks must immediately end financial services to gas power expansion to align with a 1.5°C warming limit.

The report argues that the abrupt closure of USAID in 2025 has had catastrophic short-term effects on funding-dependent newsrooms in Africa, leading to mass layoffs and a decline in investigative capacity. It highlights the role of Internews as a primary implementer of these projects and warns that the loss of funding increases the risk of 'media capture' by political actors, the 'juniorisation' of newsrooms as senior staff leave, and a shift toward commercial rather than public service reporting. The author concludes that the resulting vacuum in public accountability work may accelerate democratic backsliding in fragile states.

The report argues that the AfCFTA is essential for Africa to overcome a colonial legacy of exporting primary goods and importing manufactured equipment. It highlights that while official intra-African trade is low (14.8% in 2021), informal trade is significantly higher due to high formal costs. The AfCFTA aims to formalise trade, develop regional value chains, and prioritise industrialisation in sectors like agri-business and pharmaceuticals to enhance global competitiveness and economic stability.

Analysis of the Global Oil and Gas Extraction Tracker (GOGET) reveals that oil and gas fields now take significantly longer to come online than in the 1960–1980 period, with 2025 startups averaging 15.1 years. This increase is driven by the depletion of easily accessible fields, forcing companies to target technically challenging 'hard-to-recover' reserves, such as ultra-high pressure '20K technology' fields in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and remote Arctic projects in Russia. Additional delays stem from reservoir compositions (e.g., sour gas), ecological risks in protected areas, and more stringent environmental regulations, such as the UK's 2025 guidance on scope three emissions. The report argues that these long lead times increase the risk of creating stranded assets and locking in production that contradicts global climate targets to limit warming to 1.5°C.

The report highlights how Africa's infrastructure deficit, particularly in roads and aviation, increases transport costs and hinders investment. It notes a significant funding gap and a failure to implement regional air transport agreements, while acknowledging the role of China's Belt and Road Initiative in recent infrastructure development.