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The policy brief argues that African governments should leverage the urgency of the COVID-19 crisis to implement lasting reforms that protect the continent's long-term growth trajectory. It outlines ten priorities divided into resource mobilization, governance, business environment, and digital innovation. Key recommendations include closing tax loopholes, streamlining government bureaucracy, improving the ease of doing business, and crowding in venture capital to support a tech-driven innovation ecosystem.

The South African Water Caucus (SAWC) is urging the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) to address critical water and sanitation shortages in more than 200 communities. The letter highlights failures in the DWS hotline, the lack of coordination via the National Disaster Water Command Centre, and the severe health risks posed to vulnerable populations during the COVID-19 pandemic. It provides a detailed annexure of affected areas across several provinces, including the Western Cape, Limpopo, Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, and Free State, where residents rely on polluted rivers, unreliable water trucks, or have no infrastructure at all.

The report details how COVID-19 caused operational disruptions, reduced premium income, and accelerated digitalization within the insurance sector in Eastern and Southern Africa. While life and health products provided some coverage, business interruption insurance largely failed to support business resilience. Insurers face prudential stability concerns and liquidity challenges, though 50% expect premium income to recover within a year.

The document examines how COVID-19 disrupted mining employment through lockdowns, supply chain failures, and commodity price volatility. It highlights the vulnerability of contractual and migrant workers, the risk of insolvency for local SMEs, and the potential for accelerated automation. The author argues that recovery requires shifting from blanket stimulus to targeted support, redesigning workplaces for health safety, and diversifying local industrial bases to reduce dependency on mining jobs.

The document argues that Africa is experiencing a growing economic divergence from the rest of the world, with GDP per capita projected to be less than one quarter of the global average by 2040. While human well-being indicators like life expectancy have improved, the continent's growth is constrained by an unproductive economic structure dominated by low-end informal services and a slow demographic transition. To ignite a 'growth revolution', the author advocates for a 'bottom-up' approach focusing on basic infrastructure, reducing fertility rates, and transitioning toward manufacturing and productive agriculture. The brief emphasizes that leveraging the fourth industrial revolution, renewable energy, and the African Continental Free Trade Area, alongside accountable leadership, is essential to reversing commodity dependence and achieving sustainable prosperity.

The report identifies cultural, structural, and workplace barriers that marginalise women in the male-dominated maritime sector in Africa. It highlights a critical lack of gender-disaggregated data and the phenomenon of 'sea blindness' as obstacles to visibility and recruitment. Using South Africa as a primary case study, the report suggests that the United Nations' Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda can provide a framework for improving women's inclusion. Key recommendations include launching public awareness campaigns, implementing gender-sensitive budgeting, and creating mentorship programmes to bridge the gender gap.

The report examines the lack of controls on the manufacture, import, and export of law enforcement equipment in South Africa that facilitates torture. It identifies a domestic industry producing inherently abusive tools, such as stun belts and electrified shields, and highlights the gap between South Africa's international human rights obligations and its domestic trade practices.

A coalition of over twenty civil society organisations, the Civil Society Working Group on State Capture, has called on the Zondo Commission to adapt its operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. The group expresses concern over the lack of public information since the March 2020 lockdown and the potential for increased corruption through emergency procurement. They recommend the release of an interim report, the use of virtual platforms for hearings, and regular progress updates to ensure the Commission meets its March 2021 deadline.

A coalition of civil society organisations warns that the Covid-19 emergency increases the risk of corruption and supply chain failure in South Africa. They call for the government to involve civil society in monitoring, publish detailed expenditure reports for the R500-billion stimulus and Solidarity Fund, and utilize the Auditor General and the Special Investigating Unit to prevent the 'looting and capture' of emergency funds.

The document highlights the extreme vulnerability of the San community in D’kar, Botswana, during the Covid-19 pandemic. It notes that government lockdown measures and health advice are ineffective because they ignore the communal living conditions, high poverty levels, and linguistic needs of the San. The author warns that the pandemic threatens the survival of the San's ancient culture and traditional knowledge, while detailing grassroots efforts to provide hygiene supplies and information.

The document analyzes the digital divide in Africa, exacerbated by COVID-19 lockdowns, focusing on socio-economic barriers, weak infrastructure, information access, and government-mandated internet shutdowns. It argues that while global and continental frameworks like the AU's Digital Transformation Strategy exist, a multi-stakeholder approach is required to improve affordability, infrastructure, and digital literacy while ending political internet blackouts.

The Centre for Environmental Rights submitted an updated expert report by Dr. Ranajit Sahu to the Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries regarding Eskom's Kendal power station. The report identifies 2,851 exceedances of the atmospheric emission licence (AEL) limit for particulate matter between April 2016 and March 2020. The authors express concern over Eskom's reporting practices, alleging that contraventions are improperly coded as 'Grace' or 'Section 30' exceedances to avoid shutdown or service. The letter argues that these findings, along with a report by Dr. Andrew Gray on premature deaths, are relevant to the pending decision on Eskom's objection to a compliance notice.

The study finds that FDI in the SADC region is heavily concentrated in South Africa and primarily flows into service sectors, while many countries remain locked in primary value chain stages. While secondary activities like manufacturing and construction drive job creation, there is a mismatch between FDI levels and export potential in sectors such as aquaculture and meat. The report suggests that the region can leverage growth in agro-processing and sustainable services through targeted policies, skills development, and local content incentives to align with the SADC Industrialisation Strategy and Roadmap (SISR).

The document argues that the massive fiscal stimulus required for COVID-19 recovery presents a unique opportunity to transition to a low-carbon economy. It suggests that climate-aligned investments offer higher returns than traditional spending, citing benefit-cost ratios for adaptation between 2:1 and 10:1. The author proposes seven action areas: managing corporate bailouts with emissions targets, investing in climate-smart infrastructure (such as renewable energy and nature-based solutions), promoting regulatory reform, reforming tax and subsidy policies (including cutting fossil fuel subsidies), integrating climate risks into financial regulations, enhancing the role of development finance institutions, and sponsoring R&D for new technologies. The text emphasizes that green investments can create more jobs than fossil fuel investments, noting that in the US, $1 million spent on renewable energy creates 7.5 FTE jobs compared to 2.7 in fossil fuels.

The document argues that COVID-19 lockdowns have provided a cover for governments and private entities to suppress environmental and land defenders through harassment, arrests, and the enactment of restrictive laws. It highlights specific instances of repression in the DRC, Uganda, and South Africa, noting that the suspension of normal administrative and judicial functions has limited access to justice and transparency. To counter these threats, the guide recommends that defenders shift toward online engagement, creative protest methods, and encrypted communication, while leveraging regional movements and emergency funds like the African Environmental Defenders’ Fund.

The report finds that Eskom's Kendal Power Station recorded 2,851 exceedances of its 100 mg/Nm3 particulate matter (PM) limit between April 2016 and March 2020. Exceedances increased significantly in April 2018 and remained high, with January 2020 recording the highest monthly total of 151. The analysis indicates that existing electrostatic precipitators are failing, and the author recommends either shutting down the plant or rapidly retrofitting all six units with fabric filters to meet AEL and World Bank standards.

The document details how climate change threatens the bio-cultural resources and traditional knowledge of African indigenous peoples, specifically within Indigenous peoples' and local communities' conserved territories and areas (ICCAs) and pastoralist communities. It highlights the use of traditional knowledge and 'Community Protocols' as essential tools for climate adaptation and the protection of customary laws. Finally, it outlines the severe risks faced by cultural rights defenders in Africa, including land grabbing, physical violence, and criminalization, while recommending the establishment of defender funds and coordinated monitoring to protect these activists.

The document analyzes the tension between South Africa's efforts to reform its copyright law via the Copyright Amendment Bill B13-2017 and the US Trade Representative's (USTR) review of South Africa's GSP eligibility. It argues that the US uses GSP conditionalities to protect its own IP interests and force reciprocity, which infringes on the national regulatory space of developing nations. The author suggests that South Africa and other African nations should diversify their exports toward knowledge-based goods and pursue a bottom-up approach to IP rights through the African Continental Free Trade Agreement to reduce dependence on unilateral US trade arrangements.

The South African Water Caucus (SAWC) has submitted an urgent request to Minister Lindiwe Sisulu for the provision of water tanks, tankers, and sanitation packs for communities across several South African provinces. The document details systemic failures in water infrastructure, including dry taps, unreliable water trucking, and a lack of soap and sanitation services, which are exacerbated by COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. SAWC specifically criticizes the Department of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation's hotline as non-functional and inaccessible to rural populations, and calls for weekly public updates from the National Disaster Water Command Centre.

The Centre for Environmental Rights submitted two expert reports to the South African government detailing severe particulate matter (PM) limit exceedances and associated health impacts at Eskom's Kendal power station. Dr. Ron Sahu's analysis found 2,712 PM exceedances between April 2016 and March 2020, noting that electrostatic precipitators are failing. Dr. Andrew Gray's report estimates that emissions caused between 61 and 144 premature deaths annually between 2018 and 2019 and severely exceeded WHO air quality guidelines for SO2, PM2.5, and NOx in the Highveld Priority Area, particularly affecting sensitive receptors like primary schools.