The story of U.S. leadership in the global battle against COVID-19 is a story of days, months, and decades. Every day, the United States provides U.S. technical assistance to hospitals and labs around the world. These efforts, in turn, build on a decades-long foundation of American expertise, generosity, and...
The World Bank has said that measures such as lockdowns used to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic by many advanced countries may not work in Africa, hence, the need for governments to design a model that will suit their systems. Some African countries including Ghana have resorted to...
The COVID-19 pandemic has thrust the entire world – rich and poor – into uncharted territory, prompting extraordinary policy responses almost everywhere. The looming economic fallout will be more severe than that of the Great Depression, the 2008 global financial crisis, and perhaps even the two world wars. After...
The use of child labour on cocoa farms in top producers Ivory Coast and Ghana has risen over the past decade despite industry promises to reduce it, according to a draft of a U.S. government-sponsored report seen by Reuters. More than 2 million children worked in the sector last season...
Thousands of pregnant girls will attend school in Tanzania as part of a $500-million World Bank loan which had been delayed for years due to the country’s ban on expectant students. Tanzania’s education minister Joyce Ndalichako said the loan aimed to improve access to and the quality of secondary education...
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Executive Board has approved an immediate debt service relief to 25, including 19 African countries, of the IMF’s member countries under the fund’s revamped Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT). This relief programme forms part of the fund’s response to help address the impact of...
The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today approved the disbursement of SDR 738 million (about US$1 billion) to be drawn under the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF). The disbursement will help address the urgent fiscal and balance of payments needs that Ghana is facing, improve confidence, and...
On a typical workday, hundreds of thousands of men clad in overalls and carrying safety equipment and head lamps assemble at South Africa’s mine shafts. They crowd into cramped elevators to be lowered miles underground, where they hack at seams of gold or platinum and haul ore in intense...
 165 past and present leaders say to G20: approve now US$8bn emergency global health funding to prevent second wave of coronavirus      Debt interest payments of poorest countries should be waived now; global fiscal coordination essential to avoid recession becoming depression      Warning that without rapid...
South Africa’s manufacturing output contracted by 1.3 percent year-on-year in March following a revised 0.5 percent expansion in February, the statistics agency said on Thursday. Statistics South Africa said factory production on a month-on-month basis increased 1.3 percent in March, but shrunk by 1.7 percent in the three months to...

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