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on Africa |
| By: | World Bank |
| Keywords: | Macroeconomics and Economic Growth - Markets and Market Access Finance and Financial Sector Development - Currencies and Exchange Rates Economic Theory and Research Private Sector Development - Emerging Markets Finance and Financial Sector Development - Debt Markets |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:20055&r=afr |
| By: | Dina el Kayaly (Penn State University) |
| Abstract: | Importance of the topic Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) gained momentum in Egypt during the past decade, yet its impact seemed to be limited. This study provides a closer look on why and how is CSR practiced in Egypt, the challenges encountered, and possible improvement of CSR practices. The study presents a set of recommendations for using CSR as a catalyst of development in an emerging market. The objective of the article There is a fundamental gap between Western CSR theory and practice, and what is essentially happening in Egypt. CSR in Egypt is perceived as a long-standing charitable voluntary practice based on religious beliefs. Modern corporate concept of CSR was a spillover of Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) in Egypt in the beginning of the millennium. The purpose of this research is to identify the CSR dynamics that can help in development in an emerging market such as Egypt. Methodology To serve the purpose of this study a series of qualitative, semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with ten members of the CSR community in Egypt. Findings The interviews revealed several weaknesses in the current practice such as the lack of CSR vision, the lack of a CSR partnership model with SMEs, and that CSR is being used primarily as a Marketing Public Relations (MPR) tool. Practical Implications The researcher concluded with a series of recommendations suggested by interviewees proposing better cooperation between different stakeholders, and investing less in charitable activities, and more in development programs for the Egyptian emerging market. By giving importance to the development of SMEs, the effective partnership between big and SMEs companies regarding the CSR programs become very crucial too emerging Egypt. Social Implications An in-depth understanding of the CSR practices and gleaning insights will help policy makers in promoting sustainable practices by integrating social and environmental activities as well as economic aspects. |
| Keywords: | CSR community; CSR practices; competiveness, emerging markets |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:msm:wpaper:2014/25&r=afr |
| By: | Scheltema, Nico; Meyer, Ferdi; Ejobi, Francis; Tinga, Jorge; Tschirley, David |
| Abstract: | This study focuses on the skills requirements and the development thereof among 109 interviewed formal sector agribusiness companies in Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique, and South Africa. The study was conducted in the context of anticipated dramatic changes in Africa’s food consumption patterns over coming decades, driven by rising incomes and urban populations, and the need for new and better skills in the workforce in order to satisfy this demand. Among the key findings are (1) except for South Africa, companies predominantly employ O-level graduates but (in all countries including South Africa) expect demand for graduates beyond A-Level to grow the fastest over the next five years; (2) while companies see a need for improved technical skills, “soft” skills were also seen as critically important and an area of relative dissatisfaction by the companies; (3) to improve the skills of their workforce, companies in four of the five countries dominantly rely on in-house training, and in three of those four, the option of paying for college or university training ranked 3rd or 4th out of four options; (4) results on relationships with vocational training institutions were varied, with companies in South Africa with a more technical or production related core business typically showing a strong relationship with them, whereas companies with a more financial core business showed a poor to non-existent relationship; and (5) a general concern seen most clearly in South Africa related the quality of primary and secondary education (especially as regards math and science), and the lack of practical and relevant industry experience of entry level employees after completing tertiary education. |
| Keywords: | Africa, skills requirements, agribusiness, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession, |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:midcwp:183870&r=afr |
| By: | NGUENA Christian-Lambert (Yaoundé/Cameroun) |
| Abstract: | Is China-Africa economic relation instrumental for capital flight and poverty reduction in FZ? Does it matter in the improvement of external debt’s impact on GDP per capita and capital flight reduction in particular? This paper extends and assesses the Asongu and Aminkeng (2013) conclusions about Sino-African economic relations in the FZ context.Thus, practically, the intuition is to use a TSLS-IV econometric estimation technique on 14 African countries specific data over the period 1983-2013 to empirically assess if African external debt exclusively from China can be instrumental in the way toward capital flight and poverty reduction in FZ. The construction of a theoretical framework highlighting stylized fact and the review of a recent literature on this issue has been firstly undertaken. The main result allowed the following interpretations: (a) an important part of the traditional external debt contracted with constraint is going back out of the continent as capital flight and; (b) The capital flight contributes to improving the level of poverty in Africa. Overall, we can conclude that the contribution to economic development depends on the origin of loans received and, fostering the economic relations with China could be an excellent alternative for FZ countries. This paper is original since it has tested the Asongu and Aminkeng (2013) assumption in the continent where concerns of low economic development, higher poverty and capital flight are most acute. |
| Keywords: | Sino-African economic relation; Capital flight; External debt origin; pro poor economic growth; Poverty reduction |
| JEL: | E61 E62 H11 I32 O10 O19 |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:agd:wpaper:14/016&r=afr |
| By: | Kurt Nielsen (Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen); Tseganesh Wubale Tamirat (Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen) |
| Abstract: | We suggest a market design for rapid demand response in electricity markets. The solution consists of remotely controlled switches, meters, forecasting models as well as a flexible auction market to set prices and select endusers job by job. The auction market motivates truth-telling and makes it simple to involve the endusers in advance and to activate demand response immediately. The collective solution is analyzed and economic simulations are conducted for the case of Kenya. Kenya has been suering from unreliable electricity supply for many years and companies and households have learned to adjust by investments in backup generators. We focus on turning the many private backup generators into a demand response system. The economic simulation focuses on possible distortion introduced by various ways of splitting the generated surplus from the demand response system. An auction run instantly as the Transmission System Operator (TSO) requests demand response and the winning endusers are disconnected immediately if the TSO accepts the result of the auction. The endusers are compensated with a uniform auction price job by job and the Aggregator receives part of the surplus. The simulation captures the nature of the demand response system and reveals that a simple markup contract between the Aggregator and the TSO is sufficiently flexible and little distorting. The simulation also provide a the less intuitive result, that the auction motivates the TSO to oer a high markup contract to the Aggregator to motivate a large pool of demand response. We discuss how this may motivate the alternative owner structure where the Aggregator is a cooperative owned by the endusers themselves. |
| Keywords: | : Demand response, auction market, contracts, simulation |
| Date: | 2014–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:foi:msapwp:05_2014&r=afr |
| By: | World Bank Group |
| Keywords: | Finance and Financial Sector Development - Access to Finance Health, Nutrition and Population - Population Policies Economic Theory and Research Social Protections and Labor - Labor Policies Social Protections and Labor - Labor Markets Macroeconomics and Economic Growth |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:19993&r=afr |