South African designer Wanda Lephoto argues that Africa’s competitive advantage in fashion is not only its fibre or factories, but the cultural knowledge, inherited craft and human collaboration that turn cloth into something the world cannot reproduce. The fashion industry usually presents value as something added in stages: fibre becomes yarn, yarn becomes cloth and…
Citizen perspectives on the future of development cooperation Key findings Across 38 African countries surveyed in 2024/2025, health (cited by 38% of respondents as one of their top three priorities) and unemployment (33%) are, on average, the most important problems Africans want their governments to address (Figure 1). o Unemployment is a greater priority for…
Almost one-fourth of citizens use sources of electricity other than the main grid, mostly solar panels. Key findings About seven in 10 Africans (72%) live in areas served by an electric grid, ranging from just 29% in Chad to 100% in Tunisia, Mauritius, Eswatini, and Cabo Verde. o Rural residents (49%) and the poorest citizens…
Hearing loss affects more than 1.5 billion people worldwide. Close to 80% live in low – and middle – income countries, where hearing care is out of reach for most. In Africa, an estimated 136 million people live with hearing loss, a figure expected to more than double to 337 million by 2050. Yet fewer…
MTN South Africa CEO Ferdi Moolman MTN has been putting 90 million prepaid Sim cards into the South African market every year, and estimates the industry as a whole is pushing between 200 million and 300 million a year into a country of about 65 million people, adults and children. The astonishing figures came from…
The eruption of the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo in May 2026 sparked a major crisis. Transmissions and deaths are skyrocketing, and no vaccine is currently available. This virus is notably prevalent in settlements and communities for internally displaced persons (IDPs) and communities. This happened too…
The Federal Government of Nigeria has sent a clear and unambiguous message that the government of South Africa should stop the deliberate targeting of Africans, including Nigerians, on the basis of their nationality and colour of their skin. The federal government sent this message yesterday in the opening address delivered by the Minister of State,…
South Africans’ fear of crime and low economic growth act as a shield against AI-related crime. (Graphic: Nicola Mawson | Unsplash and Magnific) South Africans’ street smarts as a result of the high levels of crime, as well as a low per capita gross domestic product (GDP), are proving to provide a level of protection…
In 2024, 25.1 million Africans were living in other countries on the continent. Labour migration has long been a defining feature of Africa’s economic landscape. Migrant workers on the continent are concentrated in certain sectors: agricultural and manufacturing together absorb roughly a fifth of migrant labour. Most migrants hold medium-skilled jobs alongside high and low…
For millions across Africa and the developing world, the biodiversity crisis is not an abstract problem – it’s the soil that no longer yields bountiful harvests and the fish that no longer return to coastal waters. But the world spends 30 times more money destroying nature than protecting it, and Africa often lacks the necessary…
