Despite recent economic improvements, poverty remains pervasive in Guinea, according to Afrobarometer survey data from June 2025. A large majority of Guineans report having experienced shortages of essential goods over the past year, particularly cash income, medical care, clean water, and food. The Lived Poverty Index shows that nearly 80% of citizens endured moderate or severe poverty, disproportionately affecting women, less educated individuals, and residents of regions such as Kankan and Conakry. In response to these hardships, households rely heavily on family and community support networks to meet basic needs. Public dissatisfaction with government economic performance is widespread, especially regarding price stability, job creation, inequality reduction, and poverty alleviation. Approval ratings for government action across these areas have declined significantly since 2015, highlighting persistent social and economic vulnerabilities despite reported macroeconomic gains.

Governance, Economic Development, Development, Poverty

This regional report by Action Against Hunger assesses vegetation biomass production in the Sahel during the 2025 growing season using satellite imagery and climatic data. It finds that the 2025 rainy season was generally normal to above average across Sahelian countries, resulting in good to very good biomass production, exceeding the 25-year average, though remaining below the exceptional levels observed in 2024. Central Sahel areas, particularly in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, recorded significant positive anomalies, while localized deficits persist in western Senegal, south-western Mauritania and the Lake Chad basin. In coastal countries, biomass production remains below average despite slight improvement compared to 2024. The report indicates that pastoral vulnerability for the 2026 dry season is generally low; however, insecurity, restrictions on transhumant movements and livestock concentration significantly constrain access to grazing resources, increasing the risk of early and difficult pastoral lean periods in several zones.

Pastoralism, Natural ressources, Security, Development, Poverty, Human security, Vulnerability, Knowlege production, water

The article assesses progress and remaining challenges in the implementation of the African Union’s Agenda 2063, a long-term strategic framework aimed at building an integrated, prosperous, peaceful, and globally influential Africa by 2063. Organized around seven core aspirations, the Agenda is operationalized through ten-year implementation plans and flagship projects such as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the Single African Air Transport Market, the African passport, and a continental high-speed rail network. The first ten-year plan (2014-2023) indicates that Africa has achieved slightly more than half of its targets, particularly in infrastructure development, economic integration, digital connectivity, and visa reforms. However, significant obstacles remain, including persistent financing gaps, uneven national implementation, regional insecurity, and limited institutional capacity. The article emphasizes that the long-term success of Agenda 2063 depends on stronger domestic resource mobilization, improved governance, and, critically, greater ownership by African citizens and the diaspora.

Politics, Political party, Economic Development, Natural ressources, Security, Justice, Development, Human security, water

The article examines the evolution of Senegal’s economic diplomacy following the election of Bassirou Diomaye Faye in April 2024. This diplomacy blends continuity with strategic adjustments. Building on the achievements of the Plan Sénégal Émergent (PSE) and long-standing efforts to attract foreign investment, the new administration seeks to strengthen economic sovereignty, transparency, and diversification of international partnerships. With a projected 8% growth rate in 2025 and persistent structural constraints, the government is auditing extractive industries, revising investment frameworks, and streamlining public-private partnerships. Internationally, Senegal is expanding its diplomatic reach, particularly in Asia, the Middle East, and Turkey, to secure technology transfers, financing, and strategic cooperation. However, existing commitments, reliance on international financial institutions, and deep integration within UEMOA limit the scope for drastic shifts. The result is a nuanced form of economic diplomacy—balancing inherited structures with new ambitions for national transformation.

Sovereignty, Governance, Economic Development, Diplomacy, International cooperation

This Policy Brief examines Germany’s new budget orientations and their consequences for Mali, a country facing insecurity, conflict, climate shocks, displacement, and rising humanitarian needs. Germany is among Mali’s key financial partners through the Federal Foreign Office (AA) and the Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). However, from 2025 onward, significant budget cuts are expected, sharply reducing German contributions to the Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP). German aid currently supports essential sectors such as nutrition, health, water and sanitation, infrastructure, protection, displacement management, agriculture, and the Humanitarian–Development–Peace (HDP) nexus. Reductions in funding could exacerbate vulnerabilities, intensify population movements, and weaken local NGOs, which are central to service delivery and conflict mitigation. The brief offers recommendations to mitigate these impacts, improve coordination, promote aid localization, and strengthen community resilience.

State, Economic Development, Natural ressources, Education, Mediation, Social, Cooperation, Dialogue, Civil Society

In this article, Anta Barry explores the evolution of the concept of human security in the Sahel region and argues that its ambition is increasingly unattainable. The central Sahel namely Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso represents a paradox: a territory rich in resources yet undermined by weak governance, colonial legacies, mis-aligned development policies and recurrent political instability. The notion of human security, initially focusing on protecting individuals from economic, political and environmental threats, is confronted with a “poly-crisis”: terrorist insecurity, climate change, food crises and the retreat of the state from basic services. Barry criticises the application of standardised international models that fail to reflect Sahelian realities and highlights the shrinking political space of states in the face of powerful external actors. The article concludes that without a rethink of approaches and a genuine empowerment of local actors, the ideal of human security in the Sahel will remain in crisis.

Governance, Climate change, Security, Development, Food security, Crisis

This paper investigates the relationship between stock market development and economic growth across five West African countries (Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Mali) over the period 2005-2020, using panel data methods including fixed effects, random effects and system GMM estimators. The study assesses how market capitalization, trading volume, turnover ratio and number of listed companies affect GDP growth, controlling for macro-economic and institutional variables. Results indicate a positive and significant effect of market capitalization on growth (β ~0.043), a marginally significant effect of trading volume, and an insignificant role of turnover ratio. The number of listed companies per million population yields a positive effect. Interaction terms highlight that governance quality strengthens the growth impact of stock market development. Panel Granger causality tests reveal two-way causality between market capitalization and GDP growth in some countries. The author concludes that though modest, stock market development importantly contributes to growth, especially under strong institutions, and calls for policies enhancing market depth, governance and regional integration.

Governance, Economic Development, Development, Economic growth

This study by Evans Yeboah and Václav Adamec, published in the Journal of Social and Economic Development (Springer Nature, June 9 2025), examines the effects of investment and trade on economic performance across twelve ECOWAS member states from 1993 to 2022. Using PMG-ARDL and NARDL estimation techniques, the paper finds that gross capital formation and trade openness positively influence long-run GDP per capita growth, whereas population growth, labor participation, unemployment, merchandise trade, and FDI exert negative effects. External debt is statistically insignificant in the long term. In the short term, increases in FDI and merchandise trade enhance income growth. Nonlinear estimations show that both increases and decreases in FDI dampen growth, while trade expansion boosts economic performance. The authors recommend promoting trade liberalization, improving FDI quality, ensuring sustainable debt management, and implementing labor-market reforms and export diversification strategies.

Governance, Economic Development, Trade, Economic growth