Warren Sanderson, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York); Sergei Scherbov, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), and Simone Ghislandi, Bocconi University
Most researchers use the UN’s Human Development Index to measure each country’s progress, but that system has flaws. A new, simplified index aims to do it better.
A global survey claims South Africans don’t trust their police.
EPA/Nic Bothma
The Rwandan model can’t be replicated easily given that it depends heavily on political dominance and tight, centralised control of patronage networks.
The middle class concept in Africa has remained vague and limited to number crunching. The minimum threshold for entering it in monetary terms was critically vulnerable to a setback into poverty.
Swapo supporters celebrated victory in the UN supervised November 1989 election.
Henning Melber
Namibia contributes a positive image to Africa in governance and other indicators. But the reality for most of the country’s 2.3 million people isn’t quite as rosy.
N'da Yao Messou is president of a cocoa farmers’ association in Niable, eastern Ivory Coast. Women’s right to development has a long way to go.
Reuters/Thierry Gouegnon
Whenever the crisis in Burundi is discussed, the economy is often overlooked, even though it is central to understanding the backdrop to the most severe crisis since the end of the civil war.