Monday, June 2, 2008

Africa @ Risk - World Economic Forum

The latest report by the World Economic Forum focus on Africa's risks. It is a story of natural resource constraints (food and water security, climate change), the effects of these constraints on society (hunger, floods, displacement, poverty) and the downsides of an over-dependence on commodity-based growth (vulnerability to global slowdown, geo-political instability, lack of good governance and inequality (see here)).

The report highlighted a set of four highly interconnected risks facing Africa namely Food and Freshwater Security, Geopolitical Instability, Economic Shocks and Climate Change (Click here for full report and here for report from Reuters).

The World Economic Forum on Africa will take place in Cape Town this week from 4-6 June. It is long time that these risks are explicitly acknowledged and discussed. 

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