Publication of African Economy 2024 coordinated by the research teams and the Africa Department of the French Development Agency (AFD), published by La Découverte, “Repères” collection.
Today marks the launch of the fifth edition of African Economy, the result of a collaboration between AFD researchers and academics from specific expertise on African States. African Economy 2024 proposes a reflection on the challenges of the continental approach, in which the “All Africa” dimension, initiated by the AFD Group, is put forward to understand Africa as a whole.
The book sets out to measure the scale of the challenges and positive developments on the African continent while highlighting the importance of the dynamics at work and the long-term ambitions for the future, with a view of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
“For the past five years, the ambition of the African Economy remains unchanged: to offer an annual macroeconomic analysis accessible to all audiences and to identify the major current issues of the day for which sustainable development solutions are emerging. 2024 will be an election year for so many nations around the world, especially in Africa. The authors of this year’s edition, both African and European, are helping to shift the focus, as close as possible to the regions, on the changes and dynamics of the continent”, says Rémy Rioux, CEO of the French Development Agency.
It draws the state of the African continent through 6 chapters dedicated to the following themes:
- Africa’s major macroeconomic trends: After sustained growth in 2022 (+3.9%), African economic activity slowed down in 2023 (+3.2%), but a rebound in 2024 should enable the continent to return to its 2022 growth level. This dynamic partly masks major vulnerabilities: low GDP per capita and productivity, high levels of poverty (80% of the African population lives on less than 11 dollars a day) and disparities between African regions, in favour of countries that have diversified their economies.
- What’s the future for African ecosystems?: Africa’s biodiversity is declining overall in the 8 major zones (-5.6% over fifteen years), covering a wide range of ecozones. This has a number of important consequences: economic production on unsustainable bases appears to be undermined in the long term, and this concerns more than half of Africa’s GDP. Poor rural households are also likely to see their poverty and vulnerability increase: according to our study, 750 million people are affected.
- Migration, environment, and climate change in Africa: state of play, issues and challenges: The state of play between human mobility, the environment and the climate is receiving increasing attention, with both cautious projections and alarmist predictions being made for the African continent. Environmental conditions are major accelerators of human mobility in Africa, affecting both rural and urban areas, with, according to the World Bank, the migration of 86.4 million people living in sub-Saharan Africa by 2050. This raises the question of responsibilities (losses and damage), as these movements, currently concentrated on the African continent, could become global. Taking account of this human mobility requires the creation and consolidation of multi-stakeholder frameworks for the governance of migration.
- Towards responsible mining in Africa: the challenges for countries producing critical minerals: As certain African minerals become critical to the transition to green energy, they represent a unique opportunity for African countries to rethink the mobilisation of national resources and maximise the financial benefits of mining. Many challenges remain, particularly in the fight against tax evasion and in reconciling the objectives of economic development and the conservation of natural areas near mining sites. The absence of sufficient sharing of the added value with the territories hosting these mines and of the environmental conservation policies raises questions about the continuity of the implicit social contract between mining companies and local communities.
- Spotlight on financing climate action in Africa: Africa is highly exposed to climate risk, particularly to the physical effects of climate change, which also poses risks for banks given their outstanding loans in climate-sensitive sectors. Funding for the fight against climate change is growing but remains well below the level required to achieve the 2030 sustainable development goals in Africa, which according to the OECD would require $1,600 million. To maintain momentum in the fight against climate change, all national and international players will need to coordinate their efforts.
- Socio-economic issues and football broadcasting in Africa: Football in Africa, to which FIFA has allocated $717 million from 2016-2022, is a reflection of its economic, political and social change. It is a vehicle for integration and social transformation and contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and to Africa’s economic growth. Television broadcasting is a commercial challenge, with paid TV channels showing little interest in broadcasting national and continental competitions.