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"Economy"
Recommended research
published by Simone Haysom, ENACT
on February 13, 2020
Urbanization and governance shape the political economy of heroin trafficking in Southern and East Africa. Case studies of heroin trafficking dynamics in capital cities, port towns, interior hubs, and border communities suggest that counter-trafficking efforts should strengthen cross-border intelligence sharing, combat government corruption, consider local communities, address the role of informal transport systems in the narcotics trade, and mitigate the drug trade’s role in fueling violence.
Recommended research
published by Ekaterina Golovko, Mixed Migration Center
on June 30, 2019
Based on interviews with over 100 smugglers and 3,000 migrants, patterns of migrant smuggling in Mali and Niger emerge. In Niger, prior to the 2015 anti-smuggling law, smuggling networks were easy to join and fluidly linked, not always adhering to a fixed, hierarchical mode of criminal operations. Since then however, more professionalized criminal networks have consolidated market control. Most migrants reported initiating their travel without the encouragement of smugglers, but subsequently used smuggler facilitation services.
Recommended research
published by Simone Haysom, Peter Gastrow and Mark Shaw, ENACT
on June 30, 2018
African countries are among the world’s most vulnerable to and least prepared for climate change. African citizens prioritize issues that are related to climate change, such as water supply, food shortages, and agriculture. Rising temperatures and changing rainfall patterns have devastated African countries that depend on agriculture. Only about 3 in 10 Africans are fully “climate change literate,” combining awareness of climate change with basic knowledge about its causes and negative effects. Building climate resilience will require commitment and coordination, backed by significant resources and a population that supports prioritizing it.
Spotlight
published by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies
on April 7, 2025
Militant Islamist violence in the Sahel continues to shift southward and westward, putting ever more pressure on population centers in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger—as well as on their coastal West African neighbors.
Spotlight
published by Paul Nantulya
on March 10, 2025
Chinese firms are present in over a third of all African port developments, some of which could be used for expanded Chinese naval presence on the continent.
Program Materials
Infographic
published by Wendy Williams
on February 3, 2025
A sharp restriction in off-continental irregular migration combined with escalating push factors will continue to shape governance and security priorities in Africa and underscore the need for more regional innovation to accommodate intracontinental population movements.
Spotlight
published by Paul Nantulya
on January 7, 2025
African countries will be looking to recalibrate their strategic partnerships with China to advance African interests as the continent positions itself to exercise greater agency in its external partnerships.
Spotlight
published by Nate Allen
on November 12, 2024
To mitigate vulnerabilities from foreign control over the supply of critical technological infrastructure, African countries should prioritize cybersecurity, diversity, and competition within the tech sector.
Africa Security Brief No. 44
published by Denis Mahonghol
on November 4, 2024
Unregulated logging of the Congo Basin rainforests threatens to undercut the livelihoods of millions of households in the region, empower transnational organized criminal networks, and disrupt water cycles in West Africa and the Nile River Basin.
Spotlight
published by Kunle Adebajo and Hamza Ibrahim
on October 21, 2024
Criminal gangs in Nigeria’s North West region have grown increasingly lethal, routinizing mass abductions, seizing farms in an important breadbasket, and causing massive internal displacement.
Infographic
published by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies
on August 13, 2024
Fatalities linked to militant Islamist violence in Africa have surged by nearly 60 percent since 2021, though this is marked by widely varying regional threat trajectories, actors, and objectives.
