African governments are restricting mineral exports, and the measures are being read as a continental assertion of resource sovereignty. The design of those measures tells a more modest story about who they were built to protect.
Two negotiations now under way will shape African public finance for a generation. The UN tax convention is in line-by-line drafting and the Borrowers’ Platform is building a debtor caucus that has never existed. Both will be won or lost in clauses that read like housekeeping.
Domestic resource mobilisation captures a larger share of value that already exists. Resource creation builds what an economy cannot yet make. Africa’s minerals are the test case, and the jobs are the measure.
Social spending floors sit in IMF programmes as indicative targets, so they carry no consequence when they break. Across Africa the adjustment lands on unpaid care work.
Last week in Bulawayo, alongside Mine Entra 2026, we sat down with communities living on…
Last week I wrote about the nurse in Manchester who wires her sister’s school fees…
Every month, a nurse in Manchester wires her sister’s school fees to Harare. A driver…
It has been some months since I last wrote here. One question pulled me back:…
During the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence this year, I found myself returning…
When I entered the High-Level Dialogue on Rethinking Debt Sustainability and Exploring Africa’s Alternative Financing…
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