Share this page!

W. Gyude Moore Profile picture
Twitter logo
14 Jun, 5 tweets, 2 min read
For African policymakers and publics, the Trump's administrations schizophrenic engagement was whiplash-inducing as it veered left and right in every which direction. The President both allegedly spoke disparagingly about the continent and his policies seemed actively hostile.
President Trump's deportation of Africans was aggressive even during the pandemic, when flights were grounded and national borders remained closed.
qz.com/africa/1885398…
But the administration also famously focused on expanding commercial engagement in Africa. It was the right idea even when its launch, typical of the Trump administration, left a lot to be desired. US policy toward Africa needed a substantive expansion in two-way trade.
Like its predecessor, however, the Biden administration appears resistant to the idea of a sectoral focus for the Prosper Africa initiative. @AubreyHruby, @JDevermont and I outline why this is sub-optimal.
devex.com/news/opinion-d…
We argue that to substantially increase two-way trade and investment, the Biden administration must define priority sectors: "In our view, the most promising ones include financial services, agribusiness and renewables, technology, health care, and the entertainment industry."

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with W. Gyude Moore

W. Gyude Moore Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @gyude_moore

W. Gyude Moore Profile picture
16 Jun
Thread: This IMF blog from my brother, @aselassie and co-authors raise serious questions about how to finance African infrastructure and how to increase private participation. This is really, really good.
blogs.imf.org/2021/06/14/how…
In both practice and research, I've found the barriers and challenges they outline here to hold true. One hopes that their blogpost is both intended to spur debate around these issues and are a departure point for a substantive response to the issues they raised.
So let's discuss at least one of the risks they discuss: "Project Risks" - the lack of bankable projects & investor hesitation to absorb development risks in unfamiliar markets. This is an unchanging refrain when the topic of private investment in Africa comes up. And it's odd.
Read 11 tweets
W. Gyude Moore Profile picture
15 Jun
Africa’s share of global trade fell by more than half, from 4.8% in 1980 to only 2.2% in 1988. Today it's 2.8%. The explanation, as @RencapMan shows: value accrues to finished goods when Africa's exports are concentrated in unprocessed mineral, agricultural and forest products.
To add value (industrialization) requires infrastructure. We need power. If energy access rate hovers around 40% and over 600 million people lack access to electricity, the graph Charlie posted is the inevitable outcome. Electricity is the lifeblood of industrialization.
This is not a conversation about solar home systems to "charge cell phones". This is about industrial scale energy access to run smelters, agro-processing factories, for temperature and moisture control in ag storage facilities, for hospitals and schools.
Read 4 tweets
W. Gyude Moore Profile picture
9 Jun
Four months ago, the AU infrastructure envoy announced an Infrastructure Fund, financed with about 5% of the holdings of African sovereign wealth and pension funds. There has been no news of uptake or an anchor investor(s) for the fund.
reuters.com/article/us-afr…
Since the pandemic has undermined the fiscal position of most countries, financing infrastructure with national budgets will be severely limited after the pandemic. Even worse is the trend of declining funding from bilateral, multilateral & private lenders
bakermckenzie.com/en/insight/pub…
Before the pandemic, the region was already bottom of the pile in deployment of private capital for infrastructure - average of about $6 billion annually (2013 to 2018) compared to $34 billion in Latin America per @Africa50Infra's Alain Ebobisse
africa50.com/news-insights/…
Read 5 tweets
W. Gyude Moore Profile picture
9 Jun
Thread:
I am sure the "more than 100 economists" who signed this earnestly believe they're doing the right thing. Sorta like the road to hell and good intentions, the blanket ban proposed here is misguided and will cause more harm than good.
news.trust.org/item/202106081…
Any ban must accommodate a carve-out for the poorest countries in the world, since they bear the least responsibility for the crisis and the greatest need. I'm talking about the 48 African countries south of the Sahara. Nobody should look to Africa for emissions reduction.
Here is a nuanced take from @CDCgroup on what a transition to net-zero looks like in Africa. It accounts for the peculiarity of the African market and sees a role for a transitional role for some fossil fuels - like natural gas.
assets.cdcgroup.com/wp-content/upl…
Read 9 tweets
W. Gyude Moore Profile picture
31 Mar
This research is an excellent addition to the body of knowledge around Chinese lending practices, especially as we think through the implications of the pandemic on the fiscal position of indebted low income countries - mainly in Africa. cgdev.org/blog/secretive…
In a lot of ways, it brings systematic evidence to what we knew anecdotally. Questions about the opacity of Chinese lending have been a constant refrain in critiques of China's lending practice. We know now that it is a feature, not a bug.
Borrowing from Chinese policy banks have always meant that the funding was deployed to achieve policy ends - we now know that these objectives are secured through "broadly written cancellation and default clauses".
Read 6 tweets
W. Gyude Moore Profile picture
20 Jan
Congratulations to @POTUS. Joining my voice to other Africans at home and in the Diaspora who hope for a better, more substantive engagement. We're rooting for you and hope you can achieve your agenda - both for the American people and for the world. THREAD
In his prepared remarks for his committee hearing @ABlinken promised "engage the world not as it was, but as it is.” WE will hold you to that. US Africa policy should, in intent and practice, seek mutual prosperity between Africa and America. 1/
The world as it is recognizes that Africans have interests that are unique and separate from any Great Power competition. We want partners in fulfilling aspirations for ourselves & our children. Finding fulfillment in our homeland. That our culture, economy, societies can thrive.
Read 18 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @gyude_moore has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @gyude_moore!

Read all threads by @gyude_moore

:(