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Sub-Saharan Africa

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Sub-Saharan Africa is not monolithic. While crises in the Sahel have attracted a great deal of attention, other regions also need to be monitored, and not just through the prism of security.

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Sub-Saharan Africa
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Publications
Date de publication
August 2020

Caught in the Web of Bureaucracy? How ‘Failed’ Land Deals Shape the State in Tanzania

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Matipwili village, Bagamoyo district, Tanzania
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Matipwili village, Bagamoyo district, Tanzania
Credits : Sina Schlimmer
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After more than ten years of hectic debates on international ‘land grabs’, academic interest in collapsed land deals or projects with unexpected results is growing.

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The High Authority for Peacebuilding (HACP) in Niger 2011-2023. Placing the State at the heart of conflict prevention and management.

Date de publication
06 November 2024
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Like other Sahelian countries, Niger has been affected by terrorism for almost two decades now. This issue has highlighted both the limits of these countries’ security systems and, more profoundly, their inability to offer stability to the populations of certain parts of the country. In a way, these “jihadized insurgencies” are a continuity of groups that regularly take up arms against central states.

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Can carbon markets make a breakthrough at COP29?

Date de publication
30 October 2024
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Voluntary carbon markets (VCMs) have a strong potential, notably to help bridge the climate finance gap, especially for Africa.

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Kenya’s Spiritual President and The Making of a Born-Again Republic: William-Ruto, Kenya’s Evangelicals and Religious Mobilizations in African Electoral Politics

Date de publication
23 October 2024
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Over the last two decade, the growing influence of Evangelicals and their leaders in electoral politics is one of the most significant developments in the East African region and the Horn of Africa. Their numerical and demographic growth seems to go together with their growing influence in these countries’ political scenes, especially in the spheres of electoral politics, society, and governance. 

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Chad: from Deby to Deby. Recipes for a successful succession (2021-2024)

Date de publication
04 October 2024
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As in Togo and Gabon, the transition that took place in Chad from 2021 to 
2024 resulted in a dynastic succession. Mahamat Idriss Deby succeeded his 
father, Idriss Deby Itno, who was President of Chad from 1996 to 2021. While 
the majority of Chadians were hoping for a change of government, the “Deby 
system” has managed to hold on.

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The Influence of Strategic Subnational Diplomacy in International Relations

Date de publication
16 September 2024
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The international engagement of cities and local governments has increased and diversified recently. Mainly understood by the public as the cultural and academic ties cultivated within the sister-city framework, these connections now bear deeper and more strategic implications. 

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Gulf States: A Paradoxical Economic Lifeline for Sudan

Date de publication
09 September 2024
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For decades, Gulf states have provided crucial financial assistance to Sudan. Gulf interest in Sudan is driven by economic benefits and geopolitical competition, though each country has its own interests and approach. 

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Understanding Intermediate Cities in Nigeria: The Cases of Ibadan and Abeokuta

Date de publication
26 July 2024
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Nigeria is known for its rapid demographic and urban growth. 

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Nigeria’s Oil Wealth and International Relations: Multilateral and Bilateral Lending and Decolonial Therapies

Date de publication
17 July 2024
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Before Angola surpassed Nigeria as Africa’s top oil producer in April 2023, Nigeria was Africa’s main oil exporter even before the country gained independence in 1960.

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The integrated territorial approach (ITA). Hopes and limits of local stabilisation in the Sahel

Date de publication
08 July 2024
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Since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the attacks of 11 September 2001, the proliferation of local conflicts and the partitioning of certain states (Yugoslavia, Somalia) have given rise to external interventions, both bilateral and multilateral, in which the military element has been combined with civil action in innovative ways.

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Decentralization and Its Effects on Urban Governance in Africa

Date de publication
15 April 2024
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The importance of African cities as economic, political, and social actors is increasing. While Africa used to be perceived as a predominantly rural continent, it is estimated that by 2050, the urban population of the continent will increase by around 900 million people, nearly tripling.[1] 

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Not Dazzling But Not Invisible : The Ugandan Middle Classes as "Somewhere in Between"

Date de publication
25 May 2016
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In January 2016, the Kenyan supermarket chain Uchumi has filed bankruptcy for its Ugandan subsidiaries, due to perpetual losses. And they are not alone: companies like Nestlé, Coca Cola or Barclays are slowly pulling out of Africa and recent reports – such as the Global Wealth Databook from Credit Suisse or from the Pew Research Center – suggest that the size of the African middle class may be much smaller than previously thought. So was the hype in recent years about “Africa rising” (Mahajan, 2009) and the African middle class just a bubble? In order to better comprehend the social and economic transformations taking place on the continent, it can prove helpful to look beyond the dazzling facade of economies such as Kenya or South Africa, and into those countries experiencing steady growth, but nevertheless far from including a well established middle class. Their middle classes are not shopping in big malls, driving cars and going on holidays. Rather, these groups are characterized by the improvement of their livelihoods compared to their parents’ generation, in terms of education, income and housing, but they still feel strongly vulnerable, and do not take their new benefits for granted. This has an important effect on their consumption patterns, and may not turn them into the promising new consumers, as they have sometimes been praised to be. 

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Determinants of Japan’s ODA Allocation in Africa

Date de publication
30 March 2016
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The debate on emerging donors raises a question whether traditional donors really follow their own ODA (Official Development Assistance) policies or not. This paper addresses the question by investigating Japan’s adherence to its own ODA policies.

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Fragility Factors and Reconciliation Needs in Forest Guinea

Date de publication
31 March 2015
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In December 2013 the first Ebola cases surfaced in Guéckedou district, near the Liberian and Sierra Leon borders in the Forest Region of Guinea. The outbreak quickly spread from Forest Guinea to the rest of the country and, through the borders, to neighbouring countries. It took three months to identify the Ebola virus as the causative agent of the burgeoning epidemic, longer for the Guinean government to understand the importance of treating the outbreak as a national emergency, and even more time for everyone involved to appreciate the great social toll of Ebola.

France and the Fight against Terrorism in the Sahel: The History of a Difficult Leadership Role

Date de publication
28 June 2013
Accroche

Except for its extreme poverty and the disastrous effects of a series of droughts, the Sahel region has been largely out of the spotlight of international attention in the past. Yet the rise of terrorism and especially the creation of Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in 2007 brought the region into the focus of world politics. Initially, AQIM"s activities in the Sahel mainly posed a threat to the stability of the Sahelian states themselves. In an effort to internationalize its agenda, however, AQIM also started targeting Western countries.

A Class Defined "by Consumption": The Grocery-Shopping Practices of the Lower-Middle Classes in Johannesburg, South Africa

Date de publication
25 April 2013
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The black middle class in Johannesburg is a much debated but ill-defined phenomenon, treated more often by economic players than by social scientists. Far from static and clear, the concept of the middle class is for us relevant insofar as it reveals crucial dynamics of the society. 

The Sahel: A Crossroads between Criminality and Terrorism

Date de publication
04 November 2012
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Besides the ongoing political conundrum in Mali, it is the entire West African region, from Guinea Bissau to Mali, which is under threat of destabilization. Indeed, for many years now, terrorists and drugs traffickers have been synergizing their respective illegal activities, transforming the Sahel into a narcoterrorist zone. As a result, the Sahel has become a dangerous crossroads for drugs, crime, terrorism and insurgency.

How to Create a Public Policy in a Failed State: The Challenge of Securing Land Rights in Eastern Congo

Date de publication
22 October 2012
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In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) 32 years of dictatorship and almost ten years of war have bled the country dry and left its administration incapable of providing the population with basic services and the government incapable of applying or even formulating public policy.

Is Africa's Recent Economic Growth Sustainable?

Date de publication
11 October 2012
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Hardly a week goes by without an African investors’ conference or growth summit. 

A Victorious Anti-insurrection Strategy? The Insurrections of 2010 in the Jonglei State of South Sudan

Date de publication
27 March 2012
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On May 16 2010, a few weeks after its first elections, the government of the semi-autonomous province of South Sudan (GoSS) had to confront two rebellions in the Jonglei Province. South Sudan may appear unified behind the banner of the SPLM/A, but in fact it is nothing of the kind.

The Recent Blossoming in Relations between China and Madagascar

Date de publication
20 February 2012
Accroche

The question of the Chinese presence in Madagascar is very accurate. It is an opportunity for us to portray the sino-madagarscan relations.

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Related centers and programs
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Macro view of a political map of Ethiopia
East and Central Africa Observatory
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The East and Central Africa Observatory is a 3-year research project (2023-2025) that Ifri is carrying out jointly with the French Institute of Research in Africa (IFRA) in Nairobi for the French Ministry of Defense, and more specifically its International Relations and Strategy Division (DGRIS). This observatory focuses on the main political, security and geopolitical developments taking place in the geographical areas covered by itself. This is achieved through the regular production of research notes, in English or French and the organization of an annual seminar around a key theme. For our research notes and conferences, we call on internationally acknowledged experts in the topics covered. This Observatory began in 2016, under the title of Observatory of Central and Southern Africa within Ifri's Sub-Saharan Africa Center. 55 notes were drafted between 2016 and 2020.

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Subsaharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa Center
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Founded in 2007, Ifri's Sub-Saharan Africa center produces an in-depth analysis of the African continent and its security, geopolitical, political and socio-economic dynamics (in particular the phenomenon of urbanization). The Center aims to be both, through various publications and conferences, a space for disseminating analyzes intended for the media and the public but also a decision-making tool for political and economic actors with regard to the continent.

The center produces analyses for various organizations such as the Ministry of the Armed Forces, the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the French Development Agency (AFD) and even for various private supports. Its researchers are regularly interviewed by parliamentary committees.

The organization of events of various formats complements the production of analyzes by bringing the different spheres of the public space (academic, political, media, economic and civil society) to meet and exchange analytical tools and visions of the continent. The Sub-Saharan Africa Center regularly welcomes political leaders from different sub-Saharan African countries.

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Sub-Saharan Africa
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