Welcome 👋 to our end-of-year edition of Development Directions ➡️- Jonusta’s newsletter on the international development space.
Jonusta is an early-stage 🚀on-demand work marketplace connecting 🤝 for-purpose organizations and professional talent to remote project opportunities in the Global 🌍 South.
Do check out our fantastic website platform @ Jonusta. In the meantime, please enjoy our newsletter. We’re always keen to carry on the conversation about #globaldevelopment, so we look forward to connecting on Linkedin & Twitter!
Until next time! Stay healthy, have a fab Xmas 🤶🎅🎄, keep doing great impactful work, and see you in 2022!
- Team Jonusta
2021 - A Year in Review
2021 was a rollercoaster year, starting with high hopes of a vaccination-driven recovery from C19, only to be hit by the latest variant, Omicron. According to the WHO, Omicron is 'likely to spread internationally and poses a very high risk of infection surges that could have severe consequences in some places.' With Xmas around the corner, we face new travel restrictions on Southern African countries.
African Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTA)
2021 saw the introduction of the African Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTA) agreement, creating the world's largest free trade area. The World Bank is optimistic that ACFTA could:
Lift 30 million Africans out of extreme poverty and boost the incomes of nearly 68 million others who live on less than $5.50 a day;
Boost Africa's income by $450 billion by 2035 (a gain of 7 percent) while adding $76 billion to the income of the rest of the world.
Increase Africa's exports by $560 billion, mostly in manufacturing.
Spur more considerable wage gains for women (10.5 percent) than for men (9.9 percent).
Boost wages for both skilled and unskilled workers—10.3 percent for unskilled workers and 9.8 percent for skilled workers.
So what's the state of play post-AFCTA's introduction? So far, however, few goods have changed hands under AFCTA. Implementation problems include:
Non-ratification by many states.
Lack of consensus on customs documentation and rules of origin.
Poor transportation infrastructure across the continent.
Persistent non-tariff barriers to trade plus COVID-19.
We remain hopeful that AFTCA trading prospects will improve next year and beyond.
Post-COP 26
Sarah Colenbrander from ODI highlights several critical forward implications from COP26:
Adaptation to the impacts of climate change is now deemed to be equally crucial as reducing emissions (mitigation).
On finance, governments at COP26 agreed on the need for more significant support to developing countries.
On bringing down emissions, governments have a collective agreement to explore ways of increasing actions to close the current emissions gap.
Finalization of guidelines for the full implementation of the Paris Agreement.
The compromise reached on Article Six relating to carbon markets, which will ensure a level playing field for everyone;
And the finalization of negotiations on the Enhanced Transparency Framework allows countries to continue building trust.
As we look to COP 27 in November 2022, it will be interesting to see the extent to which governments will mainstream and implement these.
The #GreatResignation
The #greatresignation is in full swing since the pandemic broke out, with employees leaving the workforce or switching jobs in droves across the board. Key reasons include:
the pandemic shift in priorities, encouraging them to pursue a ‘dream job,’ or transition to being a stay-at-home parent
adverse treatment by employers during the pandemic
The #greatresignation is leading to a significant rethink about work culture and compensation packages for employees, especially given the tightness of labour markets worldwide. While employees are looking for more flexibility, employers are also rethinking their staffing model to complement full-time staff with freelancers.
Donor💡Spotlight💡Briefing
Our new ‘donor spotlight’ briefing section is an opportunity for brief facts about donors in international development → starting with the Gates Foundation (GF).
HQ’d in the US, GF is led by CEO Mark Suzman, under the direction of Bill & Melinda Gates. GF was established in 2000 and has spent an impressive $60 billion to date → through grant-making activities & strategic investments. It’s lean, with 1763 staff in offices in the US, Europe, Africa, and Asia. It works in several thematic areas in the Global South including:
Global Health: improving health outcomes by developing new tools and strategies on:
Gender Equality: integrating gender across the Foundation’s global work and investing in women’s economic empowerment and leadership.
Global Growth & Opportunity: creating and scaling market-based innovations to stimulate inclusive and sustainable economic growth:
Global Policy & Advocacy.
It funds large-scale grand challenges (through large grants) and organisations are encouraged to submit applications to RFPs issued by GF here and here.
GF also has fantastic and useful international development tools 🔧 such as the Gender Equality toolbox.
Global Dev 🌍 & Social Impact 🍃 Podcast 🎙️ Recommendations
As you wind down over the festive period, here are some great podcast recommendations to enjoy after your Xmas dinner:
Naomi Whitbourn’s podcast speaks to inspiring entrepreneurs, innovators, and leaders of companies focussed on having a positive impact, in both the UK and internationally. It’s ideal for anyone interested in these topics and looking to broaden their perspectives.
Hosted by super duo Hanna Rosin and Alix Spiegel, NPR’s Invisibilia offers six fantastic seasons of episodes engaging with empathy, the human experience, and the biggest existential questions of our time.
Tiny Spark: Investigating the business of doing good
Amy Costello, a hard-hitting journalist who has worked for the BBC, PRI, and PBS hosts the show & poses crucial questions to guests who offer their first-hand accounts of grappling with the unintended consequences of nonprofits, international aid, and philanthropy.
2 for the price of 1! Afrobility (presented by the fantastic Olumide Ogunsanwo & Bankole Makanju) and Flip Africa (presented by Justin Norman and Sayo Folayawo) will rock your world if you are into tech & startups in Africa. Afrobility does more deep long-form analysis into tech companies in Africa and Flip tends to take a bird’s eye view across the space but both are really good!
2021 is a WRAP!
🎄Stay healthy, 🎄Have a fab🎄Xmas🤶🏾🎅,keep doing great impactful work, and we'll see you in 2022!