Peter Arthur

• Dalhousie University

The COVID-19 pandemic that occurred in March 2020 resulted in the global economy grinding to a halt because of the various measures that were put in place by governments to stem the tide of the pandemic. While various sectors of the economy were hit hard, the micro, small and medium-sized enterprise (MSME) sector is believed to have borne the brunt...

This book examines sustainable development in the broader framework of Africa post COVID-19. Specifically, the book studies governance and digitalization from the perspective of natural environment management, climate change, the green economy, as well as agriculture and education. Digitalization supports the deepening of natural resource governanc...

The COVID-19 global pandemic has been revealing on several fronts. Although it was a health problem, it has implications for political, economic, and socio-cultural relations. Politically, the state responded with policy measures to address the economic downturn wrought by the global pandemic. The reaction of the state to the global pandemic varied...

Natural resources, including extractive ones have been a great source of economic activity for many countries, especially those in the global South. Natural resources are often expected to contribute in terms of employment generation, and growth in gross domestic product (GDP). Despite the potential of the natural resource sector for economic growt...

The extractive resource sector in Africa is a key factor in and net contributor to growth and development. The global transition toward clean energy is accentuating the need for and production of vast amounts of metals, both common and rare types, compared to fossil fuels. The future demand outlook for extractives presents invaluable opportunities...

The COVID-19 global pandemic in the first quarter of 2020, raised not only health concerns, but also, precipitated a global economic crisis in both the formal and informal sectors. The economic shutdowns around the world to contain the virus had devastating socioeconomic effects on the economies of African countries. The pandemic also revealed the...

Policymakers and other stakeholders, both within and beyond, have been involved in various discussions and efforts to attain development on the African continent. This concluding chapter therefore synthesizes, against the backdrop of sustainable development, the role of the UN Agenda 2030 and the African Union Agenda 2063, the increasing significan...

Every country relies on and needs revenue for national development. The emergence of the digital economy has introduced novel problems in the tax regime in many countries, for example, how to assess and collect taxes from companies that are not physically located within the borders of the nation state. Existing difficulties in taxation and revenue...

According to Haggard & Kaufman (2016), Samuel Huntington (1983) coined one of the most widely recognized metaphors in recent social science when he argued we were living through a “Third Wave” of democratization. So pervasive was this that Fukuyama (1989) declared that society had witnessed the “end of history” and that liberal democracy had triump...

One major contribution from modernization theorists to the development discourse is the role of technology. As a dynamic phenomenon, technology is crucial in social change and essential in addressing the African development agenda. Today, disruptive technologies are changing the business environment and large well-established companies are finding...

The last two decades have seen tremendous growth in information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the Global North and Global South. Many African policymakers realize that ICTs can assist with their socioeconomic development efforts, especially in the case of small- and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs), which in the developing world are seen...

This concluding chapter not only acknowledges that, across Africa, glimpses of the development and use of disruptive innovations are everywhere. It submits that Africa’s reality goes against the often made assumption that the continent’s contribution to digitization, AI and IoT is minimal. More importantly, it argues that Africa has grasped the pro...

With the rapid technological changes occurring throughout the world, it is unsurprising that one area that has recently been the focus of discussion relates to the implications of digital and mobile technologies, social media platforms, and the Internet environment on Africa’s democratic process and governance. Against this backdrop, this chapter,...

This book examines how disruptive technologies and innovation underpin the attainment of a broader development agenda in Africa. Contributors show how distinctive forms of technological innovation can impact critical development processes. For example, disruptive technologies can deepen the ongoing democratic and governance waves in Africa, specifi...

The last 25 years have seen Economic Community of West African States, through the use of various norms, structures and protocols, make the promotion of security and the implementation of humanitarian intervention and the responsibility to protect (R2P) important aspects of the political landscape in the sub-region. The article argues that despite...

With escalating energy and raw material demands from the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) countries and increasing commodity prices in the world market, there is now renewed global interest in minerals and natural resources throughout Africa (Maconachie 2009: 73). While the control of natural resources such as oil, gas, minerals, forests, an...

In the last two decades there has been tremendous transformation and support for the small and medium-scale enterprise (SME) sector in many African countries. This transformation can in large part be explained by the rethinking of the approach to development where the private sector and especially the small and medium-scale enterprises are believed...

The finite supply of fossil fuels combined with increased demand is leading to an intensification of efforts by various states and multinational corporations (MNCs) to discover and control new sources of oil. This has become even more urgent in recent times with the Western world interested in reducing its reliance on oil from the Middle East, and...

There have recently been concerted efforts by many post-conflict African countries to formulate and implement policies and measures that will reconstruct and develop their societies. Much of the discussions of realizing post-conflict reconstruction and development have generally focused on disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) of ex-c...

During the 1990s, West Africa was ravaged by conflicts that required ECOWAS to intervene by sending a regional military force, ECOMOG, into Liberia and Sierra Leone. This paper analyzes the lessons learned from ECOWAS’s military intervention in Liberia and Sierra Leone. It argues that, while ECOMOG faced daunting challenges—disagreements among ECOW...

Following a democratic transition in 1992, Ghana has made significant efforts to promote a liberal democratic culture and system of government. This paper provides an analysis of the extent to which Ghana's liberal democratic process is being consolidated, focusing on the role and contribution of the media, civil society and state political institu...

Ghana since 1992, when it embarked on a period of democratic transition and consolidation, has made major progress. Important questions, however, such as the influence of ethnicity on voter alignment, have yet to be explored and answered. There is a general perception that ethnic undercurrents play a major role in elections in Ghana’s Fourth Republ...

The activities, programs and services of three of the development institutions and agencies that includes the National Board for Small-Scale Industries (NBSSI), Ghana regional appropriate technology Industrial Service (GRATIS) Foundation, and EMPRETEC Ghana has been given focused. While NBSSI is the major government agency for small-scale industrie...

The promotion of the private sector has become an integral part of Ghana's economic development strategy since it embarked on its structural adjustment program (SAP) in 1983. Private sector development, which involves the improvement of the investment climate and the enhancing of basic service delivery, is considered one of the necessary factors fo...

Les gouvernements qui se sont succédés au Ghana ont formulé et appliqué des politiques de développement industriel, mais sans vraiment s'engager à aider les entrepreneurs locaux. En effet, les propriétaires d'un commerce étaient perçus comme une menace politique, parce qu'ils pouvaient générer des richesses qui échapperaient au contrôle du gouverne...

The 1970s and 1980s were difficult periods in the socioeconomic development efforts of African countries. Not only were many of the countries on the continent, which boasts of large wealth and mineral resources, ravaged by political violence and civil wars, but also they experienced general economic decline. It is in regard that the New Partnership...

The focus of this paper is on the multilateral trade system as embodied in the World Trade Organization (wto) and its impact on African economic development and poverty alleviation. It discusses how the multilateral trading system—particularly the rules and agreements in areas such as tariff barriers, access to Western markets, and intellectual pro...

In the 1980s and 1990s, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank recommended a structural adjustment program (SAP) in Ghana as a response to its economic crises. This paper examines educational and health policies under SAP and addresses the following issues: How did educational and health policies impact children? What are the implicat...

This paper discusses Ghana's economic and industrial promotion efforts in the post-structural adjustment program (SAP) period. Although International Financial Institutions (IFIs) like the World Bank and IMF once hailed Ghana as an economic success after the implementation of the SAP, it later became obvious that the SAP did not improve the socio-e...

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Queen's University, 2001. Includes bibliographical references.