Somalia's Banking Sector and Economic Growth

 The Mogadishu-based Heritage Institute published in June 2023 a report titled "Transforming Somalia's Banking Sector to Ignite Economic Growth: Status and Ways Forward" by Uweis Ali.

This report examines the state of the banking sector in Somalia with a focus on key bottlenecks to transforming the sector and offers policy options to address them.  

Horn of Africa Countries Rank Near Bottom of Human Freedom Index

 The Cato Institute has just released its Human Freedom Index 2021 that ranks and evaluates 165 countries.  The index presents a broad measure of human freedom, understood as the absence of coercive constraint. It evaluates 82 indicators of personal and economic freedom in the following areas: rule of law; security and safety; movement; religion; association, assembly, and civil society; expression and information; relationships; size of government; legal system and property rights; sound money; freedom to trade internationally; and regulations.

Countries in the Horn of Africa did not score well.  Ethiopia ranked 132, Djibouti 137, Somalia 159, and Sudan 162.  Eritrea and South Sudan were not included in the rankings.  

Sudan's Banking System

The Sudan Democracy First Group, whose members are from civil society and the media, published in December 2018 a report titled "Banking System in Sudan: Political Influence and Personal Interests Breed Corruption and Lack of Transparency."

The paper analyzes Sudan's banking system from its foundation in 1960 to the present date. This critical assessment argues that the Sudanese banking system lacks political, operational, and financial independence due to frequent intervention from government and other influential and corrupt persons in the banking business.

The Environmental Impact of China's Investment in Africa

The Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies hosted a conference on 4 April 2015 on Chinese Overseas Investment and Its Environmental and Social Impacts.  I was asked to give a presentation on "The Environmental Impact of China's Investment in Africa."  The remarks are a summary of a much longer paper still under revision that will be published early in 2016 in the Cornell International Law Journal. 

On 8 April 2015 the International Policy Digest published a shortened version of my remarks at Yale.