Category - Papers

Rethinking Post Harvest Management Interventions in Southern Africa in the Era of COVID 19

Paper By Munetsi Madakufamba (Executive Director, Southern African Research and Documentation Centre [SARDC1]) and Neto Nengomasha (Senior Researcher, SARDC) Presented at the Virtual Conference hosted by Nanjing Agricultural University, 21 03 2021 Post-harvest losses among smallholder farmers in the Southern African region have been a major concern with losses as high as 40 percent of harvested crops. This has increased pressure on food security with rapidly expanding population, poor infrastructure to move crops to the market and price volatility.

Medium and Long-term Economic Planning in Zimbabwe and SADC: Linkages with China’s Planning System

by Munetsi Madakufamba, Joseph Ngwawi & Tanaka Chitsa The research paper seeks to inform policy from an African perspective by generating a deeper understanding of Zimbabwe and Southern Africa’s economic planning and development policy and how this can relate to China’s vision on “One Belt, One Road” as well as the idea of building six major China-Africa cooperation areas to upgrade cooperation and projects relating to areas of– Industrial cooperation; Financial cooperation; Poverty reduction; Ecological and environmental protection; Cultural and people-to-people exchanges; and Peace and security. Download

SADC industrialisation and agricultural mechanisation: Prospects Opportunities and Challenges for China-SADC Cooperation

by Joseph Ngwawi This paper looks at the importance of agricultural mechanisation in advancing the industrialization agenda in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and how the region could benefit from the Chinese experience in this area. It argues that the SADC region could leverage its massive agricultural potential and the blossoming relationship with China to derive long-lasting economic benefits from Beijing’s expertise in agricultural mechanisation and industrialisation. Download

Bringing Africa into the manufacturing global value chain

by Joseph Ngwawi This Paper seeks to unpack how SADC and the rest of Africa can seize the opportunities presented by the region’s – and continent’s – strategic cooperation with global partners, particularly with China. The paper argues that since natural resources – energy, minerals, and agriculture – will remain Africa’s comparative advantage for the foreseeable future, the priority of any active transformation strategy should be to establish a strong, diversified resource-based economy that takes advantage of the blossoming economic ties with China. Download

The “One Belt, One Road” Policy – History, Trends and Possibilities

Paper by Phyllis Johnson Vision and Actions on Jointly Building a Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road –“Belt and Road” This new policy was announced in March this year by President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China and is collectively known as “One Belt, One Road”– or simply the “Belt and Road” policy. This is a development policy — economic, political, security — it is all of those things collectively, but none of those things separately, in the sense that it is a holistic vision to reach out and initiate action to jointly build a new world order that is development-oriented, with mutual prosperity as its goal, and human security at its heart.