Air links in Africa are shrinking as oil prices rise and shaky carriers fail. Physical infrastructure is not the main problem. Regional cooperation and better national oversight are needed to improve safety and ensure continued service to poor countries.
Author/s: Cecilia Briceño-Garmendia, Michael Minges, Mark Williams, Mavis Ampah, Daniel Camos, and Maria Shkratan
Africa’s wireless revolution has brought voice telecom services to hundreds of millions of Africans, but Internet access remains narrow. Flexible retail packages ease access despite relatively high prices; monopolies, taxes, and duties restrict it.
Author/s: Mark Svendsen, Mandy Ewing, and Siwa Msangi
Irrigation is rare in Africa except in a few countries, even it has the power to raise agricultural productivity. Larger investments in irrigation would improve food security and permit greater production of export-quality agricultural goods.
Data for power plants with total installed generating capacity > 10 mw. Data from the Platts World Electric Power Plants Database were georeferenced using auxiliary GIS datasets, documents and maps from national utilities, regional power pools and the World Bank.
Sub-Saharan Africa has many ports, most small, inefficient, and ill-equipped for new patterns of trade and shipping. Momentum for change is coming from the growing presence of global shipping lines and international terminal operators in African ports.
Data for power plants with total installed generating capacity > 10 mw. Data from the Platts World Electric Power Plants Database were georeferenced using auxiliary GIS datasets, documents and maps from national utilities, regional power pools and the World Bank.
Author/s: Elvira Morella, Vivien Foster, and Sudeshna Ghosh Banerjee
In Sub-Saharan Africa traditional latrines are the most common and fastest-growing means of improved sanitation, although open defecation remains widespread, and sewer networks are rare. Several recent success stories relieve the otherwise bleak picture.
Data for medium and high voltage electricity transmission lines compiled for the AICD study. A variety of sources were consulted, including documents and maps from national utilities, regional power pools and the World Bank.