With the AfCFTA in force and several regional integration initiatives ongoing in Africa, effective implementation promises an economic growth and development trajectory that defi nes the ‘Africa we want’ as posited by the African policymakers within the context of the African Union’s ‘Agenda 2063’. This is more evident with emerging dynamics characterised by unprecedented shocks and fast-paced evolution in the digital space. The implications of these dynamics beckon a rethinking of the strategies for riding on and above the wave. This book delves into some of the policy intricacies and generates both insights on emerging shocks, digitalisation, intellectual property rights and raises interesting issues for further reflection. It is a great read that illuminates critical trade issues with important policy implications.

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of both national and regional trade facilitation capacities, issues, challenges and lessons, with a special interest in sustainably advancing West Africa’s regional trade facilitation agenda. It examines the contributions of trade facilitation towards enhancing regional integration and economic expansion in the face of increasing non-tariff barriers that highly characterises West African agri-food and non-agricultural markets. The authors recommend new conceptual frameworks, appropriate initiatives, and workable policy recipes towards enhancing West Africa’s trade facilitation agenda as well as the regional economic transformation trajectory in the face of the ongoing African Continental Free Trade Agreements (AfCFTA). The book underscores the geopolitics, opportunities and challenges that confront West Africa in the increasingly dynamic regional trade facilitation policy space. Readers will learn how West Africa can improve its regional trade facilitation game amidst emerging capacity challenges.

Fair and ethical trade is often criticized for being highly gendered, and for institutionalizing the ethical values of consumers, the priorities of NGOs and governments, and most of all, food retailers. But little is known about how women smallholder farmers experience diverse ethical standards, or whether and how standards reflect their values, local cultural and environmental contexts, or priorities for achieving sustainable livelihoods. Linking gender, smallholder livelihoods and global ethical trade regulations, this book reveals that multiple understandings of social justice, environmental sustainability and well-being – or ethicality – exist in parallel to those institutionalized in ethical trade schemes. Through an in-depth case study of smallholder subsistence and French bean farming in Kenya, the book grounds the analysis of livelihoods, gender and ethical trade in women smallholders’ perspectives, links the macro level of markets with the micro level of livelihoods, and engenders relations of power, structure and agency in food networks. It brings together disparate bodies of theory to illustrate the knowledge, strategies and values of women smallholder farmers that are often beyond the scope of ethical trade regulations. It also provides a challenging new vision for doing food systems research.

This book discusses trade relations and facilitation issues at both the regional and the continental African level, highlighting the increasing business opportunities and challenges that confront Africa in the digital age. It also examines the effects of trade policies and other policy instruments on Africa’s economic development and presents workable policy measures for a more business-friendly ecosystem. Discussing various topics, including trade relations between African countries, African and international trade agreements, and trade liberalization policies, the book appeals to scholars of economics, business and management as well as professionals and policymakers interested in fostering free trade and sustainable business development in Africa.

The Routledge Handbook of Development Ethics provides readers with insight into the central questions of development ethics, the main approaches to answering them, and areas for future research. Over the past seventy years, it has been argued and increasingly accepted that worthwhile development cannot be reduced to economic growth. Rather, a number of other goals must be realised: Enhancement of people's well-being Equitable sharing in benefits of development Empowerment to participate freely in development Environmental sustainability Promotion of human rights Promotion of cultural freedom, consistent with human rights Responsible conduct, including integrity over corruption Agreement that these are essential goals has also been accompanied by disagreements about how to conceptualize or apply them in different cases or contexts. Using these seven goals as an organizing principle, this handbook presents different approaches to achieving each one, drawing on academic literature, policy documents and practitioner experience. This international and multi-disciplinary handbook will be of great interest to development policy makers and program workers, students and scholars in development studies, public policy, international studies, applied ethics and other related disciplines.

The emergence of human rights within development and the evolving relationship was increasingly brought to bear upon key debates and policies over the last couple of decades. This book provides a critically informed, comprehensive and multi-disciplinary entry-level account of this engagement between human rights and development. It is theoretically and practically grounded and explores three over-arching questions and themes: First, why and how have human rights made this breakthrough? Second, is there agreement on human rights as a concept and how it is being used and understood within diverse development practices at global, national and local levels? Third, how can we gauge the impact of human rights based approaches upon development outcomes? The book concludes with what the future may hold for human rights and development. In-depth understanding of human rights as a development challenge and development as a human rights one, is presented and delineates the diverse responses and alternative critical approaches. Wide ranging in scope, it covers many examples of human rights within development, including global policy initiatives, and vulnerable groups, such as those living in poverty, socially excluded, people living with HIV/AIDS, residents of informal settlements, and human rights defenders. This textbook will be an essential resource for social science students, particularly in the fields of development studies, human rights and geography, as well as those interested in the intersection between law, human rights and social change. It should also appeal to practitioners in development and human rights.

This volume captures the recent changes and evolution in ethics in research involving humans and provides future directions to achieve alternative drug development strategies for equitable global health. It presents ethical considerations in current day clinical trials and new trends of ethics in research. It also describes the historical context, illustrates the process in alternative paradigms to achieve democracy after World War II, how the framework of ethics in research was established in different regions, and policies implemented to protect research participants from the exploitation of new drug development. The book is organized into three themed parts: relevant constructions from Brazil, South Africa, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan; historical and international perspectives of principles of ethics in research; and alternative frameworks of clinical development and innovation. Ethical Innovation for Global Health: Pandemic, Democracy and Ethics in Research is an informative resource for academic researchers, the global pharmaceutical industry, regulators, civil society and other role players involved in global health. It is contributed to by leaders in global policy development in research ethics, and experts in drug development activities with its trajectory being global health. The COVID-19 pandemic, as a global disaster, necessitated not only socio-economic but also cultural transformation. While effective vaccines were developed under a successful new methodology, there remains inequity of distribution of these vaccines globally. The book re-engages with the notion of the primacy of distributing results of scientific innovation to those who most require the benefits.