Session 4: NSI and the resourcing of innovation and R&D

Session 9: Innovation and sustainable growth and green industries, including the transtition to a low-carbon economy 

Session 11: Inclusive innovation to address poverty, unemployment and inequality 

WIDER Working Paper 2019/38

This working paper, Moving up the copper value chain in Southern Africa, forms part of the project: Southern Africa – Towards Inclusive Economic Development (SA-TIED)

Abstract

t: Interest in industrial hemp has revived in the past 20 years. Malawi is considering legalizing the cultivation of industrial hemp as an alternative cash crop to tobacco with great potential. This study considers the potential and challenges of creating an industrial hemp value chain between South Africa and Malawi, with Malawi concentrating on upstream cultivation and South Africa on downstream value-adding activity. The research supports a finding that industrial hemp offers strong opportunities as a niche market even if mainstream demand is slow to materialize or does not materialize at all. It also shows that undertaking such an inter-regional endeavour would be considerably more complicated than initially envisaged, given the agricultural structure and operation of the Malawian economy and its smallholder farmers.

Download Working Paper: https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/Publications/Working-paper/PDF/wp-2019-52.pdf

TIPS acknowledges the support of the SA-TIED programme for this working paper, with special thanks to UNU-WIDER and the South African Department of Trade and Industry.

Business Day - 23 July 2019 by Neva Makgetla (TIPS Senior Economist)

Read online at Business Day.

Or read as a PDF.

Mail & Guardian - 5 July 2019 by Lynley Donnely 

Read online at Mail & Guardian.

The Daily Maverick - 21 June 2019 by Trudi Makhaya (Economic Adviser to President Cyril Ramaphosa)

Read online at Daily Maverick, 

The trade balance declined in the first quarter of 2019. At the end of the quarter, the deficit was R0.3 billion. With the exception of the first quarter of 2017, South Africa has seen a trade deficit in the first quarter for the 10 years between 2010 and 2019.

Lesego Moshikaro-Amani joined TIPS in July 2019. Lesego earned a Master’s degree in Economics specialising in Development Economics from the University of Cape Town (UCT). Prior to joining TIPS, Lesego worked as a Crisis Response Fund (CRF) researcher and data analyst at CIVICUS and as a graduate research assistant at the Land Restitution Evaluation Study (LRES), launched by SALDRU.  Her expertise lies in industrial policy, battery energy storage value chains and the emerging sector of new energy vehicles (NEVs) in South Africa, including a strong emphasis on skill development within the NEV industry. Other areas of focus include skills development for industry and promoting employment in the development of SMMEs.

Liako Mofo joined TIPS in July 2019.  She holds a Master’s Degree in Development Economics from the University of Sussex, United Kingdom, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Statistics and Economics  as well as a Certificate in Statistics, both from the National University of Lesotho. She has more than 16 years of experience in economic research, policy development and analysis, development of national strategic development plans, sector-specific investment plans and project cycle management in the public sector, and development in the regional and international context.

Prior to joining TIPS, she served as an Economist at the Lesotho Millennium Development Agency (LMDA) working in collaboration with the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a United States Government Development Agency, to develop high-impact development projects for funding. In this role, she provided strategic leadership focusing on identifying critical constraints to economic growth; economic analysis of policy reform; and cost-benefit analysis of proposed projects, with attention to the cost-effectiveness of the investments and their impact on inclusive economic growth and poverty reduction. While with LMDA, she also served in the Projects Control Office, acquiring skills on project risk management.

She spent 14 years in the public sector working in the Policy and Strategic Planning Departments and the Economic Planning Units in different government ministries, where she guided policy development, produced the national strategic development plan, undertook economic research, and managed development programmes in education, energy, mining and water sectors. Her work also involved public financial management within the same sectors.