Friday news roundup April 30, 2021

Sub-Saharan Africa’s projected growth is slowest in the world. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Covid-19 is widening the income gap between sub-Saharan Africa and the rest of the world, thus risking widening the differences in living standards between countries. In its latest outlook for the region the IMF has established that Covid-19 will hinder economic recovery in the area. It is projected that the income gap between sub-Saharan Africa and the rest of the world will widen significantly in the years to come. “Following the shock early in 2020, and considering the uneven recovery in the second half of the year, the gap between the region’s per capita GDP and that of advanced economies will increase in 2021 and is set to widen even further in 2022, interrupting the region’s previous convergence path,” the report says.

Nigeria is prioritizing technology in agriculture to attract young people. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said that the country is prioritizing innovation and technology investments in agriculture in order to attract young people, scale up productivity and ultimately transform the sector. Osinbajo spoke at the 2021 High-Level Dialogue on Feeding Africa virtual event where he listed three initiatives that were geared toward agricultural transformation: the Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP), the National Livestock Transformation Plan and the Green Imperative Project. “At the heart of Nigeria's post COVID-19 recovery plan, or what we describe as ESP is Agriculture for Food and Jobs Plan (AFJP). Here we seek to leverage suitable technologies to build a resilient food system for Nigeria especially in the light of the economic, health and food supply chain devastations caused by the pandemic,” Osinbajo said.

Germany to improve its emissions targets from 2031. Following a complaint by a coalition of climate activists, Germany’s Constitutional Court has ruled that the country’s 2019 climate protection act is unconstitutional in some parts. It also said that the law is not clear on how greenhouse gas emissions are to be reduced after 2031 and legislature has until the end of next year to create clearer reduction targets for greenhouse gas emissions for the period after 2030. “Virtually every freedom is potentially affected by these future emission reduction obligations because almost all areas of human life are still associated with the emission of greenhouse gases and are thus threatened by drastic restrictions after 2030,” the court said in a statement.

Find IZA World of Labor content on Covid-19, the environment, and innovation.