Latest content: Trade and economy

This report presents policy recommendations for how Kenya can further enhance investment in the country by its growing and diverse diaspora. Presenting a thorough review of the Kenyan and global evidence, and informed by extensive stakeholder consultations, it proposes policy recommendations for addressing the challenges to greater investment by – and raising awareness and engagement among – the Kenyan diaspora that could deliver substantial contributions to national development. 

As an island nation, Antigua and Barbuda is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and, despite recent classification as a middle-income country, pockets of poverty heighten this risk for some parts of society. Recognising this challenge, the Sustainable Island Resource Framework (SIRF) Fund was established in 2019 as a financial vehicle to deliver climate and environment-related projects and programmes both domestically and across the Eastern Caribbean.

The world’s least developed countries (LDCs) face unique and complex structural constraints that hinder their economic development and transformation. High levels of dependence on primary commodities, underdeveloped productive capacity and low productivity levels, chronic shortages of human capital, weak digital and technological capabilities, underdeveloped private sectors and major infrastructure deficits all combine to undermine their socio-economic prospects, hampering their progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and leaving them highly vulnerable to economic and environmental shocks.

As a result, most LDCs continue to be marginalised in the global economy and in international trade, with the latter reflected in very low shares of global trade in goods and services. They also face daunting socio-economic challenges, particularly in relation to education and health. Poverty levels have been slow to decline and remain alarmingly high in many LDCs.