Even though rural economies are widely informal, they have created a variety of income, employment opportunities and food security for rural communities. In most developing countries, particularly those in Africa, Asia, Caribbean and Latin America, rural economies comprise economic activities in sectors such as agriculture, tourism and fisheries amongst others. However, in recent years, the emergence of climate change has resulted in the collapse of some of the rural businesses leading to the increase in the unemployment rate in most rural economic sectors. Climate change encompasses modification in average weather conditions or in the distribution of weather leading to unprecedented and sometimes extreme weather events. Recently, climate change has been linked with extreme episodes of rising sea levels. El Nino, La Nina, hurricanes, floods and droughts have caused a lot of damage in the rural economic sectors. The purpose of this paper is to review the prospects of climate change’s impact on the rural economy with respect to employment trends. In other words, the question the paper intends to answer is: To what extent does climate change impact on rural economy including livelihood activities? The research method this paper used is based on theoretical knowledge derived from literature material such as academic articles, books and other sources of academic publications. The paper argues that the slow growth of rural economy, livelihood insecurity and lack of creation of new employment opportunities in rural areas can also be linked to the emergence of climate change in recent times. For instance, drought and floods have destroyed most of the rural livelihood activities and agricultural products, while tourism and fishery businesses have suffered the same fate, thus leading to fewer employment and job losses. The article concludes that, a diversification of measures to respond to climate change impacts on rural economy and needs to be devised if employment opportunities are to be created for rural communities.

Climate conditions affect the macroeconomic and financial environment, which in turn affects sustainable agricultural development in South Africa. In this study, the short- and long-run relationships between agricultural performance, temperature, economic activity, trade openness, Consumer Price Index and financial-sector development are investigated using annual South African time-series data for the period 1972 to 2022 in an ARDL (Autoregressive Distributed Lag) model. The ARDL bounds test confirms a long-run equilibrium relationship among the variables included in the final specification. Economic activity exhibits a negative and statistically significant long-run association with agricultural performance (β = −0.7985, p = 0.0009). Temperature also has a negative long-run coefficient (β = –0.1119), but this is not statistically significant at conventional levels (p = 0.1212). In addition, financial-sector development has a negative, but marginally significant association with agricultural performance (β = −0.0032, p = 0.0589), whereas the natural logarithm of the Consumer Price Index (β = 0.3994, p = 0.0537) and trade openness (β = 0.0080, p = 0.0873) have positive, but marginally significant associations. The sign of the error correction coefficient is negative and highly significant (−0.4742, p < 0.001), suggesting that around 47.4% of short-run disequilibria will be resolved over a period of a year. Overall, the results indicate that agricultural performance is linked with climatic, macroeconomic, trade, and financial conditions in South Africa. However, the strength and statistical significance of these relationships vary across variables. The results therefore provide evidence relevant to sustainable agricultural development while supporting careful consideration of climate adaptation, macroeconomic stability, productive finance, and market integration.

Changes in crude oil prices are seen as a significant contributor to macroeconomic uncertainties globally. Crude oil is a vital resource for most emerging economies and an energy source used to transport goods and to generate electricity. This points out that the economic wellbeing of crude oil importing countries rely significantly on imported oil, making the nations susceptible to crude oil price increases. The study evaluates crude oil price effects on the economy’s wellbeing of South Africa. The evaluation used unemployment and economic growth as proxies of the economy’s wellbeing of the country, with data spanning from 1994Q1 to 2023Q4 for unemployment model and from 1993Q1 to 2024Q1 for economic growth model. Both models have the same independent variables, which include crude oil prices, inflation, exchange rate, and interest rate. The study employed an EGARCH model and the Toda-Yamamoto causality test, and the results indicate that crude oil prices drive both unemployment and economic growth, which proves that the ongoing changes in crude oil prices on the world market has a substantial influence on the economy’s wellbeing of South Africa, influencing both unemployment and the nation’s economic growth. The study recommends that policymakers from oil-importing countries consider investment in renewable energy sources. By diversifying its energy portfolio, South Africa can improve energy security and mitigate the risks linked to supply interruptions or geopolitical conflicts.

Climate change is increasingly seen as a risk to the economy and financial systems. This is because weather patterns can affect how much people produce, inflation, trade, investment and how well the financial sector performs. These effects are especially important in developing countries that are sensitive to climate change. Even though there is growing research linking climate and finance, there is still no solid evidence on how climate, economic factors, and financial development are connected in South Africa. This study looks at these links using data from 1972 to 2023. It focuses on financial-sector development, which is measured by the amount of credit given to the private sector as a share of GDP. The study also includes other factors: total annual rainfall, temperature, trade openness, inflation and human development. To analyse the data, the researchers use the ARDL model developed by Pesaran, Shin and Smith in 2001. This model helps to find both long-run relationships and short-run movements between the variables. The results show a long-run relationship among the variables in the model. In this term, trade openness has a negative and statistically significant effect on financial-sector development (coefficient = −1.7548, p = 0.0260). Inflation also has a significant effect (coefficient = −0.0207, p = 0.0128). Temperature is positively and significantly associated with financial-sector development in the model (coefficient = 11.0507, p = 0.0098), but this result should be interpreted with caution. This is because temperature was transformed using a logarithm and measured in degrees Celsius, and there could be shared long-term trends affecting the results. Rainfall and human development do not show significant long-term effects. In the run, improvements in human development are positively and significantly tied to changes in financial-sector development (coefficient = 5.0723, p = 0.0005). Inflation changes also have a significant short-run effect (coefficient = −0.0152, p = 0.0005). The short-run effect of trade openness is not statistically significant. The error-correction term is negative and significant (−0.3513, p < 0.001), meaning that 35.1% of any imbalance from the long-run equilibrium is corrected within one year. Overall, the findings suggest that climate, macroeconomic and financial factors are linked in South Africa but not through strong structural causes. Instead, the relationships appear to be conditional and influenced by a mix of factors.

Many African nations, particularly those within the Southern African Development Community (SADC), face significant challenges due to pervasive corruption. The impact of corruption on economic wellbeing has been scrutinised for years, with its impact ranging from economic growth and development, foreign direct investment, its impact on living standards, service delivery, and poverty levels. The existing literature presents two contrasting views: the “sand the wheels” hypothesis, which posits that corruption hampers economic development, and the “grease the wheels” hypothesis, which argues the opposite. This study seeks to determine the asymmetric impact of corruption on economic development and to model a corruption threshold that has a non-detrimental impact on economic development. Employing a nonlinear panel autoregressive distributed lag model and a panel threshold model. The study reveals that changes in corruption levels have influence on economic development, with reductions in corruption being particularly more beneficial. The findings suggest that corruption impedes development, especially when corruption levels are below a threshold of 0.64, measured by control of corruption indicators, and 41 on the corruption perception index. The results underscore the necessity of concerted efforts to combat corruption to foster improved economic development in SADC countries. This study outlines several policies for eradicating corruption.