Policy areas

Each area asks one question about cross-border investment and follows it through every country and regional body involved.

Area	Depth	Question	Coverage
Cross-border payments and currency	Deep	What stops a firm in one African country paying, being paid, or repatriating earnings in another, and how far have regional payment systems and foreign-exchange rules moved?	Four records. One is South Africa's draft Capital Flow Management Regulations, which would replace the 1961 exchange-control regulations. Two are SADC's regional payment systems: SADC-RTGS for high-value payments, operated by the South African Reserve Bank, and the TCIB scheme for low-value instant payments, managed and operated by BankservAfrica under a SADC mandate. One is the continental PAPSS system, from its own coverage document. Sources are the draft regulations, National Treasury's statement, a government news report, the Reserve Bank's Currency and Exchanges Manual (October 2026), its statistics and media release, and PAPSS's coverage document. Only the opening of the manual's rule for companies' foreign investment was read, no other country's foreign-exchange rules are recorded, and no firm's account of a delayed or refused payment was read.
Regional power trade	Deep	Which physical, commercial and regulatory constraints limit electricity trade and co-investment through Southern African interconnectors, and which decisions would relieve them?	Nineteen records across South Africa, Zambia, Namibia, Mozambique, Malawi and the Southern African Power Pool, from two worked examples (South Africa and Zambia; South Africa and Namibia) and a draft set of Mozambique records whose main sources are in Portuguese. Other SAPP members appear only as actors. Parliamentary records are not used, except through SA Policy Space. This is not a full account of electricity trade in the region.
Transport corridors and border posts	Deep	Which rules and facilities at the main Southern African corridors and border posts slow goods, and which reforms are underway?	Seven records. Five are on South Africa's side or at Beitbridge: open access to freight rail, the transport regulator, private participation in ports and rail, the land ports of entry partnership, and crossing times at Beitbridge. Two are on Mozambique's side of the Maputo corridor: the Ressano Garcia border post and the railway to Maputo. Sources are Operation Vulindlela reports, the Act, a government news report, a SADC news item, a financier's project page and press reports. No Zimbabwean reform is recorded, no Mozambican government document was read, and the Walvis Bay and North-South corridors beyond Beitbridge are not covered.
Investment protection and harmonisation	Scoped	How far do national investment laws, treaties and dispute settlement line up with continental investment rules, and where do they conflict?	No records yet. This page sets out the question the area will answer.
Capital markets and long-term savings	Planned	What stops pension funds and investors in one country holding infrastructure and securities in another?	Planned. No research yet.
Critical minerals value chains	Planned	What policy steps would let neighbouring countries co-invest in processing rather than exporting ore?	Planned. No research yet.