Africa’s Digital Revolution: Opportunities & Challenges

May 6, 2021

The Policy Center for the New South recently partnered with the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center on a pair of reports exploring the theme of technology and its impact on Africa’s political and economic future. In its report, The Impact of New Technologies on Employment and the Workforce: What Are the Implications for Developing Countries, Especially in Africa?, the PCNS analyzes the relationship between technology and employment in African labor markets, responding to the question of whether technology will help or hurt the twelve million Africans per year entering the job market. Taking a geopolitical angle in its report, Partnering for Africa’s Digital Future: Opportunities for the United States, South Korea, and India, the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center covers opportunities for cooperation between African nations, South Korea, India, and the United States to advance digital infrastructure and technology in Africa as an alternative to China.

Speakers
Jalal Abdel-Latif
Ethiopia
Senior Fellow
Jalal Abdel-Latif is Senior Fellow at Policy Center for the New South and Senior Social Policy Advisor, Gender and Poverty, Social Policy Division, UNECA. Jalal has over 25 years of professional experience in the areas of corporate social responsibility, civic engagement, grant making, project design and enhancing the capacities of non-profit organizations. He began his career as researcher and capacity analyst at UCLA African studies center, before working as Grants manager for USA for Africa (the We Are the World project) in California. He was also a co-founder and CEO of Inter-Africa Group, a regional think thank.  He was previously appointed by the late Prime Minister of Ethiopia to serve on the Ethiopian Telecommunications Board of Directors to assist in its modernization ...
Stephanie Wander
Deputy Director and Senior Fellow, GeoTech Center, Atlantic Council
...
Ali Wyne
Senior Analyst for Global Macro, Eurasia Group
...

RELATED CONTENT

  • June 1, 2020
    تدور خطة العمل التي تم وضعها في مواجهة جائحة كوفيد 19 حول ثلاثة محاور: الصحة والاقتصاد والنظام الاجتماعي. وفي كل مجال من هذه المجالات، ساعدت مبادرات المؤسسات العامة والقطاع الخاص وأعضاء المجتمع المدني حتى الآن على الحد من أضرار الوباء على الصعيد الصحي، تسعى الجهود المبذولة إلى التحكم في انتشار المرض من أجل ضمان احتواء المنظومة الصحية لتدفق الحالات بشكل أفضل، خصوصا بالنظر إلى الموارد المحدودة والموزعة بشكل متفاوت على مستوى التراب الوطني. وقد تم إعطاء الأولوية في هذا السياق إلى الزيا ...
  • Authors
    Adil El Madani
    May 20, 2020
    Despite the global magnitude of the COVID-19 crisis, the response to the pandemic has mainly occurred at national level, with very poor global coordination so far. For Africa, which will provide one in four of the world’s consumers by 2050, coming out of the crisis will cost at least $100 billion. The average ratio of public revenue to GDP in African countries is only 19%, and the debt burden already absorbs 22% of that revenue, giving many African governments limited scope compared ...
  • April 30, 2020
    Face à la pandémie du COVID-19, un plan d’action a été établi autour de trois axes : santé, économie et ordre social. Dans chacun de ces champs, le concours des institutions publiques, du secteur privé et des membres de la société civile a permis jusque-là de limiter les dégâts et d’avoir un certain contrôle sur la pandémie. Sur le plan sanitaire, l’intervention vise une maîtrise de la progression de la maladie pour une meilleure absorption des flux par le système de santé, aux moy ...
  • Authors
    April 30, 2020
    La Communauté économique des Etats de l’Afrique de l’Ouest (CEDEAO) est souvent présentée comme étant le système d’intégration régionale le plus dynamique du continent africain. Les Conférences des chefs d’Etat et de Gouvernement y sont régulières, les citoyens de la Communauté disposent d’un passeport commun et les discussions sur une monnaie unique sont à l’ordre du jour. Néanmoins, le modèle de la CEDEAO souffre de deux paradoxes majeurs. Les paradoxes africains Le premier pa ...
  • Authors
    Youssef El Jai
    April 28, 2020
    Dans le combat contre la pandémie du Covid-19, le Maroc a choisi de fermer ses frontières aériennes, maritimes et terrestres pour contenir la propagation du virus. En décrétant, par la suite, un confinement strict, les autorités actaient l’arrêt partiel de l’économie, avec la mise en place de mesures d’aide en faveur des catégories précaires et des entreprises rencontrant des difficultés sous la houlette du Comité de Veille économique (CVE). Le ralentissement de l’économie a conduit ...
  • Authors
    Seleman Yusuph Kitenge
    April 24, 2020
    Globalization has major linkages to the spread of diseases. This paper analyses the link between globalization and the COVID-19 pandemic and provides an overview of how Africa’s economy is being impacted by this new disease. It highlights the impacts on GDP growth and economic sectors. It provides recommendations of what should be done by African governments to address the problem. It concludes by calling on African governments to consider the socio-economic circumstances of their p ...
  • Authors
    Francisco Cordoba Otalora
    April 21, 2020
    We are entering an economic cycle with a changing nature of consumption focusing on necessities. It seems like the times of luxury, entertainment and vacations are over, at least until the discovery of a vaccine for COVID-19. The unfolding of the health crisis that we have been witnessing in Italy, Spain and other advanced economies will not be as severe as the economic crisis that the Coronavirus will unleash. The International Monetary Fund has been warning us that the financial ...
  • Authors
    Yonas Adeto
    Thomas Gomart
    Paolo Magri
    Greg Mills
    Karin Von Hippel
    Guntram Wolff
    April 9, 2020
    Alors que le coronavirus se propage à travers le monde, la capacité d’atténuer son impact est liée aux ressources disponibles et à l’efficacité des autorités publiques. Voilà pourquoi il nous paraît primordial que les dirigeants internationaux se concentrent sur les conséquences de la pandémie sur les plus vulnérables, en particulier en Afrique. Il y a trois mois, le 31 décembre, les autorités chinoises informaient le bureau de Pékin de l’Organisation mondiale de la santé (OMS) d’u ...
  • Authors
    Amanda O. Mathe
    April 3, 2020
    The Mara Group, producer of the Mara smartphone, has set up manufacturing facilities in two key strategic countries, Rwanda and South Africa, with a total estimated investment of $100 million. On the back of political shifts in South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa embarked on an investment drive, announced in his state of the nation address in 2018. This was followed up with an investment conference, at which Ashish Thakkar, CEO of Mara Group, announced a $100 million investment ...