Back

Africa’s Digital Revolution: Opportunities & Challenges

May 6, 2021
Related topics: 
Africa
Economy
Sectorial policies and structural transformation

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

  • Adhésion du Maroc à la CEDEAO : un accord de principe
    Moubarack Lo
    June 21, 2017
    Ce podcast est présenté par Moubarack Lo. Il y analyse l’apport de l’adhésion marocaine à la CEDEAO suite à l’accord de principe donné par ses membres au 51e sommet de Monrovia le 4 juin ...
  • Download PDF
    U.S. Economic Policy Toward Africa: The Path to More Collaboration
    Authors
    Eliot Pence
    May 19, 2017
    U.S. Africa policy has tended to shift over time and has lacked a clear overarching strategic vision. The Trump administration’s approach in Africa should articulate a limited set of principles that clarifies and solidifies a more sustainable framework that is better suited to address fundamental drivers of Africa’s future. These principles include prioritizing key countries and rationalizing resources, creating an “Investment- First” policy in Africa, and more clearly communicating ...
  • Download PDF
    Faciliter les échanges alimentaires au sein de la CEDEAO
    Authors
    Onasis Tharcisse A. Guedegbe
    December 23, 2016
    L'intégration commerciale est une condition de réussite de tout projet d’intégration économique. Les facteurs entravant cette intégration commerciale sont donc un goulot d’étranglement au projet d’intégration économique des pays de la Communauté Economique des Etats de l’Afrique de l’Ouest (CEDEAO), projet qui constitue un moyen efficace de faire face à la forte expansion de la demande alimentaire sous régionale. Cet article vise à mettre en lumière les facteurs contraignant la flui ...
  • Download PDF
    Morocco’s 2014- 2020 Industrial Strategy and its potential implications for the structural transformation process
    Authors
    Karim EL Mokri
    October 13, 2016
    Morocco is now more than ever threatened by the trap of middle-income economies. On one hand, it is caught between increased competition from low-income countries in low productivity and labor-intensive sectors and, on the other hand, the difficulty of accelerating its pace of structural transformation towards activities with higher value added and higher technological content. International experience shows that few countries have managed to climb to the status of an advanced econo ...
  • Download PDF
    Regional analysis of domestic integration in Egypt: an interregional CGE approach
    Authors
    Eduardo Amaral Haddad
    Michael L. Lahr
    Dina N. Elshahawany
    Moisés Vassallo
    October 13, 2016
    We develop an interregional computable general equilibrium model to help assess the ex ante impact of transportation infrastructure policies in Egypt. The model is integrated with a GIS network. We illustrate the analytical capabilities of the model by looking at the domestic integration of the country. Improvements of transportation costs among Egyptian governorates and of their links to the broader world economy are considered in stylized simulations. The results provide quantitat ...
  • Walking the Talk of the Africa Rising Narrative
    Authors
    Nisrine Ouazzani
    January 6, 2016
    The economic growth of the African continent and its positioning as an emerging force is a reality no longer questioned. Optimism surrounding the Africa rising narrative is supported by a growing young workforce, an expanding middle class, new discoveries of natural resources and minerals, relative political stability and infrastructure developments. Economic and international financial actors now recognize the potential that the continent represents for the world economy, consider ...
  • Download PDF
    The Improving Global Outlook and Morocco
    Authors
    Uri Dadush
    December 23, 2015
    Global economic growth is likely to be a little better in 2016 than this year’s lackluster outcome. The ongoing slow recovery in the United States and Europe is likely to continue. However, weakness in China as well as several large emerging markets, and sluggishness of world trade, mean that risks are weighted on the downside of this forecast. Morocco, which is reliant on European markets, is a heavy importer of oil, and whose currency has devalued in effective terms, should find t ...
  • Ghana: quel modèle de développement à moyen terme?
    Authors
    Clémence Vergne
    November 19, 2015
    Au cours de la dernière décennie, le Ghana a enregistré des taux de croissance moyens supérieurs à 7 % par an, ce qui lui a permis d’accéder au statut de pays à revenu intermédiaire de la tranche inférieure. Toutefois, la croissance a récemment marqué le pas pour s’établir à 4,2 % en 2014, ce qui soulève la question de la pérennité du modèle de développement du pays. Le Ghana se trouve désormais à un stade critique de son processus de développement. Une transformation structurelle ...
  • Global Value Chains: The Missing Link in Sub-Saharan Africa’s Trade Integration
    Authors
    Roger Nord
    September 18, 2015
    Sub-Saharan Africa’s trade flows increased sharply, multiplying by a factor of five over the past 20 years. Is this boom built on commodities only?  My answer is no ! Many countries have increased their integration in global value chains. But, it is also clear that sub-Saharan Africa still has some way to go. Increased trade boosts for growth Over the last two decades, the export-to-GDP ratio in sub-Saharan Africa increased from 20½ percent in 1995 to 27½ percent in 2013. This occ ...