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Reflections on the World Economic Forum for Africa (via Vijana FM)

"We produce what we don’t consume and we consume what we don’t produce."

The World Economic Forum for Africa concluded on Friday May 7 in Dar-es-Salaam. We put up a post about the beginning of the forum, but this post is to draw some conclusions and invite opinions as to the direction of Africa's economy as a whole.

The title of this post is a line from Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete's speech, which was extracted from his quote on this press release. It describes the disproportionate ways in which African economies are integrated into the world financial markets. That is, the trend has so far been for African countries to produce and export goods and services while return are of lesser value. President Kikwete emphasized that it is time to "move Africa from the periphery to the centre of the global economy."

South African President Jacob Zuma also seemed optimistic that Africa is going to experience positive economic change, especially due to this summer's FIFA World Cup. According to Zuma, “in a short period of time, Africa is going to be the place for doing business globally. Foreign Direct Investment will come on its own.”

Others, including Pat Davies who co-chaired the meeting as Chief Executive of Sasol South Africa, felt that time is being wasted, and that the focus needs to be on giving "business reasonable certainty and predictability and we can [create] partnerships". That is, yes we can talk about laws and regulations, but let's get moving.

As for youth - who are 60% of what we call "Africa" - not much was said. Ajai Chowdhry, CEO of HCL Infosystems mentioned "make your human capital capable, and entrepreneurship will happen." Of course, the Young Global Leaders Summit was held in conjunction with this conference, which may have delved into the potential of youth more than the World Economic Forum for Africa.

More comments from the Forum from various individuals can be found on the press release.

That being said, it is difficult to decipher anything concrete coming out of this conference. I just checked the World Economic Forum website and it's filled with headlines about the EU bailout package for Greece. So I would like to pose a few questions in an effort to gauge what we should really be focusing on as youth who see ourselves as stakeholders in our countries' development.

Therefore, I would be keen to discuss the following:

1. Considering that the World Economic Forum has a mandate, and that this mandate is known to member countries, and further that each member country outlines its goals and responsibilities before joining such bodies, what has this latest conference changed since the last conference?

2. Considering that the role of youth is somewhat encompassed separately under the branch of the Young Global Leaders Summit, and considering that the Young Global Leaders Summit does not seem to be run by anyone under 25, where can the youth themselves go to express their ideas for sustainable change?

3. If a forum is defined as a commonplace for open discussion, do forums necessarily have a "start" and an "end"? That is, is the purpose of the World Economic Forum for Africa to meet once in a while to check up on things, or is it rather a constant engagement with the means to satisfy objectives set at each conference?

4. Considering the response to number 3 above, is there formal protocol to host a constant engagement with the political, economic, and social roles of youth Africa?

5. About that graphic above, which I picked up from the press release "illustrations" page, why are we talking about designing and organization still? Most of (political) colonialism was done about 40 years ago, folks. Where are we in our own "design process"?

For further reading:
World Economic Forum for Africa updates
WEF reflections press release
Photo gallery
Interviews
Image (above) in PDF link

This post is cross-listed at Vijana FM.

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