Foresight Africa at the 2026 Spring Meetings: Strategies for success in a changing world

LANDRY SIGNÉ: Hello, I am Landry Signé, senior fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program and the Africa Growth Initiative at the Brookings Institution. Welcome to the Foresight Africa podcast, where I engage with distinguished leaders in policy, business, academia, and civil society who share their unique insights and innovative solutions to Africa’s challenges while highlighting opportunities to advance engagement between Africa, the U.S., and the global community. 

Today we are on the sidelines of the 2026 Spring Meetings organized by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Twice a year, these international financial institutions bring together the world’s most prominent figures in the field of development finance, including central bankers, ministers of finance, heads of global and regional financial institutions, corporate CEOs, entrepreneurs, and civil society leaders. 

I am joined now by his Excellency, Mark-Alexandre Doumba, the honorable minister of digital economy and innovation for the Republic of Gabon. Before joining the government, he spent many years as a distinguished entrepreneur in the fields of investment, digital inclusion, and development finance. Welcome, Excellency. 

MARK-ALEXANDRE DOUMBA: Thank you so much, Landry It’s very nice to be here. Thanks for having me.  

SIGNÉ: We are the ones delighted to have you joining us during this very busy week, and we truly appreciate you taking the time to share your insights with our audience.  

DOUMBA: Thank you.  

SIGNÉ: As the Spring Meetings conclude amid rising economic fragmentation and shifting geopolitical dynamics, what are the most consequential takeaways for policymakers and which signals should the world be watching most closely in the months ahead?  

DOUMBA: Yeah, this week has been incredible with the different conversations that we’ve been having among policymakers and other stakeholders within the international financial system. 

 I think one of the key things is we are realizing that the world that we live in that’s been based on globalization and external dependencies is being tested. African countries have often relied on mobilizing foreign direct investments in order to catalyze or different industries, but in a time where FDI is being recentered to home markets, I think it’s time for our countries to focus on domestic direct investments, converting national savings into domestic investments, taking our data, localizing them. If you have good talent, don’t let them go, keep them at home. And if you have natural resources, don’t export them raw; improve and transform them locally. 

So I think it’s really a paradigm shift from exporting what we’ve usually exported to retaining it, valuing it and appreciating what we have in a way that can make our external dependencies less fragile to our structural systems. 

SIGNÉ: Fantastic, Excellency! Looking beyond the Spring Meetings, what will it take to translate today’s commitments into measurable on-the-ground impact, and how can institutions ensure accountability, speed, and scale in delivering results?  

DOUMBA: I think policymakers need to come away from this week in Washington, DC, to our home countries with our brains stimulated by the quality of the conversations and the very acute understanding of the challenges that are out there. But then we also need to specifically convert those insights into policies and into laws, because laws are written in stone. You cannot reverse them. You have to move forward with them.  

It’s the only way to really convert declarations, commitments, into long-term sustainable institutional change and that is what our countries need. Our countries need to have policymakers who set directions, who are aggressive about pursuing them, and who are consistent in ensuring that the change is sustainable, durable, and structural. 

SIGNÉ: Fabulous, Excellency! As a minister of digital economy and innovation for the Republic of Gabon, and as a disruptive entrepreneur as well, do you have any final insights you want to share on how African countries can better leverage emerging technologies and AI to achieve better outcomes?  

DOUMBA: Yeah, I actually want to thank you and thank Brookings for the opportunity to publish earlier this year in your Foresight Africa edition. I spoke of a concept called “premature automation.” And one thing that I will say is that we’re asked to accelerate digitization, accelerate AI but we currently don’t own the rails. Mobile money is ubiquitous, but the rails are owned by foreign multinationals. So we’re now trying to add AI and other emerging technologies on top of layers that we already don’t own. I see this as accelerating digital adoption without thinking deliberately about them as a way for us to entrench external dependencies. 

So I think it is time for African nations to really empower our own people and start trusting each other and start allowing locals, entrepreneurs to capture the opportunities and to be the main drivers of the economic and social growth and social change that is required and that we’re capable of managing for a more prosperous future. 

SIGNÉ: What an excellent way to conclude our discussion, Excellency. Thank you again for joining us today and for sharing your insight with our audience.  

DOUMBA: Thank you so much, Landry. What a pleasure. Thank you.