Foresight Africa: Join the Conversation on the Top Priorities for Africa in 2014

Today, the Brookings Africa Growth Initiative (AGI) launches its fourth annual Foresight Africa publication. In this year’s publication, AGI experts and colleagues look ahead to the major challenges and opportunities for Africa in the coming year. The issues outlined for 2014 range from piracy and peacekeeping to development finance, youth employment and the post-2015 global development agenda. We also look at the increasingly tenuous relationship between the African Union and the International Criminal Court and the impact of biotechnology on Africa’s agricultural production. By staying ahead of these trends, we at the Africa Growth Initiative hope to help policymakers anticipate and leverage opportunities to promote Africa’s development and stability.

As with every year, our goal is to use the Foresight Africa publication as a primer for engaging in a global conversation on Africa that brings in perspectives from the region, the United States and elsewhere. We hope you will engage with us in this conversation by commenting on our Foresight Africa papers, blogs and videos, and by telling us what you think are the top priorities for Africa in 2014. You can use #ForesightAfrica and follow the debate or send your thoughts to @BrookingsGlobal, @ASYBrookings, or @MwangiKimenyi to join the conversation on Twitter. You can also leave us a comment on our related blog posts or on our Facebook page.

This year, we hope to continue the dialogue throughout 2014. We plan to follow up on our papers and will also be posting additional contributions from Africa experts on the Africa in Focus blog. 

We will formally launch this year’s publication at Brookings on January 7. The event will be moderated by Brookings Visiting Fellow John McArthur and will feature: Robin Renee Sanders, former U.S. ambassador to the Republic of Congo; and Bright Simons, Ghanaian social entrepreneur and president of the mPedigree Network.

We hope you can join us at the event or tune into the live webcast.