Join the conversation on the top priorities for Africa over the next decade

Today, the Brookings Africa Growth Initiative (AGI) launches its annual Foresight Africa publication.

The year 2020 marks the beginning of a promising decade for Africa, so, unlike past editions, Foresight Africa 2020 is a special edition focusing on the top priorities for the continent over the next decade. This approach allows our experts to explore key trends that will affect the region’s pursuit of better livelihoods for all and suggest solutions for policymakers to navigate potential obstacles. As with each edition, we continue to highlight the top priorities for the region in the coming years, offering recommendations for African and international stakeholders to create and support a strong, sustainable, and prosperous continent. In so doing, we hope to promote and inform a dialogue on economic development that will generate sound strategies for sustaining economic growth and broadening its benefits in the years ahead.

Collective action among African and global policymakers to improve the livelihoods of all under the blueprint of the Sustainable Development Goals and the African Union’s Agenda 2063 is representative of the shared energy and excitement around Africa’s potential. With business environments improving, regional integration centered around the African Continental Free Trade Agreement progressing, and the transformational technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution spreading, never before has the region been better primed for trade, investment, and mutually beneficial partnerships. The recent, unprecedented interest of an increasingly diversified group of external partners for engagement with Africa highlights this potential. Despite the continent’s promise, though, obstacles to success linger, as job creation still has not caught up with the growing youth labor force, gaps in good and inclusive governance remain, and climate change, as well as state fragility, threatens to reverse the hard-fought-for gains of recent decades.

With its array of contributions, this year’s edition of Foresight Africa reflects both the diversity of the continent and the common threads that bind it together. With that aim, we set out to promote and inform a dialogue that will generate sound practical strategies for achieving shared prosperity across the continent. Our goal is to initiate a global conversation on Africa that brings in perspectives from the region, the U.S., and elsewhere.

We hope you will engage with us by commenting on our Foresight Africa papers, blog posts, and graphics, and by sharing your thoughts on the top priorities this year. You can use #ForesightAfrica and follow the debate or send your thoughts to @BrookingsGlobal or @BSangafowaCoul to join the conversation on Twitter. You can also leave comments on our related blog posts.

We hope you can join us for our launch event on Wednesday, January 15, or tune in to the live webcast.

We will follow up on our papers and post additional contributions from other experts on AGI’s Africa in Focus blog throughout the year.