The theme this year was stakeholders for a cohesive and sustainable world.
By PHILIP MYBURG
Africa.com has curated hundreds of keynote speeches,
panel discussions, focused spotlight talks, exhibits, and sideline
events to bring you an understanding of what happened at WEF from the
Africa perspective.
The theme this year was stakeholders for a cohesive and
sustainable world. The theme addressed the current fractured nature of
the international solidarity that has prevailed over the last couple of
decades. The divisive world requires a change in mindset and behaviour
in order to reconcile.
ECONOMIC CHALLENGES
WEF’s historic role has been a platform where institutions and
individuals go to address the economic, environmental, social and
technological challenges of a complex, interdependent world.
The theme was addressed in six topic areas:
ECOLOGY: Acting now on urgent climate and environmental challenges
How to mobilise business and government to act now on urgent climate, water and biodiversity challenges.
ECONOMY: Anticipating challenges to global economic stability
How to create a more inclusive and sustainable economy while managing risks for global financial stability.
SOCIETY: Investing in Human Capital for Inclusive Societies
How to invest in human capital, reskilling 1
billion people in the next decade and reigniting optimism about the
equality of opportunity.
TECHNOLOGY: Governing Fourth Industrial Revolution Technologies.
How to create a global consensus on deployment of Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies and avoid a “technology war”.
INDUSTRY: Transforming Markets towards Sustainable and Inclusive Capitalism.
How to transform businesses and markets to target global challenges while navigating technological and political uncertainty.
GEOPOLITICS: Navigating Geo-economic Shifts toward a More Cohesive World
How to build multi stakeholder institutions that can restore trust, reduce tensions and resolve conflicts in global hotspots.
Below please find our executive editor’s view on the most important Africa-related events that took place at WEF 2020.
1. The Biggest African player in the house
The largest African private sector participant
at WEF is Standard Bank. With operations in over 20 African countries,
and a market cap of over $20 billion USD, Standard Bank plays an
important leadership role in this environment.
We had an opportunity to sit down with Sim
Tshabalala, their CEO, and discuss some important questions about how
the bank thinks about leadership, sustainability, and its
responsibilities to its various stakeholders.
2. Zambian Teen stole the show from Greta
In a panel featuring youth activists, the
youngest panel ever assembled at WEF, everyone expected renowned climate
change activist Greta Thurnberg to be the shining light among the four
speakers.
While Greta, no wall flower by any measure,
certainly held her own and reiterated her compelling talking points on
the need for urgent action, the surprise was Natasha Mwansa.
Natasha stole the show, and had the audience on the edge of their seats to hear her every word.
This eighteen year old Zambian girl has her
own foundation, and is a most compelling advocate and activist for girls
and women’s reproductive rights.
She has used her voice to spark political action to address underfunding of maternal health and forced marriages of young girls.
Mwansa explained that young people want more
than to simply speak at conferences or become spokespersons for
meaningful causes: they want to become partners in political change.
Intergenerational partnerships are necessary to help translate youth mobilization into political change.
“The older generation has a lot of experience, but we have ideas. We have energy,” said Mwansa.
3. Debate rages over Motsepe's “Africa Loves You” remark to Trump
Twitter was in a melt-down over Patrice Motsepe’s remark to Trump that “Africa Loves You.”
Motsepe was invited to a White House hosted
dinner at Davos, at which the attendees were approximately 25 global
CEOs of companies including Volkswagon, Sony, Shell, Nokia, Barclays,
etc.
When asked to introduce himself, Motsepe remarked to President Trump, “Africa Loves You.”
In 2018, Trump referred to the citizens of
assorted African countries by saying, “Why do we want these people from
all these sh#thole countries here [in America]?”
He has not renounced that statement, and many
in Africa remain offended and puzzled at Motsepe’s unqualified praise
for the person who referred to Africa in those terms.
While some came to Motsepe’s defense, there didn’t seem to be agreement on the issue.
4. Motsepe's philanthropy on display
Patrice Motsepe and his wife Dr. Precious
Moloi-Motsepe, the newly elected Vice Chancellor of the University of
Cape Town, hosted several events showcasing the success of their work
through their Motsepe Foundation.
Five years ago, The Motsepe Foundation, headed
by Dr. Moloi-Motsepe, joined forces with the Schwab Foundation, founded
by WEF founder Klaus Schwab and his wife Hilde.
The work of the two foundations is centred
around social entrepreneurship – they support people who are developing
innovative business models delivering social or environmental good.
The Motsepe Foundation’s contribution marries
Dr. Moloi-Motsepe’s affiliation with the Harvard Kennedy School of
Government by funding an executive education component for Schwab social
entrepreneur awardees at the Kennedy School.
Many social entrepreneurs have been acting
instinctively, doing what they felt was right, until they experience the
Harvard Kennedy School programme.
There, they receive academic input, training,
exposure and peer learning; it’s an important continuous learning
opportunity for them.
5. Ghana - the African economy to watch
At previous Davos meetings, the economic
darlings have been Nigeria and South Africa, the two largest economies
on the continent.
With each country dealing with its own
domestic political and economic challenges, Ghana took center stage as
the African economy to watch at this year’s WEF.
The presidents of Nigeria and South Africa quite conspicuously did not attend Davos this year.
However, Ghanaian President Akufo-Addo was in attendance along with a strong delegation of his economic team.
President Akufo-Addo declared that the
programme of economic recovery that his government put in place when he
was elected three years ago, has been highly successful.
He delivered a large number of data points to support his assertion, including the following:
“The deficit we inherited on January 7, 2017 was 9.3 per cent.
Today it is 4.5 per cent. Inflation was at 15.4 per cent when we came
into office, today it is 7.9 per cent. We have, for the first time, a
positive trade balance.
The nation’s reserves, which was at 2.5 months
import cover in 2017, has grown to 4.5 months in the period of these
three years,” he added.
The President continued, “Generally, the
growth, of course, has grown from an average of 3.6 per cent to an
average of 7 per cent in the last 3 years.
You see an economy that has somehow reversed the decline, and is moving on an upward trajectory.
It has also meant that these improving
economic indices have us touted as the country that receives the largest
investment in the Ecowas/ West African Region.”
Africa.comhad an opportunity for an
exclusive interview with Ghana’s Finance Minister, the honorable Ken
Ofori-Atta. Minister Ofori-Atta, who holds a bachelors in Economics
from Columbia and an MBA from Yale, is the founder of Databank, one of
Ghana’s leading brokerage and asset management houses.
6. One woman's urgent Message to Davos
For the world’s most vulnerable, climate
change is not a distant existential threat: it is killing people right
now. Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, President of the Association for Indigenous
Women and Peoples of Chad, gave a powerful reality check.
‘In my region people are dying because of climate change’
In the video below, Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim
explains what it’s like to live in a place where the effects of climate
change are already being felt.
7. DeepFaked - See what it is
Part of what makes Davos spectacular is access
to knowledge. One area of knowledge is the latest technological
innovations. In this regard, our Executive Editor, Teresa Clarke, had a
chance to demo what is being called Deepfaked. Deep Fake is the use of
artificial intelligence to learn how a person’s face moves with speech
and expresses emotion. In this fascinating video, a live stream of
Teresa’s face transformed into the face of various famous people
including Theresa May, Michelle Obama, Will Smith and George Bush. This
technology introduces many possibilities, and many more challenges.
8. Ethiopian version of Sesame Street
Bruktawit Tigabu Tadesse gave a talk on the
work that she is doing with her husband to educate Ethiopian children on
a mass scale. She was originally a primary school teacher in Addis
Ababa who has now developed Whiz Kids Workshop, a multimedia enterprise
that delivers programmes such as “Tsehai Loves Learning,” a television
programme for pre-school children.
Began professional career as a primary school
teacher in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. Determined to improve the
conditions of children in the country, looked for ways to educate
children on a mass scale.
In 2005, with husband, co-established the
educational multimedia enterprise Whiz Kids Workshop. Working from their
living room, using sock puppets, computer graphics and their own
voices, began producing Tsehai Loves Learning, the first educational
preschool television programme in the country.
Whiz Kids Workshop went on to develop further
programmes and win numerous international awards such as the Next
Generation Prize at Prix Jeunesse International (2008) and the Japan
Prize International Contest for Educational Media (2008, 2009).
Named a Rolex Young Laureate in 2010 and one of Fast Company’s 2012 most creative people in business.
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