Since we launched the previous edition of Foresight Africa in January 2022, our world has changed remarkably. Russia invaded Ukraine—an unanticipated event that roiled the global economy and sent food, fuel, and fertilizer prices sky high. Sanctions on Russia resulted in trade and logistical bottlenecks, which added more pressure on already strained supply chains. The U.S. Federal Reserve and other major central banks’ unrelenting efforts to tame inflation ushered in a new era of high interest rates and aggravated several countries’ ability to settle their international financial obligations. Meanwhile, the uneven recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic continued to feature in headlines across Africa and elsewhere. The combination of fragility in parts of the African continent and adverse weather conditions dampened economic growth in the region in 2022.

Rare earth elements—a group of 17 metals—are critical for both human and national security. They are used in electronics (computers, televisions and smart phones), in renewable energy technology (wind turbines, solar panels, and electric vehicle batteries), and in national defense (jet engines, missile guidance and defense systems, satellites, GPS equipment, and more). In 2021, global demand for rare earths reached 125,000 metric tons. By 2030, it is forecast to reach 315,000 tons.

Africa is the world’s youngest region, and its young population is seen as both a crisis and an opportunity. Youth unemployment is front and center in the minds of African policymakers and is a topic of much discussion and research.

This lament, from a female market trader in Accra, Ghana, epitomizes the anxiety that permeates the daily existence of those working and living in informal conditions in African cities, an anxiety which will only get worse as extreme weather events triggered by climate change become more common in Africa.

With increased acceptance of remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic and with African youths’ increased interest in working for international companies, Africa’s 450 million working-age individuals could help address the global tech talent crisis.

Despite the groundswell of popular support expressed for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), concerns have grown about the slow progress of its implementation in recent months. Contrary to expectations, 2021 did not start with a bang, but with skepticism among senior trade officials, which also spilled over to the private sector.

Can diaspora bonds—bonds funded by Africans living in the diaspora, primarily in middle-income and high-income countries—help drive new investments in the continent?

The devastating consequences of the Ukraine crisis continue to highlight the need to urgently deliver the African Union’s flagship project of “Silencing the Guns by 2020” in a region where conflicts and their fallout, while underreported in the international media, have been wide-ranging, severe, and increasing in intensity and cost.

Abundant energy resources in many parts of Africa position the continent as a potential location for the production and export of climate-friendly hydrogen, based either on renewable electricity (green hydrogen) or natural gas in combination with carbon capture and storage technologies (blue hydrogen).

Rapid technological advances are bringing major changes to workplaces around the world. In the U.S., this has been a source of both joy—for those able to work from home thanks to advanced video technology and the internet of things (IoT)—and sorrow for those who lost their job due to advanced robotics.

Food security in Africa demands urgent and serious attention. Climate change is already stalling progress by interacting with multiple other stressors and shocks, including inequality, degrading natural resources, conflict, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Digital diplomacy refers to the broad use of technology, particularly the internet and other information and communication technologies (ICTs)-based innovations, in the conduct of diplomacy. With new technology providing access to instant information and interactive online communication, the use of these tools by diplomats and government officials is becoming widespread.

Rapid digitalization has the potential to enhance structural transformation among African countries as well as galvanize progress on regional developments like the recent African Continental Free Trade Area. However, these benefits are not guaranteed given the multipronged threats in the digital space that can limit trust and curtail the adoption of such innovations

Migration linked to climate change—often presented as a devastating picture of the plight and flight of vulnerable Africans—is becoming a daily feature on the 24-hour news. While these graphic images are worth a thousand words, they are far removed from the complexity of the factors at play. The narrative often precludes a focus on long-lasting sustainable solutions.

Although the African continent receives only 2 percent of the global value of all cryptocurrencies, their rapid growth will transform financing in an increasingly digital and urban sub-Saharan Africa. In fact, a recent report by Chainalysis, a blockchain data platform, found that between July 2020 and June 2021, Africans received $105.6 billion worth of cryptocurrency payments—an increase of 1200 percent from the year before. Notably, Chainalysis ranks Kenya, South Africa, and Nigeria among the top-10 countries for cryptocurrency use.

Despite the progress women in Africa have made in the professional sphere, they remain underrepresented in strategic and essential positions. In fact, in academia, the representation of women can be likened to a pyramid where very few women exist at the top and in key leadership positions, especially in Africa

With Africa’s ever-increasing youth population projected to double by 2050, the need for innovative and sustainable ways to support youth employment only continues to grow in importance. While the challenge is daunting, it also has inspired so many of Africa’s creative and diligent young people to take charge of their own futures, coming up with innovative solutions to keep themselves employed and actively engaged. Consequently, training young people in entrepreneurship—how to create, run, and manage businesses—so that their creativity and efforts will bear fruit is central not only for improving individual lives, but for bolstering the entire region’s economic gains.

Given that Africa’s internet economy could reach $180 billion by 2025 alone, we at International Finance Corporation (IFC) were keen to examine whether e-commerce platforms support women entrepreneurs, or whether such tools remain stymied by women’s low access to the internet, mobile phone, and other fundamental tools of the digital economy. Combining vendor surveys and performance data from one of Africa’s largest e-commerce platforms, Jumia, we produced the first regional view into women’s challenges and successes in e-commerce and found that closing gender gaps in this arena could add nearly $15 billion to the value of Africa’s e-commerce industry between 2025-2030 alone—putting billions in the hands of women entrepreneurs.

In January 2022, the Brookings Africa Growth Initiative (AGI) released its annual Foresight Africa report, which explores top priorities for the region in the coming year. This report examines some of the most pertinent issues facing the continent in 2022, including its economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, public health, the empowerment of African women and girls, climate change, technological innovation, and the region’s external relations.

At the beginning of 2020, national school feeding programs were delivering school meals to more children than at any time in human history, making school feeding the most extensive social safety net and the largest multidisciplinary and inter-sectoral program in the world. In fact, more than 65 million children received school meals across Africa in 2019, a massive increase from 38.4 million in 2013, according to the latest edition of the African Union Biannual Report on School Feeding in Africa.

As in the rest of the world, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24 is casting a long shadow across Africa. Despite the geographical distance, there are important ties between Ukraine and Africa, including more than 8,000 Moroccans and 4,000 Nigerians studying in Ukraine and over $4 billion in exports from Ukraine to Africa.

India and Africa’s historical links have experienced a revival in recent years, and there are strong reasons for optimism that the partnership could be mutually beneficial. In fact, in recent years, and especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has made moves that indicate its intention for India to become Africa’s biggest partner.

Last month, the Brookings Africa Growth Initiative (AGI) released its annual Foresight Africa report, which explores top priorities for the region in the coming year. This year’s edition examines some of the most pertinent issues facing the continent in 2022, including its economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, public health, the empowerment of African women and girls, climate change, technological innovation, and the region’s external relations.

Africa must realize that the future of the continent’s economic growth and development is inextricably linked to R&D. The continent needs to take advantage of the weaknesses exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic to develop a well-articulated plan to accelerate translational R&D with a focus on diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines for infectious and noncommunicable diseases.

Will Africa finally begin a sustained convergence to the living standards of the developed world in the way China has done in the last 40 years? If so, on what basis will that happen?

Reminiscent of the 2009 H1N1 Influenza pandemic, the COVID-19 pandemic is perpetuating the stark reality of vaccine insecurity in Africa. Less than 1 percent of all vaccines used on the continent are locally produced—a statistic that reveals the region’s intense vulnerability and overdependence on foreign supplies.

Without a huge investment in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, Africa will not achieve the goals the African Union has laid out in her 2063 agenda. Indeed, given the complexity facing the developing world, economic growth, and improvements in the standard of living there will continue to rely on innovations and technological breakthroughs.

Imagine an Africa without boundaries—an African continent where commerce takes place freely between states, and goods and services are exchanged for value without the constraint of complex and often expensive customs procedures and tariffs. This burgeoning, free-flowing mosaic of information, goods, and capital would certainly reshape the economies of African countries, encouraging African governments to rethink their policies, minimize trade costs, empower their workers, and take advantage of new opportunities.

Weak infrastructure is widely accepted as a fundamental limitation to growth in Africa. Governments in the region struggle to meet the basic needs of residents, including access to food, education, health, and livelihoods, much less invest in critical, reusable infrastructure that could provide long-term solutions to social problems.

Climate finance will be critical for enabling Africa to adapt to the growing impacts of climate change and to ensure that its future development path is consistent with the goal of limiting global warming to no more than 1.5°C. Africa has contributed little to global emissions so far, but it is already being disproportionately affected by the impacts of climate change. How Africa develops will also be critical to future emissions given that its energy use is projected to grow rapidly to meet its development needs, with its share of the world’s population projected to increase from 17 percent to 40 percent by 2100, even as the world population increases from 7.9 billion to almost 11 billion by the end of the century.

Never before in the last half century has Africa’s health care landscape seen so many changes and attracted so much interest. In fact, Africa’s health care sector would be worth an estimated $259 billion by 2030. While these trends reveal a lucrative opportunity for the private sector, if not well-regulated, Africa’s health care system could end up keeping more Africans below the poverty line. Thus, African countries have an opportunity to build on the health financing success of 2021 to strengthen the resilience of this sector and Africa’s people.

When I was sworn in as Zimbabwe’s minister of finance and economic development in September 2018, our economy was characterized by sustained fiscal imbalances, financial sector vulnerabilities, and cash shortages. Since 2013, the Government had been incurring budget deficits as high as 12.9 percent in 2017, up from 1.3 percent of GDP in 2013. As a result, I immediately introduced a set of economic and structural reforms to stabilize the economy.

With this and every iteration of Foresight Africa, we aim to capture the top priorities for the region in the coming year, offering recommendations for African and global stakeholders for creating and supporting a strong, sustainable, and successful Africa. In doing so, we hope that Foresight Africa 2022 will promote a dialogue on the key issues influencing development policy and practice in Africa during the upcoming year. Such ideas will ultimately provide sound strategies for sustaining and expanding the benefits of economic growth to all people of Africa in the years ahead.

On January 20, the Brookings Africa Growth Initiative (AGI) released its annual Foresight Africa report, which explores top priorities for the region in the coming year. Among other priorities, the 2022 edition explores major trends for Africa in 2022, including its economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, public health, the empowerment of African women and girls, climate change, technological innovation, and the region’s external relations.

The African continent represents 20 percent of the earth’s surface and is home to 1.3 billion people—likely reaching 2.53 billion people by 2050. It boasts 60 percent of the world’s arable lands, large swathes of forests, 30 percent of the world’s reserve of minerals, and the youngest population of any continent. Yet, despite these riches, it produces only 3 percent of global GDP, accounts for less than 3 percent of international trade (mainly primary commodities and natural resources), and shoulders 25 percent of the global disease burden.

As leaders agreed late last year at the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, if the world fails to come together to mitigate the impending impacts of climate change, Africa will grapple with drought, rising sea levels, potential conflicts over water access, and increasingly frequent severe weather events, among other possible natural disasters.

The year 2021 has been a landmark year for Zambia. Two important events occurred. The passing of the first president of independent Zambia, Dr. Kenneth Kaunda, was mourned in June. Then, in the election in August 2021, the people of Zambia voted decisively for change. I mention the passing of Dr. Kaunda because Zambia has strong roots. He was a person who sought to serve ordinary Zambians and, even if some of the policy decisions his party made did not have optimal outcomes, his intention was to place ordinary Zambians at the center of the country’s development.

When he was running to win the White House, President Joe Biden’s campaign committed to implement a “bold strategy” toward Africa, and one that would be based on a “mutually respectful engagement” and a reinvigorated diplomacy, if elected. Indeed, the campaign was the first ever to outline how it would promote the interests of the African diaspora in the United States.

Each week, the Brookings Africa Growth Initiative team highlights figures related to African economic growth and development. These so-called “Figures of the Week” include visuals from recently published reports that reveal something significant or interesting about trends on the continent. In the final “Figure of the Week” of 2021, we review the five most-read posts from this year.

The November FOCAC Ministerial Meeting in Dakar adopted four documents: The Dakar Action Plan (2022–2024); the 2035 Vision for China-Africa Cooperation; the Sino-African Declaration on Climate Change; and the Declaration of the Eighth Ministerial Conference of FOCAC. There is considerable overlap in terms of coverage and substance in the four documents. All of them present long, exhaustive lists of issues and areas of cooperation between China and Africa.

On January 1, 2021 the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) went into force after a 6-month delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The overarching goal of the AfCFTA is to facilitate intraregional and international trade among African nations by reducing costly barriers to that trade. Indeed, as AGI Senior Fellow Landry Signe writes, “UNECA has predicted [the AfCFTA] will raise intra-African trade by 15 to 25 percent, or $50 billion to $70 billion, by 2040, compared to an Africa without the AfCFTA.”

In an attempt to deepen financial inclusion, microfinance organizations are introducing digital solutions to serve low-income households and small- and medium-sized enterprises. Mobile financial services and fintech solutions are particularly promising in Africa where financial inclusion is only 43 percent, whereas mobile phone penetration is almost 90 percent.

Africa relies heavily on imported pharmaceutical goods to support the region’s health care needs: As of 2019, as much as 70 to 90 percent of the drugs consumed in sub-Saharan Africa’s estimated $14 billion pharmaceutical market were imported. Moreover, Africa represents nearly 25 percent of global demand for vaccines but produces only 0.1 percent of the world’s vaccines. Within Africa, 99 percent of vaccine doses are imported, and, of the 1 percent (12 million doses) produced domestically, most are relegated to the final fill-and-finish steps.

Youth unemployment remain a significant problem across Africa, with the rising population adding new layers of complexity to the challenge. Indeed, across Africa, estimates are currently as high as 60 percent for youth unemployment, and, not surprisingly, COVID-19 has exacerbated the issue.

The eighth Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) ministerial meeting that took place in Dakar, Senegal, concluded just last week. Like previous FOCAC meetings, China presented its vision for China-Africa relations for the next three years, this time under the theme “Deepen China-Africa Partnership and Promote Sustainable Development to Build a China-Africa Community with a Shared Future in the New Era.” A review of the content, however, illustrates significant shifts in China’s priorities, emphasis, and approaches from its earlier patterns. In fact, the Financial Times has lamented the quantitative reduction of China’s financial commitments from $60 billion in 2018 to $40 billion this year.

Mineral resources are a critical source of revenue for Africa. In 2019, minerals and fossil fuels accounted for more than a third of exports from at least 60 percent of African countries. The continent produces around 80 percent of the world’s platinum, two-thirds of its cobalt, half of its manganese, and a substantial amount of chromium, leaving it in a strong position to benefit from growing demand for these minerals. Moreover, Africa is believed to have some of the world’s largest untapped mineral reserves.

Industrial policy is seeing a revival in Africa and beyond. In fact, governments across the continent are now explicitly using a variety of industrial policy tools to promote industrialization through agro-processing, labor-intensive light manufacturing, natural resource extraction and value addition, some knowledge-intensive manufacturing, and “industries without smokestacks” such as high-value agriculture and tradable services.

Earlier this year Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari signed the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021, bringing to a close a 20-year effort to reform Nigeria’s oil and gas sector, with the aim of creating an environment more conducive for growth of the sector and addressing legitimate grievances of communities most impacted by extractive industries.

*COP26 concludes with financing commitments falling short of Africa's request. *United Nations sets up Repo Bond Market in Africa. *US Secretary of state Antony J. Blinken travels to Kenya, Nigeria and Senegal.

Africa needs about $1.3 trillion a year to achieve the goals of the 2030 Agenda of Sustainable Development. These needs include, for example, about $93 billion to $170 billion per year in investments for the promotion of adequate infrastructure, which doesn’t include the financing necessary for addressing the increasingly devastating impacts of climate change.

The COP26 negotiations over policies to combat the global problem of climate change have highlighted the great need for global cooperation toward a green transition.

On September 18, the African Union, in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) released the report, “Transforming Education in Africa,” an evidence-based overview of education in the region. The report highlights progress the continent has made on education indicators, such as participation rates, while also illustrating challenges that remain.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented disruptions to Africa—reducing earnings and increasing poverty and food insecurity as well as leading the region into its first recession in 25 years.

As the world convenes in Glasgow for the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP26), it is time to recognize Africa’s role in averting a climate disaster without compromising the continent’s growth and poverty reduction.

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