Rwandan President Paul Kagame (center), former British Prime Minister Tony Blair (left) and noted philanthropist Howard Buffett attend the World Economic Forum on Africa in Kigali, Rwanda, on May 11, 2016 (XINHUA)

The World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting 2017 held in Davos in January placed a spotlight on the increasing dissatisfaction and disgruntlement that characterize the mindset of a growing number of global citizens, cutting across nationalities and continents. Themed Responsive and Responsible Leadership, organizers sought to use the platform to congregate ideas, thoughts and promises of actions toward the reduction of inequality among the majority of humankind. African leaders, who were well represented at the forum, will benefit from the emphasis on inequality, economic globalization and the fourth industrial revolution. It is hoped that African countries will gain deeper insight into the reality that there is no perfect system, neither from the West nor from the East. Systems that hitherto appeared to have led some countries, such as the United States, to perceived states of success, have now been revealed to lead to the entrenchment of inequality—U.S. healthcare and the K-12 education system are good examples.

Hopefully, one of the outcomes of WEF 2017 will be a situation where Africa shuns overreliance on other continents for developmental ideas, and contributes toward shaping the future of the 14 System Initiatives of the WEF, which include Consumption, Digital Economy and Society, Economic Growth and Social Inclusion, Mobility and Production.

Africa must recognize that it has a niche in the global scheme of affairs, and move beyond that to identify such a niche and create suitable platforms for innovations to occur around what is authentic and unique to the continent. Research and development around Africa’s own knowledge system, where it exists, should be the priority in crafting policies across the region. The continent’s apex organization, the African Union, and its functional regional bodies, such as the East African Community and the Southern African Development Community, should invest in the articulation of locally generated and applicable ideas. The overriding philosophy of ubuntu or community, which most African societies subscribe to, should be foundational in the generation of novel designs from across the region.

Consider entertainment, for instance, a sector where Nollywood and African music stars have generated billions in revenue for their economies, but which has very little by way of investment and support from governments and global economic leadership. Shaping the future of entertainment for Africa definitely would involve recognition of what Africa has to offer in the entertainment sector and the improvement of such to benefit the continent and the world. By way of health, Africa is filled with indigenous knowledge of pharmacology and medicine that could thrust it into a global leadership role as far as healing several diseases that have defied the best of minds across the globe. Indeed, for Africa to assume a place of responsible leadership, it should ensure, as stated in a keynote address by Chinese President Xi Jinping, the first Chinese head of state to attend the Davos forum, that economic policies are not copied, but proceed from respective national conditions and the continent should “embark on the right pathway of integrating into economic globalization with the right pace.”

Responsible leadership for African countries will further draw attention to certain ill-fitting policies that negatively affect the continent’s advancement. The terms of loans extended to Africa by the Bretton Woods Institutions, for instance, have not always turned out to be in the best interests of the continent. As a matter of fact, certain studies have even pointed to economic policies imposed by the Bretton Woods system upon African borrowers as some of the causes of inequality across the region. The truth remains that, as President Xi noted in his speech, economic globalization is “a double-edged sword that must be managed” since “any attempt to cut off the flow of capital, technologies, products, industries and people between economies, and channel the waters in the ocean back into isolated lakes and creeks is simply not possible.” Indeed, economic globalization is here to stay, with its attendant costs and benefits. The WEF offers an avenue for making the best of Africa’s realities. The forum presents a good opportunity for Africa’s policy influencers to meditate on the economic transformation of African countries and to search for means to uphold the dignity of African people as being equally able to contribute to shaping the future of global advancement.

The writer is a senior lecturer/researcher at the University of Rwanda, College of Business and Economics

Copyedited by Francisco Little

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