Episodes
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Rwanda has made impressive progress in driving inclusive digitalization across its economy. By harnessing data-driven insights, the country has empowered evidence-based policymaking, fostered innovation, and catalyzed digital transformation of Rwandan society. In this episode, host Landry Signé speaks with Crystal Rugege, managing director of Rwanda’s Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR), about her journey from Silicon Valley to driving impactful technology initiatives in Rwanda and Africa.
Show notes and transcript
Foresight Africa podcast is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen on Apple, Spotify, Afripods, and wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback email to [email protected].
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The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) aims to create one market across the 55 countries of the African Union, promising free movement of goods, services, investment, people, and cooperation. In this episode, host Landry Signé speaks with Francis Mangeni and Andrew Mold, both experts on African trade and regional integration, about the status of African integration under AfCFTA and how to catalyze its continued implementation.
Show notes and transcript
Foresight Africa podcast is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen on Apple, Spotify, Afripods, and wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback email to [email protected].
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Climate change is one of the biggest challenges the continent of Africa faces, but with severe challenges come generational opportunities. In this episode, host Landry Signé interviews Vera Songwe, chair of the board of the Liquidity and Sustainability Facility and a Brookings Africa Growth Initiative nonresident senior fellow, about those opportunities including, as she argues, converting Africa’s assets like the largest carbon sink in the world into financial resources that African countries can invest in growth.
Show notes and transcript
Foresight Africa podcast is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen on Apple, Spotify, Afripods, and wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback email to [email protected].
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Angola has faced waves of economic uncertainty over the last decade—from oil price shocks in 2014 and 2023 to the spillover effects’ of COVID-19. Despite these challenges, Angola is determined to manage the ramifications to its economy. Host Landry Signé is joined by Angola's minister of finance, Vera Esperança dos Santos Daves de Sousa, to discuss the country’s tools for addressing both debt distress and preempting future economic shocks.
Show notes and transcript
Foresight Africa podcast is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen on Apple, Spotify, Afripods, and wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback email to [email protected].
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The African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the African Free Continental Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) are two examples of landmark efforts to positively transform the continent. Host Landry Signé is joined by Chido Munyati, the head of Africa at the World Economic Forum, to discuss how the program is supporting these unprecedented initiatives. Munyati shares the current regional integration efforts, private sector partnerships, and how policymakers can leverage the demographic dividend to strengthen the continent.
Show notes and transcript
Foresight Africa podcast is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen on Apple, Spotify, Afripods, and wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback email to [email protected].
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Public procurement is the system of laws and operational arrangements that allows the public sector, including the government, to purchase goods and services, with the aim to maximize social welfare and do public good. However, many African countries fail to address legal and social impediments women-owned businesses face when trying to participate in procurement activities. Host Landry Signé is joined by Professor Sope Williams to describe these barriers a
Show notes and transcript
Foresight Africa podcast is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen on Apple, Spotify, Afripods, and wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback email to [email protected].
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Artificial intelligence’s acceleration has increased the need for data regulation and privacy protections globally. Chinasa Okolo joins host Landry Signé to discuss AI’s impact on the African continent and the continent’s current policy landscape. Okolo explains why a lack of policy and privacy protection is harmful, and how to design an inclusive AI regulation framework beneficial to all.
Show notes and transcript
Foresight Africa podcast is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen on Apple, Spotify, Afripods, and wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback email to [email protected].
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Subjectivity and bias in credit ratings cost African countries up to $24 billion in interest and over $46 billion in foregone lending. On this episode, host Landry Signé is joined by Raymond Gilpin and Daouda Sembene to discuss their 2024 Foresight Africa piece “Making Africa’s credit ratings more objective.” Gilpin and Sembene discuss the reasons this subjectivity and bias exist, the costly implications, and government and private-sector solutions for improving credit rating objectivity across the continent.
Show notes and transcript
Foresight Africa podcast is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen on Apple, Spotify, Afripods, and wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback email to [email protected].
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Africa has a growing problem: a large population of youth and working-age people with limited employment opportunities. She Leads Africa co-founder Afua Osei joins host Landry Signé to discuss the role entrepreneurs play in closing that gap. Highlighting the importance of technological access, the Africa diaspora and the outsourcing of digital talent, Osei offers insights and solutions into how African entrepreneurs and policymakers can narrow the divide.
Show notes and transcript
Foresight Africa podcast is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen on Apple, Spotify, Afripods, and wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback email to [email protected].
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Policymakers have the tools to make Africa globally competitive as a continent. With an increasingly young and underemployed population, there is a large gap between the continent’s current stasis and its potential for economic growth. Landry Signé is joined by Zouera Youssoufou, CEO of the Aliko Dangote Foundation, to discuss how proper investments in education, health, and infrastructure would give the continent’s vibrant youth the opportunity to succeed.
Show notes and transcript
Foresight Africa podcast is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen on Apple, Spotify, Afripods, and wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback email to [email protected].
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Africa’s relationship with Asia has changed dramatically over the last few decades. From little economic integration in the early 1990s to the strong trade partnerships seen today, the regions are now strongly intertwined. The continents also face similar economic and development challenges and share colonial histories and cultural values. Host Landry Signé is joined by Amit Jain from the NTU-SBF Center for African Studies to share insights and lessons the two continents can learn from each other.
Show notes and transcript
Foresight Africa podcast is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen on Apple, Spotify, Afripods, and wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback email to [email protected].
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Africa experienced a wave of democratic unrest from 2020-23, with seven countries—Mali, Chad, Guinea, Sudan, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Gabon—falling to military coups during this time. Why? Host Landry Signé and his guest Joseph Asunka. CEO of Afrobarometer, a pan-African survey research network, discuss Africans’ views on democracy and governance, as well as policy recommendations for reversing the recent trends.
Show notes and transcript
Foresight Africa podcast is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen on Apple, Spotify, Afripods, and wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback email to [email protected].
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African countries lag behind G20 nations in their digital infrastructure and risk falling behind in their economic development and exacerbating existing inequalities. Host Landry Signé and his guest Haroon Bhorat of Cape Town University—co-authors of new research on how to foster an inclusive digital economy in Africa—discuss the indicators of digital infrastructure and policy recommendations for accelerating digitalization in Africa.
Show notes and transcript
Foresight Africa podcast is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen on Apple, Spotify, Afripods, and wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback email to [email protected].
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Aloysius Uche Ordu, director of the Africa Growth Initiative (AGI) at Brookings, and Landry Signé, AGI senior fellow, discuss the vulnerabilities and opportunities facing nations on the African continent. From climate change to political instability, positive economic growth to increasing life expectancy, Ordu and Signé offer their perspectives on policy solutions for Africa.
Show notes and transcript
Foresight Africa podcast is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen on Apple, Spotify, Afripods, and wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback email to [email protected].
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Kerllen Costa, Angola country director of National Geographic’s Okavango Wilderness Project, tells the story of the flora and fauna of Botswana’s Okavango Delta, fed by rivers that cross international boundaries and originate in the “water tower” highlands of Angola. Costa explains how important a relationship with local people in the region is key to conservation and sustainability for the vital watershed.
Show notes and transcript
Foresight Africa podcast is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback email to [email protected].
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John Mulligan, climate change lead at the World Gold Council, talks with host Aloysius Ordu about the Council’s role in global gold markets, changes in those markets, and how gold mining can be part of the solution to climate change. Mulligan also looks ahead to the next global climate conference, COP28 in Dubai.
Show notes and transcript
Foresight Africa podcast is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback email to [email protected].
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Danielle Resnick, a David M. Rubenstein Fellow at Brookings, discusses her research on food security challenges in Africa. She notes the compounding global and regional crises that have worsened the food security situation, but also describes the creative ways that some African governments are addressing the problem. “Food system transformation, Resnick says, “means that we need to change how food is produced, traded, and consumed in order to promote healthy, sustainable outcomes for people, planet, and prosperity.”
Show notes and transcript
Foresight Africa podcast is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback email to [email protected].
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Belinda Archibong, a David M. Rubenstein Fellow at Brookings and professor at Barnard College, talks with host Aloysius Ordu about mental health and other health challenges facing youth in Africa. She explores the nexus between health and economic issues like productivity and growth, and shares her research on using technology to help address these concerns.
Show notes and transcript
Foresight Africa podcast is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback email to [email protected].
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Jeanine Cooper, minister of agriculture for the Republic of Liberia, shares her transformative vision for agriculture in her country, one that is green, regenerative, appealing to youth, and promotes local consumption. A rice farmer herself, Minister Cooper also talks about the importance of that crop, and how Liberian agriculture is responding to the challenges of climate change.
Show notes and transcript
Foresight Africa podcast is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback email to [email protected].
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Ada Osakwe, a Nigerian innovator and business leader, talks about her role as an innovative entrepreneur and transformative investor. Osakwe founded the Nuli Juice Company and Agrolay Ventures, and was named Forbes Woman Africa businesswoman of the year in 2021. Addressing the gender gap in boardrooms, Osakwe says that “women leaders must support other women.”
Show notes and transcript
Foresight Africa podcast is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback email to [email protected].
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