commentary
Tracking Progress of the U.S. Digital Transformation With Africa Initiative
What the United States and Africa have accomplished in their first year of digital collaboration.
· March 11, 2024
Every month the Carnegie Africa Program produces an infographic to highlight a key trend impacting African countries. We often invite scholars and policy experts to contribute to the discussion by writing a short piece to complement the Chart of the Month.
What the United States and Africa have accomplished in their first year of digital collaboration.
There appears to be a shift in African students’ higher education choices toward a variety of emerging economies and middle powers such as Türkiye, the UAE, and Malaysia, among others, beyond the former colonial powers such as Belgium, Portugal, or the U.K.
Since the International Development Association is an important component of the World Bank and Africa is the major recipient of IDA commitments, the region is crucial to the bank’s overall balance sheet.
Africa’s mobile phone market is one area where U.S.-China technology decoupling will be evident, an industry at the heart of Africa’s digital transformation.
Kenya’s notable progress in securing regional and international trade deals is positioning the country as an important trading economy.
With all the challenges African countries continue to face, these SDRs are needed more than ever.
Despite these signs of progress, the severity of the governance and security challenges throughout the continent do raise important questions on the role of the AU, notably its Peace and Security Council, going forward.
In the long run, PAPSS could also substantially reduce dependence on external currencies, and the associated financial volatilities. Cross-border transactions such as remittance transfer by migrants within Africa and exchanges among small businesses should be easier, quicker, and cheaper.
A closer look at African summitry offers a better understanding of the motives and strategies underlying African leaders’ involvement in these diplomatic exercises and shows how engaging African leaders in these summits could be done in ways that align more with their interests.
A more inclusive cross-section of researchers would help ensure that the direction and volume of climate research is truly representative of diverse perspectives and priorities and would make the output more likely to yield feasible policy solutions.
Efforts are being made to ramp up production of COVID-19 vaccines in Africa to address the continent’s low rate of vaccination. As of September 2021, there are at least twelve COVID-19 production facilities set up or in the pipeline across six African countries.