WEF: Informing Africa, educating the world

Hubo, a South Korean-developed humanoid robot, holds a newspaper during a demonstration at the 46th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland. EPA/LAURENT GILLIERON

Hubo, a South Korean-developed humanoid robot, holds a newspaper during a demonstration at the 46th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland. EPA/LAURENT GILLIERON

Published Jan 23, 2016

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Davos – Energy, skills shortages, and infrastructure are all possible problem areas as Africa embraces the fourth industrial revolution, but the real challenge, according to World Economic Forum (WEF) Africa head Elsie Kanza, is for the continent to not miss out on its “real chance to catch up”.

Kanza told the African News Agency in an interview on the sidelines of the WEF’s annual meeting in Davos on Friday that Africa had to be careful to not get left behind.

She echoed a common idea of the meetings, held under the theme “Mastering the Fourth Industrial Revolution”, when she said this revolution represented Africa’s opportunity to leapfrog more developed economies, possibly even to the head of the class.

In Europe, she said, the conversation was around connectivity and broadband; in Africa, “we are still often talking about roads and electrification”. The fourth industrial revolution gave Africa a chance to leapfrog over a lot of development stages because innovators could immediately compete on the world stage. The digital future did not have any geographic reality or limitations.

One advantage of leapfrogging over stages of development is that Africa will not have to “unlearn” anything. Imagine someone who has never had a fixed line telephone; their first telephone service was mobile. If you were to describe a phone that was plugged into a wall they would wonder why you would do such a thing as try to relay voice messages through a wall. For them, voice travels through the air, just like in real life.

Kanza said one of the intentions of the Davos meetings had been to distill and disseminate a better understanding of what the fourth industrial revolution was.

The meetings had also interrogated ideas about developments that may yet come, for example the idea that China might start cloning cows this year.

In addition, the meetings had explored the realities of changes that were already underway, for example self-driving cars which, though not exactly common, were a reality.

A key part of the programme has been to expose participants to new opportunities, risks and challenges created by the fourth industrial revolution, which promises one groundbreaking advance after another, from intelligent robots and self-driving cars to neuro-technological brain enhancements and genetic editing.

Kanza said Davos 2016 had provided a reality check for many African participants about what was happening and what needed to be done.

One theme that had resounded across this conference was that a stable supply of energy was required for Africa to connect properly to the digital economy.

Kanza said she thought many governments had been under-estimating the energy requirements of the digital age. They would likely be rethinking that now after Davos.

In terms of how Davos prepared for the WEF Africa meeting to be held in Rwanda from May 11 to 13, Kanza said she hoped the Rwanda meetings would provide a platform for crystalisation of a lot of work done in Davos. The theme for Rwanda, “Connecting Africa’s Resources through Digital Transformation”, was designed to take forward the work done at Davos.

Embracing the next stage would require flexibility and openness, but Kanza made the point that the fourth industrial revolution was not a new direction; it was a continuation on the path already being followed.

She said she had noticed a real depth to African involvement in the WEF meetings in the past few years, with a consistent number of participants, both from the public and private sectors. A total of 17 African countries are represented at the WEF in Davos this year.

She said the depth of the African engagement was evidenced by the fact that there were now a number of portfolio areas, such as health, mining, and infrastructure, where there was a commitment to collaborate on key issues.

Davos had provided a reality check for many delegates about the fourth industrial revolution and what needed to be done to exploit its potential. It had, Kanza said, exposed many leaders to some of the ideas, opportunities and risks for the first time.

Energy was obviously a big constraint for Africa, as was skills. It was clear that African governments needed to invest a lot to really tap into the fourth industrial revolution.

Kanza said the issues become tangible, obvious even, to participants at Davos. Discussing opportunities and challenges with government officials and company representatives from around the world brought the realities home to participants.

There was no denying it, Kanza said, African leaders realised they were competing on the world stage and a lot more investment was needed.

Looking forward to Kigali, Kanza said, one needed to ask how developments of the fourth industrial revolution would help Africa reach specific goals and advance the opportunities.

“On the basis of what we have learnt here, African leaders should be asking, Do we need to reprioritise? Do we need to reallocate resources?”

As much as the forum forced African delegates to face the realities of what was happening and what needed to be done, the meetings also forced outsiders to confront the reality of Africa today.

In this area, Kanza said, it was absolutely critical that the work being done to change the global narrative about Africa be continued.

One of the big problems that Africa faced, according to Kanza, was stigmatisation, of getting “stuck in the past”. An example, she said, was the effects of the commodity downturn, which was hitting all commodity producing countries and regions, not just Africa. There was a tendency for people to point to problems in Africa and to shrug their shoulders as if to say “here we go again”.

And this, said Kanza, detered investors, so many of whom know little about Africa. Of the participants at the WEF Africa meeting in Cape Town last year, she said, 50 percent had attended for the first time.

The WEF played a big role in introducing people who were not familiar with the continent to the realities and the opportunities in Africa.

Rwanda, host of May’s meeting, has dramatically transformed itself since the 1994 genocide and civil war. The country was emerging as a regional high-tech hub and had one of sub-Saharan Africa’s fastest GDP growth rates.

The WEF meetings there in May should advance the work done by African delegations in Davos, as well as continue the transformation of the global view of Africa as the dark continent.

African News Agency

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