Foresight Africa: Brookings report outlines top priorities for the continent in 2023

With numerous external and internal headwinds, it is easy to be pessimistic about Africa’s prospects, yet, time and time again Africa has proved resilient and hence also in 2023 many African countries will continue to fare well, despite the odds, says an annual report launched by Brookings Institute launched on Monday (30 January).
Since the Brookings Africa Growth Initiative’s (AGI) launched its previous edition of ‘Foresight Africa’ in January 2022, the world has changed remarkably: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has roiled the global economy and sent food, fuel, and fertilizer prices sky high; the US Federal Reserve and other major central banks’ efforts to tame inflation have ushered in a new era of high interest rates and aggravated several countries’ ability to settle their international financial obligations; and the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic has led to the uneven economic growth 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.
But “despite these obstacles, I open this year’s edition on an optimistic note, bearing in mind Africa’s resilience and demonstrated capacity to weather severe headwinds,” says Aloysius Uche Ordu, Senior Fellow and Director of the Africa Growth Initiative in the Global Economy and Development program at Brookings. Ordu’s optimism is “buoyed by several factors: an enhanced collaboration that culminated in operationalization of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA); the coming together of key African institutions to secure funding for vaccines; and the region’s rapid adoption of technological innovations to address practical problems — as evidenced by the innovative digital services that boomed during the pandemic.” Foresight Africa 2023 captures the top priorities for the region in the year ahead, offering recommendations for supporting Africa at a time of heightened global turbulence.