The 2nd edition of the dialogue featured discussion on locating Africa’s engagement and input in the Summit of the Future and Pact for the Future. The need to understand the convergence of thought and expectations from the Pact and the chapters therein, with the session paying particular attention to the fourth chapter on Youth & Futures Generations.
Youth & Future Generations: Wales Protocol for Future Generations
SOIF has been at the forefront of introducing foresight thinking to the youth from an intergenerational perspective and this has led to such impactful initiatives and programmes such as the NGFP, which has a strong African sensing network that has been growing since 2020. Interestingly, SOIF had been engaging the government of Wales in helping develop a framework to assist governments and communities in futures-thinking from a wholistic and inclusive approach. These efforts culminated in the Forum for Future Generations that happened from the 29th of April to the 1st of May 2024 that proposed the Wales Protocol for Future Generations
During the launch, and similarly joining the dialogue session, was the African Working Group from the Pledge Network facilitated by the School of International Futures & Foundations for Tomorrow on the Summit of the Future. The representative working group made up of Dr. Nsah Malah from Cameroon, Daouia Chalali from Algeria and Benin’s Alimi Safou were part of the deliberations in Wales and provided insights in hindsight of the importance of such legislation and policy to facilitate a safeguard to the current and future youth generations. The Pledge network mobilises efforts across regional blocs such as the Latin American Countries and the Middle East & North Africa to push forward a unified and joint collaborative strategy on a Declaration for the rights of Future Generations, institutionalising intergenerational fairness and commitments to building future-oriented governance.
Wales was the first country to establish an act of parliament, Well-being of Future Generations Act, and more recently, Protocol for Future Generations, that was launched as a blueprint to guide other states in formulating futures-thinking legislation that mandates consideration of the impact of present decisions and implementation on future generations, hence setting a precedence for accountable governance necessary for sustainable development. This Protocol was launched during the UN Civil Societies Conference in Nairobi, Kenya on the 8th of May 2024 ahead of the Summit of the Future.
United Nations Civil Societies Conference
On May 8th – 10th 2024, the UN Civil Societies Conference was held in Nairobi, being the 69th edition and 1st of the UN event held in Africa. The purpose of the conference was to engage with CSO’s on the need for multilateralism and multistakeholderism in charting a path forward for the United Nations and its member states in dealing with current and future challenges that may stem from crosscutting unexpected shocks like Covid-19.
This UNCSC event was declared as an event that would facilitate the Summit of the Future in September 2024 in mobilizing state and non-state actors including other stakeholders in supporting the Summit of the Future, basing the goals towards building the momentum on Agenda 2030 while contributing to the global conversation that seeks to shape the future of the planet and the implementation of those goals at the grassroots level.
The session appraised the key output expected in the Pact for the Future with the participants addressing Revision 1 of the Pact for the Future.
The session grouped the participants into breakout rooms under the five (5) chapters encompassed in the Pact with an expectation of contextualising the chapters from an African viewpoint so that the network can appraise or critique the actions called for in the document and offer suggestions on how they would relate to efforts in implementations and what drawbacks need to be overcome.
International Peace & Security
Based on the UN Charter and the 2nd chapter of the Pact for the Future, the discussion perused the actions therein with the mind of current insecurity challenges facing Africa. From West Africa to the Sahel and the Horn of Africa, Africa has its fair share of conflict areas as well as questionable collaborations framed as joint operations in the different hotspot regions.
The participants looked at the driving forces behind conflict in Africa where key issues highlighted key among these was lack of information (or disinformation) that breeds sowing dissension between nations as is the case of the Sahel region. Another reason was the farmers- herders' conflict on shared land and resources especially in West Africa.
Military and violent extremism such as the Boko Haram and Al-Shabab insurgencies in Africa have been on the rise. Drawing correlation to the conflicts in the middle East and how outfits like Al Qaeda and the Taliban (both backed by U.S during the Mujahideen against Soviets) and ISIS (trained by the U.S as rebel groups to fight Gadafi & Assad) were formed due to counter-operations led by the U.S, and after achieving their purpose turned opportunistic at the power vacuum left in the wake of such internal insurgencies.
Other concerns featured on the chapter that questioned the benefits of having African states coopted into such cooperative joint military organisations such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). NATO is a military alliance of 30 European and 2 North American states, with 20 non-NATO countries being listed as allied to the organization – 4 of those being Africa and Kenya being the latest and only sub-Saharan state to be granted non-NATO ally status. Whereas such a status can come with joint efforts in conflict preparedness and capacity building and resilience, are we witnessing a new Anglo-American sphere of influence?
Mineral resource battles have been fought on African soil since the Boer Wars over gold and diamond deposits to the Battle of Tanga and the secessionist war in Katanga facilitated by Union Miniere Du Haut Katanga, a Belgian mining company. Similar conflicts survived to the present times with Sierra Leone and much recently in Congo.
There was an indication on specific actions such as Action 17 which touched on the need to address the adverse impact of environmental & climate change effects on peace and security. The participants noted that allocation of land rights must be reconsidered to prevent future conflict. There was a concerning case in Tanzania where the Maasai community is being ousted from their ancestral land over the plans by the government to lease over 400,000Ha to a royal-owned company from Dubai, Otterlo Business Corp3 for trophy hunting from Loliondo to Ngorongoro reserve lands. The former lease lasted 25 years since 1992 and was later renewed in 2022 when the Maasai community elders were notified of the eviction notice. Such evictions of largely pastoralist communities from their lands might cause insecurity as conflicts with neighbouring communities might arise. Shouldn’t the UNSC, or UNESCO, be considerate of such concerns?
Science, Technology, Innovation & Digital Cooperation
This chapter in the Pact states that there are more humans today without access to technology than the privileged few. The urgency of bridging the gap is one that requires capacity in financing, technical know-how and infrastructural development necessary to realise parity to the current science, technology and digital divide. With access to the aforementioned facilitated, local innovations addressing the local needs and challenges facing the African regions will follow.
Notwithstanding, who owns the technology and the platforms running the tech? It is definitely not Africans. Whereas Africa has recently been jeered as the silicon savannah, it has innovated many startups which fail to deliver on their promising prospects on paper. Why? It might be because of the challenge of cost and maintenance once the applications or systems start to scale up. So how can the UN and Summit of the Future look at this action as a base of pyramid empowerment programme? If we need to move together into the digital age and future, why not increase facilitation in support of meeting these necessary prerequisites in infrastructure and total cost of ownership and operation?
On action 26 of the Pact, the treaty seeks to attract support for Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in the investments required for launching Science, Technology & Innovation. We must approach this matter with some level of caution. PPP projects have had quite the negative economic impact especially in developing countries where it has driven the cost of maintenance up and transferred overhead costs to the public considering most of the agreements are not transparent and rely heavily on borrowing capital in financing. The criticisms levelled against PPPs in several projects in African countries have not been on loose grounds; bilateral PPP engagements in Africa have come at a hefty cost as evidenced by the Lekki Toll Bridge project in Nigeria and the Standard Gauge Railway in Kenya due to expropriation risks and long-term sustainability of projects post-EPC including public stakeholder opposition4. These PPP projects are financed by Bretton Woods dollar lending agencies such as African Development Bank and Exim banks in the case of bilateral PPP arrangements such as evidenced in Kenya. The project saw an influx of Chinese immigrants into the country employed as contractors and technical workforce which led to further public opposition.
This lens allowed the participants to exchange insights on how such multilateral negotiations at SOTF can help mitigate these risks and bridge the financing gap on technological capacity & capability and how the disparity can be considered and prioritised.
- The participants noted the need to increase funding for research and development since subsidising or imposing limits to the cost of purchase, subscription and operations might not be in the interests of the owners of the technologies.
- The need to facilitate knowledge sharing, especially technical capacity building led by the Global North and West to the Global South.
- Foster contextualised development of frameworks for guiding strategic investment and management in the requisite infrastructure and technology into datasets and analytical output that can lead to adaptation of AI research & development in the continent such as the AU’s Digital Transformation Strategy.
What about African Traditional Science?
On the scientific side of actions 25, 26 of this chapter, Africa has since time immemorial had its own indigenous practice of science. Cultural and traditional sciences are part and parcel of this body of knowledge that has now been rendered old and untested. Africans still retain some of their herbal remedies from natural substrates used to synthesise artificial medicines in laboratories; yet during Covid-19, one such remedy was completely disproved and ridiculed without any concrete tests or findings to prove that the Madagascan herbal concoction5 was not effective against the coronavirus. Despite the Malagasy Institute of Applied Research developed the concoction made from artemisia herbs, artemisinin, a known herbal substrate that has been used for centuries, the ‘science’ only supported one remedy as the solution to the pandemic - biotherapeutic vaccines from the EU and US. We currently witness less investments in our own natural medicinal research solutions and opting for biotherapeutic alternatives and development of foreign manufacturing hubs in Africa financed by foreign agencies6.
Thus, the question was presented: How African indigenous knowledge on medicines and other areas be included from a non-discriminatory and rather contributory input to the body of knowledge that constitutes modern science? Participants noted with fervour, there is a need to understand who defines or determines the scientific facts, and how inclusive they are of our contributions to modern science.
This prompts us to make our indigenous knowledge accessible (through research & analysis, publishing) as digestible and coherent contributions to modern science.
There was also risk identified beyond the need of finance and technical assistance where multilateral support can skew research towards their understanding or interests to the science. Multilateralism should spur the unilateral research and development to help realise local solutions for local problems as opposed to foreign directed interests in those developments. Employ regional agency as opposed to assimilation where there can be availed some leeway to decide on solutions as opposed to creating the standards to be followed without respite to innovation and local prioritization on research and, by promoting African Indigenous products to return revenue into our systems of applied research and innovation based on traditional generational knowledge.
Youth & Future Generations
Based on the actions captured in chapter 4 of the Pact for the Future, this dialogue session spoke to the ideals and expectations of the youth and future generations. From the African Technical Working group that participated in the Wales Futures Forum to the local disillusionment and disenfranchising of young people in Africa. A clarion call was to embark on engaging local and regional governments on the need to have youth and future generations policy such as the Well-being of Future Generations Act from Wales.
The current governance structures in the continent lack the voice of the youth in many of its decisions which impact on the lives of the future generations. The participants conversed on how we can ensure policies being developed today are inclusive of the needs and expectations of this growing and bulging demographic in preserving resources for future generations.
Safeguarding African Resources for Future Generations
Africa's journey towards safeguarding its resources for future generations requires a multifaceted and holistic approach. The first order should be premised on accountability by public office holders as a paramount safeguard for this will ensure that natural resources are managed effectively. Only through transparent governance, where policy decisions and their respective outcomes are openly shared with the public, can there be a conducive renewal of the lost culture of trust and responsibility from leadership. An emphasis on renewable energy resources is also crucial. By facilitating investments in solar and optimising hydroelectric power, Africa can reduce its carbon footprint and create a sustainable energy future that does not deplete its natural resources.
Seclusion of youth in decision-making processes has been detrimental to the trajectory of development in the 21st century. Despite their ability of bringing fresh perspectives and innovative ideas necessary for long-term sustainability, the youth have been sidelined and presumed too young to understand current affairs. As the population bloc that will inherit the consequences of today's decisions, their voice and active participation in planning and implementing resource management strategies are vital. Ensuring that the current generation focuses on the needs of the next is a moral imperative. This can be done by adopting policies that prioritize long-term benefits over short-term gains, such as protecting biodiversity and promoting the sustainable use of ecosystems. Africa's path to preserving its resources for future generations lies in a combination of good governance, youth participation and inclusion, intergenerational fairness, and learning from its past hurdles and struggles.
Carbon Trading Impeding Land Tenure & Transition for Future Generations
From an African perspective, it is quite hard to think about carbon trading as a solution to our problems. Although conceptualised as an avenue for the wealthy polluters to pay penance for their emissions, it is extremely pertinent that the children of the natives of Africa think squarely about the carbon markets machination.
If ExxonMobil sought to pay for the decades of emissions that they have piled on the atmosphere and environment, it would be fair to have a consolidated fund that would be available for the corporation to pay to facilitate climate change actions that does not include the auctioning of pristine land and forests that are the natural resources available to these communities and their offspring for generations to come. Where these indigenous and local communities hold the reins and tenure of the land, better tend to fare better, there is less deforestation, and more biodiversity is realised which equates to happier livelihoods and better outcomes.
Yet what we're seeing is the opposite of this ideal. The carbon market is forcing the displacement of those indigenous communities for the prospects of gaining a few million of the same petrodollars these corporations' profits; that's quite a disparity to the priceless ‘product’ being hived off through the warped capitalist pricing system.
In June 2023 in Nairobi, the Regional Voluntary Carbon Market Company (RVCMC)conducted the largest auction of carbon credits, trading over 2.2 million tonnes of credit7. When you look under the hood, RVCMC is a company that was established eight (8) months before it held this auction. The company is backed by Public Investment Fund (PIF), which a sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia in partnership with the Saudi Tawadul Group Holding Company of the country's securities exchange.
If you investigate the thinking behind such interventions as climate mitigations, there is little difference to the slave auctions that happened during the Arab slave trade; the only difference is on the product being auctioned. By auctioning pristine and reserve lands in Africa, future generations of Africa will find themselves landless and their means of production, even at the lowest level of subsistence farming, obsolete without any other means of participating in the socioeconomic development of their communities other than perpetual serfdom.
This parallels the employment and job creation mandate of any government for its growing population. While there is a dwindling number of jobs being created on the continent, it is interesting seeing African Presidents with the example of Kenya’s William Ruto, supporting the export of the youth in search of labour in what can only be termed as modern-day slavery in the Gulf states and Europe. While we’re seeing rising concerns of immigrants undergoing xenophobia and hate crimes in Middle East, Europe and America, these governments even offer to pay for tickets on the modern ‘slave ships’ to ship out African youth to menial jobs abroad.
Critical Thinking & the African Mindset
There is need for a psychosocial shift/reframing regarding the categorisation of diverse subjects relatable to young individuals Africans under the umbrella term of ‘youth’ in the context of policy – with some viewing it as reductive and as taking away a certain amount of agency as the future generations. Others see future generations as the unborn and thus our conversations then must factor in ideas that will not just protect but allow future generations to thrive. What would that mean when we currently join the talk about increasing aid and financing of birth control and contraceptives? Aren’t these risks to future generations of the continent? What about analysing the trends on how facilitation in funding is moving these birth control technologies to the countries that are projected to have a population bulge soon? Would that mean that policies on birth control in Africa are pose an existential risk to their future generations? If we are to view the future generations of Africa as a labour force, and the fact that 25%+ of the global population will be African by 2050, shouldn’t Africa focus on its own intrinsic development agenda for the next 30 years in preparation for their golden age of prosperity for the dark continent?
We recently witnessed the German Supreme Court ruling on revising its Climate Change laws to protect future generations. Why can’t Africa ideate on how the continent and its member states can establish policy safeguards for public offices like the Ministry of Environment & Climate Change coupled with existing ministries of Youth Affairs to embed futureproofing in legislation for future generations? Wouldn’t we want to see Africa offer a tumultuous critique of the carbon offset projects robbing their future generations off their land and mineral resources?
Just when African countries are discovering oil and gas deposits inland and offshore, the global North wants us to move away from fossil fuels and biofuels? After equating CO2 as a necessary element for plant and tree health, why can’t Africa have its carbon capture technology defined as trees? Must Africa always be at the mercy of pluralist Western ideologies and the syncretism that stems from the cultural diffusion of the global North? African socialism might have been a third socioeconomic ideology as an option in comparison to the polarised extremes of capitalism and communism.
In the next dialogue series, we hope to discuss the African future we want to realise. Since the African Union developed the Agenda 2063 for its member states in the continent, we wish to inject some foresight in and around some pertinent subjects covered both in that document and the Pact for the Future from SOTF.
These include:
- Financing for development and the need to change the financial architecture
- Digital Cooperation through shared strategies like the Digital Transformation Strategy for Africa and
- Transforming Global Governance through efforts such as optimizing AUs role in the G20.
