- info@africa-mabadiliko.org
- 7845 Lekakawe Road, Extension 24, Maru-a-pula
Challenges are difficult tasks or problems which if not surmounted can prevent the attainment of a desired outcome.
If we were to transform, into the new Africa NOW, what current ‘Challenges’ would be our impediments? The ‘Interference’ Narrative is about what has happened to Africa previously and how it may be affecting us now. ‘Challenges’ however, would be those current modern-day issues that are preventing progress.
As with other parts of the ‘Narrative,’ ‘Challenges’ is a topic which could be a website on its own and indeed there are websites, books, research papers, socio-economic courses in Universities dedicated to these ‘African Challenges’.
We will distinguish between those that are natural and outside our control and those that are controllable. The controllable ones for which there are solutions will be recognised in the ‘Solutions’ part of the ‘Narrative’. Where there are no known solutions or where solutions are not working, these will be identified as ‘Challenges’.
For this blog we are using Problems and Challenges inter-changeably as we consider a Problem to be that which stops you from achieving your objective and similarly a Challenge is that which opposes you.
The Louis Allen International Decision Making / Problem Solving Technique which is based on universally accepted management principles identifies the first step in Problem Solving as ‘Determine the APPARENT PROBLEM’. You then re-confirm your objectives after which you gather information, asking open ended questions. This process is supposed to help you arrive at the REAL PROBLEM! This is so crucial because over 90% of ‘Apparent Problems’ are not ‘Real Problems’ at all and herein lies what we believe is one of our greatest pitfalls in Africa. We have wasted a lot of time, effort, precious resources on solving ‘Apparent’ instead of ‘Real’ problems, and so the SYMPTOMS still exist.
For example, if POVERTY is considered an APPARENT ‘Challenge’ then lack of adequate appropriate education could very well be the REAL challenge. Which means most other poverty eradication initiatives would be A WASTE OF TIME.
HUNGER can be an APPARENT Challenge when the REAL deal is that people have turned subsistence farmland into Rubber or Bio Fuel Plantations without having adequate alternatives. Why such a thing would happen is now another discourse that may unearth the real REAL Challenge. Greed, exploitation, poverty? Food for thought!
The United Nations (UN) set Millenium Development Goals for the developing world to achieve by 2015. The main thrust being ‘the reduction of extreme poverty’ i.e. poverty was a ‘Challenge’ to development. Those Goals not achieved in the timeframe were embodied into a more aggressive ’17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG )over the next 15 years’.
GOAL 1: No Poverty
GOAL 2: Zero Hunger
GOAL 3: Good Health and Well-being
GOAL 4: Quality Education
GOAL 5: Gender Equality
GOAL 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
GOAL 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
GOAL 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
GOAL 10: Reduced Inequality
GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
GOAL 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
GOAL 13: Climate Action
GOAL 14: Life Below Water
GOAL 15: Life on Land
GOAL 16; Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
GOAL 17: Partnerships to achieve the Goal
Although listed as Goals these can be termed as challenges to development i.e. looking at the first 3 Goals one can say Poverty, Hunger, Lack of good health and well-being are ‘Challenges’ to development.
The African Union (AU) in 2013 set a 50 year development agenda – AGENDA 2063 – which ‘is Africa’s blueprint and master plan for transforming Africa into the global powerhouse of the future.’ It is the continent’s strategic framework
that aims to deliver on its goal for ‘inclusive and sustainable development.’
Africa has to overcome its own challenges in order to achieve transformation and sustainable development.
There is a BIG issue here. Africa must not only deal with its own problems but also the global ones reognised in the SDG’s.
According to the UN Sustainable Development Goals Knowledge Platform “challenges include the adverse impact of climate change, increasing water scarcity, biodiversity and ecosystem loss, desertification, low resilience to natural disasters, potential non achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), energy crisis, food crisis, limited benefits from globalization, health security, the global financial crisis, trafficking and piracy, low penetration of ICT services, urbanization, need to develop better disaster response mechanisms, genetically modified crops in relation to food security and technology transfer among others. Africa is largely dependent on natural resources to achieve growth and development.” (New and Emerging Challenges in Africa Summary Report UNECA, 2011)
Though this report was done in 2011 the issues raised are still a concern today.
Now to get back to Agenda 2063, the biggest overall ‘Challenge’ recognized by the AU is CONFLICTS. Without a doubt, armed conflict or any other for that matter not only stalls development but also creates other humanitarian and social problems in its wake. The Plan was to ‘silence the guns by 2020’ but we are in 2021 and there are still conflicts. That’s fuel for a whole blog post but believe you me, just as Britain turned Chinese into a race of Opium junkies for their economic benefit so is conflict likely to benefit some non-African somewhere.
1. Incomes, jobs and decent work
2. Poverty, inequality and hunger
3. Social security and protection, including persons with disabilities
4. Modern, affordable and liveable habitats and quality basic services
5. Education and science, technology and innovation (STI) driven skills revolution
6. Health and nutrition
7. Sustainable and inclusive economic growth
8. STI (Science Technology Innovation) driven manufacturing, industrialization and value addition
9. Economic diversification and resilience
10. Agricultural productivity and production
11. Marine resources and energy
12. Port operations and marine transport
13. Bio-diversity, conservation and Sustainable natural resource management.
14. Water security
15. Frameworks and institutions for a United Africa
16. Climate resilience and natural disasters preparedness
17. Financial and monetary institutions
18. Communications and infrastructure connectivity.
19. Democracy and good governance
20. Human rights, justice and the rule of law
21. Institutions and leadership
22. Participatory development and local governance.
23. Maintenance and preservation of peace and security
24. Institutional structure for AU instruments on peace and security
25. Defence, security and peace
26. Fully operational and functional APSA (African Peace & Security Architecture) all pillars
27. Values and ideals of Pan Africanism
28. Cultural values and African Renaissance
29. Cultural heritage, creative arts and businesses
30. Women and girls empowerment
31. Violence and discrimination against women and girls
32. Youth empowerment and children’s rights
33. African capital markets
34. Fiscal systems and public sector revenue
35. Development assistance
Quite a daunting list but remember these are priority areas and not all ‘Challenges’. Also, some of them can be logically combined. Those areas that are similar to SDG’s have been linked with them so the solutions designed for them will achieve an overall correction.
In a later article we will unbundle the ‘Challenges’ and assess whether they are Real or Apparent. We will then assess if they will be impediments to transformation as we see it so that we can find solutions to remove or neutralise them.
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/
https://sdgs.un.org/goals
https://www.un.org/millenniumgoals
https://au.int/en/agenda2063/sdgs
