Africa

This paper is a background review representing part of the initial phase of the Financing the Urban Transition work program. The review builds on a growing body of research that highlights both the importance of national sustainable infrastructure and the need to develop more effective and efficient financing mechanisms for delivering compact, connected cities that meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. While progress has been made in both these areas over the last five years, there remains a policy gap between the international/national level and the municipal level.

A policy paper by former MEI Visiting Scholar Hedi Larbi on the need to enhance regional cooperation and build towards an integrated infrastructure in the Middle East to promote growth and unity in the region.

"Cybersecurity is a means to enable social stability and promote digital democracy; a method by which to govern the Internet; and a process by which to secure critical infrastructure from cybercrime, cyberespionage, cyberterrorism and cyberwar. As nations and corporations recognize their dependence on ICT, policymakers must find the proper balance in protecting their investments without strangling future growth."

"Time has come for Africa to rethink its investment in multilateral diplomacy and redirect its efforts to new activities such as technology cooperation through bilateral partnerships.

Part of the resources used to maintain UN missions could be used to support new science and innovation consulates."

"Africa could learn from other countries. The US Army Corps of Engineers has been instrumental in the construction and maintenance of critical infrastructure since its creation in the 1930s. Similarly, the Corps of Royal Engineers has a long record spanning 900 years of contributing to civilian infrastructure ."

"For decades India bemoaned the migration of its skilled expertise to industrialised countries. Today it is benefiting from their knowledge and connections, largely because it has over the years built a strong intellectual and commercial infrastructure through which émigrés are operating."

"In response to long periods of neglect, African countries are starting to invest in new energy production facilities...."

Testimony of Calestous Juma before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health, Hearing on Food Security in Africa: The Impact of Agricultural Development

"African presidents have now returned home from Accra, Ghana, after discussing a critical issue for the future of Africa: the creation of a United States of Africa at the urging of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi....Col Gaddafi has the right vision, but can correct his faulty strategy by helping to support the effective functioning of regional integration bodies, starting with northern and western Africa."