Transcriber: Tu Dao Reviewer: Taher Koja
Not long ago, I embarked on a road trip.
From the tip of Africa in Cape Town to Kampala on the shores of Lake Victoria.
After eight days, I found I had driven six thousand eight hundred kilometres.
Mind you I don’t really love driving.
Our continent is a vast, beautiful, and mesmerizing place.
From the current landscape in South Africa,
with the naked eye might seem like a barren land. Usually closer look.
It's teeming with life. Known as one of the few global biodiversity hotspots,
because the flora found in this landscape is found nowhere else on the globe.
To the vast Savannah landscapes in East Africa.
That, once again is teeming with biodiversity.
Indeed, we are blessed as a continent and as I arrive closer to
the shores of Lake Victoria, I was mesmerized.
By the additional fishermen
as they came to shore from overnight fishing were not only beautiful,
but also full of resources on this continent. Yet on this trip,
Just so they had breaking story of Africa,
the young girl who was carrying firewood on her head when she should be in school.
Or the single mother was toiling in the field.
Trying to burn charcoal to make ends meet.
I meet teachers who hadn't been paid for months on end.
The challenges that we face as a continent.
Indeed, enormous. And all of these challenges will be expounded by
the impact of climate change. You see.
Even though Africa is not responsible for climate change.
We are warming faster than the rest of the world.
Across the continent, we’re seeing crops are fading. Persistent drought.
We all know. What happened in Cape Town a few years ago when
the city nearly came? Rain and water.
The challenges we face are enormous.
According to African Development Bank,
Africa requires between 15 and 17 billion dollars
per annum to adapt to the impact of climate change.
Unfortunately, we’re nowhere near to that goal.
The recent climate change negotiations, dubbed COP26 in Glasgow,
was a clear indication of the lack of ambition in trying to meet the need
for taking decisive climate action.
Well, that tells me that is that Africa, where on our on?
We are going to have to depend on our ingenuity and our resilience and
on our own, our social capital to be able to adapt to
the debilitating impact of climate change.
Having realized that a few years ago, myself and a couple of our colleagues,
we convened some of the most respected thought leaders on the continent,
ranging from Senegal to Nigeria, Namibia, Kenya and, of course, South Africa.
And we ask the question. What would it take to build
a wellbeing economy in Africa?
An economy that is human centered.
An economy that recognizes that we live in a resource constrained world.
An econom that is bottom-up.
Because after all, we know trickle down economics doesn't work.
After deliberating for several months, we all agreed.
that business as usual can no longer suffice.
Africa cannot rely on an economic model that has brought us
the suffering that we’re experiencing as we speak. We also agreed
now there are two fundamental issues that
the continent needs to address if we are to be able to build
a much more sustainable economic model that will transform our people.
And one of those key issues is energy access. You see.
Across the continent, only 40 percent have access to energy and
I mean electricity. And of those 40 percent a significant number
of African are energy poor?
Close to home in South Africa,
80 percent of South Africa's population is connected to the national grid.
But a whooping 47 percent
easily get energy poor. Why?
Because they spent a chunk amount of the household income on electricity.
Over the years, some progress has been made in ensuring that
off grid energy is brought to those poor households that don’t have access to
the grid. Many countries in Africa,
a lot of solar systems have been deployed
and many Africans actually having access to lighting.
Unfortunately,
little progress has been achieved
in ensuring productive energy use.
You see if Africa would be able to develop,
we need every person to be participating
in the production and consumption of goods
That means we need energy, electricity, that kind of power,
those tools
that those communities on the ground
can be able to produce those goods and services.
They can be able to irrigate those crops and so on,
otherwise would never be able to transform.
A second critical issue that needs to be addressed.
Is innovation in our food system?
ESI Africa loses between 30 to 40 percent.
Of fresh produce and I mean dairy,
vegetables and fruits to post harvest rice.
An amount of food that could essentially feed 300 million people is lost
because of poor handling techniques. Yet simple innovations.
Such as solar dress, what do you see in your picture there that dehydrates
produce? Can prolong shelf life of crops for a few days.
Two weeks. Two months.
Not only ensuring food security at the household level
but ensuring that poverty is elevated,
and we're able to build resilience against climate change.
These innovations often cost as little as one hundred and fifty US dollars.
And you ask yourself why isn’t every smallholder farmer
on this continent having access to this innovations.
The big challenge that we have to overcome
You might wonder how all of these
come together. I think there are three critical issues that need to be addressed
if we are to ensure that inclusive innovations get mainstreamed
and those vulnerable communities have access to those innovations.
One of those issues is access to capital.
Without money, we won’t be able to do anything.
We need impact investors to be on
the ground to channel this capital where it is required most.
And oftentimes the rewards are quite high, even if you're chasing profits.
In addition to social capital and environmental capital, it can be can,
can, can be gained. The second issue is we need to develop
a network of intermediary institutions that are on
the ground that are scouting these pockets of excellence
and ensuring that these innovations can be embedded
and eventually build resilience at that level.
Thirdly, and I think probably most importantly,
is the need for collaboration.
You see, collective action is extremely critical to these issues
because if you look at an issue like climate change, you say wicked problem,
you can never solve it in isolation. We need collaboration.
We need financiers to come on board. We need, you know, collaborative innovators.
We need them to collaborate with regulators and so on,
ensuring that we can build a resilience that is quite.
Just to demonstrate to you how all of these come together,
I would like to tell the story of Ralph Nader.
I met Ralph Nader a few years ago on our program,
called the New Economy Accelerator.
Ralph Nader
had a life-threatening diagnosis.
She’s from Durban in South Africa.
Out of desperation, Ralph Nader decided
that she wanted to adapt backyard gardening
so that she could grow food for her, for her needs, obviously. Quickly,
she realized that she didn’t only have limited space in her backyard
but how vegetables are getting eaten by rodents and her neighbor’s chicken.
So out of nowhere, she decided what would happen if she actually used recycled
plastic mounted on a wooden frame to grow her vegetables.
And that feat Ralph Nader on an audience today, as I speak,
Ralph Nader is one of the most decorated smallholder farmers in KwaZulu-Natal.
She's working with 200 women cooperatives, creating hundreds of jobs in her region.
A clear demonstration that, given an opportunity,
we are able to rise to the occasion.
When I met Ralph Nader, all she needed was
a little bit of tricky
on her business model,
connections in the food sector, and
a working capital to make our thrive.
And as I speak now, Ralph Nader will be as we can see the picture.
She’s thriving. A clear demonstration that all she needed was that little Jack
Maker movement.
In conclusion,
I would like to say this
that Africa was full of resources.
We have all the resources they would need to thrive.
All we need to do is to tap into the ingenuity of our people,
our resilience and social capital, but more importantly, to tap.
Into a demographic dividend of a young continent.
And with that, we'll be able to overcome any challenges. That is thrown at us.
There's no doubt. That Africa is the next investment destination.
I'm on a journey to building a wellbeing economy in Africa. Please join me.