Understanding What Ails Africa is the Key to Finding Effective Solutions
Wangari Maathai's The Challenge for Africa is a Good Place to Start
Welcome to the Not an Afterthought newsletter, where we lead the conversation on using technology to drive effective change that makes Africa not an afterthought.
Hello Rafiki.
Today, I want to share my current read😊
It has been a hectic week of finalizing an application to an incubation program for my startup. All I wanted to do after was pick up a book.
What better book than Wangari Maathai's The Challenge for Africa?
In this newsletter, we talk about why Africa has remained an afterthought globally.
What challenges have kept the continent in that position, and how can we (as its people) solve them?
In particular, how can we leverage tech for effective solutions?
The goal is to get to a point where all 54 countries in Africa fully participate in the global economy.
The most sombre quote from the book so far is:
In the 2007/2008 UN Human Development Report, all of the twenty-two lowest-ranked countries—in terms of life expectancy at birth, adult literacy rates, combined gross enrollment ratio for primary, secondary and tertiary education, GDP per capita, life expectancy index, education index and GDP—were from Africa south of the Sahara. Alone of the sub-Saharan states, the island nations of Mauritius and Seychelles were ranked in the top one hundred of the report's Human Development Index.
12 years later, nothing has changed!
According to the 2020 report, of the countries ranked from 157 to 189, which the report terms as countries with low Human Development Index (HDI), 29 are from sub-Saharan Africa.
The three non-African countries are Yemen, Haiti and Afghanistan.
As a Kenyan, East African and African, I am desperate for a future where at least half of the sub-Saharan states are in the top 100.
Botswana, a sub-Saharan state, has proven that it is possible to enact positive changes that lead to a rise in ranking. In 2007, Botswana's HDI ranking was 121. In the latest report, it is 100.
“It always seems impossible until it is done.” So said Nelson Mandela.
Now Africa knows it's possible because Botswana is doing it.
Please join me in reading the book. Hopefully, we will learn what we can do to help transform the continent for the better.
Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed the article and think others might as well, kindly share.
If this is your first time here, here are a couple of issues that you might have missed.
Tribute to His Excellency Hon. Emilio Stanley Mwai Kibaki—The Third President of Kenya
Rising Xenophobia: What is Fueling Extreme Anti-Immigrant Resentment in Africa?
Building and succeeding in Africa: How Safaricom Did It
Winning Lessons For Startup Founders From The Man Who Built Nike
For feedback, constructive criticism or a private chat, please shoot me an email at nafterthought@gmail.com. Alternatively, leave a comment.