Spoken Word with Emi Mahmoud

Africa accounts for only two to three percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet it is disproportionately affected by the impacts of climate change. Key development sectors have already experienced severe damages including water shortages, reduced food production, biodiversity loss, loss of lives and reduced economic growth. Populations as well as businesses alike are increasingly exposed. Governments, businesses, and civil society must collaborate to deploy and scale solutions across industries that accelerate climate resilience and adaptation. Africa is also uniquely positioned to capitalize on the international transition to “green growth”, with opportunities to tap into new, fast-growing industries that can help to reduce global emission while creating jobs and economic development at home. This panel highlights investors, operators, and advisors to businesses and governments who aim to build synergies on the continent between climate adaptation and sustainable growth.

There continues to be a significant gap across the African continent with regards to increasing access to high quality and affordable healthcare. Brick and mortar healthcare solutions continue to play a major role in improving access to care, accelerated by the push toward Universal Healthcare Coverage. Technology has demonstrated the ability to strengthen health systems, leveraging existing platforms to increase access. These innovative strategies such as digital health are needed to ensure long term success in the continent. However, their successful deployment on a wider scale faces several challenges on the continent. We will be discussing the opportunities, the risks and myths associated with digital health transformation and the successes achieved to-date.

Broad and powerful, the creative industry in Africa holds great promise and spans multiple sectors including film, art, fashion, music, social media content creation, among others. This panel will engage different actors across the value chain on how to break down the barriers that are holding back the industry from achieving its full potential. In this discussion, we will cover the tailwinds that have supported the growth of African creative content so far, how to further increase access to financing for creative entrepreneurs, how to formalize the industry to better realize the economic benefits of its output, how to boost investment in the physical and digital infrastructure that support the creative economy, how to better leverage global digital platforms to distribute creative products more effectively and finally government policies needed to support the overall development of the industry.