The Future of Africa

Challenges and Opportunities (2021)

This book present a cohesive story about human and economic development in Africa revolving around three essential questions:

  1. Where does Africa find itself today in relation to the situation elsewhere in the world and generally, what explains this state of affairs?
  2. Given historical trends and what we know about the world, where do we think Africa will be in 2040? And
  3. What can be done to improve this trajectory and create a better tomorrow for the continent?

This book describes and models the impact of a series of fundamental transitions in health, demographics, agriculture, education, manufacturing, technology, trade integration, stability and governance that is needed if Africa is to narrow and start closing the gap in development between itself and the rest of the world. It is an updated version of Africa First! Unleashing a Growth Revolution that was published in South Africa by Jonathan Ball in 2020 and uses a more recent version of the International Futures forecasting platform with updated data and some modelling improvements, among various other changes. The structure of the book has also been rearranged to more logically first deal with health, then demographics, agriculture, education, etc.