Future Leaders Programme 1: African Economic Development: From wishlists to strategies

The first Future Leadership Programme (FLP) workshop covered ‘African Economic Development – From Wishlist to Strategy and covered topics such as design of strategy and policies, investment, employment, and inflation, balance of payments, industrial policy and structural change, climate change, and the AfCFTA. 

Lecturers included (in alphabetical order of surname):

• Ha-Joon Chang (DLD Co-Director, SOAS)
• Christopher Cramer (DLD Co-Director, SOAS)
• Jonathan Di John (DLD Co-Director, SOAS)
• Adeyemi Dipeolu (former chief economic advisor to the Vice President of Nigeria)
• Carlos Lopes (Mandela School of Public Governance, University of Cape Town)
• Arkebe Oqubay (former Senior Minister and Advisor to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia)
• John Sender (SOAS)
• Dzodzi Tsikata (SOAS)
• Nimrod Zalk (Mandela School of Public Governance, University of Cape Town)

Key takeways

• Governments can’t do everything at once – prioritisation and focus are vital. This will mean difficult choices and the need to get comfortable with imbalance. 
• Learning from others’ experiences is valuable, but it is always critical to overlay this with the local political economy context. 
• It can be difficult to create sustainable change given the short-term nature of the political environment. Work to develop a longer-term vision and secure national consensus for this. 
• The importance of adapting/failing/’tasting as you go’. 
• Sectors are changing. For example, agriculture is becoming increasingly high-tech (the industrialisation of freshness) and quality jobs in rural areas (where many people continue to live) are possible.
• Always ask ‘says who?’ 
• All indicators are imperfect, but some worse than others. Think about the provenance, reliability and ideology behind data and evidence.
• Develop communication and influence skills to get good policy ideas implemented in practice.

Header image credit: Eva Blue via Unsplash.

In the sidelines of the workshop, DLD Co-Directors Christopher Cramer and Jonathan Di John took the opportunity to chat to Adeyemi Dipelou and Carlos Lopes in a little more depth. 

Future Leaders Programme (FLP) workshops bring together a small number of people who are expected to be in senior leadership positions in the coming years for a workshop involving lectures, discussion sessions, and debates.

Each FLP workshop has a key theme and/or regional focus and is led by presenters with a wealth of senior experience in government, academia, the private sector, civil society, and international organisations.