World Economic Forum on Africa Achieving Inclusive Growth Through Responsive and Responsible Leadership

Regional Agenda World Economic Forum on Africa Achieving Inclusive Growth through Responsive and Responsible Leadership Durban, South Africa 3-5 May 2017 Contents 3 Preface 4 Co-Chairs 5 The Meeting in Numbers 6 Durban Highlights 8 Framing Regional Priorities in the Global Context 14 Navigating the New Socio- Economic Reality 18 Driving the Inclusivity Agenda 27 Meeting Outcomes 28 Solutions Summit in Durban 32 Acknowledgements 33 Digital Update 34 Upcoming Meetings World Economic Forum 91-93 route de la Capite CH-1223 Cologny/Geneva Switzerland Tel.: +41 (0)22 869 1212 Fax: +41 (0)22 786 2744 Email: [email protected] www.weforum.org World Economic Forum ® © 2017 – All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system. REF 080517 Preface imperative to address the challenges with a record participation of more posed by a growing unemployed youth than 12 heads of state. It also population and climate change, among included strong representation from others. civil society, including more than 200 Social Entrepreneurs, Global Shapers As events around the world herald the and Young Global Leaders taking need for deep changes in governance part in the Solutions Summit ahead models, the impact of the headwinds of the meeting; and representatives for commodity-dependent countries from world-renowned international has also refocused attention on the organizations and institutions. urgency of economic diversification, revitalization of manufacturing and The Co-Chairs of the meeting in harnessing of human innovation to Durban reflect a diverse group of navigate the changing economic and leaders from both the public and Elsie S. Kanza Head of Regional Strategies - political landscape. These were just private sectors. I would like to thank Africa, Member of the Executive some of the issues discussed at the them for their support before and Committee, World Economic meeting in Durban, which took place during the meeting. I would also like to Forum under the theme, Achieving Inclusive thank the Government of South Africa Growth through Responsive and on behalf of the Forum for its great Responsible Leadership. support, and look forward to continuing this partnership into the future. The 27th World Economic Forum on In this context, participants at the Africa convened regional and global meeting explored the programme The Forum is grateful to its Members leaders to discuss need for leaders along three tracks: Framing Regional and communities for their ongoing to be responsive to the demands of Priorities in the Global Context; commitment to and participation in the the people who have entrusted them Navigating the New Socio-Economic World Economic Forum on Africa. We to lead, and to provide a vision and Reality; and Driving the Inclusivity look forward to welcoming you to next a way forward, as well as agreeing Agenda. They gained insight on the year’s gathering. on priorities that will help Africa share reasons behind increasing pressure its prosperity. The meeting offered from citizens seeking reassurance participants an opportunity to gain as the traditional global and regional insight into how best to prepare the balance of power shifts, and on region for the onset of the Fourth emerging uncertainties tied to rapid Industrial Revolution and its inherent changes from new technologies. disruption, and focused on strategic Building on the experience of mobile actions to achieve inclusive and phone technology, they discussed sustainable growth by fast-tracking how the region can move beyond market integration in Africa through incremental improvements to ground- industrial corridors. breaking change by leveraging the promise of the Fourth Industrial The economic growth forecast for Revolution. Participants debated Africa over the coming year is expected how the region can adapt faster to to be lower than the 5% average of the transform adversity into opportunity, past decade, largely due to the dip in especially by harnessing its young and commodity prices and the economic growing population. slowdown in China. Despite this mixed outlook, a number of countries The meeting saw over 1,000 leaders are growing above 6% per annum from business, government, civil and foreign direct investment inflows society, academia and the media, continue to rise. Overall, the divergence and over 100 government leaders of Africa’s economies makes it Achieving Inclusive Growth through Responsive and Responsible Leadership 3 Co-Chairs Winnie Byanyima Executive Director Oxfam International, United Kingdom Siyabonga Gama Group Chief Executive Officer Transnet, South Africa Frédéric Lemoine Chairman of the Executive Board Wendel, France Rich Lesser Global Chief Executive Officer and President Boston Consulting Group, USA Ulrich Spiesshofer President and Chief Executive Officer ABB, Switzerland 4 World Economic Forum on Africa The Meeting in Numbers 277+ women leaders 1,000+ Participants from 100 countries 700+ Business leaders 110+ Government leaders 200+ Reporting press 50+ Media leaders 620 Organizations Achieving Inclusive Growth through Responsive and Responsible Leadership 5 Durban Highlights African Competitiveness Preparing Africa’s Workforce for in the Spotlight Tomorrow’s Jobs The ability of sub-Saharan Africa to generate enough A new report by the Forum, The Future of Jobs and Skills jobs for its growing population rests on the successful in Africa: Preparing the Region for the Fourth Industrial implementation of structural reforms to boost productivity. Revolution, aims to serve as a guide for leaders from business, This is the key finding of the World Economic Forum Africa government, civil society and the education sector. It finds Competitiveness Report 2017. The biennial report comes at that the region’s capacity to adapt to future job requirements a time when growth in most of the region’s economies has leaves little room for complacency. While a number of African been slowing following a decade of sustained growth, and economies are relatively underexposed to labour market is likely to stagnate in the absence of improvements in the disruptions, this is changing rapidly. The opportunity must be core conditions for competitiveness. However, Africa’s young, seized by the region’s leaders to prepare for tomorrow. dynamic population has the potential to lead an economic revival in the region, backed by targeted reforms in key areas, Key findings from the report, which includes new data from the report finds. Priority areas include: LinkedIn, are: − While it is predicted that 41% of all work activities in South Long term: Africa are susceptible to automation – as are 44% in − Strengthening institutions to enable faster and more Ethiopia, 46% in Nigeria and 52% in Kenya – the transition effective policy implementation to automation is likely moderated by comparatively low − Improving infrastructure to enable greater levels of trade labour costs and offset by job creation. Despite this and business growth opportunity, the region’s capacity to adapt to further job − Extending or Promoting adoption of technology disruption is a concern. − Developing the right skills to remain competitive in a − Employers across the region identify inadequately skilled rapidly changing global economic landscape workforces as a major constraint to their businesses, including 41% of firms in Tanzania and 30% in Kenya, Short term: while others say they feel less pressure (9% in South Africa − Prioritizing sector-specific reforms in labour-intensive and 6% in Nigeria). However, this pattern may worsen sectors such as agribusiness, construction and micro- across the region in the future. In South Africa alone, 39% enterprises of core skills required across occupations will be wholly − Targeting support for vulnerable regions and/or different by 2020. populations in fragile countries − The instability in skill availability often stems from the fact − Opening trade policies to foster regional economic that many jobs in the region are becoming more intense integration in their use of digital technologies. Average ICT intensity − Developing value-chain links to extractive sectors to of jobs in South Africa increased by 26% over the last encourage diversification in resource-rich countries decade, while 6.7% of all formal-sector employment in − Increasing housing construction through investment, Ghana and 18.4% of all formal-sector employment in better urban planning and less bureaucracy Kenya occurs in occupations with high ICT intensity. − The most common types of higher-skilled employment on Download the full report, highlights, summary, country profiles, the continent include business analysts, school teachers rankings and more at: www.weforum.org/acr and academics, commercial bankers, accountants, human resources, marketing and operations specialists, customer service specialists, advertising professionals, information technology workers and software and app developers, according to LinkedIn’s data. Download the report here: http://www3.weforum.org/docs/ WEF_EGW_FOJ_Africa.pdf 6 World Economic Forum on Africa For session highlights, videos and meeting-related documents, plus Forum insights, visit https://toplink.weforum.org/ Social Entrepreneurs: Scale Your Africa’s Breakthrough Female Concept, Not Your Organization Tech Entrepreneurs The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship and the The Forum’s second annual search for

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