What are the main challenges facing Africa? What role does the international community play in 2024? What changes are occurring?

Challenges for Africa – the most important is poverty, which causes many of the others or limits an African country’s ability to deal with them. And then:

making a living, food insecurity, Africa’s rapid demographic growth, climate change, droughts, famines, floods, the lack of infrastructure, lack of an adequate education system (particularly for girls, health care and disease prevention system, weak governance, corruption, security, civil wars and conflict generated by armed non-state actors, migration, human trafficking, human rights abuses and atrocities, dictatorships and authoritarian regimes, the need for more economic development and foreign investment, more trade and economic diversification in economic activities  e.g. more industry.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/poorest-countries-in-africa

https://www.chathamhouse.org/2024/01/whats-stake-africa-2024

https://www.controlrisks.com/our-thinking/insights/africa-ten-key-issues-to-watch-in-2024?utm_referrer=https://www.google.com

https://www.giga-hamburg.de/en/publications/giga-focus/ten-things-to-watch-in-africa-in-2024

https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/mi/research-analysis/subsaharan-africa-key-themes-in-2024.html

https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/african-union-regional-bodies/b195-eight-priorities-african-union-2024

https://apnews.com/article/africa-un-au-food-hunger-03c66d5afa6b99b2427678faaa87ec56

The EU and Africa: the EU Partnership with Africa

https://international-partnerships.ec.europa.eu/policies/africa-eu-partnership_en#:~:text=The%20Africa%2DEU%20Partnership%20is,actors%2C%20and%20the%20private%20sector.

https://ecdpm.org/work/trouble-paradise-eu-africa-partnership-geopolitical-context

Italy and Africa: the Mattei Plan

https://www.esteri.it/en/sala_stampa/archivionotizie/approfondimenti/2023/05/messaggio-del-ministro-antonio-tajani-per-la-giornata-dellafrica-2023/

https://www.governo.it/it/node/24861

https://www.iai.it/en/pubblicazioni/mattei-plan-africa-turning-point-italys-development-cooperation-policy

https://www.iai.it/it/pubblicazioni/giorgia-melonis-foreign-policy-and-mattei-plan-africa

https://www.eunews.it/2024/01/04/meloni-piano-mattei-ue-africa/

https://www.gisreportsonline.com/r/meloni-mattei-africa-policy-immigration/

The UN

https://www.un.org/en/global-issues/africa#:~:text=The%20United%20Nations%20played%20a,the%20development%20of%20political%20institutions.

Other actors

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/nonstate-armed-actors-in-2024-the-middle-east-and-africa/

https://www.orfonline.org/research/russias-low-risk-high-reward-strategy-for-its-return-to-africa

https://www.bu.edu/gdp/2024/04/01/china-africa-economic-bulletin-2024-edition/

https://eastasiaforum.org/2024/02/07/infrastructure-diplomacy-the-key-to-chinas-influence-in-africa/

https://africacenter.org/spotlight/africa-india-cooperation-benchmark-partnership/

https://www.gisreportsonline.com/r/turkey-influence-africa/

 

In an essay with this title, you might want to make a distinction between North Africa (the Maghreb and Egypt), the Sahel and sub-Saharan Africa, explaining that the challenges are similar interconnected but often on a different scale in different areas. Then you could focus on one of them. Most of the material above is focused on sub-Saharan Africa.

 

North Africa – high levels of youth unemployment and a widespread demand for political and social change (expressed through the events of the Arab Spring) while economic problems, including food prices, are less severe at the moment. However, with the military regime in Egypt, and authoritarian regimes in other North African countries and post-regime faction-fighting in Libya, stability in this region is fragile. The economic situation is expected to return to low growth like that prior to Covid-19 pandemic. Tourism is slowly recovery in Egypt. Oil exports from Libya should gradually grow.

https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/mena-economic-update-april-2024-conflict-and-debt-middle-east-and-north-africa-enar#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20report%2C%20MENA,increase%20from%201.9%25%20in%202023.

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/egypt-sees-tourism-numbers-picking-up-despite-shadow-gaza-war-2024-03-07/

https://www.fitchsolutions.com/bmi/country-risk/libyan-growth-cool-2024-remain-robust-rising-oil-output-05-02-2024

https://en.majalla.com/node/309166/business-economy/north-africa-race-against-time-growth-and-development

The Sahel and the Horn of Africa

Countries in the Sahel (comprising Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger), along with neighboring Central African Republic (CAR) are facing a medley of development challenges. Escalating insecurity, political instability including military takeovers, climate change, and overlapping economic shocks are making it even harder to achieve sustainable and inclusive development in one of the poorest parts of the world. The central Sahel states of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger — all of which are now ruled by military juntas — are engulfed in a decade-long regional jihadist insurgency driven by al-Qaeda’s Sahelian branch Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) and the Islamic State Sahel Province (IS Sahel).

https://acleddata.com/conflict-watchlist-2024/sahel/

https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2023/11/16/cf-the-sahel-car-face-complex-challenges-to-sustainable-development

In the Greater Horn of Africa countries face a convergence of increasingly recurring and intensifying climate crises, mainly drought and flooding, conflicts, human rights abues and atrocities, disease outbreaks, and economic shocks.

https://reliefweb.int/report/ethiopia/greater-horn-africa-humanitarian-key-messages-february-2024

https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/01/11/horn-africa-impunity-fueling-abuses

https://civil-protection-humanitarian-aid.ec.europa.eu/news-stories/news/eu-provides-initial-eu171-million-humanitarian-aid-greater-horn-africa-region-2024-02-27_en

In dealing with sub-Saharan Africa, if you wanted to take one country as an example of the challenges facing other countries in the region, Zambia might be interesting. It is peaceful and should attract investment but remains poor.

https://diggers.news/local/2024/02/28/undp-regional-boss-wonders-why-zambia-is-poor-despite-being-peaceful/

https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/zambia/overview#:~:text=Zambia%20ranks%20among%20the%20countries,creation%20and%20declining%20labor%20earnings.

https://www.afdb.org/en/documents/zambia-study-economic-diversification-and-productivity-improvement

https://cepa.org/article/confronting-the-china-challenge-in-africa-the-lobito-corridor/

https://bti-project.org/en/reports/country-report/ZMB

https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/zambia-infrastructure-development

https://healingwaters.org/zambia-water-crisis/

https://www.fao.org/3/AC428E/AC428E02.htm#:~:text=Zambia%20is%20a%20landlocked%20country,%2C%20Namibia%2C%20Botswana%20and%20Angola.

https://issafrica.org/iss-today/blue-economies-could-take-zambia-from-landlocked-to-land-linked#:~:text=Zambia's%20recent%20validation%20of%20a,of%20these%20vast%20freshwater%20resources.

 

EU missions and operations in Africa are listed with other EU missions on this page. Click on the links.  https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/missions-and-operations_en

 

https://www.eeas.europa.eu/euam-rca_en

https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eubam-libya_en

https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eucap-sahel-mali_en

https://www.eucap-sahel.eu/

https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eucap-som/about-eucap-somalia_en?s=332

https://eunavfor.eu/

https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eu-racc-sahel/about-eu-regional-advisory-and-coordination-cell-sahel-racc_en

https://eutmmali.eu/aboutus/

https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eutm-mozambique/about-european-union-training-mission-mozambique_en?s=4411

https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eutm-rca_en

https://www.eutm-somalia.eu/

https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eu-sdi-gulf-guinea_en

UN Peacekeeping Operations in Africa-

https://www.unmissions.org/

UN aid programs in Africa

https://www.un.org/africarenewal/section/humanitarian-aid

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Africa

https://www.undp.org/africa

Education and gender equality

https://www.unicef.org/media/106691/file/Transforming%20Education

https://www.un.org/africarenewal/topic/education

https://unsdg.un.org/latest/blog/building-forward-better-agenda-africa-cannot-succeed-without-gender-equality#:~:text=Despite%20this%20progress%20and%20constitutional,51%20of%2054%20African%20countries.

https://www.uneca.org/gender-equality-and-empowerment-women

Missioni italiani: https://www.affarinternazionali.it/missioni-internazionali-italiane-non-solo-mediterraneo/

Con le nuove missioni in Niger e Burkina Faso, il contingente italiano supporterà le forze di sicurezza locali nella lotta ai gruppi armati. Con la neo-istituita EU Military Partnership Mission in Niger (EUMPM Niger), Roma contribuirà – tra le altre cose – alla creazione di un Centro per la formazione dei tecnici delle forze armate nigerine. La EUMPM Niger si aggiunge alla Missione Italiana Bilaterale di Supporto nella Repubblica del Niger (MISIN) dove – per usare le parole del Comandante del Comando Operativo Interforze Figliuolo, che da poco ha fatto visita alla base – il i militari italiani sono impegnati a “contrastare la minaccia alla stabilità e alla convivenza civile”.

Anche in Libia, con la nuova missione europea, l’Italia rafforza la propria presenza. La EU Border Assistance Mission in Libya (EUBAM Libya), che mira a facilitare la transizione del Paese verso democrazia e stabilità, si somma infatti alla Missione bilaterale di assistenza e supporto in Libia (MIASIT). Quest’ultima è stata spesso criticata con riferimento ai flussi migratori di persone che cercano di arrivare in Europa e che si trovano costrette in centri di detenzione dove sono sottoposte a pratiche inumane. Il tema è aperto dal 2017, quando l’allora Governo Gentiloni sottoscrisse un Memorandum con Tripoli, recentemente rinnovato dall’attuale esecutivo.