While Africa is becoming an increasingly unified voice on the global stage, each of its 54 countries is following a distinct pathway to socioeconomic development
Home to around 1.3 billion people and over three times the geographical size of the US, Africa is a vast and highly diverse continent of 54 countries, all of which are unique in the challenges and opportunities they face, as well as in their visions, priorities and strategies for socioeconomic development.
Economically, for instance, the World Bank classifies 23 African countries as low income, 30 as middle income and the Seychelles archipelago in the Indian Ocean as the continent’s only high-income economy. Countries also differ considerably in their economic resilience to external events, and in terms of the natural resources they can call upon to propel growth: while 20 resource-rich nations derive a substantial proportion of GDP from their natural wealth, many of the remainder are turning to a range of other economic sectors to drive progress.
Distinct histories and cultures have led to huge differences in political structures across Africa as well, with some countries being piloted in a consistent direction by experienced long-term governments and others being overseen by newly elected administrations with mandates for transformation. Although a number of states suffer from fragility or conflict, the Ibrahim Index of African Governance now ranks 28 countries as having governmental systems that are above average in their quality, while 90% of Africans live in a nation whose government has made improvements in fields like health, education, social protection, welfare and sustainability over the last decade.
As a result of these and many other contrasts within Africa, the 54 countries are pursuing very different pathways to shape their own destiny. Having said that, they are also working together as an increasingly powerful and integrated global force to address shared challenges and opportunities. For Senegalese President Macky Sall, chair of the African Union that represents all the nations, the most notable of those challenges are in the areas of “peace and security, the fight against terrorism, environmental protection, health and economic and social development.”
Last February in a speech to the United Nations, he revealed what the continent that is united in diversity offers the world: “We are the Africa of solutions, with governments on the job; vibrant and creative youth who innovate, undertake and succeed; millions of men and women who work hard to feed, educate and care for their families; who invest, create wealth and generate jobs. This Africa of solutions wants to engage with all its partners in a reinvented relationship.”