Africa: At Age 100, Rockefeller Targets Africa's Young, Growing Cities
October 13, 2014
Mamadou Biteye[/caption]
An agriculture economist by training, Mamadou Biteye has worked in many parts of Africa for organizations as diverse as the African Development Foundation, Oxfam and the World Conservation Union. He holds two Masters degrees and a Bachelor of Science and speaks five languages. As managing director for Africa at the Rockefeller Foundation, he oversees Africa-wide initiatives from the foundation’s regional office in Nairobi, Kenya. He spoke to AllAfrica about the foundation at 100.
The Rockefeller Foundation has been observing its centennial year. Would you talk a bit about what the aim of ‘promoting the well being of humanity’ means for a century-old institution?
In 1913 John D. Rockefeller defined the mission for what would become the Rockefeller Foundation. That mission, which really is a timeless mission, is something the foundation has been working hard to implement but also has been revisiting occasionally – because the world we live in is a dynamic world. What ‘promoting the well being of humanity’ meant 100 years ago is different from what it means today.
In the run up to the centennial year, the foundation revisited or reinterpreted that mission to understand what it means in the world of the 21st century. Among the many global trends that we’ve looked at we’ve found that two were really overarching.
One was growing inequality – inequality between individuals, between communities, between countries, which leaves part of the world community vulnerable to being excluded from the global economy. That led the foundation to decide to elevate two goals.
One of them is building inclusive economies – looking at how we can make sure the benefits of globalization are shared. How can we multiply economic opportunities that would allow poorer and vulnerable people to access the resources, information, skills and partnerships they need to better realize their potential?
The second overarching change we have seen is the increasing vulnerability of people to shocks and stresses. If there is something that has been really constant during the past years, it’s the multiplicity of shocks and stresses. Preparedness to these shocks is really important to increase people’s well being.
A second goal – derived from the analysis of that second overarching theme – is building resilience. We define that as building the capacity of people, of communities and systems to anticipate and withstand shocks, but also to be able to emerge from those shocks even stronger.
Those are two goals the foundation is pursuing through its four areas of focus: advancing health, revaluing ecosystems, securing livelihoods, and transforming cities. These come from reevaluating our mission in the face of the changes and the dynamism of the 21st century.
Are there major challenges specific to Africa in pursuing the Rockefeller Foundation’s goals of promoting economic inclusiveness and resilience – or is every country around the world different? In other words, are there particular regional challenges to advancing those goals in Africa?
I think Africa is in a unique position, although the issue of building inclusive economies is really a global challenge. Almost everywhere in the world, a small portion of the population owns a lion’s share the resources.
Around the world, countries have been challenged to recover from the 2007- 2008 global economic and financial crisis. Africa is no exception to that.
The particular challenge for Africa is that by and large it is still registering high growth rates. The story of Africa’s growth is everywhere. Yet much of the African population is not experiencing the benefits of that growth. It is not translating directly to their pockets or to their table. It is really important to address that in Africa.
If you also look at the issue of stresses and shocks, we can see that most African countries are ill prepared to face those stresses because of lack of comprehensive planning – and with a resilience lens.
The 100 Resilient Cities challenge, whose 2014 round of winners will be announced 3 December – how does that fit with the priorities and concerns of the Foundation?
Africa has seen the fastest urbanization, with challenges of congestion, infrastructure, service delivery, security, vulnerability and growth of slums. 100 Resilient Cities is an opportunity for Africans to rethink cities, not just in terms of urban development, but with the goal of developing cities with the ability to be resilient. When we talk about resilience, it’s not just in the face of natural disasters. It is important that African look at different dimensions, whether it is social resilience, economic resilience, or infrastructure to manage natural disasters.
Only two of the 33 cities selected in the first round were African.
During the first year of the challenge in 2013, we received a respectable number of applications from African cities. These applications were different from cities from around the world, because in Africa we still think of cities in terms of urban planning and development rather than really bringing the lens of ‘resilience to shocks’.
However I have to say that there were a couple of very good, very thoughtful applications. In the first batch of 33 cities, two African cities submitted extremely high-quality applications and were selected. These cities are Durban in South Africa, and Dakkar in Senegal.
Nkemnji Global Tech
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