African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET)’s Post

It was a great honour to join Reena Ninan and Gargee Ghosh on the Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women podcast. A few things have been on my mind since we recorded this episode in October, and they tie directly back to the issues we touched on together. I’ve heard a lot of excitement in the past few weeks about nine of the 20 projected fastest-growing economies in 2025 being African. But we must not forget that we have been here before, and without #transformation, that growth will continue to leave many Africans behind. Over the last 20 years, we've actually seen a regression or stagnation on #economic #transformation in most African countries. Growth without DEPTH is not sustainable, it does not help us withstand and recover from shocks, and it does not serve our people – especially the most vulnerable.     As Gargee so rightly said during our conversation, “We know that it's women and children who will give up a meal. We know that kids get pulled out of school and it's often girls first. And so in an incredibly bad macro situation, we are particularly worried about women and children and people on the verge of or who live in poverty because they will be hit the hardest.”   At ACET, 2025 will be our “Year of Gender Equality”. We will focus our discourse on driving equity and inclusion for Africa’s women and girls and insisting on shared power as the basis for Africa’s transformation. To learn more about our work and some of the early findings from our upcoming research, have a listen to this episode of the HERO podcast. Huge thanks to Gargee and to Reena for the excellent coversation and for quoting my favourite person (my son) - who is encouraging us all to stop talking and actually do something to make the changes we want to see!