A South African flag-coloured King Protea flower – symbolising hope and regeneration – is the chosen logo for this year’s G20 Leaders’ Summit, taking place on African soil for the first time.
“Now is the time for leadership and vision,” the UN Secretary-General António Guterres told journalists in Johannesburg on Friday, a day ahead of the official opening.
The G20 bloc is made up of the world’s largest economies, although the United States has announced it will not officially participate.
The African Development Bank Group’s Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA), a multi-donor special fund managed by the Bank Group, has secured new investment commitments totalling nearly EUR 50 million, to strengthen the rollout of Mission 300 and accelerate climate action across Africa’s power sector.
The commitments, made by the governments of Germany and Italy, were announced at a COP30 side event held at the Africa Pavilion on 14 November. Germany committed EUR 14 million to support SEFA’s universal energy access goal, and EUR 30 million for the new SEFA green hydrogen programme, reflecting the strategic importance of this emerging sector for Africa’s decarbonisation and industrial development. Italy also announced a new contribution of five million euros to the fund.
World leaders are gathering in Doha this week for the Second World Summit on Social Development (WSSD2), three decades after the first Summit in Copenhagen. For Africa, this gathering is not a commemorative moment, but a pivotal opportunity to rally partners towards social development that can be built to last in a rapidly changing world.
Over the past thirty years, Africa has made progress in reducing extreme poverty, expanding education, and improving health outcomes. Today, 31 African countries are at middle income status (both lower-middle and upper-middle-income countries). Yet, the continent still faces persistent challenges: climate shocks, economic volatility, youth unemployment, and inequality. The question today is no longer only how to lift people out of poverty, but to ensure that people prosper, and that prosperity is sustainable and resistant to shocks. This requires a shift in development approaches.
Speaking during the EU-COMESA Connect Forum at the Kenya International Conference Centre (KICC), the stakeholders argued in order to achieve food security, export competitiveness and sustainable economic transformation across the COMESA region, member states must adopt climate smart agriculture and scale up digital innovation.
Cryptocurrency exchange MEXC has reaffirmed its commitment to Africa’s digital finance revolution with a $30 m investment through the MEXC Foundation, an initiative designed to support blockchain education, youth empowerment, and community development across the continent.
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Many countries are undergoing a powerful digital transformation, and South Africa is one of them. From the bustling tech hubs to new fintech startups, the country is going through a digital economy boom.
The Code for Democracy event, convened by the Nuru Trust Network in support of the Global Democracy Coalition, marked International Democracy Day by placing young innovators at the heart of democratic renewal.
Asia-Pacific is home to more than 1.1 billion young people, yet their political and civic participation remains one of the weakest areas of engagement. While youth have been at the forefront of social movements, they are often excluded from decision-making spaces and face a lack of institutional trust.
In a continuing, community-based effort to leverage technology to improve municipal services, the City of Bellevue will celebrate new partnerships and promote civic innovation across the region at an Innovation Exchange event hosted at Bellevue City Hall in October.
CTIN, in collaboration with HSRC, Tayarisha, and Wits Plus, successfully completed the second iteration of the Civic Tech Innovation Short Course.
The course was held from the 10th to the 14th of February, 2025. The one-week in-person course provided participants from diverse sectors—including government, civic tech, journalism, and software development with skills to enhance citizen-government interactions in service delivery.