Patience.
Good governance, rebuilding and amplifying our voices
“…and we have to be patient, and it’s not over until every vote is counted.” — Joseph Robinette Biden (former USA Vice President & President-Elect 2020)
Patience as a child was one of the most difficult values to grasp, and 2020 has reminded us all that it is indeed a virtue. Patience, we must exercise with the medical community in creating a thoroughly tested vaccine for COVID-19 to purge the ongoing global pandemic that has brought the global economy to its knees; patience as we await the final results and the finality in acknowledging the next president of the United States America, the world’s democratic beacon and big-brother-in-chief in observing African elections.
What a year…
With a couple more weeks to go, many on the African continent are thinking past national border lockdowns to rebuilding frail economies, thus putting the relevant spotlight about the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) on the lips and minds of many far and near. My research on liberalizing trade on the continent in line with the vision for a political and economically independent Africa has been ongoing for years now, even more so buoyed by the recent relevant interest.
On a panel organized by the AfriKnowledge Bank, The Agenda 2063 Academy, and panel luminaries representing various African countries, I had the privilege to share my impassioned sentiments on Making the AfCFTA a Reality, especially for young entrepreneurs and innovators.
We must not allow the patience of the continent’s youth to wane in realizing, facilitating and ensuring economic empowerment through opening up markets for entrepreneurial and innovative practice from our Africa to the rest of the world. — E.A. Gamor
In light of this, I am looking forward to cutting through the technical & vocational skills development space and its relevance in Africa’s drive for industrialization. Our “blue-collar” worker base that feeds into manufacturing, maintenance, crafts, and creative arts space (to name a few); how do these high-level policies translate to in-community interventions with welfare benefits that touch everyday workers?
My friends at BluLever shared an African Artisans Report curating insights from stakeholders in the South African workforce sector last year, B.C. (Before-Coronavirus). Next week, as the moderator of a follow-up discussion on their recently published Artisan 4.0 Insight Series: How Can We Best Prepare Young People for Apprenticeships thought-piece, you get to join in on our deep-dive on Digital Learning here.
There is hope (and an assumption) that because of how grim this year has been, next year should be better, in spite of social distancing fatigue with our grandiose new year’s expectations. Hope can only become reality, however, if it is coupled with significant multi-sector, multi-stakeholder continued efforts. Our rebuilding process needs urgency but our expectations need to be tempered with purpose-led patience.
It’s hard, I admit and I struggle with this virtue of patience too.
And yet, we must continue to amplify our collective voices, create space for the contextualized interventions that need to contribute to making a more equitable Africa (and the world by extension) a reality. How? You may be asking… well for one, if you missed the season one finale of the Unpacking Africa podcast on interrogating and rebuilding broken Financial Systems, click here and/or the image below:
If you know of folks wanting to join our Podcasters Unite community where we share resources, do click on this link, and if you have potential guests whose contributions align with unpacking Africa in realizing #TheAfricaWeWant please click here.
We are purposefully building convergent opportunities with the KukuZafest Podcasters Festival in 2021, and aligning with a changing traditional to the digital broadcasting ecosystem. Our expectations are that these efforts empower even more (sometimes marginalized) voices for positive impact.
Be well, be safe, be purposefully patient, be loved.
p.s. If you missed the Facebook Certified Community Manager project update do click here.
p.s.s. If you are curious about ecosystem building and what that means specifically to the work I do with the Vuuqa team, click here.
Originally published to Unpacking Africa newsletter’s 15,000 + subscribers on November 10, 2020.
