1. Is there anyone who has worked in climate change related areas or has done/is doing climate change related research? Would be great to leverage on each others experience!

2. On another note, what are the sentiments of the governments (in your countries)when it comes to investing in climate change adaptation strategies - given the share of Africa's contribution to climate change?

I agree with SYAHUKA Hilda, Uganda, DOA on the recruitment. When AI is involved, it becomes an issue of recruiting who has more information about the recruitment process than who actually has the skills. This has dire consequences on inequality - because information access is correlated with poverty levels for sure.

As Malawi votes AGAIN tomorrow since multi-democracy in 1994 - it still remains one of the poorest countries in Africa. This is albeit absence of any conflict. The common trend always appears for electives to focus on being re-elected in the next elections, whose motive could bring short term gains that often trade-off with longer term sustainable benefits. One could argue that, uncertainty of re-election of elected presidents is what causes mis-prioritization of development efforts, poor governance, and corruption.

Indeed democracy has its benefits, but does it outweigh its costs for African countries? - specifically asking..."what could have happened if there was no democracy, and presidents were secure about their presidency"?

If yes, then how do we mitigate poor governance that comes from insecurity of re-election?

There is a lot of talk on how (possibly) Africa could benefit from the reduced (or eliminated) tariffs on African Imports.

However, do you think Africa is ready to benefit from this? and to what extent? Considering quality requirements conditions.

Is this another missed opportunity or an information shock that could induce structural transformation( labour shifting from low value-added to higher value added sectors)?

Interesting ideas

BANENGAI KOYAMA Torcia Chanelle,Central African Republic,MFGD Would you clarify on the taxes that these governments are imposing on diaspora contributions? I see it difficult given the capacity of tax administration systems in African countries. See my thinking below:

I agree with you on the significant roles of remittances - but due to the informality of the channels that the diaspora use in remitting funds to left-behind households, i believe it would be difficult for governments to succeed at this. In addition, i believe the more they attempt to tax these formal channels, the more the informal channels will present themselves - which would lead to reduced formal tracking of remittances by government albeit people still increasing the volumes. At the macro-level, this problem in the external sector will present spill-over problems to the real, financial, and public sectors. In Malawi for example, this presents data accuracy issues by central banks (research loses validation), presents an informal black market for forex (people create forex markets on social media), and limits forex availability (forex does not go through banks) (this ofcourse will have many other consequences for import dependent countries).

This indeed timely - while it will improve resilience, integrating with ICT also provides some economic multiplier effects towards SDG overall. Congrats!

Similarly, without focusing directly on SDG 6, it is evidenced that increased resource mobilization, through improved governance, contributes to SDG 6. Government can therefore still achieve this while also leveraging on already existing tools

Very insightful LIPEDE Omolola Mary,Nigeria,GPSPD . My question would be analogous to the chicken and egg dilemma, in relation to the mindset and development phenomena - would you not argue that development comes first and then mindset follows?

I would suggest that digitization and automation would play a vital role in this - this would surely enhance efficiency. Of-course while that is so, it would also derail on harnessing the demographic dividend due to jobs that would be deemed redundant (laid off) due to automation. At the end of the day, it is an issue of cost-benefit assessments, on what we are willing to let go to achieve the set goals.