In the final episode of our three-part series covering the 80th U.N. General Assembly, host Landry Signé interviews members of the U.N. and its partners on how the organization upholds international peace and security, including through its developmental support to fragile states. Show notes and transcript Foresight Africa podcast is part of the Brookings Podcast Network . Subscribe and listen on Apple , Spotify , Afripods , and wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback email to podcasts@br...
Oct 22, 2025•23 min
In this second episode of our special three-part series on the 2025 U.N. General Assembly, host Landry Signé brings together global leaders from government, business, and international institutions to explore how the United Nations is deepening its partnership with the private sector. As the U.N. marks 80 years, the conversation looks beyond diplomacy, highlighting its evolving role as a rallying force for CEOs, innovators, and policymakers driving global prosperity. Show notes and transcript Fo...
Oct 15, 2025•24 min
Host Landry Signé sits down with some of the world’s top global leaders and stakeholders as they reflect on the United Nations’ work at the heart of global peace, sustainable development, multilateral cooperation and institutional reform during this historic 80th General Assembly. This is the first episode of a three-part series reporting from the sidelines of the General Assembly. Show notes and transcript Foresight Africa podcast is part of the Brookings Podcast Network . Subscribe and listen ...
Oct 08, 2025•28 min
Following the launch of a new report by Brookings’ Africa Growth Initiative, host Landry Signé sits down with AGI scholars Ede Ijjasz-Vásquez and Vera Songwe to discuss how U.S. investments in mining can transform African economies while diversifying American access to much needed critical minerals. Show notes and transcript Foresight Africa podcast is part of the Brookings Podcast Network . Subscribe and listen on Apple , Spotify , Afripods , and wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback e...
Oct 01, 2025•37 min
Host Landry Signé and George Ofosu, assistant professor in comparative politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science, discuss Ghana’s democratic trajectory, highlighting factors that have enabled it to become a regional bastion of democracy, while also exploring what more could be done to safeguard and deepen the quality of the country’s democracy. Show notes and transcript Foresight Africa podcast is part of the Brookings Podcast Network . Subscribe and listen on Apple , Spot...
Sep 17, 2025•32 min
As the United Nations General Assembly begins its 80th session this month, host Landry Signé meets with Cristina Duarte, U.N. Undersecretary-General and Special Adviser on Africa, to discuss how her office is supporting African development and what the shifting international order means for Africa and global multilateralism. Show notes and transcript Foresight Africa podcast is part of the Brookings Podcast Network . Subscribe and listen on Apple , Spotify , Afripods , and wherever you listen to...
Sep 03, 2025•38 min
Host Landry Signé speaks with Ibrahima Guimba-Saidou, CEO of the Partnership for Digital Access in Africa, and former minister special advisor to the president of Niger, on the importance of expanding internet access in Africa and the potential of public-private partnerships to provide needed investments. Show notes and transcript Foresight Africa podcast is part of the Brookings Podcast Network . Subscribe and listen on Apple , Spotify , Afripods , and wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feed...
Aug 20, 2025•27 min
Host Landry Signé and fellow futurist Jakkie Cilliers, founder of the Institute for Security Studies and head of its African Futures Innovation Programme, discuss the importance of evidence-based forecasting for preparing for shaping a brighter future in and for Africa and how youth are key to achieving the best-case scenarios for African economies. Show notes and transcript Foresight Africa podcast is part of the Brookings Podcast Network . Subscribe and listen on Apple , Spotify , Afripods , a...
Aug 06, 2025•21 min
Host Landry Signé speaks with Hon. Selma Ashipala-Musavyi, Namibia’s minister for international relations and trade, and seasoned career diplomat, on the need for African countries to think locally while acting continentally, and how agreements like the AfCFTA and a spirit of solidarity among African countries create opportunities for Africans and international partners alike. Show notes and transcript Foresight Africa podcast is part of the Brookings Podcast Network . Subscribe and listen on Ap...
Jul 23, 2025•23 min
Host Landry Signé speaks with Acha Leke, chairman of McKinsey & Company’s Africa Region and senior partner in their Johannesburg office, about Africa’s many advantages in human and natural resources. Leke explains how different actors, from family-owned businesses to national governments and international investors, can align themselves to benefit from the continent’s strengths. Show notes and transcript Foresight Africa podcast is part of the Brookings Podcast Network . Subscribe and listen...
Jul 09, 2025•28 min
Foresight Africa host Landry Signé and Drs. Oscar Otele and Danielle Resnick examine the nuances of the state of democracy across Africa, providing insights into strategies for democratic resiliency moving forward. Show notes and transcript Foresight Africa podcast is part of the Brookings Podcast Network . Subscribe and listen on Apple , Spotify , Afripods , and wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback email to podcasts@brookings.edu....
Jun 25, 2025•28 min
On this episode of Foresight Africa, hosted by Landry Signé, Gargee Ghosh, president of Global Policy and Advocacy at the Gates Foundation, explains why collaborative, context-specific, and innovative solutions elevate development success across Africa. Show notes and transcript Foresight Africa podcast is part of the Brookings Podcast Network . Subscribe and listen on Apple , Spotify , Afripods , and wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback email to podcasts@brookings.edu....
Jun 11, 2025•31 min
Adefunke Ekine and Mary Otieno, university educators from Nigeria and Kenya respectively, and alumnae of the Echidna Scholars Program at Brookings, talk with Foresight Africa host Landry Signé on why innovation and listening to girls’ stories are crucial to advancing girls’ education across Africa. Show notes and transcript Foresight Africa podcast is part of the Brookings Podcast Network . Subscribe and listen on Apple , Spotify , Afripods , and wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback em...
May 28, 2025•36 min
During the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings in Washington, D.C., Foresight Africa host Landry Signé caught up with Axel van Trotsenburg, senior managing director of the World Bank, who spoke about how to mobilize the private sector to help create more jobs for African youth in the coming years, while also addressing the debt distress crisis many African governments face. Show notes and transcript Foresight Africa podcast is part of the Brookings Podcast Network . Subscribe and listen on Apple , Sp...
May 14, 2025•27 min
During the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings in April 2025, Foresight Africa podcast host Landry Signé interviewed leaders in the global finance and development space to glean their key takeaways from the meetings and how they might shape policy decisions and deliver tangible results across Africa. In this special episode, you will hear highlights from each of the conversations, and you can find full interviews at brookings.edu/ForesightSpringMeetings . Show notes and transcript Foresight Africa po...
May 07, 2025•35 min
Host Landry Signé and Belinda Archibong, a fellow with the Africa Growth Initiative at Brookings, discuss inequalities that hinder development across Africa and policy choices that can overcome them. These include increasing job opportunities for women and youth, passing laws against gender and youth discrimination, and providing access to financial resources to both demographics. Archibong uses Nigeria as a case study to show how these inequalities hinder economic development. Show notes and tr...
Apr 30, 2025•29 min
Host Landry Signé and Dr. Karim El Aynaoui, executive president of the Policy Center for the New South, discuss the rapid shift toward transactional relationships between countries in the South and North that may prove difficult for less stable countries in the New South to navigate. Macroeconomic stability and independent monetary policy are fundamental, he says, and countries must create their own specialized strategies for economic growth. Show notes and transcript Foresight Africa podcast is...
Apr 16, 2025•31 min
Foresight Africa host Landry Signé discusses the findings of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation’s newest governance index with Nathalie Delapalme, the Foundation’s CEO. Countries that have continued to make progress, she says, have done so by putting equal emphasis on all four dimensions of governance: human development, sustainable economic opportunity, security and rule of law, and participation and rights. Show notes and transcript Foresight Africa podcast is part of the Brookings Podcast Network . Su...
Apr 02, 2025•27 min
The African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) provides a blueprint for the continent to overcome development challenges through intra-African trade that is economically and environmentally sustainable. On this episode of Foresight Africa , host Landry Signé talks with AfCFTA Secretary-General Wamkele Mene, who shares his vision of how the world’s largest free trade area can address Africa’s development needs with African solutions. Show notes and transcript Foresight Africa podcast is pa...
Mar 19, 2025•23 min
Foresight Africa podcast host Landry Signé speaks with James Robinson, 2024 Nobel Laureate in economics and University Professor at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy, about the critical importance of societal institutions in driving economic prosperity in Africa and the imperative of homegrown solutions in unlocking the continent’s potential. Show notes and transcript Foresight Africa podcast is part of the Brookings Podcast Network . Subscribe and listen on Apple , Spot...
Mar 05, 2025•23 min
Landry Signé speaks with National Geographic Explorers Noel Kok and Pragna Parsotam-Kok about their work to create a network of African conservation filmmakers to highlight African voices and engage African audiences. Kok and Parsotam-Kok are co-founders and executive directors of Nature, Environment & Wildlife Filmmakers (NEWF). Show notes and transcript Foresight Africa podcast is part of the Brookings Podcast Network . Subscribe and listen on Apple , Spotify , Afripods , and wherever you ...
Feb 19, 2025•46 min
In episode one of the fourth season of Foresight Africa podcast, host Landry Signe talks with the new director of the Africa Growth Initiative, Pierre Nguimkeu, who talks about his research priorities for AGI in the coming year. Show notes and transcript Foresight Africa podcast is part of the Brookings Podcast Network . Subscribe and listen on Apple , Spotify , Afripods , and wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback email to podcasts@brookings.edu....
Feb 05, 2025•18 min
With 2030 on the horizon—the looming deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals, now is a critical time to assess the progress, gaps, and road ahead for the top policy and development priorities for Africa, U.S.-Africa relations, and the continent’s broader global partnerships. In season four of Foresight Africa podcast, host Landry Signé, senior fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program and the Africa Growth Initiative at Brookings, and guests share their unique insights and inno...
Jan 22, 2025•4 min
Rwanda has made impressive progress in driving inclusive digitalization across its economy. By harnessing data-driven insights, the country has empowered evidence-based policymaking, fostered innovation, and catalyzed digital transformation of Rwandan society. In this episode, host Landry Signé speaks with Crystal Rugege, managing director of Rwanda’s Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR), about her journey from Silicon Valley to driving impactful technology initiatives in Rwanda an...
Oct 16, 2024•29 min
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) aims to create one market across the 55 countries of the African Union, promising free movement of goods, services, investment, people, and cooperation. In this episode, host Landry Signé speaks with Francis Mangeni and Andrew Mold, both experts on African trade and regional integration, about the status of African integration under AfCFTA and how to catalyze its continued implementation. Show notes and transcript Foresight Africa podcast is part ...
Oct 02, 2024•41 min
Climate change is one of the biggest challenges the continent of Africa faces, but with severe challenges come generational opportunities. In this episode, host Landry Signé interviews Vera Songwe, chair of the board of the Liquidity and Sustainability Facility and a Brookings Africa Growth Initiative nonresident senior fellow, about those opportunities including, as she argues, converting Africa’s assets like the largest carbon sink in the world into financial resources that African countries c...
Sep 18, 2024•31 min
Angola has faced waves of economic uncertainty over the last decade—from oil price shocks in 2014 and 2023 to the spillover effects’ of COVID-19. Despite these challenges, Angola is determined to manage the ramifications to its economy. Host Landry Signé is joined by Angola's minister of finance, Vera Esperança dos Santos Daves de Sousa, to discuss the country’s tools for addressing both debt distress and preempting future economic shocks. Show notes and transcript Foresight Africa podcast is pa...
Sep 04, 2024•31 min
The African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the African Free Continental Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) are two examples of landmark efforts to positively transform the continent. Host Landry Signé is joined by Chido Munyati, the head of Africa at the World Economic Forum, to discuss how the program is supporting these unprecedented initiatives. Munyati shares the current regional integration efforts, private sector partnerships, and how policymakers can leverage the demographic dividend to strengthen the con...
Aug 21, 2024•21 min
Public procurement is the system of laws and operational arrangements that allows the public sector, including the government, to purchase goods and services, with the aim to maximize social welfare and do public good. However, many African countries fail to address legal and social impediments women-owned businesses face when trying to participate in procurement activities. Host Landry Signé is joined by Professor Sope Williams to describe these barriers a Show notes and transcript Foresight Af...
Aug 07, 2024•27 min
Artificial intelligence’s acceleration has increased the need for data regulation and privacy protections globally. Chinasa Okolo joins host Landry Signé to discuss AI’s impact on the African continent and the continent’s current policy landscape. Okolo explains why a lack of policy and privacy protection is harmful, and how to design an inclusive AI regulation framework beneficial to all. Show notes and transcript Foresight Africa podcast is part of the Brookings Podcast Network . Subscribe and...
Jul 24, 2024•25 min
