An African woman has been married for 13 years and for every day of those 13 years she worked hard with her husband to cultivate a small piece of land he owned growing vegetables which she then sold in the market. Tragedy struck when her husband died leaving her to fend for their two young daughters. Four days after burying her husband the latter's family evicted her, taking possession of the land and house and leaving her destitute.
While the last 15 years have seen relatively high levels of growth driven by a commodity super-cycle and strong internal demand from a growing middleclass, Africa is still dependent on commodities for most of its export earnings. There is now broad consensus that, without diversified economies, Africa will remain prone to exogenous shocks and trapped in the paradox of high growth rates, coexisting with high levels of unemployment and extreme poverty.
Over the past two decades, the international order has undergone a qualitative change. As a matter of fact, a new discourse has gained prominence in the international relations theory that emphasizes a rapidly changing global environment characterized by an ever-growing confluence of world- scale challenges.
The new Africa story with growth, investment and expanding opportunities was seriously shaken by recent developments. After successful demonstrations of the new narrative were reaffirmed in many forums, including the EU-Africa Summit and President Obama Africa Leaders Summit, alarming predictions around Ebola economic impact in the continent’s performance started a negative news cycle that spread fast.
Rwanda’s National Dialogue is a unique form of participatory democracy that keeps the momentum on the country fascinating two decades of development. Inclusiveness, togetherness, and unity, the topic of December 2014's Umushyikirano resonated well with transformation