fbpx

African-Led Development Is Growing, Experts

African-Led Development Is Growing, Experts

From allAfrica

Powered by new tech, Africa is leading its own revival and challenging conventional discourse, says TMS ‘Teddy’ Ruge.

Saran Kaba Jones is passionate about universal access to clean water: she is the Liberian founder of the US-based non-profit organization FACE Africa, which provides access to safe drinking water for rural communities in Liberia and other African countries. Her social media feed is a chronicle of her work.

Jones’s efforts on the continent are not isolated. Take a close peek at Africans’ social media chatter and you quickly realize that she is but one African whose work is now visible thanks to their embrace of emerging communications technologies.

A future of African-led social and economic development is under way – and technology is at its center.

Rising African voices

According to the website Internet World Stats, more than 15 per cent of Africa’s population has access to the Internet. Of those 167 million who are online, more than 50 million are on Facebook.

Add in the millions of already connected and vocal Africans in the diaspora and, suddenly, an Africa flexing its uncensored, collective intelligence emerges.

Africans are leveraging the power of social media technologies to assert their influence by challenging prevailing development discourse.

Read more at allAfrica.