21st Century Challenges

Africa in the 21st Century

November 2007

The 21st Century Challenges series was launched in 2007 with Sir Bob Geldof & Kofi Annan discussing the major challenges facing Africa in the 21st century

Watch the talks

Trade vs Aid

a guide to the Trade vs Aid debate

Sir Bob Geldof quotes

A selection of quotes from Sir Bob Geldof's discussion on Africa in the 21st Century

Kofi Annan quotes

A selection of quotes from Kofi Annan's discussion on Africa in the 21st Century

Biggest ever forest protection fund targets Congo basin

The biggest ever fund set up to battle deforestation was launched today, targeting the vast Congo basin rainforest in central Africa. The fund is intended to provide African governments and people living in the rainforest with a viable alternative to logging, mining, and felling trees for firewood and subsistence farming

Nature laid waste: The destruction of Africa

The massive scale of environmental devastation across the continent has been fully revealed for the first time in an atlas compiled by UN geographers

‘Green Nobel’ for forest champion

A campaigner who was jailed during his battle to save the rainforest in Gabon has received a top international award.

Is trade, not aid, the answer for Africa?

Donors are now focusing less on charity and more on the continent's small entrepreneurs

Deforestation ‘faster in Africa’

Africa's forests are disappearing faster than those in other parts of the world because of a lack of land ownership, a report says.

Digital technology in Africa

Lord Paul Boateng Former High Commissioner to South Africa

"Through necessity, Africans are adapting and developing new technology in inventive and intuitive ways"

Panel biographies

Our panel - Nicholas Negroponte, Erik Hersman, Herman Chinery-Hesse and Rory Cellan-Jones

Audience questions 1-5

creative future for Africa, govn. contracts and the Arab Spring

Introduction by Rory Cellan-Jones

Introduction to the issue of digital technology in Africa by our chair

Give Me Tap - Making our world a fountain

Funding water aid in Africa through reusable water bottles in UK.

ForgetMeNot Africa - Jeremy George

Software that allows even the most basic mobile phones to email, message and interact.

SPEAKER: Dr Marie Charles M.D MIA

Founder of Global Medic Force, transferring clinical skills to emerging nations.