Geographies in Depth

Whirlwinds of change

Kristine Pearson
Founder and CEO, Lifeline Energy
Share:
Our Impact
What's the World Economic Forum doing to accelerate action on Geographies in Depth?
The Big Picture
Explore and monitor how Africa is affecting economies, industries and global issues
A hand holding a looking glass by a lake
Crowdsource Innovation
Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale
Stay up to date:

Africa

When the London cabbie driving me to Paddington on Sunday asked where I was going and I replied that I was headed to Ethiopia, he said ‘What’s it like there now, is everyone still starving?’ Perceptions, it seems, aren’t easy to erase.

It’s my third visit to Ethiopia. I flew on British Airways from London to Nairobi and on to Addis on Ethiopian Airways – voted Africa’s top airline in 2011. My work takes me across Africa and I would agree. This was a far easier than my previous trip here in late 2002, an exhausting 48 hours to reach Addis from West Africa with stops in Paris, Frankfurt and Cairo. That journey today would be a direct five-hour flight.

As a social entrepreneur and a fellow of the Schwab Foundation of the World Economic Forum, I’m here to attend the first Africa Regional Forum to be held in Ethiopia. This year’s theme is suitably Shaping Africa’s Transformation. And transforming it is. Whirlwinds of change are gusting across the continent and will be reflected in our conversations – trade, growth, political stability, economic policies, the green revolution, business models, and investment, amongst others. Africa continues to face seemingly insurmountable challenges, yet words like optimism, opportunity and innovation are more likely to be heard than poverty, famine and aid. Africans are discovering African solutions.

A decade ago I couldn’t buy a local sim card and had to use my South African GSM cellphone to make a call. There were only 17,000 mobile phone owners; now there are an estimated 6.5 million subscribers. Today, instead of paying roaming charges, I bought a sim card from MTN Ethiopia. In 2002 I paid $1 per minute for a dial-up Internet connection. In my hotel now, it’s free and fast. Although still less than 6% of Ethiopians have Internet access, an hour online averages 18-30 birr (the local currency), or roughly between $1-2 at an Addis cyber cafe.

I’m excited to be here not only to see the immense changes that have taken place, but also to catch up with my Schwab Foundation network. There are 19 social entrepreneurs attending the Forum. What they achieve is always a source of inspiration. It’s my ninth Africa World Economic Forum and I’m eager to see how this one compares to the others I’ve attended in Maputo, Dar es Salaam and Cape Town.

With any luck, events like this and new images from Ethiopia will help to reshape my taxi driver’s perception of this complex, historic, diverse and culturally rich nation.

 

 

Author: Kristine Pearson, Chief Executive, Lifeline Energy, United Kingdom; social entrepreneur, Schwab Fellow of the World Economic Forum

Lifeline Energy addresses energy poverty for poor and vulnerable women and children through the distribution of solar and wind-up prime radios, MP3-enabled lifeplayers, lights and energy sources. Since its inception in 1999, the organization distributed over 450,000 self-powered products, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, providing continuous access to information, education and light to more than 10 million people. Lifeline Energy owns Lifeline Technologies Trading Ltd, a new product development and trading company which designs, manufactures and sells clean energy products to the humanitarian sector. Read More

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

Sign up for free

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Share:
World Economic Forum logo
Global Agenda

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

What is desertification and why is it important to understand?

Andrea Willige

September 26, 2024

About us

Engage with us

  • Sign in
  • Partner with us
  • Become a member
  • Sign up for our press releases
  • Subscribe to our newsletters
  • Contact us

Quick links

Language editions

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Sitemap

© 2024 World Economic Forum