Future Cities Africa podcast

Felix Kariba is an urban and regional development expert with broad experience supporting urban governance and formulation of development policies and strategies, as a practitioner and researcher for international organisations, local and national governments, the private sector, and non-profit organisations.

Listen or watch to explore:

• Intro to his background, past work at the Cities Alliance, and more.
• The biggest challenge facing Africa's youth and how it can be addressed. [60% of Africans today are under 25 and approx 11million young African's are unemployed while the job market can only produce 3.7million jobs annually].
• Ensuring we leave no one behind.
• How African youth should be groomed to enable them to have the right skills set to contribute to the development of the continent.
• His approach to continues learning and how he stays on top of trends and new developments.
• How, as a young Kenyan, he is making sense of what is going on in Kenya and the world.
• His vision for future cities, potential barriers and solutions.
• Advice to young people to remain hopeful of the future.

About the Bright Young Minds Show on Future Cities AfricaAfrica has the youngest population in the world. By 2030, young Africans are expected to make up 42 percent of the world's youth and account for 75 percent of the those under age 35 in Africa.

Young peoples' experiences, ideas, choices and preferences help shape the future of cities.

The 'Bright Young Minds show' gives a voice to some of the brightest young minds to share their thought leadership, how they solve problems, their vision for future cities, how we can achieve this vision, and give hope to a younger generation.

Youth is the future of African cities.

Visit: https://futurecitiesafrica.com/all-future-cities-africa-podcasts.php

Towards sustainable and smart mobility, this episode of the Move Africa show on Future Cities Africa is with Bongani Mthombeni-Möller, Director for Smart Mobility at Royal HaskoningDHV. Listen or watch to explore:

• Her career to date.
• Biggest challenges currently holding back progress in enabling smarter, sustainability mobility.
• How these challenges can and currently are being addressed.
• Why industry collaboration make so much sense, but isn't happening at the rate it should.
• The need for a comprehensive integrated master plan.
• How actual behavioural change can happen.
• Fresh thinking and new approaches currently ''in progress'' to keep cities and ports accessible without compromising residents' quality of life or the environment.
• Emerging technologies like electric vehicles, green hydrogen, and more.
• Her view on the key characteristics of a visionary and responsible leader.
• Her vision for the future of cities and how we can make it happen.

About the Move Africa show on Future Cities AfricaFaced with fast-growing urbanisation and motorisation rates, providing a sustainable response to Africa's growing urban transport and mobility needs will be a struggle for most African cities.

Towards sustainable and smart mobility, the Move Africa show gets into the minds of thought leaders and decision makers to explore challenges, opportunities, key actions, best practice and critical thinking to help Africa move forward.

Visit: www.futurecitiesafrica.com

Leah Moodaley is a Communications Practitioner and Content Developer with nine years' multidisciplinary experience, predominantly within the public sector. She is currently Communications and Stakeholder Relations Officer at Coega Development Corporation. Listen or watch to understand:

• Overview of her role at Coega Development Corporation (CDC) and why it is important.
• Challenges she face in her work as a communicator in the public sector.
• Solutions to these challenges and what is actively being done to solve them.
• Her approach to solving challenges in her professional life.
• How she prioritises what is most important.
• Her approach to continues learning and how she stays on top of trends and new developments.
• How, as a young South African, she is making sense of what is going on in the country and the world.
• Her vision for our future cities, potential barriers and solutions.
• Advice to young people to remain hopeful of the future.

About the Bright Young Minds Show on Future Cities AfricaAfrica has the youngest population in the world. By 2030, young Africans are expected to make up 42 percent of the world's youth and account for 75 percent of the those under age 35 in Africa.

Young peoples' experiences, ideas, choices and preferences help shape the future of cities.

The 'Bright Young Minds show' gives a voice to some of the brightest young minds to share their thought leadership, how they solve problems, their vision for future cities, how we can achieve this vision, and give hope to a younger generation.

Youth is the future of African cities.

Visit: www.futurecitiesafrica.com

Visionary Leader Show on Future Cities Africa Leslie Ndawana is Principal Officer and Chief Executive Officer at the National Fund for Municipal Workers (NFMW). The fund has approx R23billion of assets under management. Listen or watch for insights on:

• Overview of his career and role at NFMW.
• The key characteristics of a visionary leader.
• What our public sector leaders are not getting right when leading their municipalities.
• What needs to change and how change can happen.
• Thinking outside of the box.
• How the role of a leader has changed in recent years, especially since the pandemic.
• The difference between complex and complicated.
• How he manages the complexity of his daily responsibilities and how he prioritises what is done first.
• Having a compelling vision and the ability to take charge.
• How he will define his success at the end of his career at NFMW.
• Responsible leadership.
• His vision for the future of cities.

Visit: www.futurecitiesafrica.com

Young peoples' experiences, ideas, choices and preferences help shape the future of cities.

This episode of the Bright Young Minds Show on Future Cities Africa is with Celiwe Mabaso, a seasoned communications and sustainability professional with a specialisation in community development and impact investment. Currently working as the Senior social performance manager for BTE Renewables.

Listen or watch to understand:

• Overview of her role at BTE Renewables and why her work is important.
• Major challenges she faces in her work and sectors they operate in.
• How she tackles these challenges.
• How she measures the success of the projects she is involved in.
• An approach to measuring improvements in behavioural change.
• The key steps and requirements to creating thriving local economies.
• How, as a young South African, she is making sense of what is going on in the country and the world.
• Her vision for our future cities, potential barriers and solutions.
• Advice to young people to remain hopeful of the future.

Visit: www.futurecitiesafrica.com

Erica Joubert is Head of Export Promotion, Joshua Palm is Assistant Export Manager and Jean Scheltema is Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Wesgro. In episode 5 of the 10 episode Wesgro Series on Future Cities Africa we discuss: Made in the Cape - Innovation in Export Promotion. This episode is brought to you in partnership with Wesgro Listen or watch to understand:

• How Wesgro supports Western Cape exports.
• Why exports are important in general.
• Why it is important for an agency like Wesgro to do what it does.
• How the pandemic and lockdowns effected exporters and Wesgro's ability to facilitate exports from the province.
• How Wesgro's export team responded to the challenges caused by the pandemic.
• The Cape Trade Portal and how it is positioning the Western Cape as a sought after source market.
• The Made in the Cape campaign.
• The future of Made in the Cape and vision for the next 10 years.
• Lessons learned and how the pandemic has changed the way Wesgro operate and offer export facilitation services going forward post pandemic.
• The Western Cape's competitive advantage when it comes to exporting.

Visit www.futurecitiesafrica.com

Sean Bennet is Group Executive for NEXTEC, an entity of the EOH group. We discuss how NEXTEC helps in building smarter African cities. Listen or watch to understand:

• Sean's definition of a Smart City in the African context.
• How cities can better leverage technology to make cities smarter, enable economic transformation and help make cities more inclusive.
• SA's world class connectivity.
• Lack of efficient digital infrastructure in secondary cities/towns and townships, what is currently holding back progress and what success will look like.
• How blockchain could overnight make corruption virtually impossible and give the world renewed confidence in the African continent.
• One thing Sean would change if he had a magic wand
• Progress expected in the Smart City space over the next few years.

Visit www.futurecitiesafrica.com

Kurtis Lockhart is Acting Executive Director and Head of Research at The Charter Cities Institute (CCI). We discuss New Cities With New Rules: The Rise of African Charter Cities. Listen or watch to understand:

• About The Charter Cities Institute (CCI).
• What Charter Cities are and how the idea came about.
• The CCI model for Charter Cities and how if differers from the initial model of economist Paul Romer.
• Reforming institutions in a deep way that is necessary.
• How we know that these cities will actually work.
• How Public Private Partnerships can make it work.
• Examples of Charter Cities. [Dubai, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Singapore]
• How a Charter City is different from a special economic zone, free port or other special jurisdiction.
• How Charter Cities can help solve some major challenges that Africa is facing. [Legal, Financial, Technical Capacity]
• The disciplining affect and advantage of political competition.
• The biggest challenge and risk in creating charter cities in Africa.
• How this risk can be mitigated.
• Africa's Next 50 Cities Coalition (NXT50). A global initiative to support the development of new African cities.
• The possibilities and opportunities presented by the rapid growth of urbanisation in Africa.

Visit www.futurecitiesafrica.com

Sebekedi Motlhabane (Mo) Koloi is Greenfield Investment Portfolio Manager for Technology at Wesgro. In episode 4 of the 10 episode Wesgro Series on Future Cities Africa we discuss: Building a Globally Competitive Tech Hub.

This episode is brought to you in partnership with Wesgro Listen or watch to understand:

• Breakdown of his role at Wesgro.
• Tech ecosystems.
• How the Cape Town / Western Cape tech ecosystem stand up to the rest of the world.
• Competition between different areas (Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Saldanha, etc.) within the Western Cape.
• Why competition between different areas in the Western Cape is good and how it enables them to draw even more robust value propositions for investors.
• What exactly draws Tech investors to the Western Cape.
• The vital ingredients for the development of a competitive tech ecosystem.
• Why it is important, from a government and from an economic growth point of view, to support the development of a competitive tech industry.
• Levers the government have to support the development of a competitive tech industry both at a provincial and national level.
• Companies and Institutions mentioned; Jumu, Yoco, Luno, WhereIsMyTransport, GetSmarter, Amazon Web Services, University of Cape Town, University of the Western Cape, University of Stellenbosch, Cape IT Initiative, Silicon Cape, Stellenbosch Network).

Visit www.futurecitiesafrica.com

Lisa Johansson is Green Economy Investment & Finance Liaison at Wesgro & GreenCape. Jarrod Lyon is Business Development Executive at Atlantis Special Economic Zone for Green Technologies. In episode 3 of the 10 episode Wesgro Series on Future Cities Africa we discuss: Attracting Investment Into the Green Economy and the Atlantis SEZ.

This episode is brought to you in partnership with Wesgro Listen or watch to understand:

• The investment promotion ecosystem supporting the green economy.
• The Green Economy Hub players and why it is so important to have these relationships in place.
• Online resources available to assist investors interested in looking into the green economy in South Africa
• Green Technology and where the world is going with it.
• How Green Technology is relevant to the South African economy.
• The Atlantis Special Economic Zone and how the company is a breakthrough for the Western Cape.
• The relationship and synergies between Wesgro, GreenCape and the Atlantis Special Economic Zone.
• What we are currently not getting right and what more needs to fall into place for green technologies and the green economy to really accelerate exponentially.

Visit www.futurecitiesafrica.com