There is no denying that Africa's challenges are mounting. These challenges are driven by and interweaved with factors and actors located at the local, national, regional, and global levels. The social, economic and livelihood costs generated by climate change and Africa's mounting debt are just two issues that indicate the working of these inter-scalar factors and actors.

However, the question is also whether Africa's challenges are insurmountable; whether and how Africans (Africanists) can develop the institutions to address these challenges and manage their negative socio-economic effects. This year's ALC Africa week debate on these challenges and institutional solutions will offer refreshing insights.

The debate focuses on the following agendas:

Who is responsible for Africa's mounting debt and what should be done about it?

Taking Ghana's debt problem as a specific instance of wider African or, indeed, global problem, this simulation debate poses the question: who is responsible for Ghana's mounting and unsustainable debt? What is the role of creditors and global financial and economic institutions in easing/aggravating Ghana's debt issue and the social cost it generates? Who is prioritising what and why in the quest to address Ghana's debt problem?

Are elections having a positive impact on the lives of Africans?

While elections are increasingly becoming a key vehicle for legitimising governments and making them welfare enhancing, a growing list of anecdotes from Africa defy such expectations. This simulation debate will discuss elections and their functions in situations of pervasive insecurity and violence, taking the upcoming election of in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as an example. The debate will ask if elections in the DRC are positively impacting the lives of citizens, and will question the role of local and regional actors in the electoral politics of the DRC.

Note: This seminar is a core part of the ALC Fellowship programme. Fellows participate in high-level role-play sessions where they debate and act as key personalities involved in managing significant socio-economic and security situations in Africa and its interactions with the world. The sessions provide an opportunity for the Fellows to display their analysis of current affairs from diverse perspectives as well as their capacity to critically engage with the public on the most pertinent issues affecting Africa today.

The event will also give a glimpse of the wonderful work being done by the African Leadership Centre, King’s College London, and the University of Nairobi to prepare young Africans for their leadership roles.