The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) or ‘Industry 4.0’ has become a catch-all term to describe imminent changes to global business, labour and education models. These advancements may appear less immediately relevant to emerging economies on the African continent that are still grappling with the challenges of the second and third industrial revolutions. However, African countries cannot afford to fall further behind the technological frontier, or to exacerbate the existing digital divides within their borders.
SADC Secretariat’s Directorate of Industrial Development and Trade, in partnership with SAIIA will be co-hosting a stakeholder webinar on the 4IR on Wednesday, 31 March 2020. The aim of the event is to engage regional stakeholders on SADC readiness to take advantage of 4IR to map a regional response and programme on 4IR and the Digital Economy.
SAIIA as a knowledge partner and independent public policy institution will contribute to the event in the areas of digital connectivity, skills, governance and roles for SADC policymakers within the 4IR and digital economy, with a particular focus on the value of anticipatory governance and futures thinking.
Our Futures programme builds African foresight and innovation capacity to anticipate and prepare for major political, economic, social, security, technological and environmental disruptors facing the SADC region by discovering new possibilities for systemic innovation and anticipatory governance. SAIIA Futures aims to contribute to an anticipatory approach to regional policymaking in the sectors that will be most affected and to enable pro-active and collaborative public-private action across the region through anticipatory and pro-active policy responses.
Download the programme and concept note.
Related material
Presentations:
- The role of futures literacy and anticipatory governance in proactive policymaking in 4IR
- 4IR and water-smart agriculture in SADC: A watch list of key technological advances
- Resource Governance in the 4IR and Digital Economy
- Digitisation for AfCFTA /Africa Integration
- Digital Governance in Africa with a focus on SADC
- UNESCO World Science Report 2020 – Findings on Gender
- Developments in African Cyberinfrastructure and Open Science Platforms – Supporting RSTI in 4IR
- Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Overview
- Watch the event on Zoom