Pityana to co-chair new World Economic Forum Africa board

Sipho Pityana has been appointed co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s new Africa Regional Stewardship Board.

The board is a multistakeholder group which will provide strategic advice to shape the forum’s regional programme in Africa.

It comprises leaders on the continent, including politicians, business leaders and leaders of regional organisations and civil society organisations.

An immediate task for the board is to deliver on the Africa Growth Platform, which was launched at the WEF on Africa 2019 in Cape Town.

Pityana, who is president of Business Unity SA and chair of AngloGold Ashanti, co-chaired WEFoA 2019 and participated in the conceptualisation of the growth platform.

“I’m honoured and humbled by this opportunity,” he said.

“I look forward to working with like-minded stakeholders to achieve greater African economic integration while addressing environmental sustainability, governance and human capital shortcomings.”

The Africa Growth Platform aims to address Africa’s job crisis by scaling 100 million SMEs and start-ups across the continent by 2025, bringing together governments, investors and entrepreneurs to enhance funding prospects and create better enabling environments for business growth.

It also aims to help Africa’s community of start-up enterprises grow and compete in international markets.

Two thirds of Africa’s 420 million young people are unemployed.

Underpinning this year’s WEF meeting will be the Davos Manifesto 2020, which provides a vision for stakeholder capitalism that touches on a range of important issues of our time, including sustainable and inclusive growth, climate crisis and zero tolerance on graft.

In the spirit of the Davos Manifesto 2020, the forum is launching the Davos Friends of African Growth Platform to mobilise the global community for collective action to meet the goal of 100 million by 2025 for this business-led initiative.