Davos 2025: Here’s what was top of the agenda for leaders from Africa

Aside from climate change, Africa has been showing leadership in other areas, too. For example, at a time when some of the most basic democratic norms are being increasingly challenged, countries on the continent have been leading by example, as Duma Gideon Boko, the recently elected President of Botswana told participants.

“When power changes, it occasions a great deal of consternation, a great deal of anxiety. We are never sure whether it will happen at all…and whether those who are in power are fully committed to the fundamental tenets of democracy,” he explained. “In Botswana, a party that had been in power for 58 years faced the unexpected spectacle of a decisive loss at the polls, and many questioned whether the outcome would be accepted, whether power would really change hands. Well, in Botswana it did — it was peaceful; it was seamless.”