AFRICA: Democracy in Africa is threatened by the rise of constitutional coup, resulting from Africa’s inadequacy to deal with abuses of power and human rights. Constitutional coup is a term used when leaders subvert their constitutions to remain in power for an extended period. Subservient legislators loyal to African dictators have been crucial to the annulment of the “two-term limit” accorded to politicians. Many of these dictators have capitalized on this annulment to stay in power indefinitely becoming tyrants in the process. Such presidents that have changed their constitution to extend their rule include but not limited to Presidents; Gnassingbe (Togo), Museveni (Uganda), Kagame (Rwanda) and the late Nkurunziza (Burundi).

CLIMATE CHANGE: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on climate discussions has led to the postponement of the meeting of Conference of the Parties (COP) to November 2021. For the first time ever, the world will go without climate talks since the formation of COP. However, the successes of these meetings held by COP are difficult to measure or hidden in national climate policies. An example of this hidden success is found in Chile’s ambitious plan to phase out coal-generated electricity. In trying to sign the Powering Past Coal Alliance (PPCA) agreement, the Chilean minister of environment, Marcelo Mena was opposed by Chile’s electricity generation companies. Their argument was that “Chile was not ready to take on such a bold commitment without further analysis”, and provided an alternative where Chile would phase out coal on its own terms. Moving forward, what does the future hold for climate discussions?

SDGs: Standard Chartered research has uncovered an investment shortfall in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. According to a survey conducted between July and August 2020 amongst 300 of the world’s top investment firms, 20 percent are unaware of the UN’s SDGs. These firms are reported to have in their possession assets under management (AUM) of over USD 50 trillion, of which only 13 percent are attributed to the SDGs. Some 55 percent claim that the SDGs are not important to mainstream investment while 47 percent claim that the SDGs are too hard to measure. Finally, the report showed that two-thirds (64 percent) of investments are channeled into developed markets seeing a massive shortfall in emerging markets (10 percent) of Africa, Middle East and South America.

UNITED STATES: The current system of education in America has been referred to as the “horse and buggy” model of education dating back to the industrial revolution. Analysts argue that this system does not prepare children to thrive in the 21st century. According to their reports, the highest quality of education is reserved for the most affluent students, while their peers are considered “products” to a “factory model” of education that emerged in the early 20th century. However, various educational reforms such as the development of the Common Core State Standards (2009) which were adopted have proven insufficient.