Making Innovations Count: From Policy to People

Africa’s economic trajectory is encouraging. The African Development Bank projects real GDP growth of 4.3 per cent in 2026, reinforcing the continent’s position as a major global growth frontier. Yet economic growth alone cannot define development. Its real measure is whether people experience better livelihoods, stronger public services and greater economic opportunity.

That challenge was central to the 2026 Gender and Inclusion Summit in Abuja, held under the theme, “From Agenda to Action: Making Innovations Count for the Last Mile.” Leaders and development experts focused on a persistent gap across the continent: the distance between policies announced at the national level and the realities experienced by citizens in their communities.

READ ALSO: One Year, One Community: How the AU-EU Youth Voices Lab App is Bringing Young People Together

Former Ivorian Prime Minister Patrick Achi argued that infrastructure, economic policy and social programmes achieve their purpose only when they translate into tangible opportunities, including jobs, healthcare, education and access to markets. This places the “last mile” at the centre of Africa’s development agenda.

The challenge is particularly urgent in human capital. The World Bank estimates that 89 per cent of children in Sub-Saharan Africa are in learning poverty, meaning they cannot read and understand a simple text by age 10. Meanwhile, UNESCO’s latest data puts the number of researchers in Sub-Saharan Africa at just 88 per million people, compared with 1,486 globally.

These figures are not simply education and research statistics. They represent Africa’s future productivity, innovation capacity and competitiveness.

The same principle applies to women’s economic participation. A Mastercard Foundation-commissioned study by McKinsey estimates that removing systemic barriers facing young African women could add US$287 billion to the continent’s economy by 2030, equivalent to a five per cent increase in GDP. The opportunity demonstrates that inclusion is not merely a social objective; it is an economic strategy.

Côte d’Ivoire offers another important lesson. The IMF reports that electricity access reached 98.6 per cent in 2024, up from 88.4 per cent in 2020, while the country has also expanded its road network and generating capacity. But access figures become meaningful only when electricity reliably powers schools, hospitals, farms, businesses and households.

This is where Africa’s policy conversation must evolve. Governments and development partners need to measure success not only by kilometres of roads built, policies launched or funds disbursed, but by what changes in households and communities.

That requires better local data, stronger accountability and greater participation from the people policies are designed to serve. It also means moving successful innovations beyond isolated pilot projects and into systems that can be financed, implemented and scaled.

For African leaders, the priority should therefore be clear: make every policy measurable at the point where citizens experience it. A school must produce learning. A training programme must lead to employability. A road must connect producers to markets. Electricity must power productive activity. Financial inclusion must enable people to build sustainable businesses.

Africa has no shortage of ideas, policies or innovations. The next stage of its transformation will depend on its ability to deliver them effectively.

The call to action is straightforward: governments, businesses, development institutions and civil society should work together to establish measurable last-mile targets for major development programmes, publish progress against those targets, and give communities a stronger voice in determining whether policies are actually working. Africa’s development story will be strongest when progress is measured not only in national statistics, but in the improved lives of its people.