Big Think

Question: What is the state of Africa today?

Mary Robinson: Working in Africa, I’m very conscious that there are 53 countries, and that they are moving at different speeds; and that you also have important Pan African and regional African institutions. There was a reform of the African union, and it has a commission like the Commission of the European Union. Half the numbers of that commission are women, so there’s a big commitment to gender in a lot of issues. In many of the countries now, there is a real sense that things are moving forward. There was a recent opinion or something taken, and most of the African countries sampled really felt there was a lot of room for improvement, but we’re on the right road – commitment to the millennium goals, better governance, tackling corruption. So I think there’s a tendency sometimes to sort of write off Africa in the sweep as being a basket case or something. Far from it. There are actually very interesting and very progressive things happening in many of the countries in Africa.

Recorded on: 07/25/07