The world is entering a multipolar era, defined not by certainty but by choice, writes Lennox Yieke.
By Lennox Yieke, New African Magazine
Countries, corporations, and societies now have increased agency to pursue multiple global partnerships to advance their strategic interests in trade, technology, climate, security and other fields. Power is dispersing, supply chains are shifting, and the assumptions that shaped global trade for decades are being challenged and rewritten. In this new geopolitical environment, wisdom – and not necessarily speed or scale – has become the defining attribute of strong leadership.
Africa has historically been treated as a peripheral actor rather than an active shaper of global geopolitical dynamics. From colonial resource extraction to being a battleground for Cold War proxy wars, through decades as a major aid recipient, the continent has rarely occupied the driver’s seat of the global economy. However, in an increasingly multipolar world, Africa has a chance to flip the script and become one of the central architects of a new world order.
Africa House at Davos exists because this brave new world will not be shaped by those who merely react to change, but by those who anticipate it, design the systems through which value flows, and claim their rightful place in the architecture of the global economy. In 2026 the African imperative is clear: the continent must move from extractive models to fairer models built on shared prosperity and mutual respect between partners.
A permanent address for African‑led strategy
Africa House was created to provide a credible, continuous address for African‑led thinking at the world’s most influential convenings. It is not a symbolic presence. It is an action platform that connects policymakers, investors, and innovators to unlock Africa’s transformative potential through collaborative solutions grounded in execution and long‑term alignment.
For far too long, Africa’s engagement in global forums has been episodic – triggered by crises, aid narratives, or extractive opportunity. Africa House was founded to change that. It convenes leaders who see Africa not as a problem to solve, but as a necessary partner shaping the next phase of global growth.
Africa’s success is no longer optional to global stability – it is indispensable to it. By 2050 one in four people on earth will be African. The continent will host the world’s largest workforce, its youngest population and some of its most strategically significant assets – from critical minerals and clean energy to data, creativity, and opportunities for market growth.
The world is entering a multipolar era, defined not by certainty but by choice.
Even the African diaspora, contributing between $95bn and $100bn annually in remittances, represents an under-designed trade channel. With the right architecture, these flows can evolve from consumption support into engines of investment, innovation, and skills transfer.
Why Davos still matters for Africa
Davos is one of the few spaces where trade norms, capital flows, and institutional priorities are shaped – informally but decisively – where alliances form, trust is built and tested and future pathways are quietly agreed. Africa House operates within this ecosystem to ensure Africa’s presence is coherent, continuous, and African‑led – not fragmented across side rooms or filtered through intermediaries.
Shanthi Annan, co‑founder and CEO of Africa House, puts it simply: “Africa House exists to position the continent as a co‑designer of the global economic order.”
Africa’s experience with leapfrogging – from mobile finance to distributed energy – offers lessons for economies constrained by legacy systems. Its demographic profile provides a counterweight to ageing societies. Its cultural industries are reshaping global aesthetics. Its technology ecosystems are increasingly global in ambition. The continent is emerging as a leader and pace setter.
Too many still frame Africa as a passive recipient of external help. Africa House advances Africa’s geostrategic and economic realities as propositions for partnership, grounded in African expertise, ambition, and design.
The African imperative is not about inclusion. It is about agency. Africa is not seeking a seat at someone else’s table; it is building its own and inviting global partners to engage on equal terms. This means co‑designing systems, co‑curating value chains, and co‑authoring the rules of engagement in a multipolar world.
A call to action for 2026
As the architecture of the new global economy takes shape, the window for influence is narrowing. Decisions on clean‑energy supply chains, AI governance, workforce standards, and trade logistics are being made now. By 2030, many of these systems will be locked in.
Africa House issues a clear three-point call to action for 2026: design with Africa, not for Africa; align capital with African priorities, not imported templates; and move from presence to partnership.
Africa House was founded on the simple conviction that the future is not given; it is built. And in a multipolar world, it must be built together; it must be co-curated. At Davos 2026, Africa House offers a place where Africa’s assets are matched with strategy, its partnerships with purpose, and its future with agency.
The transition from extraction to exchange is no longer optional. It is the defining work of this decade and the future that we must strive to build for future generations.
Wise leadership in a multipolar world
In a multipolar world, wise leadership lies in sequencing: knowing what to build first, what to govern collectively, and where cooperation creates more value than competition. This is the lens guiding Africa House at Davos 2026.
Africa House views the next decade as Africa’s foundational decade of transformation. Seizing the opportunity before us demands a new operating system for trade.
The stars are aligned. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) provides scale. Africa’s minerals and data provide leverage. Clean energy and artificial intelligence provide timing. But without deliberate trade architecture – rules, finance, infrastructure and talent mobility – these advantages will remain underutilised, leaving Africa at the least profitable end of global value chains.
To build value chains that capture and retain wealth on the continent requires not incremental adjustments but bold redesign. Wise leadership in this context is not cautious prudence – which can be a clever excuse to avoid ruffling feathers – but the courage to redesign systems, to build institutions that reflect Africa’s ambition.
From extraction to exchange
For centuries, Africa’s position in the global economy has been shaped by extraction: of resources, labour, land and value. As the green and digital transitions accelerate, this pattern risks repeating itself under new names if we do not stand firm against exploitative economic models.
Critical minerals such as cobalt, lithium, and rare earths now sit at the heart of global supply chains. Clean energy investment across Africa has surpassed $100bn. Digital infrastructure has become a trade route in its own right, with Africa’s mobile economy already exceeding $220bn and projected to reach $270bn by 2030.
Compute power and data centres are emerging as markers of sovereignty. Yet without coherent trade logistics, industrial policy, and pan‑African governance frameworks designed and owned by Africans, much of the value generated by these assets continues to leak offshore.
Moving from extraction to exchange and full economic participation in global value chains requires trade sovereignty. Far from being isolationist, trade sovereignty is about agency and allowing countries to align their trade and investment policies to their development needs. It is the ability to shape how value moves, how partnerships are structured, and how returns are shared.