DaPodCast - The Policy & Development Podcast 'Dapo Oyewole

Lives, livelihoods and economies have been devastated by the impacts of the corona virus globally, with a cascading impact on Africa. Many say the world will never be the same again but that remains to be seen. What is certain is that Africa will emerge into a post-Covid reality that is significantly different and attendant changes are expected in global trade, politics and economic affairs. How should African countries navigate the future in a post-Covid world? What domestic and regional policy positions should be adopted? What role for the Africa Union (AU) and other regional organisations? How should African countries engage in political, trade and economic relations going forward?  Which way should the continent look for strategic partnerships that will help uplift the social and economic lot of its fast-growing population? Should Africa embrace the East, should it look to the West or should it look inwards for resources to foster much needed economic growth and social development?

In my first podcast since the outbreak of Covid-19, Prof. Kingsley Moghalu – Fmr. Deputy Governor of the Nigerian Central Bank & Professor of International Business and Public Policy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University - joined me in a scintillating conversation, as we discussed potential answers to the questions. His razor-sharp analysis, thought-provoking and inspiring ideas shared in this podcast are based on his wealth of knowledge and experience accrued in over three decades in government, international diplomacy, development and public policy. He is author of four books: 1) Emerging Africa: How the Global Economy's 'Last Frontier' Can Prosper and Matter; 2) Bretton Woods: The Next 70 Years; 3) Global Justice: The Politics of War Crimes Trials and; 4) Rwanda's Genocide: The Politics of Global Justice.  Learn more about Prof. Moghalu here. Episode recorded May 2020 in Abuja Nigeria. #coronavirus #covid19Africa #africandevelopment #publicpolicy #globalaffairs #globaldevelopment #internationaldevelopment #futureofaid #developmentasdignity

When Emma Sky and I sat against the relaxing and picturesque background of the Lagos lagoon in January this year to record my first podcast, we could not have imagined the global storm that was brewing. While we pontificated about the future of development and global politics, little did we know that the world was about to be simultaneously gripped by the twin tragedies of a devastating global pandemic, as well as global civil unrest in protest of racial discrimination in the US.  However, in retrospect, our conversation seems to have clairvoyantly delved into a lot of the issues and drivers that have fueled the status quo and will continue to shape how the world evolves post-Covid.
In my maiden edition of the Policy & Development Podcast, Dr. Emma Sky - Director of the Yale Greenberg World Fellows Program and a Senior Fellow at the Jackson Institute of Global Affairs at Yale University - provides a tour-de-force, informed by her boots-on-the-ground experience as Political Adviser to two US Commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan, her work in international development and through her scholarship at Yale and Oxford. With calm and crystal clear thinking she speaks on topics from Brexit to the future of the EU; from the role of the US and UK in global leadership to the fusion of DFID into the FCO; from the future of aid and international development to issues of Africa's governance and development challenges to  safeguarding the sovereignty, dignity and fiscal sanctity of African countries in trade and political relations with other nations, such as China and other Western countries. She is the author of the highly acclaimed The Unravelling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq (2015) and In a Time of Monsters: Travelling in a Middle East in Revolt (2019). To learn more about Dr. Sky please click here. Interview recorded January 2020 in Lagos Nigeria. #africandevelopment #publicpolicy #globalaffairs #internationaldevelopment #futureofaid #developmentasdignity

Welcome, here is a background to the goals and aims of this podcast.