Africa’s rapid population growth is making conventional approaches to lawmaking increasingly inadequate, the Executive Chair of the Africa Governance Centre, Benedicta Lasi, has warned.
Opening the Strategic Legislative Governance Forum, she argued that the continent’s legislatures must prepare for the demands of a much larger, younger and increasingly interconnected population. The Forum also saw the establishment of the Strategic Legislative Governance Platform, which was launched by Pan-African Parliament President Dr Fateh Boutbig to sustain legislative research, comparative learning and cooperation on economic transformation.
Lasi contrasted Africa’s population of roughly 227 million in 1950 with an estimated 1.5 billion today and projections of about 2.5 billion by 2050. Those figures, she said, had profound implications for employment, education, housing, infrastructure and the capacity of public institutions. The question for parliamentarians was whether the laws being passed today would remain fit for purpose as these pressures intensified.
The Africa Governance Centre convened the Forum in partnership with the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) and the Conference of Speakers and Presidents of African Legislatures (CoSPAL) at the EALA Chambers in Arusha to examine the legislative foundations of Africa’s economic transformation.
Discussions linked long-term national planning with parliament’s responsibilities for budgets, investment, regional integration and accountability. The Strategic Legislative Governance Platform is intended to support ongoing research and exchanges among African legislatures.
Lasi linked the demographic challenge to the structure of African economies, noting the high proportion of economic activity taking place in the informal sector. She said legislatures needed to give greater attention to the conditions under which enterprises could expand, young people could find productive work and public services could meet growing demand.
She also rejected suggestions that Africans were indifferent to democratic accountability. Citing survey findings from across the continent, she said citizens continued to support democratic choice and reject authoritarian forms of government. The challenge, she argued, was to make democratic institutions more capable of delivering the practical benefits citizens expected.
She pointed to improvements in East African border procedures as an example of what coordinated policy could achieve. Progress at the Holili–Taveta border crossing and along regional freight corridors demonstrated how administrative and legislative reforms could translate into lower costs and faster trade.
The demographic comparison underscored the urgency of her address. A continent whose population has multiplied several times within a human lifetime must develop public systems on a scale that previous generations did not face. The pressures are cumulative: new schools require teachers, expanding urban neighbourhoods need water and transport, and millions of new entrants to the labour market need enterprises capable of employing them productively.
Lasi placed parliaments at the centre of these decisions, noting that laws governing land use, business registration, municipal finance, vocational education and cross-border commerce could either facilitate economic adaptation or perpetuate costly obstacles. She urged legislators to assess whether existing regulatory systems were suited to the Africa emerging today rather than the economic conditions and population patterns of previous decades.
Her remarks on informal employment highlighted the need for a broader approach to economic formalisation. Requiring businesses to register, she suggested, would not be enough without reliable electricity, access to finance and markets, and predictable regulations. Legislative scrutiny of these conditions could provide a more meaningful measure of economic reform than simply counting the number of new business laws enacted.
The border examples offered a practical illustration of how reforms could address some of these challenges. Improvements in administrative procedures can save traders time without waiting for major infrastructure projects to be completed. However, such gains depend on cooperation among customs authorities, transport agencies and neighbouring governments, and may be undermined by inconsistent implementation.
Lasi’s remarks on democratic accountability also highlighted the responsibility of representative institutions to respond to public expectations. Support for elections and rejection of authoritarian rule do not eliminate frustration with ineffective government. Rather, they increase the pressure on legislatures to demonstrate that political participation can influence decisions on jobs, public services and economic opportunities.
The Forum, convened with EALA and CoSPAL, sought to shift attention towards the long-term consequences of parliamentary decisions. Lasi urged legislators to approach their responsibilities with the needs of future generations firmly in view.
