To me, 2020 was ‘Living in the Unknown’. Reflecting back below are my top 10 for the year:

1. Global inter-connectedness: The COVID-19 Pandemic has shown that we need each other- what happens in one part of the world has repercussions beyond the immediate borders. It also showed vividly the need for good governance and preparedness: those with sound systems and capacity quickly re-engineered themselves and put in place containment measures even though not 100% effective. Wageningen University and Research in Netherlands and University of Free State in South Africa for example quickly put in responsive measures to reposition their universities respond to educational challenges posed by the COVID-19 Pandemic. Others were not in position to do so or only responded very slowly
2. Environment health is key: It appeared to me as ‘God must be crazy’. We witnessed several catastrophes- wild fires in Australia and USA, floods and waves across the world, widespread pandemics of desert locusts that devastated the Middle East, Horn of Africa and the Sahel, increased levels of green gases, amongst others. Again, we need each other, we need to develop collective responses to address these challenges
3. Africa low STI capacity: Some of the challenges highlighted in 1 &2 above brought to the fore the limited response capacity in the continent. We just need to be reminded that no country in the world has developed without the requisite STI capacity- Africa must put its mouth where the food is- in its people: build and strengthen the innovation capacity and skills development in the continent.
4. Racial inequality coupled with human brutality: What we witnessed in the USA, but also common in our ethnic tendencies including wars in Africa calls for greater attention to address this inhuman practice. It is so sad that we as humans are so brutal and self-conceited- we don’t care about others

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