Hello, well Okay, so elephant in the room policy is a dull thing It's kind of hard to make it sexy, but I'm gonna try and get your attention. So bear with me So to set the same I'm in a lift. Yes American friends We really do call them lifts for people walking. I think to myself Chris This is your moment now or never as the doors close I position myself in front of them a captive audience. They're mine I've got them. I hear the door seal shut behind me and I take a breath. I Looked the first person on my left. She's in a suit. She looks really important to gesture to her see She looks back at me as if to say yes go on I she nods Oh, ah perfect the CIO the policymaker the one whose neck is on the block What are the chances of finding you in my imaginary lift today? I Ask her well, what keeps you up at night and she tells me I don't know what teams are really doing the volume of risk and what I should then show more interest in Setting and changing policy is hard and and to communicate and people just go off and do their own thing They think they know better and to be honest often they do but I'm ultimately left playing catch-up with the risk that they've signed me up to Okay, I say try not to sound like a snake at patronizing snake or salesman. I can help I Turn my attention to the second person also in a suit, but they look slightly less important. I make a guess Let's face it. This is my imagination. It'd be weird if I was wrong product manager. I say They nod ah the whip cracker. I say well, what's important to you? So managing risk mostly opportunity risk the fear of missing out so getting features out the door avoiding getting bogged down with They glance to the CIO Bureaucracy that feels almost like it's designed to slow me down Awesome. I say this is your lucky day. I Turned to the next person dressed in overalls. I'm in a trendy part of town They could be the CTO before I asked they sent me staring at them Cleaner they say Well, how did you get in my mansion? Okay? Let me come back to you My attention goes to the last person hoodie headphones around the neck. Ah my stereotypical developer. Yes I know you well What code do you write? I ask it doesn't actually matter Python cool. I have have you got everything updated to work with I pause Python 3 they volunteer. Ah, yes, Python 3. That must be hard I add they don't know it, but I've actually just won a bit of their trust, which is as we know important Nearly they say cool. Okay. Well, what's important to you? Staying on top of patching dependencies so that we can react to the next fire Knowing what rules exist what ones I can bend break and what might cause me to lose my job Writing consistent good quality code and avoiding technical debt. So the rest of my team been able to work cohesively as one Do you have any tools to help you with that? I ask. Yeah, linter's code quality test coverage tools the usual Great. I say I write code to let's be friends and I hand them a printed QR code And say here's my public GPG key. So you know that you can trust what I say. I Return my focus to the cleaner. I've got it. How do you get told what to do and when it changes?  I say how does that work out? Well, it's up to us to then maintain the to-do list so that we can onboard new people Does it go wrong at all? Yeah, sometimes when we compile our operational manual We miss a memo or don't apply them maybe in sequence. We do get things wrong. They glance apologetically to the project manager Like when we hadn't updated the guide that the meeting room on the third floor was being used as a dedicated War room and we wiped all their boards down. I Looked the devs that sound familiar. I ask they nod turns out. We're not all special snowflakes Hey, ah, all is not lost. I knew there was a reason that I imagined you here today The lifts slowing I feel it coming to its destination great. I've got the silver bullet The CIO looks to me ready to buy whatever it is. I'm selling they ask me as the doors open Who are you and what team you in as I move out the way so to stop obstructing them? I answer Oh, I didn't work. I just here to fix the lift people have been complaining that it goes only goes to the top floor Reduct the matter what button they push and it's actually pretty slow My audience storms out furious heading towards the stairs the door shut and I get back to my job Okay, so if any of this sounds familiar and you can relate to my imaginary friends, then I've got the answers for you What if I said you could update policy easily even releasing say several version updates Not just in a year a month What about ten updates in a single day and seamlessly communicating? That's the people that need to consume it all without derailing them You could have visibility on compliance tools Maybe that you already use and that policy that could be readily consumable easy to pass Demonstrate compliance and make sense and not be bureaucratic to change when it needs to be and I'll be not getting the way That same policy could be treated as a dependency and operate like a linter so you can run compliance checks locally in CI and guard production ultimately That multiple versions of the policy can act like a dependency and are supported So emergencies like you must update now because there's now known Vulnerability type updates are in effect a business as usual activity to communicate Interesting. Okay Hang around let's crack on Now I've hopefully got your attention. It's time to introduce myself and start explaining things. My name is Chris Nesbit Smith I'm currently an instructor for learn kits and also a control plane a consultant to the crown prosecution service in the UK Government and a tinkerer of open source things I've spent a fair amount of my professional career now working in UK gov and large organizations where problems like these are right I've been will have time at the end for questions and heckles so please Kind of leave questions in the comments so While this is not live or in person where I might be able to ask you to say raise your hands We can still try some audience participation So if you could leave a comment of a policymaker if you're with my CEO and have set Written or applied policy before I'll give you a few seconds to do that Just if you've written policy, just leave a comment a policymaker Okay, next round if you have ever sought exemption or maybe consciously bent broken circumvented ignored bypassed Whatever a policy with at least good intentions. Could you leave a comment of policy breaker? So if you've bent broken circumvented ignored bypassed the policy Hopefully with some good intentions or not Leave a comment a policy breaker Well, hopefully some of you at least fell for it. So we've got all of your names and employers details. So Can I lend me your ears the stakes just got raised? So where do I see policy as code going wrong? Well before we dig into that, what do I mean by policy? So it usually comes in one of two forms So security enforcing like data at rest being encrypted for example or Maybe perhaps consistency enforcing such as code style tabs being two or four space indentation. Maybe Or maybe you can think of some others, but in any case, it's hopefully intended to mitigate a risk of some sort However, with the best of intentions, there are often emotionally led rather than being grounded in proportion at control, which is Ultimately the open door to a case-by-case exemptions then being required when you come against a situation that you weren't anticipating So this is not fundamentally unlike how the laws the land are created with case law Making for a complex to navigate rulebook and harder still to measure for compliance It often looks like the thin end of a wedge where the precedent which may have been an uncomfortable pill to swallow the first time Round becomes dangerous with others ultimately looking to expand upon its scope Which can lead us to wonder sometimes if the cure was actually worse than the disease But that's not how we at least typically develop software. So why does this have to be so hard? There surely must be a better answer Well, we've codified everything else. So isn't that the answer? Well, yes in part But my point of this talk is that we do it wrong Maybe some of you are screaming your favorite product name at me in your heads as the solution and you're not wholly wrong But the devil's in the detail just throwing some curly braces at something doesn't inherently fix things though So if it's a security control, it's often tempting to keep the policy a secret Exposing it could maybe be used against you by an adversary However, that does not support a shifting left at all it results in devs effectively reverse engineering What the policy is by finding out when we smash our heads up against it? It doesn't therefore take much imagination to see that in the scenario of an application deploy midway through Finding one resources non-compliant and rejected would have the overall deploy in an inconsistent halfway state Likely resulting in downtime which begs the question. What's the policy better than the downtime and the impact? Especially if it leads your engineers who are all Hopefully at all plenty smart at finding inventive should we will say weighs around the computer says no response that they've got This is further exasperated when updates to the policy of desired So maybe you get a pen test or something goes wrong So you form that case law in effect that you maybe need to apply a new policy So for example, maybe all s3 buckets now needs to be encrypted a change that could be considered a breaking one Sure, you might say we provide warnings on at least the less important issues or new emerging policy, which is great So long as someone sees them But if you've adopted githops or at least CICD is anyone seeing those warnings? Who studies the results of a successful build log every time? anyone every time Well, if you are I politely suggest you're probably missing the point of CICD you should ultimately be able to trust your job status Okay, well, I'm not just here to throw stones So remember my implied promises to my four imaginary friends of what that future promised land might look like Well, there's nothing new under the sun here. We've actually already unwittingly solved these problems elsewhere We just need to remind ourselves and join the dots together Well, the first is something you're doing policy as code You're probably already doing by putting it in version control. The thing you might not be doing though is making that then visible So at least in a source this by which I mean allow everyone within your walled guard of employees Supplies subcontractors so on to see the policy I'm not saying you give all your threat monitoring rules and intel away You can probably keep that to yourself But I'd argue visible policy and the gaps therein is often better than the downtime reversed engineers work around an opaque legacy Exemption spaghetti soup So if you're brave, you might even open source it You'll find it unlocks the ability to work well with prospective suppliers without NDAs and whatnot and ultimately Why the distributive secrets are expensive to maintain difficult to handle and often only stay secret for so long after all Okay, well, we're off to a good start a policy is visible now to those that need to see it So many of you no doubt are used as semantic versioning, but a quick recap The first segment is used to indicate a breaking perhaps conflicting change So in the context of policy, let's say it's requiring resources to have said department label Maybe that will help with some internal cross-charging. Who knows I'm not judging I Increment to that might look like requiring that to be a predetermined list rather than just free text The next segment is to indicate minor changes that shouldn't really break anyone So an increments that might look like correcting a spelling mistake on one of the department names The third segment is to indicate patch changes. So these should be a no-brainer to keep up to date with So an increments that might look like adding a department to the available options Okay, so our policy is visible in a repository now it's version so we can easily communicate the policy We can tack on release notes and expectations are managed by our semantic versioning In software we used to handling dependencies. So What if your policy was just another dependency? So you might unwittingly already be doing this for example if you use say ES lint as a dependency in your JavaScript package So our policy is visible in a repository its version so that we can easily communicate the policy and we can tack on release notes And expectations are all managed by SEM for It's beginning to look a bit more like software. Okay, so I know testing is a dirty word But in order to make this an asset that everyone can depend on and also provide good examples tests are essential To give everyone the confidence and the stability and surface potential side effects before they ultimately hurt everyone involved Consumers of this policy need to be able to test themselves against the policy locally and in CI CD Thus shortening the feedback and better informing things. So as a bonus We should be able to find our consumers able to rely on the artifact that we're sharing with them Well, we're well and truly on the home stretch. It's a dependency. So updating it should be no different to any other We can even use some magic like say github dependable or men's now white sources renovate to do that for us So think automatic pull request tests even also merging if you like Okay, so to check you're all still with me Can anyone leave a comment below and tell me a recent event that caused everyone to want to know what version of a potentially Logging do Hickey we were potentially running everywhere in the estate Yep, as you know all presentations this year are contractually required to reference log 4j even if it's almost entirely out of context and Include some memes in just a few short months I'll be able to remove these and hopefully just point broadly at a set of scary-looking CVEs in order to continue commanding your behavior through fear What I'm getting at here though is that situational awareness piece around software supply chain Is something the organization is hopefully already thinking about if not perhaps addressing so if our policy is a dependency This is at least not a new problem software bill of materials for the win, right? Which then can allow us to measure the compliance across the state of the estate So I've just covered a lot of ground and hopefully sounded convincing Well, it's a little bit and it's not just a fictional utopia that's painted in PowerPoint it's time to look at how you might be actually able to do this and I know you really came here wanting to be able to see just a million words on a slide Not just the odd emoji or two that you've seen so far So we've reached the point of the show where I get to show you some code. Hooray So to maintain scope I'm going to limit things to talking about two things to prove that it's not just one tech or one tool I've arbitrarily picked terraform and kubernetes But I could have probably picked anything Naturally, I'm going to need some tools to do this. I'm too lazy to really invent anything here myself So likewise, I'm going to pick two tools But again, I could choose any or even all of them probably so check off is going to be doing my Terraform and Canaveral will be doing my kubernetes So if you want to browse along with me, I've created an example github organization here So I'm not expecting you to kind of read or grok the code off the video So don't worry about it too much. I'm showing it here just to prove that this is a real thing But github.com slash policy dash as dash version dash code So let's kick off. So the policy is stored here in the policy repository So here's where my policy starts at version 1.00 I've got policy that require that requires a department label on all resources In effect, so long as it's set doesn't matter what it is, but it needs to be defined I've written tests for this so note how the parsing test cases are usable as a great example of what good and bad looks like We've pushed a tag in git we've added release notes and I can sign it to provide further assurance if my heart so desires It does obviously but moving on Version 2.00 looks similar only now that the department field has to be one from a predetermined list like before Tests exists release notes are written tags assigned 2.1.0 is where we notice a and correct spelling mistake of one of the options in that list of departments 2.11 and I've now added a new department to the list Okay, so some other repositories that are in that org app one and info one Well, they depend on version 1.00 of the policy. It's not compliant with version two or greater. But how do I know that? Well, I've configured renovate to automatically make me a pull request So when there's a new version of the policy It's super obvious if I can update my dependency and I can see Clear feedback about where and why I'm not compliant I can also see all the pull requests over the organization so I can measure the compliance of my policy as a whole Moving on from that app to an info to depend on version 2.00 of the policy However, we could actually merge that open pull request all the way up to 2.11 Finally app 3 and info 3 are dependent on 2.11 and they get a gold star from the CIO There is I'll admit a small touch of magic and it's not pretty right now I've written some bash Don't judge me even though I probably Definitely written worse though So what this does is it allows me from my dev laptop or in ci to evaluate my code against the version of the policy That's defined in the resources Ideally, this might be less cumbersome, but it is what it is for now pull requests and collaboration on this are very welcome And the last piece of the puzzle is managing the life cycle of apology policies and allowing multiple policies To be accepted and evaluated within a single runtime I've cheated a bit here Kubernetes gives you admission controllers. It's not so easy to get the same policy evaluation. I found so far in cloud Ultimately the cloud vendors have got their own policy code And I've not figured out how to be able to evaluate that policy locally again Pull requests contribution collaboration from the community are all very welcome and I'm really appreciated So you may have noticed that the way the policy is designed and distributes itself lends well to coexist in a kubernetes cluster Which brings us to cluster one which describes a cluster that accepts all the versions that we've described so far Likewise cluster two only accepts version 2.00 and greater We can automate this with kind for ci to deploy the applications too And there we have it a full org all done all compliant policy all versions for ci all aware of what's going on So this is great, right? But just one more thing wouldn't it be awesome if the policy Maybe carried a story a narrative of why it exists in the first place After all if your agile team is even half effective it will reject anything That it perceives as friction if it doesn't see the value in it It could actually allow our developers and engineers to know why they're compliant And if they want to do something outside of what the policy permits They don't need any source of exemption granted per se They can have then a well-reasoned and informed debate with rationale behind a pull request to the policy So imagine if you will this going through the stage of versions with risks that inform the mitigations Manifested as policy all maintained as one. So when the risk landscape changes your policies can then move with it So when some new privacy Regulation comes out or your latest marketing strategy pays off and you acquire more data, for example Even if your policy was perfect at one time the risks and the appetite for that stand still for no one So we can liken this to perhaps over over provisioning that we might be familiar with from elsewhere Where lead times are long changes hard and there is a significant pressure in just nailing it the first time Which can lead us to To hedging our bets against what some future state might look like rather than proportionate mitigation to the risks that are more tangibly real in the now And that's where the real culture changes needed and the execution of that is likely a long series of talks in of itself So this is now really over to you Honestly, the best thing you could do right now Tell me this is madness already done irrelevant. Otherwise unachievable Something so far my esteemed echo chamber appears yet to do So beyond making pull requests and developing the theory more I'd really like to start building a case study with a willing organization allow me to swap out my imaginary friends for some real ones But the most important thing I want you to remember from our time together is that and feel free to say this out loud with me Purposeless policy is potentially practically pointless policy And I've been practicing saying that far too many times So I've been christened bit Smith. Thanks so much for your time Uh, you're now free to drop off if you wish. I'm sure you I will try and destroy the evidence of your guilt admissions earlier I'll try Like subscribe whatever the kids do these days on linkedin github Whatever you can be assured that they'll be near on no spam because i'm Or much content really at all since i'm pretty bad and awful at self promotion on social media cns.me ultimately just points to my linkedin talks.cns.me Contains this and other talks and they're all open source as well on github Uh questions are very welcome on this or anything else I'll be hanging around in the comments section or ping me a message Probably on linkedin. Uh, and I'll come back to you. Um, thanks so much for joining me


Good morning everyone. On behalf of the United States Institute of Peace, I am delighted to welcome you all here. It is a great honor to see all friends here and colleagues and friends of USIP and also welcoming you, those of you who are viewing us online. I am Dr Joseph Sani, Vice President of the US Institute of Peace and leading the Africa Center. I know most of you in this room already know about the United States Institute of Peace, but for those viewing online, I will try, allow me to briefly introduce the United States Institute of Peace. USIP was founded by Congress, almost, the US Congress, almost 40 years ago. We've demanded to prevent, resolve conflict around the world. And we do that by working with a variety of stakeholders, including government, security forces, civil society, religious leaders, the private sector. The Africa Center is deeply involved in peacebuilding in Africa. We believe that the Africa Center is well placed to bring this variety of stakeholders to discuss issues of peace and development on the continent. And so the Africa Center is pleased to be hosting today a conversation with Ambassador Martin Kimani, Kenyan's permanent representative to the United Nations. Ambassador Kimani has served as Kenyan's permanent representative at the UN for almost two years and previously served as the president's special envoy for counter-invivalence extremism, the director of Kenyan's National Counter Terrorism Center and in strategic initiatives in the president's executive office. Even before arriving in New York, Ambassador Kimani had a deep knowledge of the UN system from his service as permanent representative to the United Nations in Nairobi, as well as the UN Environment Programme and the UN Human Settlement Programme UN Habitat. He has worked on peace and security issues in the Horn of Africa and East Africa. Ambassador Kimani is also a fellow of the African Leadership Initiative and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. He holds a PhD in war studies from King's College London, the University of London. Kenyan is currently one of the three African states which holds a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council until December this year. In his role as Kenyan's permanent representative, he has distinguished himself as a strong voice for Kenyan and Africa in the Council. Ambassador Kimani's February 22nd Statement, we all remember, during the emergency session of the UN Security Council on the Situation in Ukraine was quite clear. He strongly, through the statement, condemned Russia's violation of the territorial integrity of Ukraine and underscored the importance of African voices on threat to global security. That speech and subsequent ones delivered by Ambassador Kimani shows the experience and the importance of African voices and approaches in multilateral fora and how important is Africa as a geo-strategic actor. With that, please join me in welcoming His Excellency Ambassador Martin Kimani. Thank you. So the first thing I wanted to talk about Ambassador Kimani is this narrative around Africa right now. Where are we in the narrative of what is Africa, what is Africa's trajectory, what is its future? The long-held narrative that we all know on Africa is Africa as a poor continent, high unemployment, destabilizing internal conflicts, expansion of violent terrorist threats and coups and counter coups. And that narrative has been a long-standing one. It basically speaks to an Africa that doesn't have any influence in multilateral fora, an Africa that is too poor and troubled to really be a global player. Then we turn to what is the reality on the ground. You look at the reality on the ground today. Very different narratives. You see African governments and African people setting their own agenda for politics and security and economics. You look at the African Union's historic African continental free trade agreement, game changer for the continent. You look at what's happening with the political affairs, peace and security commission, really struggling with some really difficult challenges on the continent. You look at the African Union condemning and sanctioning coup leaders. And most significantly for many of us, this dynamism of young people who are creative and entrepreneurial and who are driving technology on the continent. So then you have this narrative of unstoppable Africa. So between unstoppable Africa and troubled Africa that really can't be a global player and is almost outside of history in some people's image. Where do you see Africa falling today? Well, thank you. We've gone straight into it. Thank you. Good morning, Ambassador Makilla James. Thank you very much for the invitation and for having me for this conversation. I want to just quickly thank Liz Grant, the CEO and president of USIP. Dr Joseph Sani, who leads the Africa, the vice president for the Africa Center. And of course my elder, Ambassador Johnny Cochran, for his continuing extraordinary commitment to Africa and staying engaged throughout. Of course I have to give a shout out to my counterpart here in Washington, Ambassador Lazarus Amayo, who is my senior in diplomacy and his deputy David Gasharu, Ambassador David Gasharu. And thank you all. You know, we all know that Africa needs to tell its story more. We all know that there's so much more happening that is positive and even transformative on the continent. And the question, I think, is why is there a persistence, a persistence continuity of this narrative of helplessness. And I think that has some form of structural life now. It's not just ignorance. It's a way in which Africa is positioned in global affairs. And it's been centuries in the making. And it's going to be some time before we emerge fully from it. But in the process of emerging from it, I think we can embrace how dramatic a shift there has been in Africa. If you look at our demography, for instance, 100 years ago, there were just over 100 million Africans on the continent. In 20 years or so, in just under 30 years, in 2050, they're going to be 2.5 billion. This is a sea change in terms of demography. But it's not just numbers. It's the youthfulness of those numbers. And the youthfulness expressing such a diversity of cultural intelligence that is expressed in the arts, in the way people live, in the way they express themselves, in the way they practice religion. So this huge energy on the ground is going to make Africa a pivotal force in the 21st century. And our work as policymakers and this generation of policymakers is to ensure that that incredible energy is translated into an unstoppable Africa that is unstoppable to the extent of its economic development, in its projection and export of peace and security into the world, for it to be a major pole of global economic growth, for it to lead in the energy transition and climate change responsibility. I think we're headed in that direction, but we have some considerable challenges to take care of in the meantime. And because those challenges are significant and cannot be wished away, there will be some aspect of a continued negative narrative. But for those of us who are committed to Africa, as Africans who are committed friends of Africa, we have to look beyond that and see what could be. If we cannot see what could be and what is coming, we will not have the energy and the conviction to push forward. Ambassador, you spoke very eloquently to this issue of African youth demographic and what does it really mean for the continent. I'm glad to see some African youth in the audience today. Well, many of us consider ourselves African youth, but some real African youth in the audience. Do you get a sense from African young people that they feel this degree of optimism or do you pick up a greater sense of either resignation or pulling back and just operating outside of government and outside of politics because they don't see that changing fast enough or meeting their aspirations? Well, I don't want to make any blanket sort of assessment. I don't have the tools to answer that question comprehensively, but I do know there is impatience. There is impatience. There's impatience with economic bottles that are not inclusive enough. There's impatience because young people have, broadly speaking, carried out their end of the deal. And the deal as I was growing up was go to school, finish school, and we will have opportunity waiting for you. Well, in Kenya and in other countries, our young people have done that. They've gone to school, they've gotten educated, they've gotten skills, they have ambition and they want to work. Now, they're looking to us to say, okay, I did my part. And I think our last election, which I think was a great victory for Kenyan democracy, demonstrated that our political leadership is listening, and President Ruto was actually elected on the platform of listening to those young people who were saying, this model of trickle-down economics is not working for us. And I was very interested the other day, a few days ago, and I saw President Biden tweet that the trickle-down model has failed for the last 50 years, which then means that President Biden and President Ruto are solidly in the same camp in terms of an economics that is speaking to the people at the bottom and is built from the bottom upwards rather than from the top downwards. If we can do that, and that is something that each country needs to do but cannot do it alone, then we shall begin to address the impatience of young Africans. Well, since you brought President Biden to the conversation, let's have a conversation about the Biden administration's views on Africa. The administration seems to have been embracing recently the counter-narrative. The 2022 Africa strategy, the U.S. Africa strategy seeks to, as they say, reframe the region's importance to U.S. national security interests. And Secretary Blinken traveled to Nigeria last year, and he was quoted as saying Africa will shape the future, not just the future of African people but of the world. And then he traveled further to Pretoria, and he said Sub-Saharan Africa is a major geopolitical force, one that shaped our past, is shaping our present, and will shape our future. How do you see this reframing of the relationship that President Biden's administration is putting forward, and do you see that the statements are being matched by real partnership efforts on the ground? Well, you know, I think there's somebody in Washington listening, and there's somebody in Washington reaching out, and I think it is appreciated because understanding for Washington to understand the immensity of what Africa is in terms of the opportunity for the whole world, including for the United States, is key. But there's something very important to realize, which is you use the word unstoppable Africa. It's taken me a while to internalize what it means to have 2.5 billion people, to increase 1.5 billion people in the next 20-something years. It means that the velocity of change is such that the strategies that United States employs in any other country need to be deeply responsive to our own African strategies, because the velocity is beyond anyone country's ability to divert, to control, or to in any way manage. What is really required is the strength of partnership, and that's what I saw in the Biden strategy for Africa. It has an appetite for partnership, it has an appetite for listening, and I think that part about listening is something that the Biden administration has brought, I think very clearly, and I've seen Secretary Blinken in his engagements, and my counterpart in Washington, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, really internalizing that. Now the question is what are we Africans going to say? What are we going to put forward as our priorities? How convinced are we that those are the right priorities? So there's a lot of the challenge on our side of the fence as well, so that the Biden administration can have the credible partners that it needs to build a strong partnership. Thank you for that. Can I talk a little bit about this global power competition that we all know is out there? I've heard many African leaders say that we have lots of development partners. We don't want to get caught up in this global power competition. China was a good development partner for Africa in many ways. There's also the sense that there are alternative venues for Africa to organize and to find its aspirations. BRICS is one of them and there are others. And so this global competition issue, which is sort of in the strategy as well, it's spoken to in the strategy, comes out very clearly. How do you see the U.S. competing better in Africa so that it's not a choice of one development partner or the other, but that Africa can have many development partners and the U.S. can be a better competitor in their process? How do you see that developing? Well, I think we need to get out of frame of competition because competition inevitably leads to competitive feeling and competitive feeling inevitably leads to rivalry and rivalry inevitably leads to conflict. And I think Africa has experienced rivalry by superpowers. What was called a Cold War in Washington was experienced as a series of hot wars in Africa. We do not want that. We do not want to be forced into taking sides. We've taken our own side and that side is a side seeking development, peace and security. So we will work with the partners who help us achieve what our side needs. Now, why it's so important to get out of the framing of competition is because so much of enmity depends on you creating your own enemy and when I watch the engagements in the UN Security Council, it becomes clear that there is emerging not just competition but rivalry and that rivalry sometimes will seek to engage other countries as proxies to express itself, especially when one's rival is nuclear. So I think Africa's position has been no thanks, we have too much on our plate to get caught in major power rivalries. Now saying that and doing it is two different things and I think Markelai was to say to talk about the African Union peace and security architecture. It assumes in some implicit way that it's internal focus on settling crises in Africa, repudiating coups d'états, mediating peace. It assumes that the global environment is stable. I believe in the coming years, Africa will need to add a plank to its external engagements, to its external strategic conversations where Africa will need to insist on a stable global order. Africa will need to see that it has equities in the European security order because when the broken European security order is leading directly to suffering in Africa, it's leading to the growth of potential conflicts that could affect Africa. So it is for Africa to tell Europe, not in a negative way, your security order is broken, you need to fix it. Now that shouldn't be hard for them to take because they tell us that all the time. So I think we need to make this point and I think we need to make it in a positive way and we need to offer ourselves. I have come to understand that Africans are very talented listeners and in mediation and when I saw Chairman Musafaki and the president of Senegal, the chairperson of our union, fly to Moscow, I think they should continue. They should continue engaging because we have a stake in a stable global order. We have a stake in a rules-based multilateral system. I want to come to that issue but before we get there, I want to just go back a little bit more and talk about the U.S. African diaspora because clearly they have a role to play. Do you see the U.S. diaspora being one of the competitive edges that we have in dealing with African governments, dealing with African issues? I actually think that was the most brilliant part of the Biden-Africa strategy. I don't know any other country outside in the United States that has accomplished, has connected an African diaspora as a United States and I'm counting not just the Africans, Dr. Sani, who left Africa recently, I'm talking about African Americans and the fact that this diaspora has all the skills, has the capital and has the desire to connect with Africa. I think the strategy leveraging that and the actions it takes to leverage that will place the United States in a very strong position to add value to itself and to Africa. And one has to say that, one notices, I have to say a lot of our Nigerian brothers and sisters in the Biden administration and I think how much more powerful can your policy making be than to have a deep familial understanding of Africa while you're an American official? I think that is going to pay a great deal of dividends. I appreciate that you recognize the historic diaspora and the recent diaspora because you're right, they both lend a credence and a value to U.S. Africa engagement so I'm glad that you underscore that and I claim myself as part of that historic diaspora and when I serve in African work in Africa it's very much a real sense of I have a connectivity here as well so I appreciate that. The African Union constitutive act recognizes the African diaspora but we had not politicized this sufficiently we sort of thought of it as sort of reaching out but if you really see what has happened in the Security Council Saint Vincent and the Grenadines the smallest population to ever serve in the Security Council came on and the Prime Minister Gonzales said that they would take the position of the African Union so if the other three African members were united on an issue Saint Vincent would stand with them in the Security Council the difference between three and four is exponential it's a massive difference and what that meant is that the A3 plus 1 showed in real time in the most august diplomatic body in terms of peace and security what Africa and its diaspora can do at a geopolitical level now there's a growing appetite between Karakom and Africa to work together there's a new candidacy coming up by Guyana in June I would imagine they will get every single African vote and I think that they will come on to the council and they themselves may choose to also be part of an A3 plus 1 I think it is a significant development Ambassador Kimano, you are anticipating all of my areas of inquiry because I'm going right where you're going now let's talk about multilateralism in Africa we all know that when the UN the Bretton Woods institutions were created Africa was pretty much under colonial domination so there really wasn't a voice l'independence Africa got a bit of a voice but a voice in a non permanent role in the security council and a no veto role in the security council and that reality exists to this day and of course there's been a lot of call and a lot of discussion about changing that in security council reform then you look at what's happening with the P5 today you look at Russia being able to block security council actions and then that action moving from the security council to general assembly everybody has a say an equal say and Africa suddenly has an enormous voice in that body of the UN general assembly so the first question I want to ask you is what is the current state of discussion around security council reform as it involves Africa and I can't help but note that President Biden has called for a permanent seat for Africa Secretary General Gutierrez has called for a permanent seat the Japanese prime minister has called for it and of course Africans have long been very clear on this position that Africa must have a permanent seat where is that discussion now if it's happening at all well we have to without making this a history sort of a lecture of any kind the security council exists as both an expression of the charter the UN charter and as a political settlement between the victors of a great war and the members who have permanent status permanent membership in the security council in 1945 were were at the top and had defeated the Nazis and their allies and had suffered a great deal doing so the Soviet Union for instance I think paid an exceptional price in defeating Nazism so the security council was born from crisis and I think there's a very good chance that it will change because of crisis and the question is the crisis that we are in now and the crisis that we have gone through are they sufficient I would like to think yes they are and that the permanent five will find it in their interest to expand the body because it needs more balance let me give you an example of what I mean by that the two years or so that we've been in the security council have convinced me that whoever made non permanent membership two years was very clever they were very clever in seeking to limit the leverage and the influence of the elected members because just as you understand it it's time to go so one of the reasons Africa needs to sit on the council with a permanent seat is because of continuity of effort Africa has a lot to protect Africa may not be part of great power war we wouldn't be in the council so as to prevent us fighting someone else right now the P5 it's designed that way to supposedly stop the third world war between the great powers but Africa would be there to protect itself and others who have a weaker voice in global governance it means to have sovereignty of our natural resources to have the ability to resist being utilized as proxies to have hostile and malign actors turning against us against one another in search of our natural and human resources we need to sit there every single day and understand what is going on every single day with the same institutional memory and political leverage as the most powerful we move now from the age of noblesse oblige what is the responsibility of the most powerful to an age where we understand that that is not sufficient we need inclusion because we need to be in the room to protect our interests and our ability to protect our interests as Africa is actually of benefit to global peace and security and I think the argument has been made I think it needs to be made more strongly and I for one and I think all my African colleagues in New York very much appreciated President Biden's announcement and Minister Lavrov's repost to that announcement but also saying that the Russian Federation everyone says they're open to that membership everyone supports Africa but somehow it doesn't it hasn't yet happened so I think we're going to need to push further and I hope it's not going to take a more profound crisis for that to happen When I worked in the State Department one of the jobs I had was serving in the office that covers Africa and the Security Council and I thought it'll be once a week I'll have something to do every day Africa's in the Security Council every day on some matter of the others but I think that permanency would respect the demand of the work and the demand of the issues that are attended to there Can I ask you though about the Security Council Sorry Marquilla the reforms that would change the world the most are reforms within Africa itself If the Peace and Security Council and the African Union Commission and the regional organizations continue in the trend that they're in now I think the UN Security Council will become a very sleepy place because the conflicts will be solved in Africa and right there 60% or 70% of what the Security Council does will be taken off the table they'll meet once a week Can we talk a little bit about what's happening this new dynamic we see where things that aren't being addressed in the Security Council are moving to the General Assembly I think the Ukraine crisis has been possible but there may be others Can you tell me what is happening with this notion that maybe when there's a veto in the Security Council the General Assembly is going to take it up I've seen indication that's where things are going Is that really the new reality Yes, you're describing the veto initiative which is resolution 262 It's a resolution that passed a few months ago and Kenya was one of the countries that championed that resolution What it basically says that when there's a veto when there's a negative vote a no vote which is a veto by a permanent member then the President of the General Assembly within 10 days will schedule a debate of the General Assembly and that has happened several times and what that does is that it gives the membership a chance to speak to the veto and it raises the difficulty of using the veto because after you use it you have to come to the General Assembly Now 262 is right at the beginning of its application I think it's going to over time become a very powerful vehicle for the General Assembly because the General Assembly never gave away all its powers to engage on peace and security issues it retained that ability but the Security Council has been mandated to lead in that direction but if the Security Council is unable to deliver on its mandate then the General Assembly over time may begin to assert itself in ways that I cannot anticipate right now so that resolution which was drafted and pushed initially by Lichtenstein I think it's going to be a historic reform to the United Nations Well if you're in a venue where numbers is the game it's definitely going to be a historic change for Africa which has a large number in the General Assembly so we will stay tuned and keep an eye on that You can imagine for instance a General Assembly sending back voting to send a resolution back to Security Council and saying we think that whatever you did with this resolution was not effective please re-look at it that sets up a degree of legal complication but then it really shines a torch on the veto the veto is a critical is an important tool but it has become a tool rather than pursuing the responsibility that members of the P5 has become an expression of their national interest far too much so You mentioned another interesting dynamic this has been a long standing process but coming to the fore now and that's the A3 the three members of the African three African states on the Security Council and working with the Caribbean you mentioned Saint Vincent and the Grenadines I'm also interested in Haiti because Haiti has of course been in the Council in discussions with happening in Haiti but the security crisis is of great concern to so many How is Africa coordinating in the Security Council with other regions particularly to address questions like peace and security in Haiti Thank you Kenya when we got on the Council global level with a conviction that African lives wherever they are matter to Kenya and that the African diaspora must be part of Kenya's attention and so on engaging on the files in the in the Security Council one of them is Haiti and the other one is Colombia in Colombia Kenya has pushed hard to foreground the issue of how Afro-Colombians are treated in the peace process and that the economic and political condition of Afro-Colombians is a good indicator of the inclusiveness and the effectiveness of the implementation of the peace process and in Haiti our conviction from the start is that Haiti is a special country but we all know the history but for Haiti to have overcome overthrown slavery defeated the great powers of the day in defense of their freedom means that Haiti stood as a shining beacon of African freedom and independence and any Pan-Africanist in the world embraces Haiti so the crisis going on in Haiti now is a painful one for Kenya and for the A3 in general last year during our presidency of the Security Council we pledged a few thousand positions in our training institutions for Haitians and we are still looking forward to fulfilling that pledge now this situation is extremely negative in terms of extreme food insecurity the violence the gangs which in some way should be properly thought of as malicious as opposed to just gangs has led the Security Council to pay attention and we recently passed a resolution on sanctions now that resolution passed 15-0 unanimously meaning that it brought the Security Council to unite on this issue is something notable in the environment we are in the A3 was quite instrumental in that because there was we wanted there to be a review mechanism to make sure that these sanctions do not end up settling with Haiti with years of sanctions even as they try and improve their governance sanctions are easy to put on very difficult to take off and so we put in a review mechanism had we not insisted on that review mechanism a number of countries would have abstained on the vote and overall it would have been a less legitimate exercise of Security Council power and that is important because from my listening the people of Haiti are extremely worry and cautious about external intervention they want to know this latest act from outside is it for us or is it the expression of experiences we've had in the past that we don't want anymore of and so it was very important for it to pass with that kind of unanimity and we continue to hope that we can do as much as we can to support Haiti during this time and again as you say on the numbers 3 is not as powerful as 4 as a great number for Africa and the regions of the Caribbean and Latin America to be working together on so you just need to hear that on this reform question though you didn't give me a full answer on what the things are really going to be moving in the short term do you see things happening in the short term on the reform issue because if not Security Council seems like it's becoming more and more irrelevant to bringing about peace and security is it happening in the short term well it should be in the short term in the next 2 months so we can just stay on but that's with a light touch you know I think Security Council reform is going to happen slowly and then very quickly what I mean by that is that when I speak to veterans of Security Council reform they are almost all uniformly pessimistic I am a recent convert I think they are far too pessimistic I think right now if the war in Ukraine continues if the trends we are seeing continue I think the appetite for reform is going to grow and I think few of the P5 members will want to be seen globally as being opposed to change because they don't really have an argument about how effective the body is being and I think they will begin to understand that the Security Council is sliding towards irrelevance the more this continues so I am optimistic that it will happen but I don't know if it's going to happen within a 3 year time frame or a 5 year time frame I would think so but my chief worry is that the pain by the P5 is so much that it would have to be a much greater crisis for them to truly embrace rapid change I really hope that they are responsible enough to not need that to happen Well let's talk about one of the crises that you are at the Security Council that is Ukraine we've seen that there have been about 3 votes taken in the UN General Assembly there were a couple, there were two there was one in October in all of those votes the clear indications that Africa is very split I think it was like 40, 40 and then there were some abstentions and people who didn't vote at all and so you see that Africa is clearly split on this question then you see countries like the US and France encouraging trying to get African countries to be standing in solidarity with Ukraine you see the Ukrainian foreign minister going to Africa for the first time ever the Ukrainian president reaching out to the African Union clearly they are the strong push to get Africa to support Ukraine in the General Assembly and the UN Security Council but that's one side of the coin the other side is that many African states have long term historical relationships with Russia and most recently security and economic relationships and for those countries I think they take the approach of our vote is based on the fact that we have is in our national interest to not necessarily with Russia so the question I'd like to ask is for the countries in Africa who feel this is a new cold war why should we get joined into this what do you say, what is your response you spoke eloquently in February but watching the continuing development where do you see this issue going for Africa well Kenya's statement in February and subsequent statements have been statements that reflect our adherence to the UN Charter to the principle of sovereignty and territorial integrity we were not taking that position to side against anyone or with we were taking that position to side with multilateralism and with our principles and with the UN Charter and of course we felt deeply for the people in a country of Ukraine where the breach of the Charter has led to a devastating war and their great suffering and the solution needs to be in accord with the UN Charter having said that we're also very clear as Kenya that the war needs to end at some point there's going to be a negotiating table whether now or later whether immediately or after many more die and much more destruction is created there is going to be that negotiating table and the question is what is going to be discussed of that negotiating table the war in Ukraine will be addressed the broader ramifications and causes of that war will have to be addressed and the European security order will be set and stabilized with a series of guarantees and agreements this is very clear the continuation of the war is endangering us in terms of its escalation including the use of weapons of mass destruction continuing economic turmoil that is affecting the whole world and most importantly the continuing gross suffering of Ukrainian people so I think the African countries and I don't want to speak for Africa on this one because I think each African state has assessed the situation from its own perspective and everybody I know every diplomat I know when they explain what they're doing they start by asking what do our people need right now you see once a political leader you know their answer now you can only try and massage their answer because they've put where they stand there are those like Kenya that have made a position for the UN Charter there are those who have abstained and there are those who have opposed the condemnation of the invasion and all of those are informed by their interests but the one common interest is in the end of this war there is no military solution there really isn't and I think that is slowly going to be understood more and the African position on that needs to be clarified in terms of the pressures by different major powers on African voting I have to say that I am pleased by that African countries have been given their space to make up their mind not that long ago there was a policy that if you vote against if you're in New York and you vote against a very powerful country that you will pay it was expressed openly and was expressed actually as a policy that didn't work well and I think the present approach of yes we know that the United States would rather every African country strongly condemn the Russian Federation but I think to go back to where you started what President Biden has said what Secretary Blinken has been talking about means that they are listening and I think understanding when African countries abstain it's not against Ukraine it's really an attempt to serve your own people in one way or another this war for instance is leading to blockages in fertilizer supplies there are no sanctions against fertilizers but different countries because of their relationship to Russia are choosing to use transport routes transit routes to apply sort of pressures in official and unofficial ways non tariff barriers those ones that are there but they're not there officially we need those to move because for us fertilizer is not because we want to fund the war we want to to put any more pressure on Ukraine it is because if we do not plant with fertilizer in quarter one and quarter two next year we're going to have starvation in several countries we cannot afford that so there are real issues on the ground that need to solve it and I think there are people in Washington trying to solve those but they need to drill down deeper and get those bottlenecks to food fertilizer out of the way you're making a very clear and compelling case for why this war has to end food security on fertilizer the other issue that people see that the war is doing is taking attention away from African crises on the continent is the council paying enough attention to African security threats at the moment are they as they say sufficiently seized of the matter to look at what's happening in Africa Africa has quite a lot of security challenges that have been long standing that haven't gone away before the Ukraine war and will be there most likely after the Ukraine war I'm not completely opposed to some degree of lower attention towards us because intense attention towards Africa has often reduced African policy space and in some way pushed in the opposite direction to African agency it's our continent these are our countries we have to solve these problems primarily the security council yes has been deeply affected by the war in Ukraine and that has become the primary driver of the dynamics in the security council I think this offers the African union peace and security council regional organizations whether it's ECOAS, whether it's the African community an opportunity to show our responsibility and our competence there's a lot but if you look at the African union mediated process in Ethiopia that was an African solution to an African challenge with the support of others but it took a while but Africa yesterday or the day before was able to deliver a cessation of hostilities which gives us an opportunity to build on that opportunity to come back and stabilize itself and stop the carnage if you look at the East African community's initiatives initiative for stabilizing Eastern Congo along with the Angola process and you look at ECOAS's positions on unconstitutional changes of government I think Africa is standing up and being counted when it comes to aging on very complexe and difficult issues where the security council I think should pay more attention is on how Africa on how to combat and minimize the threat of al-Qaeda groups in the Sahel in the Horn of Africa in Southern Africa that is a matter of high priority not just in terms of the military aspect of it but the economic and political package that needs to accompany that And I would note that this month Ghana has the presidency and I understand that Ghana is actually put on the agenda that very topic of looking at violent extremist groups and looking at peace and security broadly in Africa so it will get its attention this month at least so I'm glad to hear that that's going to be happening Can I turn in the last few minutes that I have because I'm eager to give you over to this audience Africa summit that's coming up in December it's been announced by the Biden administration there's great expectation, there are high hopes the strategy is out now we've talked about the strategy tell me what do you think would be one of the most meaningful outcomes of the summit how can the administration deliver on the promises of the strategy what do you see about that around that whole constellation this is Africa's moment right now in Washington Well many African countries are going trying to navigate very very challenging times there's squeezed fiscal space the flow of investments globally in emerging markets, not just in Africa is reversing itself and investors are looking for safety because of the volatility of the global environment the raising of US interest rates the raising of interest rates in the major economies all means that there's more money leaving emerging markets heading back to developed markets the extreme weather patterns whether it's the Horn of Africa suffering its greatest drought in 40 years to biblical floods all over the world means that it is increasingly difficult to drive development now you're trying to ensure survival recovery, rebuilding not even development, growth so in a country like Kenya we have to simultaneously deliver on food security while we're delivering on getting Google to set up offices in the same country we have to do two things at the same time or actually several things so I think the meeting in December whatever its normative conversation I'm sure we will talk about democracy I'm sure we will talk about human rights and rule of law these are critical but I think for it to truly emerge as a significant success the leaders need to go back home with something that they can say our conversation with the United States is going to lead to us being able to do more to deal with the emergencies and the need for opportunity I'm not sure where the debate is amongst the African group in Washington but I would imagine that they are pushing for tangible agreements tangible in the lives of people and I think the Biden administration is in a great position I think to show leadership delivering in that we've got some representatives of the administration here I think they're taking notes the last question I have for you sir it's about the climate change conference that's going on right now in Egypt it started this week COP 27 the Africa climate change summit we know that one of the big issues for Africa has been the need for financing from rich countries major polluters to address loss and damage to poor countries that's been a demand the discussion point and I just don't know really where it's going how do you see that conversation do you think that's something that's going to come out of this conference are you hopeful about that where do you see that oh man, this one is a difficult one I have to say Glasgow last year was quite disappointing to say the least we heard a lot about the need to transition to renewables there was pressure put by the richest countries to slow or stop new investments in fossil fuel developments in Africa and in developing countries and now all that has changed the richest countries are busy expanding fossil fuel use because of their energy crisis so it's one more illustration of the strange too late double standard multilateralism we live with the truth is that Africa is energy poor and the truth is that energy is not just a component of development energy is the driver of human flourishing and if you do not have energy security if you do not have sufficient affordable energy you cannot but live in grinding poverty it's that simple and Africa will need energy will need it to overcome poverty to give real food security and to transition to a green economy and so in Egypt I think the African position is going to be strong and insistent on energy justice and I have to say that because we are talking about the Biden administration strategy that phrase energy justice in that strategy is very welcome now let's act on it how do we have to understand that Africans will have to exploit fossil fuel to a certain extent where Kenya is concerned we have pledged to move our electricity supply to 100% renewable by 2030 the total energy will need going forward we will need very heavy investments to sustain that if we are going to industrialize right so I think the ball is in the court of the most developed countries we have to decide whether to meet their Paris obligations that they themselves signed up to they are going to need on a unilateral level to decide what they are going to do with technology transfer to enable investment not just aid but investment in our transition and Kenya is waiting Kenya is right now renewables use of renewables one of the highest in the world I think it's over 90% and we are being able to provide over 80% of our citizens with electricity and we are doing that with renewables so we are ready to take off and drive this process but we need the United States to partner with us and to show tangibly that our commitment to getting there by 2030 will be met by investment and technology transfer Ambassador Kimani, thank you so much for that those were the easy questions now I'm going to turn you over to the audience that have a few more questions for you if you would please acknowledge who you are when you ask your question and try to make them rather brief we have about 15 minutes we'd like to get some questions from the floor I can't believe you've answered all the questions we have a mic here we have ambassador thank you very much good morning ambassador my name is Kappambu I'm the ambassador of Zambia here and I just wanted to pick up on one point which you've made about the need to listen and hoping that in the strategy of the United States being able to listen is one of the most important things that they can do and it reminds me of what we say in my country especially when you talk about security council reform in my country there is a saying that wisdom moves from an uphill into the mountain the presence of Africa in the security council in the permanent category will infuse some of this wisdom for example when we talk about conflict resolution you have just cited the Ethiopian case there are many others that happen and the security council doesn't even know about it because we settle a lot more conflicts on the continent outside the view of the United Nations security council so it is important for us to have a place there one of the ideas that the United Nations security council and the UN in general has not picked up on but which was initiated by Africa in 2000 is the issue of un constitutional changes of government which is now in the constitutive act the idea of Africa was that that principle be made a global principle that it be incorporated by the United Nations and if it had many of the conflicts many of the cool details that we are talking about around the world would not be permitted by the United Nations and that would act as a sufficient deterrent when in 2000 this principle was incorporated by the African Union we saw a big drop in fact to zero un constitutional changes of government in Africa but when the United Nations resisted up to now the big powers have not come out in support of that principle which means in the meantime people realized that yes you can be ostracized in the African Union but you will still be embraced by the United Nations and so they saw no appetite and now we are seeing an increase in un constitutional changes of governments in Africa itself because they know they can do it and even if the African Union ostracizes them for one year they will still be at the United Nations and the major resistors of incorporating that principle are the members of the P5 I do hope that the United States can come out strongly in support of incorporating that principle within the United Nations because once that is done it will be a sufficient deterrent to un constitutional changes of government across not only Africa but across the world thank you thank you ambassador Kappambwe and you are the namesake of my colleague Lazarus et congratulations on Sambia's election and it's very dynamic government and it speaks for all of us in the pursuit of development and investment on wisdom moves from an anthill into a mountain this say makes me to the four of my mind that Africa's practices of mediation and peace building are actually forms of very powerful cultural technology and since we are in the building for peace I think there is so much to be researched on practices of peace in Africa because I think they are unique the role of peers the power of ostracism in many of our cultures being banished is possibly the worst thing it's a form of social death and cultural death so when the African union says you cannot sit with us it is a far more painful thing than many people realize we are sitting here you have to stay outside and even if you can come to New York you still will feel it but you are right ambassador Kappambwe the constitutive act's ambition is not just within Africa but I think that has been forgotten more than it should for Kenya in the security council we condemned the coup d'etat the un constitutional change of government in Myanmar on the basis of our constitutive act our reasoning was if this is a standard we hold for ourselves well then we hold it for you too we can help it if I am at the center of my own universe then the way I live I want to see not to impose but it sets my expectations I do think that un constitutional change of government can be threats to international peace and security what is happening now is potentially risky one is that Africa creates a strong position against un constitutional change of government then that is brought to the security council and the security council is asked to condemn the un constitutional change of government now the a3 need to navigate this very carefully because you do not want the security council to have different principles for Africans and for non Africans we cannot be party to our own creation of double standards so a3 and Africa needs to either push for this to be a norm of the united nations for everybody or our actions stop in the African Union it's very there's a difference because what the security council would do is willingly create an instrument for Africa and not for others and then in the politics of the security council that instrument will not always be used in the defense of African constitutionalism so we have in the security council Africans do two things which is to advance our interest and to defend our independence now that is not a sufficient answer it's only a holding position the true answer we need to work for is to make un constitutional changes of government be something that the united nations rejects it happens it's condemned and action is taken and we have now learnt that it can happen anywhere there are no constitutional institutions or processes that cannot be undermined or destroyed by political actors with the power and the will to do so can we try to get another question before our time is out sir thank you so much my name is Francis Boglan from the Ghana Embassy I have something to talk about which relates to food insecurity on the continent Ambassador Kimani can you share with us your ideas on suggestions as to how Africa can address this issue in a sustainable manner if you consider the fact that the continent is a continent that should be feeding itself and yet we still have issues of food insecurity this is a very major issue and what are we doing as a continent to be self sustaining when it comes to food thank you so much thank you Francis I am not an expert on agricultural issues and your question is very focused let me perhaps expand it just slightly and that is the relationship between the security council and the food insecurity what is happening is that the security council is spending more and more of its time debating and engaging on humanitarian issues and that's partly a reflection of the fact that it's having a much harder time moving on the political issues it's much harder to reach political settlements than it is to navigate humanitarian access and in terms of food security especially in situations of conflict and so this is an opportunity I think one is that there seems to be a humanitarian exception within conflict areas determined conflict parties who are fighting each other appear to only be able at this point to appreciate humanitarian engagement as the most legitimate as the only thing they are willing to accept from the outside world that is what delivered the Black Sea Green Initiative the two times when the United Nations has succeeded in the Ukraine conflict in bringing the two sides together was the evacuation of civilians from Maripole for humanitarian reasons and the Black Sea Green Initiative and that was because both Ukraine and the Russian Federation were willing to say that the movement of grain and fertilizer from Ukraine and from Russia was a global good in terms of humanitarian outcomes what can we do further with this I think we need to link humanitarian initiatives with peace building better the humanitarians open an opportunity peace builders and mediators need to work with that opportunity better I also believe that development agencies and humanitarian agencies need to work more closely together because we're in situations of prolonged humanitarian crisis so the food insecurity in Africa is not going to be solved tomorrow so we're going to need to have better linkages Francis, at the end we're going to need to raise our productivity Africa has the largest amount of arable land that is not presently under agriculture we have a population in the rural areas we have people who need food all the elements are there you can create offtake agreements for wheat imports and invest technologically in wheat growing areas in Africa farmers in Africa grow wheat from southern Africa wheat growing it's wheat growing potential can feed the world so this coming summit can we create a linkage that brings together the wheat importers in Africa with the wheat producers scale wheat production to get that offtake agreement in Africa the rice that West Africans are growing Nigerians Kenyans are here importing rice can we do the same can we do bulk purchases of fertilizer together can we build fertilizer production plants like Dangote has done but several of them across Africa so that Africa is getting cheap fertilizer and green fertilizer for itself so Francis to answer your question the answer to your question is the answer to bring development and jobs to Africa and we have to see it and you didn't ask it this way I don't want to put words in your mouth it's not just a question of get the food aid to the people but rather to answer it by making smart for African markets now if that's the kind of thing that can emerge in December or closely following on December then it will have the most tangible impact on African people's lives and I have to take advantage of a question to remember that the single most impactful American policy that I can remember was PEPFAR that once all the geopolitiques are done and said what really moves the ball is touching as many African lives as you can through policy and I think that's in the area of food security is the area today that is most most important and a lot of and that will also speak to the geopolitical situation and some of the weaponization of food and fertilizer that has happened Ambassador Kimani this is not a conversation for just one day Africa on the global stage is an ongoing conversation we've left a few things on the table for follow up but we just want to say today to thank you very much for coming down to be with us it's been an honor, you have been very poignant very strategic, very impressive very inspiring in your comments you've given us a lot to think about even here at the Africa center so we just want to say thank you very much we hope we can have a follow up conversation coming out today to be with us at the US Institute of Peace Africa center it's been a great conversation I couldn't have asked for a better interlocutor this morning to start our conversation on Africa and the global stage so please Ambassador we say come back and see us and let's give them a thank you


We have got another condensed timeline for daily fantasy baseball for today because lock for today's slate is at 110 p.m Eastern over on faddle six game slates actually a pretty decent slate But it does lock earlier so be listening to this in the afternoon. We'll see you later talk to you For the next slate, but 110 p.m. Eastern is locked for the six games late We're trying to grind through things pretty fast And hopefully put you in a good spot to win some money on your Thursday welcome on into the solo shot That's right here on the faddle podcast network and number fire calm My name is Jim Sonnis. I am a senior writer and analyst for number fire calm You're to break down a Thursday's six game main slate with once again lock at 110 p.m Eastern for today before you get into The slate breakdown for today a quick scheduling announcement I will be out from tomorrow through May 4th for my honeymoon just two years after the wedding, you know as a Typical a very typical timeline for that but I'll be gone during that time There will still be a solo shot on the number fire daily fantasy podcast feed in that time Tom Vecchio Austin Swain We combine into cover for me in that time find them on Twitter check them out there and Subscribe to the number fire daily fantasy podcast feed to get the podcast as it goes up if you watch on YouTube We will not have shows on YouTube for that time. We'll be back once I get back in the first week of May So no YouTube in that time, but we will still have the audio version on the number fire daily fantasy podcast feed So I'll add that there all of our NASCAR podcast this week up today for Talladega And then Austin will take on next week's podcast from NASCAR to so again all the same spot in the same podcast feed hit subscribe there and Thank them for their their assistance of me While I am away as far as this slate goes wins in Detroit are almost out to left at 16 miles per hour I say almost because it's kind of crosswind. I would give a tentative bump up to hitters for the Tigers and Yankees in New York for The Mets and Giants wins are out to center at 15 miles per hour would bump up bats a bit there pretty much same thing in Cleveland For the Guardians and White Sox wins are out to center at 16 miles per hour So slight bump to batters there in Kansas City for the Royals and twins wins are in from right field at 12 miles per hour But it's also the warmest game on the slate So I'd keep that one pretty neutral in terms of batters for today Finally rain is possible in Oakland for the Orioles in the A's that game should be able to play But it is dicier than others. So Keep tabs on that one for sure We'll dive in the pitching preview in just one second But first the 2022 NBA playoffs are underway and Fandall Mountain Dew have teamed up to add another layer of excitement to the first round Matchups introducing the Mountain Dew NBA free play a daily fantasy basketball contest running through tonight Tonight is a final one, but it's entirely free to edge All you have to do is construct your best nine-player roster while staying under the designated Sour cap and follow along as the games unfold to compete for your share of $3,000 in cash prizes plus as an added bonus if any of your lineups on the week have the most made three pointers after tonight's games You'll win an additional share of $3,000 in bonus cash and NBA sway Tonight's games will be tipping off soon So head to Fandall comm slash league slash Mountain dash do dash playoffs to submit your lineup and get in on the action now for more details It's a fandall.com or download the Fandall fantasy app eligibility restrictions apply pitching preview for this Thursday Main Slay Dylan cease is the highest salary pitcher on Fandall checking in at $10,300 Carlos Carrasco is 10-1 Kevin Gosman $9900 Anthony D. Slifani is that please back and Joe Ryan are the others at $8,000 or higher And that's a good good number of pitchers for a 12 games later a decent number of guys You can feel pretty good about but I think the one guy Who comes the closest to being the full package is Dylan cease and cease will be at the top of my list for sure Cease is facing the Guardians. They're not a super threatening offense. They're okay They got a 101 WRC plus against righties. This is based on their current active roster since the start of last year They have a 22% strikeout rate against righties Neither of those numbers are bad, but neither should scare us off either Cease himself is sick. He has been throwing more sliders this year and it's up to a 42% usage on the pitch according to baseball savon that's up from 31% last year and that's a good thing for us may strike out perspective because See set a 50% whiff rate on that slider last year So if he's gonna throw it more we should expect gains in the strikeout category And he doesn't really need those but he has gotten them his strikeout rate in two starts is 39% It's probably not gonna stick that high But if we look at the past 15 starts a larger sample with that slider usage increasing a bit during last year He said a 35% strikeout rate and 15 starts is a really big sample for a pitcher And he's also been elite within that not just the strikeouts the one lingering issue for Cease is walks He's at a 12% walk rate this year He said 10% in the aforementioned 15 game sample that drives a pitch count gets guys on base And it keeps sees from going super deep in games I've got him projected for 97 pitches for today Which think I think should give him some good amount of wiggle room to maybe walk some guys and still be okay So to me Cease is the top guy in the slate. I'm very willing to build around him Salaries at hitter not super restrictive. So to me Dylan Cease is the top guy and someone I want to build her up I'm gonna put Joe Ryan in the second slot and Ryan is Technically our value play for the day because he is 82 But a couple of things allow me to put Ryan number two above Kevin Gosman Kevin Gosman will be third We'll talk about him in a bit, but Ryan is a better match-up than Gosman Gosman gets the Red Sox Ryan gets the Royals and the Royals are a lower strikeout team But they have just a 91 at WRC plus against righties with a 152 ISO And both of those are bottom two marks across the six-game slate plus Ryan looks awesome to start this year His velocity is up a bit He is also throwing more sliders and the usage on that sliders up to 32% Which is double what it was last year shocker the twins are encouraging a guy to throw more sliders They love sliders. So they're kind of leaning into their their stereotype here If we look at Ryan's whiff rate on that slider, it's 43% That's really good. So more sliders a lot of whiffs. That's a good thing If we expand the sample for Ryan to his full seven big league starts He has a 29% strikeout rated at 3.43 skill interactive era. He does that while suppressing hard contact He's let up a 30% hard hit rate in that time, which is actually the best mark for anyone on this slate The slight concern for me with Ryan his pitch count because he's gone 70 and 82 pitches in his first two starts And they did keep him pretty short last year could have been due to you know, he missed all of 2020 due to COVID stuff He was on the Olympic team. So there were some high high stress pitches before then but I'm expecting him to get more leash here But now the Zinni has been worked back up if we see Ryan get to 90 pitches for tonight Which is where I've got him projected He will be in a good spot or today I should say so and I think there's a good shot He gets there because again, I think last year was kind of an independent thing for sure So I'm willing to put Ryan second right behind Cease and right ahead of Kevin Gosman Let's talk about Gosman here in the third slots. I think that he deserves to be there despite the fact There's a lot of risk. I have to go in knowing that Gosman is risky and if you want to use him same thing just know that there is risky there is risk I do like Gosman despite that risk against the Red Sox It is a tough matchup, but it's also not an impossible one from a strikeout perspective The Red Sox active roster has a 204 ISO against righties. They're very good, but they also can't strike out They got a 24% strikeout rate against righties since the start of last year That's actually tied for the third highest mark on this slate. That means that Gosman Has a path to a ceiling here. He does obviously provide that ceiling himself too because he's very good We've seen Gosman throw again more sliders this year more sliders always makes me happy He's about a 15% uses right on the pitch not as many as Cease and Ryan But it's up from where it was and we saw Gosman start to do that in his final two starts last year If we look at his fine or past four starts his strikeout rate is 32% with almost no walks in that profile His skill interactive era is 2.34 which would be the best mark on this late if it were his full sample Gosman has still struggled with that at ball data And that's not a surprise because splitters and sliders can lead up a lot of hard contact Which is another reason why there is risk here But I like it regardless because yeah, Gosman could get rocked or he could be the highest scoring starter on the slate He had nine strikeouts in New York against the Yankees last time out So I am fully willing to use him here You just have to be okay With the risk going in and doing so and I would rank osman third behind Cease and Ryan I think there's upside there So I'm going to use him But I also understand if you want to take a more risk averse approach and avoid him due to the tough matchup Let's talk about some stacks for today the white Soxion face and Zach Plisac and Plisac is one of those guys who typically At least at times does that perform his peripherals. He's doing it early this year I'm not fully convinced he can keep that up though And I'm willing to stack the white Sox against him in this spot Plisac last year had a 4.73 skill interactive ERA His ERA was 4.67 and there were times back in 2020 I believe where he was like outperforming by more so I take note of that when guys outperform what their skill interactive ERA Says their results should be I can't explain why it happens But like you do take note of it for sure typically when that happens when you see that gap It's because players have great bad at ball data Cease didn't or sorry a Plisac didn't last year He allowed a 43 percent hard hit rate with a 38 percent fly ball right that's same thing this year Where he is allowed a 50 percent hard hit rate through two starts with a 44 percent fly ball rate The strikeouts are low too, which is what we saw last year and plus the velocity is concerning For Plisac his average fastball velocity is 91.2 miles per hour this year It was 93 last year that could be due to cold weather and that's why I'm not willing to like fully like buying the go Okay, there's something a major issue like talk about that Robbie Ray earlier this week But it has your attention so far this year It hasn't mattered too much because Plisac's ERA is 1.64 across 11 innings I just don't know how that sticks unless something starts to correct So I think it's a good spot to stack the white socks here given the issues in the underlying numbers Plisac has had now then this white socks team I'm not sure if you'll need a lot of value given that Nobody on this slate from a pitching perspective is super super high salary But if Jake Berger plays I would I just want to talk about him quickly He started to earn more playing time against righties He started to move up in the order you sit in seventh against righties and he's pretty solid Berger in a limited sample against righties Has a 42% fly ball rates with a 268 iso He does strike out a lot, but against Plisac That's less of a concern than it would be against others They have plenty of good options if he does not play So it's not like a situation where the stack hinges on Jake Berger But like if he does play you want to get a little weird on a six game slate I don't mind Jake Berger has around for doing so. I think he's kind of fun So I would be okay with that for sure. Our second stack is against the second highest salary pitcher on this slate That's Carlos Carrasco and through two starts Carrasco looks awesome. And he's the guy you want to root for I am just a bit wary of buying into it because Carrasco is facing the Giants today. They're a very good lineup and you know You look at the first two stars for Carrasco. They've been phenomenal He's allowed just one or one in ten and two-thirds innings His strikeout rate is 33% and he backs that up with a 15.8% swinging strike rate. That's awesome And I'm stoked and I I hope it sticks, but I'm not sure it will The velocity for Carrasco pretty similar to last year He is leaving more on his slider and using fewer sinkers and I like that a lot sinkers suck sliders are great but is that small tweak enough to explain his shift back into stardom or Is a just variance or was it matchups because his first two starts were against Arizona and Washington They're pretty bad. The Giants pretty good. They lead the slate in both WRC plus and ISO against the opposing starters handed this and they're also tops and fly ball rate as well Carrasco has still struggled with fly balls and hard contact. He's actually been a Bit worse there than he was last year. So I don't want a second against him I hope he does well, but I think it's wise to stack against him here specifically with a team as good as the Giants I don't think people will be here because the team total is super low We'll get betting markets like it says don't stack the Giants probably any betting markets are smarter than me So might be the right route, but I do think the Giants are Undersold by the markets for today We do that to be a bit wary of pitch hitters in this game because Jack Peterson Has left five out of nine games early that he started two of those were in the sixth inning Mike Yastremsky has left five of nine games early as well same number as jock One of those in the sixth inning the others were seventh or later So jock is a higher risk of getting pulled early. Yes, Tremsky at risk getting pulled later on So it is good to be wary here. I do still like them Because they're probably still gonna get three plate appearances which might be enough But it is worth noting when you're weighing options that Yastremsky and Peterson specifically Do have risk here of getting yanked early if they left he comes out from the bullpen Our final stack for today The number three stack is the Yankees facing Michael Panetta in his Tigers debut and this is a Panetta revenge game Got to note that it was a long time ago, but hey, it still counts I'm not gonna turn down any revenge game But I think that the Yankees could do well against him here Panetta was solid last year for the twins last couple years He finished with a 3.62 era a really good showing for him, but that era hit some rough underlying numbers Specifically Panetta let up too much hard contact. The hard hit rate allowed for him was 46% that is a super high number and He let up a lot of balls in play his strikeout rate was 19% with a 5% walk rate So he should have had worse results and the advanced numbers back that up His expected era at baseball savants was 4.92 So I wouldn't put a lot of stock in the surface level numbers for Panetta because they were fluky His two starts in the minors did not go well either He had a 14% strikeout rates They 7% walk rate a lot of fly balls rough results Now he comes back up and has to face the Yankees, which is a pretty tough assignment I know they're not like they haven't been great this year, but like they've been good enough for sure So I think we should acknowledge that Panetta was good last year But I'm still on board a sacking against him here and honestly thinking more about it I should probably put the Yankees second Above the Giants Giants more of a contrarian tournament play, but the Yankees think better straight-up stacks We'll put the Yankees second live in game adjustments here on the solo shot with Panetta We do want to bump up lefties facing him They have a lower strikeout rates and better batted ball numbers against him, which makes Anthony Rizzo pretty obvious play And yes, I am okay with Joey Gallo who has been hideous Absolutely atrocious to open the year, but he's expected well as 364, which means he probably should snap out of it soon We'll see if he can do it here I agree it's been bad and it does not been fun, but I think he's at least worth taking a look at for today Because of Panetta's struggles because the low strikeout nature We'll see go deep Joey. Don't make me look too stupid things to watch it for this Thursday Slate I've been at least interested in both sides of the O's and the A's O's get Paul Blackburn, A's get Tyler Wells, neither guy gets strikeouts That's why we're at least interested here But they both get more ground balls than I'd like in terms of stacking plus neither offense really one you want to get Too excited about so that's why I'm merely interested rather than actively looking to stack this game Other thing to note here is the twins could Zach Renke not super into them A Grenke does a good job of suppressing hard contact He has let up a bit more loud contact this year though in a small sample It's a 49% hard hit rate through two starts strikeout rate is 2% that's not a typo 2% So I wouldn't stack against him on a full slate because I think he's good It's still a suppressing hard contact, but they're at least work at least worth at least worth looking into given Some of the issues that Grenke has had so Twins consideration not super jazz to get there, but I'd rank them Probably fourth above the O's and the A's and behind our top three stacks for the day Let's finish up here with our home run calls for this Thursday the boring one I think this counts as boring but Brandon belts facing off against Carlos Carrasco belt has been Smacking the poop out of the ball so far this year City field is bad in general, but it's not terrible for home runs wind blowing out I think that belt makes a lot of sense for a ding or pick for today The fun one will be Joey Gallo. Maybe those two should be flipped. I don't really know honestly Gallo's plus 360 to go deep over a fan of a sportsbook. So maybe he's not that fun, but He's a bad this year. So betting on a bad player We get the the good player is fun or boring with Brandon belts the bad player is fun with Joey Gallo So we'll go with that as our home run calls for today That is all that we have here on the solo shot once again I want to give a big thank you in advance to Tom Beck you at Austin Swain for filling in for me While I have out for the next couple weeks Commons on Twitter at DFS underscore Tom Austin is a swing three on Twitter check them out there to get notifications as we go up each and every weekday And also again subscribe to the number fire daily fantasy podcast feed to get that podcast right as it is posted If you got questions for me, I'm not gonna answer them for the next two weeks But you can find me on Twitter at Jim Sonnis and J. I am s a and and yes You can also follow the fan dual podcast network at fan dual podcast if you want to see some cheese And wine I guess you can follow me. I don't know maybe I'll tweet some of that out either way I'll be there on Twitter at Jim Sonnis big. Thank you once again to everyone for tuning in and good luck to you Not just today, but also for the next two weeks. We'll talk to you once again in early May for more MLB DFS This has been the solo shot right here on the fan dual podcast network