World
Anti-abortion Policy Could Save Russia’s Population
By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh
Russia, the largest country in the world by area, has a population of 147.2 million, according to the population census.
In the 2021 census, it was said that roughly 81% of the population were ethnic Russians, and 19% of the population were ethnic minorities. Demographers say Russia has become increasingly reliant on immigration to maintain its population. Russia’s population is increasingly decreasing since the start of its invasion of neighbouring Ukraine in late February 2022.
The demographic crisis has deepened primarily due to high military fatalities while simultaneously facing renewed brain drain and human capital flight caused by Western mass sanctions imposed on the country. In March 2023, The Economist reported that “Over the past three years the country has lost around 2 million more people than it would ordinarily have done, as a result of the war in Ukraine, and streaming exodus.”
Despite amazing potential conditions available in this huge territory, Russia has been experiencing oscillating patterns of population since the collapse of the Soviet era. After the Soviet break up, Russia has witnessed ‘back and forth’ with its demographic situation, even state policies that were adopted could not support an increased population over the years.
Russia is considered a religious country, and yet abortion rates are high. Understandably, abortion is legal and, therefore, it has had a negative impact on population growth. The economic situation has not encouraged families to have beyond a child, thus it is more or less a one-child policy. Now, Russia’s war with Ukraine is taking a heavy toll on the population too. There are claims of hundreds of thousands of male soldiers already killed at the war-front, as a result, has created single families in the country.
Official Russian Statistics
Demography figures could be staggering. But in August 2023, the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) said the natural population in Russia slowed by 29% in January-June 2023 compared with the same period of 2022, to 272,500 from 383,800.
The number of births fell 3% to 616,200 from 635,200 and the number of deaths 12.8% to 888,700 from 1,019,000. Natural population decrease in 2022 was down 42.5% in comparison with 2021, to 599,616 from 1,042,675.
As a result, by the beginning of 2023 Russia’s population excluding official statistics for the Donetsk People’s Republic, the Lugansk People’s Republic, and the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, had fallen to 146.4 million, from 147 million at the start of 2022.
In addition, Russia’s Federal State Statistics Service said on November 10 that 1,305,513 persons died over nine months of 2023, and concretely 507,131 divorces were registered this year. According to statistics, the total number of unemployed in Russia in September amounted to 2.3 mln people. These figures were also reported by the state media, Tass News Agency.
Russia’s Federal Migration Service (FMS) has its narratives on trends of immigrants, especially young Russians escaping military mobilization, and well-talented specialists and professionals looking for greener pastures abroad. These specialists and professionals are highly dissatisfied with the current political situation in the country, and consistently exiting to Europe and the United States.
What are the pathways out of this dilemma?
Patriarch Kirill, of Moscow and All of Russia, in Sept. 2023 signed an open public petition for the adoption of an anti-abortion law in the Russian Federation. The text of the petition has been discussed and agreed with the Patriarchal Commission for Family Matters and the Protection of Motherhood and Childhood.
Its authors stand against abortions, which they describe as a legal murder of unborn children. They demand amendments to the legislation and recognition of a conceived embryo to be a human creature whose life, health and well-being should be protected by law.
The petition’s authors come categorically against any surgical or medical-induced termination of pregnancy. They believe that pregnant women and families with children should receive material aid, the size of which should not be below the minimal subsistence level, from the state budget.
By mid-August, the activists from the Pro-Life all-Russia social movement had gathered the one-millionth signature in support of the legal ban on abortion. The Patriarch said that the Church considers abortion to be a sin and its position is to support the growth of the population.
Now in November 2023, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia finally and strictly demanded that induced terminations of pregnancies be removed from services provided by private and public clinics, healthcare institutions and hospitals throughout the Russian Federation. The head of the Russian church also added that a resolute revision of demographic policy is a strong condition for the survival of modern Russia.
Demography and its Implications for Russia’s economy
It is often said that Russia lacks a sufficient number of migrants to fulfil its ambitious development plans. Despite various official efforts, including regular payment of maternal capital to stimulate birth rates and regulating migration policy to boost population, Russia is reportedly experiencing a decreasing population. In the past, government efforts to re-populate the Far East also proved futile, incapable of producing any useful results in the Far East. Seemingly, most economic projects have shifted to Chinese who are actively undertaking production there in the region. The Far East region is a colossal region with a small population but huge untapped economic potential and attracting the Chinese.
According to analysts interviewed for this article pointed out that Moscow has remained unfriendly towards foreign immigrants, especially those from the former Soviet republics. Nevertheless, the analysts suggested that these huge human resources could be used in the vast agricultural fields to boost domestic agricultural production. On the contrary, the Federal Migration Service has deported these illegal migrants from Russia. Due to short-sightedness, Russian authorities simply don’t see the need to legalize them, or facilitate steps to obtain legal documents.
The government can ensure that steady improvements are consistently made with the strategy of legalizing (regulating legal status) and redeploying the available foreign labour, the majority from the former Soviet republics rather than deporting back to their countries of origin. There are an estimated four million undocumented immigrants from the ex-Soviet states in Russia.
Russian analysts told me during several interviews that Russia has encouraged or even forced people in occupied or annexed regions to become Russian citizens, a procedure known as passportization. This includes the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts of Ukraine, and South Ossetia and Abkhazia in Georgia. But these would not help Russia’s population to any large degree. Rather, the country needs an immigration policy plus other topmost population support measures.
On the other hand and for the past few years, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin has also been credited for transforming the city into a very neat and smart modern one, thanks partly to foreign labour – an invaluable reliable asset – performing excellently in maintaining cleanliness and on the large-scale construction sites, and so also in various micro-regions on the edge or outskirts of Moscow.
It is, however, necessary to recall here that President Vladimir Putin has already approved a list of instructions aimed at reforming the migration requirements and the institution of citizenship in Russia based on the proposals drafted by the working group for implementation of the State Migration Policy Concept of the Russian Federation for 2019-2025.
“Within the framework of the working group for implementation of the State Migration Policy Concept of the Russian Federation for 2019-2025, the Presidential Executive Office of the Russian Federation shall organize work aimed at reforming the migration requirements and the institution of citizenship of the Russian Federation,” an official statement posted to Kremlin website.
In addition, the president ordered the Government, the Interior and Foreign Ministries, the Federal Security Service (FSB), and the Justice Ministry alongside the Presidential Executive Office to make amendments to the plan of action for 2019-2021, aimed at implementing the State Migration Policy Concept of the Russian Federation for 2019-2025.
By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh
One year after launching a continental initiative designed to make excellence in public governance the foundation of a new drive to transform Africa, LEAD, the Africa CEO Forum’s pan-African leadership programme, takes stock of its first cohort and announces the launch of its second class. Built around a community of senior public decision-makers committed to modernising the state and to the continent’s digital transformation, this new cohort gathers for three days, from 28 to 30 August 2026, on the campus of Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) in Rabat, Morocco.
A second cohort that confirms the programme’s durability
For its second class, LEAD brings together 50 fellows, senior public decision-makers engaged in the design and implementation of the continent’s economic and social policies. Over three days, participants take part in collective and collaborative working sessions, peer exchanges and meetings with figures from the public, business and academic spheres, in order to compare their practices and build shared responses to the major challenges of governance.
Speakers include Mehdi Jomaa, former Head of Government of Tunisia, Donald Kaberuka, Managing Partner & Founder, SouthBridge Group, and former President of the African Development Bank, Serge Ekue, President of the West African Development Bank (BOAD), Sanjay Jain, co-creator of India Stack and Director of Digital Public Infrastructure, Gates Foundation, and Mauricio Cardenas, Professor of Professional Practice in Global Leadership, Columbia SIPA, and former Finance Minister of Colombia (2012-2018).
They share their reform experience, their public policy trade-offs and their view of continental priorities. Throughout the programme, the cohort benefits from the dedicated support of Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Asafo & Co, BOAD, BCG and the African Development Bank, LEAD partners that have chosen to invest in the transformation of African public action.
LEAD, a pan-African community serving public action
Created by the AFRICA CEO FORUM, LEAD is a leadership programme whose ambition is to reposition Africa’s administrative elite as a driver of reform, of performance and of dialogue with all the continent’s stakeholders.
Designed for senior African public decision-makers, LEAD sets out to build a lasting community of public officials able to share their experience, compare their practices and build common solutions to the major economic, technological and institutional transformations under way in Africa. That community is structured around three pillars: modernizing the state, improving public services, and strengthening cooperation between governments, development institutions and private-sector players.
From fellows to alumni: a long-term initiative
Made up of 36 fellows drawn from a range of administrations and institutions and representing 24 countries across the continent, LEAD’s first cohort demonstrated the quality and the potential of this community from its very first year. In less than twelve months, six of its members have taken a significant step forward: two have been appointed ministers, two have moved into strategic positions at the highest level of the state and two have been promoted to chief executive roles. These moves, which account for 16.7% of the first class, show the role LEAD plays as an accelerator of impact within African administrations.
By bringing together a new cohort of fellows every year, each of them joining the LEAD alumni community, the initiative follows a long-term trajectory: in time, to unite several hundred African public decision-makers around a shared culture of transparency, performance and regional cooperation.
A first year devoted to public service and digital public infrastructure
Throughout the year, the fellows devoted their work to strengthening African public action, to make excellence in public governance a central lever of transformation. An awareness campaign, run as part of Africa Public Service Day, brought to light those who, within the continent’s administrations and institutions, are concretely transforming public policy and improving the services offered to citizens.
Members of the cohort also took part in a special round table held in Kigali during the ACF 2026, in order to carry their thinking to a wider community of public and private leaders. That forum reinforced LEAD’s role as a platform for dialogue between the administrative elite and the continent’s economic players. Digital public infrastructure (DPI) formed the main thread of this first year of work.
Discussions covered issues at the heart of the digital sovereignty of African states: digital identity, payments, secure data exchange, interoperability, governance and the protection of citizens. This work examined the conditions under which African states are developing, in some cases, and can develop, in others, shared, open infrastructure robust enough to improve the quality of public services while supporting local innovation and preserving the capacity of public authorities to set the rules of the game.
A white paper to move from consuming technology to creating value
This year of work concludes with the publication, in collaboration with BCG, LEAD’s Knowledge Partner, of a white paper on Africa’s place in the digital economy and in artificial intelligence. With the digital economy still accounting for around 5% of African GDP, against close to 15% worldwide, the paper calls on the continent to shift from a logic of technology consumption to one of value creation.
The white paper identifies three structuring priorities for African public actors:
- Building shared digital infrastructure that serves as the backbone of public services and private innovation.
- Pooling investment in order to reach critical mass and avoid the fragmentation of efforts across the continent.
- Favouring open and interoperable architectures, with trust and governance built in by design, so as to protect citizens while stimulating the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
The white paper is available here to all public decision-makers, technical partners and institutions concerned.
“LEAD’s first cohort confirms a simple conviction: Africa already has the women and men capable of profoundly transforming public action. Our responsibility, either with our partners, is to give them, at pan-African level, a space in which to compare experience, build common solutions and bring forward a new generation of public policy. With this second cohort, we want to accelerate the move from ambition to execution, in particular on digital public infrastructure and artificial intelligence, two decisive issues for sovereignty, for the effectiveness of the state and for value creation across the continent,” says Amir Ben Yahmed, President of the Africa CEO Forum.
By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh
Africa is set to make history as it hosts the World Public Summit for the first time, with Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, welcoming global leaders and changemakers from July 29–30, 2026, for the landmark gathering under the theme “New World: Africa in Shaping a Shared Future.”
The inaugural African edition of the World Public Summit marks a significant milestone in the continent’s growing role in shaping international dialogue on governance, sustainable development, human-centred leadership and global cooperation.
Hosted by the World Peoples Assembly in partnership with African and international organisations, the summit will convene government officials, diplomats, business leaders, academics, journalists, youth representatives, civil society organisations and cultural leaders from across Africa and around the world.
According to Andrey Belyaninov, General Secretary of the World Peoples Assembly, “the Summit is not just a meeting—it is a space for unity. A space where the ‘values that unite us’ come to life: respect for people, openness to the world, responsibility for the future, and a commitment to creation.
“Today, we understand more clearly than ever: the future cannot be built alone. It is born in dialogue, in trust, in the ability to listen to one another and to act together.”
The programme begins on July 29 with a series of high-level roundtables and expert discussions covering Pan-African economic integration, civil society, education, scientific cooperation, cultural diplomacy and humanitarian partnerships.
The opening plenary, “Values, Development and Partnership as the Basis of a Sustainable and Just World,” will explore how African values—including Ubuntu—can help shape a more inclusive and sustainable global future. Discussions will also focus on youth leadership, innovation, civil society, ethical AI, public initiatives and international partnerships.
The summit will also showcase Africa’s creativity and innovation through the “Innovations for the Future” exhibition, the contemporary African art exhibition “Unity,” and the international exhibition “The World Paints Happiness.”
Another featured initiative is “The Zambezi River: Economy, Society, Soul,” an international interdisciplinary project exploring the river’s socioeconomic importance across Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, highlighting the shared heritage and development potential of one of Africa’s most important waterways.
The event will conclude with the adoption of the African Communiqué, reflecting the summit’s shared vision for stronger international cooperation, sustainable development and people-centred leadership.
Tsegaye Chama, General Secretary of the Global Black Centre, promised that, “The Summit will be delivered with exceptional distinction, reflecting the magnitude and spirit of the World Peoples Assembly. It embodies a unity that is not transactional, but purposeful and conscious, a unity that shapes new contours for a world that works for all peoples of the World.”
As delegates prepare to arrive in Addis Ababa, anticipation continues to build for what promises to be one of Africa’s most significant international gatherings of 2026—one that will place the continent firmly at the centre of global conversations about the future.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigeria regained its position as Africa’s leading destination for equity startup investment in the first half of 2026, raising $214 million in equity financing and a total of $254 million across equity and debt, according to the latest Africa: The Big Deal report.
The report, titled H1 2026: Mapping the Money, showed that Nigeria ranked second on the continent in total funding, behind Egypt, which attracted $327 million, while Kenya and South Africa followed with $126 million and $83 million, respectively.
However, the report noted that Egypt’s top position was largely driven by a single fundraising by electric mobility company Spiro, which secured $327 million, including $270 million in equity and $57 million in debt. Excluding debt financing, Nigeria emerged as Africa’s largest equity funding market in the first six months of the year.
According to the breakdown by Africa: The Big Deal, Nigeria’s equity funding of $214 million was higher than Egypt’s $183 million, while South Africa and Kenya attracted $66 million and $46 million, respectively.
Beyond funding value, Nigeria also led the continent in the number of startups that raised at least $100,000 during the review period, reclaiming the top spot after what the report described as an “underwhelming” second half of 2025.
The publication observed that Nigeria’s fundraising performance has remained relatively stable over the past few years and exceeded the $250 million mark for the first time since 2022, pointing to renewed investor confidence in the country’s startup ecosystem.
It also found that while the Big Four startup markets—Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya and South Africa—continued to dominate Africa’s investment landscape, their combined share of total funding stood at 58 per cent in the first half of 2026.
“Zooming back on the Big Four (110 out of 190 $100k+ deals, i.e. 58%), Nigeria is head and shoulders above its peers, with Egypt and Kenya almost tying, and South Africa in fourth position again,” the report noted.
The report highlighted contrasting performances among the continent’s largest startup ecosystems. While Nigeria and Egypt maintained strong funding momentum, Kenya recorded its weakest funding performance since early 2021 after a strong second half of 2025, and South Africa failed to attract $100 million in funding during the period despite leading the continent a year earlier.
Africa: The Big Deal also noted a broader shift in investor behaviour, with funding increasingly concentrated in larger transactions while early-stage investments continued to decline. According to the publication, the drop in smaller funding rounds reflects growing concerns about limited capital available for early-stage startups across Africa.
