“In our country, development is not your birthright—it is a presidential favour.” This striking observation by Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi captures a painful reality in many African states: economic opportunity often depends less on systems and institutions than on political patronage. Citizens may protest, petition, or vote, yet meaningful development frequently hinges on the goodwill of those in power.
It is precisely this reality that inspired my work on Solomonic Economics and the broader EVOLVE doctrine. The doctrine draws intellectual inspiration from the social justice tradition articulated in Rerum Novarum, the landmark encyclical of Pope Leo XIII, which emphasized the dignity of labour, the moral responsibilities of capital, and the need for societies to ensure just economic participation.
These principles remain strikingly relevant today. Africa’s challenge is no longer simply political freedom—it is the construction of economic systems that protect human dignity while enabling broad-based prosperity.
Across the continent, a quiet but consequential question is gaining urgency: why has political independence not translated into true economic sovereignty?
More than six decades after the wave of independence movements swept Africa, many nations remain trapped in cycles of debt dependency, corruption leakages, weak institutions, and limited citizen participation in economic decision-making. While democratic gains have been real, the economic architecture underpinning many African states remains fragile.
This is why it is the for an honest continental conversation about what I call Africa’s Third Economic Liberation.
The first liberation was political independence from colonial rule.
The second liberation was the democratic wave of the 1990s, when multi-party politics returned to much of the continent.
Yet neither phase fundamentally transformed the systems through which economic power is organized and distributed.
Economic justice for Kenya
The third liberation must therefore focus on economic justice, transparency, and citizen participation in the creation of national wealth. Development must be understood not merely as GDP growth but as freedom—freedom derived from access to the basic goods of life: food security, education, healthcare, and meaningful employment rooted in the dignity of work.
It is in this context that the EVOLVE doctrine emerges as a possible framework for Africa’s next chapter of development.
At its core lies Solomonic Economics—a justice-centred approach to economic governance that combines ethical public leadership with modern technological tools to reduce corruption, decentralise economic power, and empower citizens.
For decades, African states have largely operated within economic paradigms designed elsewhere: colonial extractive systems, Western market capitalism, or post-independence state socialism. Each framework has offered lessons, yet none has fully addressed the structural governance failures that continue to undermine development.
Solomonic Economics attempts to fill this gap by placing justice and accountability at the centre of economic design.
Today’s technological landscape offers tools that earlier generations of reformers could scarcely have imagined. Distributed ledger technologies such as blockchain, alongside innovations emerging from decentralised finance, enable the design of public finance systems in which transactions are transparent, traceable, and resistant to manipulation.
In practical terms, governments could implement digital public finance platforms that allow citizens to see how tax revenues are allocated and spent. Procurement contracts, development fund,s and welfare transfers could be recorded on open ledgers accessible to the public.
Such systems would not eliminate corruption entirely. However, they would dramatically narrow the space within which it thrives.
Inclusive radical transparency
The EVOLVE doctrine therefore proposes a radical transparency architecture for public finance—one that shifts governance from trust in political promises toward trust in open systems.
Equally critical is the question of citizen participation in economic decision-making.
Across Africa, national budgets are typically designed within ministries with limited direct input from the public. Yet development outcomes tend to be more sustainable when communities have a stake in how resources are allocated.
Digital governance platforms could enable citizens to participate directly in prioritising development investments in areas such as education, healthcare, water systems, food security, national identification systems and local infrastructure.
In parallel, new financial models could enable communities to collectively invest in productive assets—from agricultural processing facilities to renewable energy infrastructure—ensuring that citizens share in the economic value generated by development.
The EVOLVE vision is therefore not purely technological. It also draws from longstanding traditions of moral economic thinking. The social justice principles articulated by Pope Leo XIII emphasised the dignity of labour, the moral obligations of capital, and the responsibility of society to safeguard the poor.
In today’s digital economy, the convergence of ethical governance and technological transparency offers Africa a rare opportunity to redesign its institutions.
However, doctrines and theories alone do not transform societies. Ideas gain legitimacy only when tested in practice.
For EVOLVE to gain credibility, it must begin with practical economic prototypes.
Pilot programmes demonstrating transparent public finance systems, corruption-resistant procurement platforms, and citizen-driven budgeting could provide measurable evidence of what works. If even a single jurisdiction—such as a county government—were able to demonstrate meaningful reductions in financial leakages alongside improvements in service delivery, the implications would extend far beyond national borders.
Reform ideas often spread across Africa when tangible success stories emerge.
Need for intellectual infrastructure in Africa
To sustain such progress, Africa also requires a stronger intellectual infrastructure. An independent research institution dedicated to the study of Solomonic Economics could help develop policy frameworks, train public officials, and convene scholars and reformers from across the continent.
One proposal is the establishment of a Solomonic Institute of Advanced Studies within the planned Hekima University framework. Such an institution could collaborate with international partners, including development agencies and regional organizations, to explore how transparency-driven governance models might be adapted across diverse African contexts.
Ultimately, the objective is not to create another ideological label. Africa does not lack policy slogans. What the continent urgently needs are systems that align economic incentives with public accountability.
The EVOLVE doctrine, therefore, seeks to move the development conversation away from personalities and toward institutions—toward governance structures that make corruption harder to commit, development more participatory, and public resources more productive.
If Africa’s next development chapter is to succeed, it must be built on institutions that citizens trust and economic frameworks that distribute opportunity more broadly.
The Third Liberation will not emerge from rhetoric alone. It will come from the patient construction of transparent systems that allow citizens to see, influence, and benefit from the economies they sustain.
Africa’s future prosperity will depend less on discovering new resources than on designing better economic governance.
In that sense, the continent’s next liberation will not be fought on battlefields or in independence rallies. It will be achieved through the deliberate redesign of the institutions that govern economic life.
And that is the challenge this generation must now confront.
