Statement by Mr. Abdoulie Janneh, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ECA

22 March 2012
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Mr. Chairman
Dr. Maxwell Mkwezalamba, Commissioner of Economic Affairs of the AU
Representative of the Government of Ethiopia
Excellencies
Distinguished Delegates
Ladies and Gentlemen

I am pleased to welcome you to Addis Ababa for this 5th meeting of the Committee of Experts of the African Union Conference of Ministers of Economy and Finance and the ECA Conference of Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development.

This meeting continues to occupy an important place in the annual calendar of meetings as the place where the expert point of view on key topics in Africa’s development agenda is formulated. This year we are fortunate to be holding the first major meeting in this magnificent AU Conference Centre after it was formally opened for use during the January 2012 African Union Summit.

This edifice symbolizes in many ways the unfolding story of our continent. Although our “Overview of Economic and Social Conditions” shows that overall growth in the continent was 2.7% in 2011, down from nearly 4.6% in 2010, this was mostly due to the political upheavals in North Africa. The rest of the continent, in spite of drought and associated challenges, grew at about the same level as the previous year. This respectable performance continued to be derived from increasing domestic demand, good economic management, high and rising commodity prices. However, the experience of North Africa goes to show that these factors are not enough and that improved governance remains central to economic and social transformation.

Africa’s growth performance is all the more remarkable in the face of continued global economic uncertainty occasioned by the sovereign debt crisis in the eurozone, huge global imbalances, high unemployment and widespread social unrest triggered by the pains of adjustment and fiscal retrenchment. Moreover, we cannot ignore the reality that Africa continues to face numerous challenges. Poverty and inequality continue to be very much part of the social and economic fabric of African countries and the spectre of high food and fuel prices is again with us at a time of possible drought and famine in the Sahel. African countries also have very close trade, monetary, aid, and investment ties with Europe and will certainly be negatively affected by further deterioration of conditions in the eurozone.

In spite of these well known facts, it is evident that given its improved prospects and the extent of its untapped potentials, Africa provides an opportunity for the world as a place where investments can be made to boost demand and help to reduce global imbalances. Thus our theme this year – Unleashing Africa’s Potential as a Pole of Global Growth. Of course, in order to successfully achieve this objective, our continent must rise to meet its domestic, regional and global challenges and undertake carefully calibrated policy responses and actions. These considerations continued to guide ECA’s work over the past one year.

To start with, we must have a clear vision of where Africa should be headed and build the necessary capacity to accompany the process of development and transformation. This is why the African Institute for Economic Development and Planning (IDEP) has been the locus of our efforts to rapidly scale-up capacity needs planning and development management and I am pleased to report that the UN General Assembly signaled strong support for our efforts by tripling the statutory allocation to the Institute in these austere times. In a similar context, and following up on last year’s discussion of ‘Governing Development in Africa’ we have been assisting several member States to restore planning frameworks. The panel discussion on Africa 2050 during the Ministerial session will lend further momentum to this process.

Mr. Chairman

The Millennium Development Goals remain a vital objective for our countries and we continue to monitor and track progress in the annual report produced with our partners, the current report shows that African countries are making steady progress across various areas. However, this is not enough as the year 2015 is almost upon us and the attainment of the goals remain central to Africa’s transformation agenda. Accordingly, we have been working on a post-2015 development agenda bearing in mind that the MDGs remain important and any new framework should take account of them by building on their strengths and addressing perceived inadequacies.

One particular area deserving of more attention is unemployment, especially of the youth. Positive growth rates have not been matched by increases in job creation and in some cases, youth employment is over 20%. This is a serious situation given that the youth are the bulk of Africa’s population and this concern has reflected in the technical paper we produced on youth employment policies for the consideration of African Labour Ministers. We also undertook policy research on social protection, especially from a gender-sensitive perspective.

The creation of more jobs will depend ultimately on increasing productive activities be it in agriculture, industry or services. Several activities were therefore taken over the last twelve months within the context of the AU-ECA-AfDB Land Policy Initiative. We are similarly obliged to invest efforts in upscaling education and skills acquisition that is relevant for the modern era. We accordingly launched the African eLearning Initiative and a number of science, technology and innovation networks in the course of last year. It is in the same context that we are giving pride of place to the award of the 2012 Innovation Prize for Africa during the Ministerial meeting.

All our best efforts in designing appropriate policies will need to be accompanied by financial resources if they are to have the desired impact, which is why we organized a highly successful forum on financing for development in May 2011. Domestic resource mobilization and remittances will be central in raising required resources for development but they will also need to be complemented by a redemption of the pledges to increase aid to Africa as well as a reduction in illicit financial outflows. I am pleased to report in this regard that the High Level Panel on this matter, which the Ministers mandated us to create last year has commenced work under the leadership of former President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa.

Permit me at this stage to repeat my firmly held belief that the successful attainment of Africa’s potential rests squarely on the implementation of its regional integration agenda. This will continue to require debate, transboundary cooperation and institutional strengthening. It will also mean unwavering adherence to our shared values, the process of which we continue to monitor and track through credible African led instruments like the APRM and the Mutual Review of Development Effectiveness co-published by ECA and OECD. The regional dimension of development remains critical for Africa as normative work and consensus building at this level also underpin harmonization of policies and the shared values agenda.

Flowing directly from such work is the implementation of programmes designed to overcome the numerous challenges that threaten the continent’s long-term prosperity such as the large infrastructure deficit and low level of intra-Africa trade. A concerted effort will be required to implement the Program for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) in a manner that supports the proposed Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) which was extensively deliberated upon by the January 2012 AU Summit on intra-Africa trade. The African Trade Policy Centre will continue to support the preparatory work for the establishment of the CFTA.

All our efforts at development will come to naught if they are not supported by international processes, which is why we worked very closely with partners to support African negotiators in the on-going climate change negotiations. The African Climate Policy Centre became fully operational and will assist member States in fashioning climate change policies. Moreover, we hosted the African Preparatory Meeting for Rio+20 here in Addis Ababa last October and are working closely with all stakeholders to prepare for the Conference proper this June. As deliberations at this meeting last year showed, Africa welcomes the concept of the Green Economy so long as we are supported in meeting costs and overcoming constraints.

The proper management of natural resources is closely related to the matter of sustainable development. As our continent continues its growth trajectory, it will be imperative to manage increasing materials intensity as well as resource rents from extractive industries. This was the reasoning behind the adoption of the African Mining Vision by the AU Summit in 2009 and which is also guiding the establishment of an African Minerals Development Centre at ECA this year. The 8th African Development Forum, taking place in October 2012 on “Governing and Harnessing Natural Resources for Africa’s Development” will lend momentum to this process.

The strategic use of partnerships continues to define our work and the last one year was no different. We nurtured and built on our special relationship with the AU and African Development Bank as attested to by the joint delivery of products and activities and the operationalization of our Joint Secretariat Support Office. Our relationship with the rest of the UN system similarly remains robust and the 2011 Regional Coordination Mechanism for Africa focused on capacity building in support of the AU, the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency and the Regional Economic Communities.

Our bilateral partnerships have really been a source of great support and encouragement and it would be remiss if I do not single out Canada, Denmark, the European Union, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom for special mention due to the scale and constancy of their support for the ECA 2010 to 2012 Business Plan, which was closely aligned to the AU 2009 to 2012 Strategic Plan. We also salute the United States’ re-engagement with ECA. We will be starting another Business Plan cycle later on this year and I am optimistic that we can continue to count on the support of these and other partners for similar success down the road. In a related context, we welcome the outcome of the 4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness held in Busan, as a meaningful contribution to efforts to reshape the nature of development cooperation.

Let me end my re-affirming my firm belief in Africa’s prospects as well as in the ability of this gathering of Africa’s leading finance and development experts, through its deliberations to help chart the course as we all strive to build an Africa that takes its rightful place in global affairs and contributes its quota to global development.

I wish you successful deliberations, thank you for your kind attention.