Discuss Africa’s development while we act, & act while we discuss – Meles tells economic conference

The annual Conference of African Ministers responsible for Finance, Economy, Planning and Economic Development opened today in Addis Ababa with an urgent call from the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Mr. Meles Zenawi, for more concrete action on the ground as discussions continue on the subject of sustainable development across the continent. It is the fourth of such joint meetings held under the auspices of the African Union and the economic Commission for Africa (ECA).

In an open call for rapid action, Meles told the some 600 delegates, including about 60 African ministers , that “the debate on a new development paradigm centered on the concept of a developmental State is welcome and long overdue” for Africa, according to the Information and Communications Service (ICS) of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).

Most of the seven speakers at the high level opening session praised the choice of the theme of this year’s conference for its relevance and pertinence to the present context of development in Africa, The theme of the Conference is “Governing Development in Africa: The Role of the State in Economic Transformation.”

In the keynote address of the opening session, Mr. Meles warned participants that it was high time issues of developmental State and “alternative development paradigms were discussed by our Ministers”, before throwing some light on the neo-liberal paradigm, which, he said, had not taken African development far.

He argued that “the neo-liberal paradigm has got Africa’s development wrong both in terms of understanding the source of the underlying problem and the solution it prescribes.”

Earlier, UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Secretary of ECA, Mr. Abdoulie Jenneh, underscored progress African countries have made for the last three consecutive years

He said that despite the poor state of the global economy, Africa managed to grow, on average, by 4.5 percent in 2010 up from 2.3 percent in 2009 and will most likely maintain a steady growth rate of about five percent in 2011.

But he pointed out that “this positive outlook will be affected by risks and uncertainties. Just like in Cote d’Ivoire and North Africa, political events will continue to impact on economic performance while the challenge of jobless growth remains.”

Several other high profile speakers addressed the opening session of the Conference, including Mr. Jean Ping, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission and Mr. Donald Kaberuka, the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB).

Finance Ministers and their colleagues of the Economy and Planning, Environment as well as those of Health will examine a wide range of recommendations tabled before them by the Conference of Experts which ended here yesterday.

On the principal theme of the Conference, the experts have urged African governments to promote developmental States that would “transform its political system from rent-seeking to a developmental one; restructure the economy to ensure sustained diversification of the production and export base; and restructure its bureaucratic incentives away from rent-seeking towards facilitative, pro-growth and pro-poor allocation of resources”.

They have also recommended that African countries mainstream the MDGs into their national development plans and strategies and to set up monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to ensure effective implementation.

Another recommendation under review by the ministers deals with enhancing UN support towards accelerating the implementation of the 10-Year Capacity Building Programme for the African Union and its New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) programme.

In this regard, the experts called on ECA and the African Union Commission (AUC) to ensure that the 10-Year Capacity Building Programme remains within the framework of the Regional Coordination Mechanisms (RCM) and the subregional Coordination Mechanisms.

Other recommendations touched on taxation systems, the harmonization of statistics in Africa, gender mainstreaming and the empowerment of women, climate change and development in Africa, health financing in Africa, enhancing science and technology, the illicit financial flows in Africa, as well as the strengthening of the African Institute for Economic Planning and Development (IDEP), an ECA initiative.

This year’s ministerial Conference will include the launch of the 2011 edition of the Economic Report on Africa (ERA2011), one of the flagship publications of ECA, which addresses the role of the state in economic structural transformation. It is a widely awaited report which includes an analytical appraisal of economic performance of the continent for the past year and expert projections for the coming years.

 

SOURCE

ECA Information and Communication Service

 

This article was originally posted on Sustainable Development Africa Platform

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