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Conference touts homegrown solutions for Africa’s challenges

05 Dec 2017
Financial Nigeria

Summary

Célestin Monga, Vice-President, Economic Governance and Knowledge Management, at the African Development Bank, called for greater focus on addressing the economic loss caused by institutional inefficiencies and incompetence.

Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Vera Songwe

To achieve structural transformation, Africa must look for solutions that originate in the continent and learn from its own experience. This was the consensus among development experts, policy researchers and senior government officials at the 12th African Economic Conference (AEC), which opened on Monday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Delivering the keynote address, Richard Joseph, Professor at Northwestern University, underscored why bold policy interventions must emanate from Africa. “In Africa, this is the time for relative autonomy in dealing with policy issues,” he said.

He spoke against the backdrop of the rising tide of nationalistic regimes around the world and the weakening of institutions and trade agreements that had underpinned the post-World War II global order.  

The Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia, Hailemariam Desalegn, advocated for strong democratic states with zero tolerance for corruption and mechanisms for wealth-sharing.
 
“Conferences such as this are important in order to learn from experience and adapt practices to each country’s socio-economic conditions. There are no specific policy templates that work everywhere,” he stressed.

Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Vera Songwe, called on leaders, economists and policymakers to “look beyond the standard indicators of good governance.
 
“There is a growing consensus that African countries require a more conducive governance environment for them to be able to pursue better public policies and ultimately to achieve better outcomes, including structural transformation and inclusive development,” she said.
 
Célestin Monga, Vice-President, Economic Governance and Knowledge Management, at the African Development Bank (AfDB), called for greater focus on addressing the economic loss caused by institutional inefficiencies and incompetence.
 
Monga stressed how corruption endangers economic growth, but pointed to the 30% loss due to lack of strong institutions, noting how difficult it is to address this when people are hungry.  
 
Experts agree that notwithstanding overall improvement in governance especially in human development and political participation, the African region’s performance still lags behind other regions and hampers the successful reorientation of its economic activities.
 
“Maintaining growth of 5% should be seen as a favourable development. There have been setbacks, but Africa is gradually getting governance right,” said Lamin M. Manneh, Director of the UNDP Regional Service Centre for Africa, on behalf of Abdoulaye Mar Dieye, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Director of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa.
 
Co-organized by the AfDB, UNDP, and ECA under the theme “Governance for structural transformation”, this year’s conference focuses on the achievement of structural transformation in Africa with an emphasis on developmental governance.
 
The AEC provides an opportunity for participants to assess the impact of current economic and political governance strategies on economic transformation, poverty, inequality and human development in Africa.


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