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Subject: Africa: African Development Forum


> Africa: African Development Forum
> Date distributed (ymd): 991012
> Document reposted by APIC
>
> +++++++++++++++++++++Document Profile+++++++++++++++++++++
>
> Region: Continent-Wide
> Issue Areas: +economy/development+
> Summary Contents:
>
> This posting contains a speech in South Africa to the African
> Renaissance Insitute by Economic Commission for Africa
> Executive Secretary Dr. K. Y. Amoako, discussing the African
> Development Forum that will take place in Addis Ababa on
> October 24-29, 1999.
>
> For more information on the forum and archives of the on-line
> discussion that preceded the forum, see:
> http://www.un.org/depts/eca/adf or
> http://www.bellanet.org/adf
>
> President Thabo Mbeki's speech on the same occasion is in a
> separate posting also sent out today.
>
> +++++++++++++++++end profile++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
> The African Development Forum -
> Dialogue for the African Renaissance
>
> Address by
>
> Dr. K.Y. Amoako,
> Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa
>
> On the occasion of the inauguration of the African Renaissance
> Institute
>
> Pretoria, South Africa
> Monday 11 October 1999
>
> For more information:
> Peter K.A. da Costa
> Senior Communication Adviser
> Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)
> United Nations
> P.O. Box 3001 (official mail)
> Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
> Tel: +251-1-51 58 26
> Cell: +251-9-20 17 94
> Fax: +251-1-51 03 65
> E-Mail: [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]
> Web: http://www.un.org/depts/eca
>
> Your Excellency Mr. Thabo Mbeki, President of the Republic of
> South Africa
>
> Your Excellencies, Former African Heads of State and
> Government
>
> Your Excellency Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim, Secretary-General of
> the Organization of African Unity
>
> Ambassador Kapembe Nsingo, Executive President of the African
> Renaissance Institute
>
> Distinguished Guests
>
> Ladies and Gentlemen
>
> I am pleased to be with you here in Pretoria today, on this
> important occasion of the inauguration of the African
> Renaissance Institute. It is an honour for me personally, and
> for the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), to address this
> gathering. I would like to thank the Institute for inviting me
> to speak. This is a most timely initiative, and one that
> resonates well with our shared vision of a better future for
> Africa's peoples as articulated by President Thabo Mbeki. I
> would like to pay tribute for his leadership and for the
> eloquence with which he has promoted this vision.
>
> Chairperson
>
> You have asked me to speak on the subject: "The African
> Development Forum - Dialogue for the African Renaissance". As
> I will relate to you shortly, the African Development Forum,
> or ADF process, has been initiated by the Economic Commission
> for Africa (ECA) and its partners as a means of fostering
> home-grown and African-owned solutions to our development
> challenges. We see the ADF as an important tool for concretely
> moving forward with the vision of an African renaissance. But
> before going into detail about the ADF, let me first say a few
> words about the socio-economic dimensions of our renaissance
> challenge.
>
> Mr. President, in Sun City in 1995, you stated -- and you have
> repeated here today -- that the new century must be Africa's
> century. Indeed, how can we claim the 21st Century for
> Africa's children? To do so will require that we meet certain
> key goals within the next three decades:
>
> - Today, four out of 10 Africans live below the poverty line,
> on barely one dollar a day. The goal must be to eradicate
> absolute poverty from the continent.
>
> - Today, at least 30 percent of Africans have no access to
> medical services, while more than 40 percent of the population
> lack access to safe water. The goal must be to ensure
> healthcare for all, as well as universal access to water and
> sanitation.
>
> - Today, one out of every four African children does not go to
> school. Sixteen countries have enrolment rates of less than
> 60%. The goal must be to ensure that every African child has
> access to quality education.
>
> - Today, 14 of the 20 lowest ranked countries in terms of the
> gender development index are in Africa. The goal must be to
> address gender disparities by removing the constraints that
> impede women from reaching their full potential.
>
> - Today, Africans can only expect to live for 51 years, an
> average which is declining because of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
> The goal must be to raise Africa's life expectancy, to bring
> it in line with that of the developed countries.
>
> - Today, high population growth rates have led to rapid
> environmental deterioration and undermined agricultural
> productivity. The goal must be to achieve a harmonious balance
> between population growth and food production, and better
> stewardship of the environment.
>
> - Today, more than 20 percent of Sub-Saharan Africa's
> population is affected by civil war. The goal must be to
> ensure durable peace and sustainable development by addressing
> the root causes of conflict, including poverty and deep-seated
> inequalities.
>
> - Today, with 53 countries demarcated by 165 borders, Africa
> is the most divided continent. The goal must be to promote
> regional cooperation and integration, and to make the African
> Economic Community a reality.
>
> - Today, Africa is the most marginalized continent in terms of
> its global finance and trade. The goal must be to enhance
> Africa's international competitiveness so that we can become
> an equal player on the global scene.
>
> Chairperson
>
> This renaissance is not a mirage. Indeed, the groundwork for
> change has been partly laid. There is a wide recognition of
> the problems we face, and a greater consensus within Africa on
> the overall direction for the future. As a result of the new
> thinking, recent years have seen tangible progress made by
> many countries in reforming their economies, and in putting in
> place the requisite enabling environment to bring about
> equitable growth and poverty reduction. This has resulted in
> very encouraging growth rates over the last five years --
> Africa's best economic performance since the late 1970s.
>
> Yet these accomplishments cannot be assumed to mean that the
> aggregate African economy has crossed the critical threshold
> to self-sustaining poverty reduction. To make our vision a
> reality, we need to recognize that poverty is
> multidimensional, and that its reduction is a long-term effort
> requiring sustained capacities in the delivery of essential
> social services. Macroeconomic stability and structural
> reforms are also essential to move to a higher path of
> sustained growth. Broad based participation of civil society
> and strengthened governance, including improved budgetary
> management and public accountability, are equally important to
> the implementation of an effective anti-poverty strategy.
>
> Harnessing our storehouse of intellectual talent and
> expertise, be it on the continent or in the Diaspora, is
> critical to meeting these challenges. President Mbeki put it
> eloquently when he said at Midrand in August 1998 that
> "Africa's renewal demands that her intelligentsia must immerse
> itself in the titanic and all-round struggle to end poverty,
> disease and backwardness".
>
> So what strategies should we employ to enhance the role of
> research in promoting African development? What if we were to
> create a network of networks, which links regional research
> institutions and universities as a means of strengthening
> quality, cost-effectiveness and inter-disciplinary knowledge,
> through broad information sharing between knowledge-producing
> centers? What if we set out strategies to strengthen
> mechanisms through which analytical work from African research
> networks and universities impacts on public policy decisions
> and activities of civil society? And what if we could
> simultaneously identify strategic studies needed to address
> urgent development issues?
>
> At the Economic Commission for Africa, working with a number
> of partner organizations, we are helping to network African
> centers of expertise. This involves building a web of
> professional networks and centers of excellence to strengthen
> the impact and cost-effectiveness of knowledge-producing
> research networks and universities.
>
> In seeking to harness Africa's talent to design innovative
> solutions to our development problems, we at the ECA are
> mindful of the fact that no single institution can act in
> isolation. Indeed, we consider partnerships to be critical to
> achieving optimal impact in the region. It is in this spirit
> of partnership that we reach out to the African Renaissance
> Institute. We welcome the Institute's noble goals, and we
> share its objectives. As such, we pledge to work closely with
> the Institute in tapping the wealth of expertise that our
> continent holds. We look forward to developing concrete
> modalities to drive this nascent partnership forward.
>
> Chairperson
>
> ECA's partnership approach is enhanced by its dual role as the
> regional arm of the United Nations in Africa, and at the same
> time an important member of the African institutional
> landscape, in concert with the Organization of African Unity
> and the African Development Bank. This allows us to convene a
> wide cross-section of Africans and their partners to share
> perspectives on key development issues, and to forge common
> African positions. We have used this convening power to good
> effect in recent years. We have brought together African
> policy makers and private sector actors across the world
> around the issues of investment; we have rallied African
> finance and planning ministers around the question of debt;
> and we have provided the largest mainstream forum yet to
> mobilize action on empowering Africa's women.
>
> We are using this convening power as a key advocacy mechanism
> to strengthen interaction between public policy
> decision-makers and research networks and institutions,
> creating feedback loops between research, teaching, policy
> application and civic interests. This will enhance the
> understanding of African issues and promote African content of
> knowledge and demand-driven research of practical relevance.
>
> Our advocacy is underpinned by rigorous policy analysis and
> research into some of the key development issues. For
> example, in our latest Economic Report on Africa, we have
> developed a set of new indices to assess the policy outcomes
> and economic performance of individual African countries. The
> indices also rank countries on the basis on their progress in
> meeting the long-term development objectives of poverty
> reduction, and measure the consistency of short-run policy
> actions with stated long-term goals.
>
> Chairperson
>
> This brings me quickly to the theme of my address today, "the
> African Development Forum: A Dialogue for the Renaissance". I
> want to share with you this new process and how it can
> galvanize Africa's intellectual talent to promote an
> African-driven development agenda, and achieve a consensus on
> the priorities and strategies to meet specific goals. The ADF
> will present governments, civil society and other key
> stakeholders of Africa's development with the results of
> current research and analysis on these important development
> goals.
>
> The ADF is not an isolated event. Rather, it is a process that
> includes concrete mechanisms designed to ensure follow-up and
> to monitor the status of implementation of agreed actions at
> country level and regional level also. We consider networks of
> African researchers as key in the preparation of the technical
> and policy position papers around each year's theme.
>
> The ADF process and the priorities identified in each year's
> theme need the highest possible political support. We have
> seen many efforts fail in the past because they did not have
> the full backing of Africa's leadership, and we were very
> mindful of this when we set about to design the ADF process.
> We shall seek counsel and guidance from a forum of the Heads
> of State and Government.
>
> Chairperson
>
> This year's ADF, the inaugural Forum that we hope will become
> a seminal moment in the African development calendar, is being
> convened in Addis Ababa from 24 to 28 October 1999. The theme,
> "The Challenge to Africa of Globalisation and the Information
> Age" has been chosen as a millennium issue, a renaissance
> issue if you like, because of the importance of defining
> African-owned and African-led strategies to engage with the
> global information economy. Indeed, it is a theme that
> President Mbeki has articulated as one of the pillars of the
> renaissance. The ECA has long advocated the importance of such
> strategies in the context of the African Information Society
> Initiative (AISI), which we are implementing along with a wide
> range of partners.
>
> With its large rural population Africa represents the largest
> untapped market for new communications services. It also
> represents a major challenge to innovators who must identify
> and adapt products that will help Africa leapfrog some of its
> most fundamental development challenges.
>
> When we speak of leapfrogging, we envisage information
> technology solutions that will save lives by bringing medical
> knowledge and diagnosis to areas that are cut off from access
> to conventional health services; we are looking at distance
> education applications that will create virtual classrooms,
> thereby improving the access of young Africans to the
> knowledge that they so badly need to become agents of
> development; we foresee initiatives that will link our
> entrepreneurs with local, regional and global markets; we see
> prospects for improved governance, through enhanced access to
> communication and African media content.
>
> Examples of these sectoral applications are already available
> in many African countries. This first Forum will showcase some
> of these best practices and concrete examples. Profiles have
> been prepared on the status of information technology in all
> African countries, along with in-depth National Information
> and Communication Infrastructure plans for some 20 countries
> in Africa.
>
> As a key feature of the Forum, a panel of leading African
> policy researchers and analysts will examine the implications
> for their work of the emergence of the new technologies. They
> will also examine how applications can be tailored to enhance
> their own research.
>
> Your Excellencies
>
> Distinguished Guests
>
> South Africa is a leader in this field in the continent and
> the leadership of this country has fully embraced information
> technology as a driving force for development. As such, we
> have very much to learn from you. I am pleased to say that in
> preparation for the first ADF, we have been working very
> closely with the government of South Africa. I wish to take
> this occasion to extend my sincere gratitude to our South
> African partners for being so committed to the success of ADF.
> In particular, we are most grateful for the interest that
> President Mbeki has shown in the ADF process, for his
> commitment to its goals, and for his wise counsel.
>
> In closing, Mr. President, I wish to recall the story of the
> residents of the town of Dead Man's Creek in Mississippi. As
> told by you, every evening at 9pm, after watching the many
> images of wars, starvation, malnutrition, refugees, corruption
> and other African horrors on their TV screens, the residents
> of that town found it very difficult to reconcile such images
> with the vision of an African renaissance. They therefore
> concluded, amid much laughter, that African leaders like
> yourself who speak of an African renaissance must either be
> great comedians or, at the very least, must have a good sense
> of humour.
>
> Mr. President, I recently drove through Dead Man's Creek. The
> bad news is that they are still laughing at us. But the good
> news is that this laughter will stop one day soon. Why?
> Because you have succeeded in turning us all into rebels for
> the renaissance -- to use your phrase. With such leadership,
> with such a shared vision, and with a wealth of natural and
> human resources, Africa will claim the 21st century. Thank
> you.
>
> ************************************************************
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