AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK MEET IN MOROCCO.

*UN Report says Africa’s resources can fuel economic transformation; but growth must be broadened to reduce poverty, create more jobs*

Bloomberg/Businessweek, UN News Centre, AfDB (May 27, 2013) — African governments risk losing the economic gains they’ve made unless countries broaden the base of growth by educating poor children and creating jobs, said African Development Bank (AfDB) President Donald Kaberuka, as the AfDB’s 48th annual meetings began today in Marrakech, Morocco.

Some 2,500 participants are attending the five-day AfDB meetings — including heads of state, finance ministers, central bank governors, and other delegates – which are focused on the need for Africa to turn economic growth into truly shared and sustainable economic transformation in the next half century.

Setting the stage for the gathering, the African Economic Outlook 2013 report was released in Morocco today by the United Nations, AfDB, and its partners, stating that African countries must take full advantage of their agricultural, mining and energy natural resources to accelerate the pace of growth and ensure the process can benefit ordinary Africans. The new report stresses that this must be accompanied by inclusive social policies that seek to reduce inequality in the continent.

Countries that don’t bring more people into the economy may end up in a middle-income trap, in which productivity and income growth can stall as annual per capita incomes reach $5,000 to $10,000, Kaberuka said in an interview at the African Union summit in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. “Unless you broaden the base, you include more people, you actually get stuck,” he said on May 25.

Africa is the world’s second-most inequitable region after Latin America, the African Development Bank said in a report last year. In 2010, six out of the 10 most unequal countries worldwide were in southern Africa, the Tunis-based lender said. “The biggest single important thing to do to ensure inclusive growth is to make sure that the children of poor people end up in education,” Kaberuka said. “That is how you break the inter-generational transmission of poverty.”

Economic growth in Africa averaged 5.2 percent from 2003 to 2011, while average gross domestic product per capita on the continent stood at $3,025, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

“Now is the time to step up the tempo of economic transformation, so that African economies become more competitive and create more gainful jobs,” said the authors of the new African Economic Outlook, adding that “widening the sources of economic activity is fundamental to meeting this challenge.”

The report says the continent’s economic prospects for 2013 and 2014 are promising, with the economy projected to grow by 4.8 per cent the first year and accelerate further to 5.3 per cent the next. However, it emphasizes that economic growth alone will no be enough to reduce poverty, tackle persistent unemployment, and address income inequalities and deteriorating levels of health and education.

AfDB’s annual meeting in Marrakech will explore new ideas & set out concrete actions to help transform Africa’s economic boom into sustainable and inclusive growth. AfDB

“Growth is not enough,” said Mario Pezzini, Director at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Development Centre. “African countries must provide the right conditions for turning natural resources into jobs, optimise their resource revenues through smart taxation and help investors and locals to make the most of linkages.”

According to the new report, four key elements are necessary for inclusive growth. These consist of: creating the right conditions for transformation including infrastructure and the creation of more competitive markets; implementing more effective tax systems as well as improving land management; ensuring proceeds from natural resources are invested in projects that benefit civil society; and actively fostering economic diversification.

“Ultimately, transformation means opening opportunities so people can find jobs, create businesses, as well as invest in health, education and food security. In turn, higher levels of human development for all, including the most vulnerable, can accelerate the pace of economic transformation, leading to a virtuous cycle of growth and development,” the UN Development Programme (UNDP) said in a news release.

The UN report is produced annually by AfDB, UNDP, the Development Centre of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).

Failure to generate equitable growth could result in “a demographic disaster marked by rising levels of youth unemployment, social dislocation and hunger,” said former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who chairs the Africa Progress Panel.

“The quality of growth and the sustainability of growth” are the two main issues confronting Africa today, AfDB President, Donald Kaberuka, said May 25 at the African Union meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. AfDB’s Annual Meetings are being held at a crucial time. For Kaberuka, “Africa is rising, and it needs a push. The rest of the world is languishing, and it too needs a push. Africa needs the world, and the world needs Africa. Each can give the other a push.”

“We have the will, we have the systems, but we still don’t have all the funds. The Bank can work magic with what it is given, raising nine dollars for every one of its own,” Kaberuka added.

African states should adopt policies like former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s program to pay families to keep children in school, Kaberuka said. Two donor-funded programs that provide cash transfers for work to low-income Ethiopian families and its government’s focus on education and supporting farmers are the right approaches, he said.

“They are putting in place in my judgment one of the most interesting social safety nets that combines everything,” he said. “If you can figure out how to do agriculture, education and small businesses you are truly on the way.”

The Marrakech meetings will also involve the AfDB Board of Governors decision on the Bank’s return to its original headquarters in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

My thoughts on this?

well i believe this is a much needed meeting for Africa. My hope is that the things that needs to be sorted out in other to pave way for the much awaited development in Africa, improvement of livelihood and the eradication of poverty which currently are some of the challenges that seems not to have solution on our continent be thoroughly trashed. What do you think?