Meeting Africas New Development Challenges in the 21st Century

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Meeting Africas New Development Challenges in
the 21st Century
Presentation of the Issues Paper
To the Meeting of Committee of Experts of 1st
Joint AUC CAMEF and ECA Conference of Ministers
of Finance, Planning and Economic Development,
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, March 28, 2008

• Kasirim Nwuke
• Chief, MDGs/Poverty Analysis Monitoring
  Section, ACGS, ECA

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Outline of presentation

• Introduction
• Challenges
• Issues for Discussion
• Conclusion

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Introduction

• The Context
• Objectives of the Issues Paper
• To surface some new 21st century challenges to
  Africas development
• To propose issues for discussion by Experts
• To enable agreement on policy options by Experts
  for presentation to Ministers for their
  consideration and adoption.

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Challenges
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The Challenges

• Four specific but interlocking and intersecting
  challenges
• Growth and Employment
• Climate Change
• Emerging Social Sector Challenges -
• Legal Empowerment of the Poor
• Long-term sustainable financing for HIV treatment
• Good Governance and Building a Capable State.

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Challenge No. 1 Growth and employment

• Africas recent growth and employment experience
• Impressive economic expansion
• Less than desirable employment effect
• Preventing growth collapse a major task
• Preventing growth collapse and promoting growth
  and employment complicated by new 21th century
  realities
• Emerging global economic powers in the South
  China and India
• Rising food and energy prices
• Climate change and
• Terrorism.

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Challenge No. 2 Climate Change

• Climate change is real and could constrain
  efforts to improve the human condition in Africa
• Possible adverse impacts of climate change
• Water stress and water-related conflicts
• Decreased agricultural output and increased food
  insecurity
• Energy constraints
• Rising sea level and faster rate of
  desertification
• Loss of bio-diversity, forests and habitats
• Expanding range and prevalence of vector-borne
  diseases
• Increased risk of conflicts related to population
  movements
• Possible positive impacts of climate change
• This is not much debated but there could be
  opportunities for Africa from climate change for
  example
• A much stronger position to negotiate on
  international treaties
• New trading opportunities.

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Challenge No.3 Emerging social Issues
Issue No. 1 Legal Empowerment of the poor
Do these fishermen/women own their boats?

• What is meant by legal empowerment of the poor?
• No more than 30 of the worlds poor can take
  advantage of the law to secure their assets
• Benefits of legal empowerment of the poor
• Creation and expansion of fiscal space
• Contraction of the under-ground economy
• Promotion of a greater sense of ownership
• Reduction of transaction cost

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Challenge No.3 Emerging social Issues
Issue No. 2 Long-term sustainable financing of
access to HIV/AIDS Treatment

• Evidence shows that progress in response to
  HIV/AIDS is closely associated with the amount of
  resources available
• No. of people receiving treatment has risen from
  100,000 in 2003 to 1.3 million in 2006
• Long-term financing remains a critical issue
• Abuja Commitment yet to be met
• The reality of people with HIV/AIDS living longer
  presents a long-term financing challenge

Source UNAIDS, AIDS in Africa Scenarios Project
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Challenge No.4 Accelerating and sustaining
progress in good governance and building of
capable states

• A capable democratic state a prerequisite for
  progress and security of progress
• Obstacles to good governance (see matrix)
• Progress in good governance
• Very commendable
• But difficulties remain
• High level political commitment to good
  governance and state capability building (e.g.
  APRM to which 28 countries acceded).

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Issues for Discussion
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Issues for Discussion 1 Growth and employment

• How best can African countries harness the new
  opportunities presented by expanding economic
  relations notably, China and India, to ratchet up
  growth and expand employment?
• What options are available to African countries
  to attenuate the adverse impact of rising food
  and energy prices and exploit the opportunities
  that they present?
• How can African countries accelerate the positive
  growth performance of the recent past and
  minimize the risk of a growth collapse?
• How can regional continental integration
  contribute to tackling the growth and employment
  challenge?

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Issues for Discussion 2 Climate Change

• What financing mechanisms should African
  countries consider to finance the technological
  options (use of improved crop varieties, water
  harvesting and watershed management) to research
  and information exchange, capacity building,
  institutional as well as human resource
  development currently available for mitigating
  the adverse impact of climate change?
• How should capacity building be financed? Out of
  public or private resources? What are the
  implications of public financing of capacity
  acquisition in the context of brain drain and
  international migration?
• Is there a need to create new regional facilities
  to finance climate change interventions? How can
  the efficiency of existing facilities be
  improved?
• How can climate change mitigation and adaptation
  be integrated into regional and national
  development frameworks as well as policy
  processes and decision-making across a range of
  sectors and scales?

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Issues for Discussion 3 Emerging Social Issues 1
Legal Empowerment of the Poor

• How can governments
• Enhance access to justice and rule of law for the
  poor promote economic growth?
• Promote efficient governance of individual and
  collective property systems that systematically
  brings the extralegal economy into the formal
  economy and that ensures it remains easily
  accessible to all citizens?
• Create a functioning market for the exchange of
  assets that is transparent and accountable?
• Improve the quality of labour regulation and the
  functioning of labour market institutions,
  creating synergy between the poors protection
  and productivity?
• Strengthen access to employment opportunities in
  the growing and more inclusive market economy?
• Strengthen effective economic governance that
  makes it easy and affordable to set up and
  operate a business, access markets and exit
  business if necessary?

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Issues for Discussion 3 Emerging Social Issues 2
Long-term Financing for HIV/AIDS

• What is the scope for additional private
  financing of HIV/AIDS treatment and care, and
  mitigation in Africa?
• What possible new international financing
  mechanisms can countries consider?
• What measures should countries adopt to increase
  allocation to health to meet the minimum15 of
  national budget agreed in the Abuja Declaration?

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Issues for Discussion 4 Good Governance and the
Capable State

• How can governments mainstream initiatives such
  as the Extractive Industries Transparency
  Initiative in order to improve governance in the
  extractive sectors of their economies?
• What measures should governments adopt to improve
  public sector financial management?
• How can governments improve the financing and
  accountability of institutional infrastructure of
  good governance in a way that attenuates the
  tension between the demands for investment in
  good governance and the demands for increased
  investment in the economic and social sectors?
• To what extent is obedience to the rule of law an
  undergird for improving governance and how can it
  be promoted by Ministers of Finance, Planning and
  Economic Development?
• Should the APRM National Plan of Action (NPoA) be
  integrated into countrys MDGs-consistent
  national development plans? How should this be
  done and what mechanisms should be considered for
  financing the NPoA?

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Conclusion

• A new century presents its own challenges
• The ability of each region to tackle these
  challenges depends on the readiness of the region
  and the resources at its disposal
• Africa, can claim the 21st century if it
  address in an effective, strategically
  inter-temporal manner the emerging 21st century
  challenges
• A capable, effective and democratic state is a
  pre-requisite for success.

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Thank you
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