Opening Address
Thirty-ninth session of the Commission/Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development
by
Abdoulie Janneh
UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary
14 May 2006
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Madame Chairperson,
Your Excellency, Mr. Youssouf Ouedraogo, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Regional Cooperation of Burkina Faso,
Your Excellency, Mr. Donald Kaberuka, President of the African Development Bank,
Mr. Maxwell Mkwezalamba, Commissioner for Economic Affairs of the African Union,
Honorable Ministers,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a great honour and a privilege to welcome you all to the Economic Commission for Africa's 2006 Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development.
On behalf of all participants I would like to take this opportunity to thank His Excellency, Blaise Compaoré, and the government and people of Burkina Faso for the support they have given to the organization of this meeting and for the excellent arrangements that have been made since our arrival in Ouagadougou.
I also want to say what a special pleasure it is to address my first annual session of the Commission, since assuming the office of Executive Secretary, in the same country where I started my career with the United Nations.
This is a country whose main assets are its people: proud, dignified and resourceful men and women, who are driven by the values of hard work, honesty, tolerance, friendship and hospitality. Despite numerous constraints, particularly those related to climatic conditions and a lack of major natural resource endowments, significant progress has been made over the years in their development efforts and I salute them for this.
Madame Chairperson, allow me to also take this opportunity to sincerely thank you, and the Government of Nigeria, for so productively chairing the 2005 session of the Commission. Your continued active involvement has been an inspiration and guide to the Secretariat over the past year.
Furthermore, I am delighted that Commissioner Maxwell Mkwezalamba, Commissioner for Economic Affairs of the African Union, is with us today as the representative of Alpha Oumar Konaré, Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union.
Excellencies
As you know, our political leaders, through the African Union, have collectively given very clear guidance on the direction in which they want us all to move in order to achieve the vision of a united and prosperous Africa.
We, as senior development policymakers and practitioners, are now charged with implementing this vision working in close collaboration with the African Union Commission.
In that context, one of ECA's key tasks is to build a very strong partnership with the AU Commission and to provide support to it in various fields. I am therefore most pleased by the productive working relationship that has been fostered between the two institutions since I was appointed.
President Konaré and I are also agreed on ways in which this relationship between us can be deepened even further.
Honourable Ministers
Six months ago, I was most pleased to address many of you for the first time in my capacity as Executive Secretary of ECA at the fruitful and important consultative meeting of African Ministers of Finance that was hosted in Tunis by my very good friend and colleague, President Donald Kaberuka of the African Development Bank.
That consultative meeting, arranged so soon after he assumed office, was a clear example of why President Kaberuka is such a dynamic force for progress on this continent. Indeed, with Donald Kaberuka at the helm of our leading development financing institution, I am most enthused by the opportunities now ahead for us to work closely together and with the African Union and other partners to assist our member States.
This Ouagadougou Conference, however, is of particular significance to me as it is the first time that I am addressing you all as the co-host and convener of the most important meeting on the ECA calendar.
Honourable Ministers, given your leadership role of the Economic Commission for Africa, your continued support and commitment to the ECA is critical to the success of the institution. I am therefore glad that so many of you have been able to join us in Ouagadougou for this Thirty-ninth session of the Commission.
Madame Chairperson,
Without a doubt, considerable momentum has been built up over the past 18 months to bring about concrete change for the better, as far as Africa's development prospects are concerned.
You have just made a very comprehensive review of trends in Africa and the renewed interest of our partners in supporting our efforts, covering trade, conflict resolution, the management of natural resources, economic performance and mutual accountability. Therefore, I will confine my review to only a few issues.
We saw signs of this positive momentum throughout last year, 2005, as the entire international community reviewed progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the months leading up to the World Summit in September.
Indeed the last session of this Conference in Abuja played a significant role in moving the agenda forward as it provided an influential and united African voice on the region's MDGs experience to date and the interventions that are required to put Africa on track to achieving the goals.
The Ministerial Statement released after that meeting in Abuja not only reaffirmed "the vital importance of the goals as a framework for reducing poverty and advancing development in Africa" but also highlighted the opportunities offered by the global consensus in support of the MDGs to the fostering of the partnerships that is needed to reduce poverty.
In your statement last year, you sent out a strong message that the progress towards the MDGs in Africa was unacceptable. You resolved not to accept this and called for concrete steps to be taken to amplify the impact of development efforts in the region.
It is in this regard, that there is widespread acknowledgement that piecemeal actions will not do. Indeed, there is need for a major scaling up of financial and other resources to address Africa's problems. Of course, the leadership and commitment to dealing with these issues lies first and foremost right here in Africa. We have proof of this in the African Union's vision and priorities for the continent's development and the NEPAD implementation framework.
However, we also know that partnership with the international community is also critical. If our friends support our initiatives and priorities, we can really pick up the pace.
I am pleased to note that there have been several positive developments in this regard since this esteemed Council of Ministers met last May. For example, the need for increased international efforts to tackle Africa's development challenges was stressed at the UN High-Level Dialogue on Financing for Development in June, and the world's richest industrialized nations pledged a package of concrete actions and increased resources to Africa at the G8 Summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, in July.
The culmination, however, was the World Summit in New York in September, which resulted in the reaffirmation of the goals of the Millennium Declaration as the central international framework for addressing the world's development priorities as well as a special global commitment to addressing what the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document termed " Meeting the special needs of Africa ".
Madame Chairperson,
Eight months on from the World Summit, it is particularly pleasing to note that Africa's senior political leaders and policymakers have wasted no time in strategizing on how best to respond to the developments of the past year. There is a strong commitment to turn around the disturbing trends in poverty rates and related socioeconomic indicators, which is clear for all to see. There is also self-assured African ownership of the development process at the national and regional levels.
I am sure your colleagues will agree with my assertion that you, Madame Chairperson, have epitomised these attributes in your capacity as the Honourable Finance Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Your example, and that of many of your peers who are here with us today, has led to the recent increase in confidence and international support for our development efforts. This confidence has been reflected in all the recent pledges to contribute significant resources to assist African institutions such as the African Union Commission and programmes; particularly NEPAD. It is also reflected in the recent decisions and agreements on the debt issue that have been made between international creditors and several African nations including Nigeria.
Honourable Ministers
As you know, the past six months have also seen some positive steps forward towards the implementation of several of the commitments that were made last year, with many of you and your ministerial colleagues in sector ministries leading the way.
For example, at the consultative meeting of African Ministers of Finance in Tunis in November which I referred to earlier, a "Pan -African Needs Analysis" and a framework for the coordinated implementation and follow-up to the World Summit Outcome were among the main issues discussed.
Ministers also welcomed the establishment of the Infrastructure Consortium for Africa and expressed the importance of a framework for coordinated implementation and follow-up.
Additionally, the Tunis meeting served to amplify the African appeal for an improved debt sustainability framework, which takes into account domestic debt and external shocks dimensions. It reiterated the need for the international community to look into the possibility of allowing non-HIPC regional member countries facing special economic difficulties to benefit from debt relief.
In this context, allow me to also highlight the importance of the meeting that you Madame Chairperson referred to, which the Government of Nigeria is convening in Abuja next week on Financing for Development.
As a regional follow-up to the 2002 Monterrey Conference and the pledges of increased financial support to Africa that were made last year, especially by the G8 Summit, next week's meeting can play a significant role in moving the agenda forward in several areas related to the scaling up of resources to address the MDG needs of the continent. I am travelling directly from here with the outgoing Chairperson to attend this meeting and I hope many of you will also be able to join us in Abuja.
Several other important meetings have also already been convened at the regional level so far this year. These include the Forum for Statistical Development (FASDEV), the African Least Developed Countries (LDCs) review conference and the High Level Plenary on Poverty Reduction Strategies and the MDGs, which was co-convened by ECA, the Government of Egypt and UNDP in Cairo in March.
In particular, the Outcome Statement of the Cairo Plenary now provides a useful guide to enable member States to effectively respond to the call made in the World Summit Outcome document for member states to "adopt, and implement comprehensive national development strategies to achieve the internationally development goals and objectives, including the Millennium Development Goals" by 2006 .
A consensus was reached in Cairo on several key action points. For example, it was agreed that Africa must intensify efforts to put in place innovative national poverty reduction strategies, informed and driven by the specificities of each country that place growth squarely at the centre.
It was also agreed that next generation national development strategies must clearly be structured in a manner to generate employment and income growth for people as concretely and as demonstrably as possible.
This last point brings me to the theme of this year's conference, " Meeting the challenge of employment in Africa ", which provides a useful opportunity to centre stage and focus on an issue that is essential to Africa's quest to achieve the MDGs.
For the past three days, your experts have been discussing how to ensure the speedy implementation of the 2004 Ouagadougou Summit Declaration on Employment and Poverty Reduction and have highlighted several action areas for your consideration in the report they will shortly present to you.
These include proposals for mainstreaming employment in development strategies and macroeconomic policies, promoting a more coherent, regional approach to human resource development as well as a new regional employment forum that will bring together member States, regional institutions and other partners, to help countries develop their capacity in this area.
I have no doubt that based on their recommendations and the outcome of the Ministerial dialogue on the theme of the conference, we will leave Ouagadougou with the core elements of a comprehensive implementation framework and action plan to integrate employment generation policies in the development policies, strategies and plans of African countries.
We in ECA must be ready and determined to accompany your efforts to meet these challenges.
Madame Chairperson,
It was clear to me, soon after assuming office late last year that ECA needed to do all it could to be able to assist its member States to advance the agenda in the areas I have just highlighted and many others. It was also clear to me based on discussions with member State representatives that the Commission might need to reposition itself to be able be as effective as possible in this endeavour .
You will recall that during his ten-year tenure as Executive Secretary of ECA, my illustrious predecessor, Dr. K.Y Amoako, worked closely with many of you to reform and reshape ECA to enable it to serve Africa better. He oversaw a much needed reform process in the mid 1990s that led to a sharpening of the ECA's programme focus and which resulted in a renewed confidence in the Commission, both in the region and among our international development partners. I want to use this opportunity to pay homage to K.Y. Amoako.
Against that background, it is not and has never been my plan to bring about change for change's sake. The aim of any repositioning exercise, in my view, should not be to unravel the progress made over the last ten years but instead, to assure ECA's continued relevance, and to enable the Commission to respond effectively to the changing requirements and demands of its member States in a rapidly changing global environment.
Honourable Ministers
I am sure you will agree that the current focus on Africa within the international arena, as well as the recent changes in the regional institutional landscape and the latest reform process currently underway within the United Nations system in response to the World Summit Outcome Document, now clearly dictate the need for a repositioning of ECA.
In light of these circumstances, and i n response to calls from several member States of the Commission about the urgency of this issue, I therefore established a Task Force in March 2006 to advise on the Commission's repositioning.
The Task Force is chaired by Anil Sood, a former Vice President of the World Bank who has recently helped in carrying out a similar reform at the African Union and the UNDP. Its membership is composed of a mix of external members and ECA staff. We asked it to assess the current and emerging economic and social challenges confronting Africa and to make recommendations on what internal changes ECA must make in order to play a much more effective role in addressing these challenges. The work of the Task Force, over the past six weeks, has been informed by comprehensive internal consultations with ECA staff and with some member States. The response from staff has been enthusiastic and supportive.
The Task Force has also consulted with key African institutions, particularly the African Union Commission (AUC), the African Development Bank (AfDB), and the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) as well as members of the UN family and other development partners. Here too, the response has been overwhelmingly positive and encouraging.
Although its work is still unfinished, the Task Force has already made pertinent recommendations on the future direction of ECA's work. These have already been presented to the Committee of Experts and my note on the issue has been circulated among all of you. In that regard, I just want to reiterate the main points this morning in order to spur your reaction and seek your guidance and endorsement of the proposals.
In summary, we now need to further refine the Commission's programme priorities to avoid duplication, promote complementarities, eliminate inconsistencies and redress benign neglect of important sectors.
Therefore, as Madame Chairperson mentioned earlier, ECA's work will be focused on two main areas which are (i) Promoting regional integration; and (ii) meeting Africa's special needs and challenges; to support the Africa Union and to help achieve the NEPAD priorities.
Of course, we will maintain our analytical and knowledge-sharing capacity across the full range of development themes and sectors, as well as continue to build stronger partnership and more dynamic networking with core stakeholders. It is also clear that ECA must focus its "operations" on a more limited set of sectors and themes where its competence and contribution are widely acknowledged.
Under the first pillar, ECA will concentrate on fully supporting the African Union's efforts to accelerate the political and socio-economic integration of the continent, promote and defend African common positions and establish the necessary conditions to enable the continent to play its rightful role in the global economy. It will do so by promoting dialogue and undertaking analytical studies such as the series on "Assessing Regional Integration in Africa".
ECA will also deepen this ongoing support by strengthening and deepening analytical research on and policy analyses of integration issues such as regional/trans-border public goods; promoting policy measures and actions for implementing various regional strategies and initiatives; facilitating the development of agreements or conventions on transnational issues; and building consensus and engaging in advocacy for regional integration.
It will also put greater emphasis on strengthening the capacity of, and providing technical assistance to, the institutions driving the regional integration agenda, namely the African Union Commission, RECs and the Inter-Governmental Organizations (IGO).
ECA will place a stronger focus on the specific needs of the RECs through a region-specific multi-year partnership strategy agreed with each REC with clearly articulated results and milestones; and the establishment of more empowered Sub-Regional Offices (SROs) with increased access to the skills and resources needed to deliver the agreed results.
This aims to respond fully to the General Assembly resolution of 18 December 2005, which, based on the recommendation of the recent OIOS report on the programme and administrative management of the Sub Regional Offices of the ECA, called on the Secretary-General to present to the sixty-first session of the General Assembly a comprehensive plan of action to strengthen them.
Additionally, under this first pillar, we will aim to work on a cluster of cross-border activities and initiatives in several sectors, which are vital to the advancement of the regional integration agenda, including the provision of transport and communications infrastructure as well as the promotion of energy pools, management of common resources such as water, and scaling up of trade facilitation to expand intra-Africa trade.
Moreover, ECA will also rely on improved networking with Centres of Excellence on the continent and seek to help strengthen their capacity where necessary. We believe that these centres can play an important role in promoting regional scientific and educational integration, thereby advancing the overall regional integration agenda.
As regards the second pillar- meeting Africa's special needs and challenges - ECA's activities will focus primarily on attaining the main objectives of NEPAD. Here, ECA must now focus its "operations" on a limited set of sectors and themes where its competence and contribution are widely acknowledged, including: social development, with special focus on the Millennium Development Goals; food security and sustainable development; emerging global issues and economic development; harnessing information and communication technology; and improving governance and development management to enhance national capacity and capability and to support the APRM process .
At the same time, a significant focus will be placed on the crosscutting issues of statistics and gender which are vital to efforts to advance the regional integration agenda and meet the special needs of African countries, particularly the NEPAD priorities and targets of the Millennium Development Goals.
As was reiterated several times during the discussions on the conference theme with the Committee of Experts, Africa is often hampered in its ability to plan, implement policies and track progress, due to the lack of accurate and timely data. In the words of the Minister of Finance of South Africa, Trevor Manuel:" We find it hard to manage as we cannot measure and monitor" .
To help address this constraint, ECA will scale up efforts in the area of data and statistical analyses and building statistical capacity in member States. It will also focus on helping countries in the region develop performance indicators and statistics for MDG tracking. We are very encouraged by the recent efforts that are already underway to help us ramp up our activities in this important field. In particular, we welcome the support of the Friends of ECA group, which has been set up under the leadership of South Africa, to advise, guide and work closely with the Commission in this field.
In the area of gender equity and Women's empowerment, efforts will be scaled up to strengthen technical analysis of gender and equity issues, the gender dimension of poverty and promoting women's participation in decision making processes. This will be in addition to on-going work on monitoring global action plans such as the Beijing Platform of Action.
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen
Effective and productive partnerships, especially among the main regional institutions, are critical for advancing the African development agenda. ECA will therefore seek to forge a stronger partnership with the African Union Commission and the African Development Bank. In that regard, I am pleased to inform you that we are already off to a good start. For, as you know, at the beginning of the year, the Chairperson of the AUC, the President of the ADB, and I met with our senior staff at the AU Headquarters in Addis Ababa and agreed on a series of measures to improve our collaboration, including the key areas in which we would each take the lead, the harmonization of our meetings. But most importantly, we agreed to revitalize the joint AUC/ADB/ECA secretariat, which will have a vital role to play in deepening our partnership.
ECA must also continue to play a leading role in pushing for a coherent UN voice in Africa. Building on our lead role in coordinating the UN system's support to the implementation of the NEPAD programme, at the request of the UN Secretary General and the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Mr. Alpha Konaré, ECA will also assume responsibility for coordinating the UN system's support to the AU.
Honourable Ministers
In conclusion, I want to reaffirm the fact that ECA is your Commission.
You are its leaders and it is there to serve you.
It is the sole UN institution where you provide the legislative mandate and policy guidance.
It is also 100 per cent dedicated to supporting your efforts.
The Commission has performed well since it was established nearly half a century ago. We now need to keep up this momentum by repositioning it and resourcing it properly so it can properly respond to your Africa's current challenges and priorities.
I have no doubt that under your inspired leadership, the overall UN reform process and ECA repositioning exercise will result in a strong, focused, results orientated and dynamic Commission producing quality products and playing a significant role in support of your regional integration agenda and your quest to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
I thank you for your attention.
