2nd Joint Annual Meetings of the AU Conference of Ministers of Economy and Finance and ECA Conference of Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development Cairo, Egypt
Opening Remarks by Mr. Abdoulie Janneh, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ECA 6 June 2009, Cairo, Egypt
It gives me great pleasure to welcome you all to this Ministerial Session of the 2nd Joint Meetings of the African Union Conference of Ministers of Finance and Economy and the Economic Commission for Africa Conference of Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development. Let me start by extending sincere appreciation to His Excellency, President Hosni Mubarak and the Government and People of the Arab Republic of Egypt for the warm hospitality and excellent arrangements made for our meeting here. The facilities that have been placed at our disposal are truly splendid and will certainly assist our deliberations here. I thank Minister Boutros-Ghali for his leadership and commitment in ensuring that this crucial meeting is used as an opportunity for this distinguished set of Ministers to further address Africa's critical socio-economic challenges. I similarly salute our out-going Chairman, Minister Sufian Ahmed of Ethiopia for the very credible leadership that he provided during his tenure and for the unstinting support that Ethiopia continues to give to ECA headquarters. The point has been made in
several forums but it is worth restating that these are critical
times for Africa's development. A global economic and financial
crisis that is not of our own making now compels us to rethink domestic
and global development paradigms and their accompanying processes.
In the early stages of the crisis, you met in Tunis with your colleagues
Governors of Central Banks and drew up a roadmap that restated Africa's
commitment to improved economic management and called for this to
be backed up by adequate development finance and greater voice and
representation in international economic processes. Since then the
Committee of Ten set up in Tunis has met to make proposals which
were submitted to the G20 meeting which took place in London this
April. This meting therefore affords us the opportunity to review
the outcome of that G20 meeting and to prepare for the next one
taking place in New York in September 2009. Since the dawn of the new millennium, Africa had made visible progress with regard to growth and governance. Growth rates in the continent averaged nearly 6% and commitment to better governance was reflected both in improved economic management as well as in subscription to the ideals of the African Peer Review Mechanism. Indeed, the emphasis in your Conference two years ago was on upscaling efforts to enable Africa meet the MDG by the target date of 2015. However, the food and fuel crisis of last year tipped over 100 million more people into poverty globally and the current crisis will have severe implications for the funding of health, education, nutrition, gender and sanitation programmes. Increased unemployment and reduced remittances where there are few formal social safety nets means that the poor people of Africa will bear the brunt of the current crisis. The current crisis may also undermine Africa's gains in the area of peace and security in which the African Union has played a credible and leading role. The riots that broke out last year across several countries as the result of the food crisis are a pointer to the potential for social unrest in times of economic hardship. Ministers responsible for finance and economic development have a key role to play in ensuring that social and economic conditions do not deteriorate to the extent that they threaten hard won gains in peace and security. It is therefore essential that we use the opportunity provided by this gathering to explore domestic policy options to keep economic growth on an even keel while seeking the support of our international partners. The theme of this year's conference – Enhancing the Effectiveness of Fiscal Policy for Domestic Resource Mobilization – reflects the desire of Ministers at last year's policy debate to take a closer look at this matter. It is also an acknowledgement of the important role that fiscal policy must play as Africa's searches for viable options for responding appropriately to the current crisis. Prior to now, policy conditionalities, issues of creditworthiness and reliance on a limited resource base have constrained the innovative use of fiscal policy as a catalyst for growth and development. We know that better tax administration and greater accountability in the use of public revenues can increase the amount of resources available for development and we should also bear in mind that well-targeted public expenditure especially in the area of infrastructure can have a crowding-in effect on private investment. One key objective should be to use fiscal policy to promote structural transformation which in turn will increase our domestic resource base. Improved use and administration of fiscal policies will be yet another litmus test of Africa's commitment to improved governance. In order to become more resilient to external shocks our economies should be more diversified and made more competitive. The 2009 Economic Report on Africa (ERA 2009) addresses this important issue by highlighting the potential of agriculture as a basis for building domestic and regional value chains through agro-industry. The choice of theme for the current Economic Report on Africa was a direct result of the call made by this Conference in 2007 for the revitalization of agriculture. Dynamic and modern economies have to be run by a focused, highly educated and committed corps of professionals with the skills and wherewithal to translate both domestic and global policies and programmes into desired social and economic results. Thus, while the economic and financial crisis has rightly re-opened the debate about the roles of states and markets, Africa's focus should be on strengthening the capacity of States to promote and accelerate development working in tandem with private enterprises. A key point to bear in mind as we discuss domestic policy options is that Africa continues to need the support of the international community in tackling its challenges. As the Financial Times put it in its editorial piece on Monday, 1 June 2009, "Africa's challenges are too great for it to face alone". This highly respected newspaper was signing-off on a debate it has sponsored on the role of aid in Africa's development but the issue goes well beyond aid to issues such as debt, trade, investment, climate change and the rules that determine Africa's participation in global economic processes. Of course, the debate on aid is one that we must have and it can even start here but I would rather focus for now on underscoring the need to meet commitments made to Africa especially of official development assistance. Perhaps if the scale of resources promised to underpin Africa's own efforts were available and used efficiently and effectively, the benefits would be too obvious to debate the point. We also need to pay close attention to ensuring that the commitments made at the last G20 meeting are translated into concrete benefits for our continent. Africa was ably led in the G20 process by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia in his capacity as Chairperson of the NEPAD Heads of State and Government Implementation Committee and many of the elements captured in the communiqué of the April meeting adequately addressed our concerns. These included the allocation of new SDRs, gold sales, support for counter-cyclical spending, review of the debt sustainability framework and the provision of more capital for the multilateral development banks, including the African Development Bank. The challenge before this gathering however is to find out what has been done since the April meeting and how much resources will be coming to Africa from the huge figure of $1.1 trillion announced on that occasion. There are two other areas in which commitments made to Africa need to be translated into action. These relate to the climate change negotiations and the world trade talks. The Doha Round of trade talks promised a development outcome in the sense that would enable developing countries to be able to use trade as an engine of development. These talks need to be brought to a speedy conclusion while keeping to the promise of a development outcome. Meanwhile, all concerned parties, especially the developed countries must resist the urge of resorting to protectionism. At the same time, the Aid for Trade initiative should be operationalized to enable Africa to benefit from the opportunities of global and intra-Africa trade. The forthcoming Conference of Parties to negotiate a post-Kyoto framework on climate change is another area where Africa must ensure that commitments made to enable it meet the costs of adaptation are met. Finance Ministers recently exchanged views with their Environment counterparts in Kigali to discuss Africa's development financing needs for responding to the challenge of climate change. While estimates and figures vary, what is clear is that the costs of adaptation are high and the flow of resources to Africa under existing mechanisms are low. Copenhagen should therefore be used as an opportunity for Africa to redress shortcomings in existing arrangements and obtain funding that is additional, adequate, predictable and readily accessible including through a credible carbon marketing system. The last key issue that I wish to flag is that of voice and representation. Africa has rightly called for greater voice and representation in key international financial institutions and multilateral economic processes and some of its demands are being met. However, we also have to demonstrate that our collective voice reached on a consensual basis is worth listening to through implementation of the commitments that we make, the innovative ideas that we propose and the quality of our participation in regional and global processes. Indeed, your active participation in consensus building meetings of this nature is what will send the right signals on Africa’s common purpose to the international community. I expect in this regard that your Ministerial Statement to be adopted at the end of this meeting will convey Africa’s views, concerns and perspectives to the forthcoming G8 meeting in Italy as well as to the next G20 meeting in New York. As I noted in my statement to the experts, these are challenging times for Africa but we have laid a good foundation for future progress through improved economic performance, better governance and visible commitment to improving peace and security and this should now stand us in good stead. I sincerely hope that our deliberations here will contribute to the revival of strong and sustained growth and development in Africa. I look forward to participating
in rich and engaging dialogue and wish you successful deliberations.
Thank you for your kind attention.
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