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The electronic version of this statement is being made available by the 

Population Information Network (POPIN) of the United Nations Population 

Division (DESIPA), and the Pan African Development Information System 

(PADIS) of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.  For 

further information please contact Ms. Nancy Hafkin via email at 

hafkin.uneca@un.org

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                        Opening Statement by



                          Mr. K. Y. Amoako



      Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa



                        at the opening of the

                Ninth conference of African Planners,

      Statisticians, and population and Information Scientists

                    Addis Ababa, 11-16 March 1996





Mr.  Chairman,

Distinguished participants,

Ladies and gentlemen,





     This Conference, now in its ninth session, is unique among ECA

legislated meetings in that it regularly convenes experts from

different disciplines with one overall interest:  building African

socio-economic development.  On a biennial basis, ECA brings together

planners, staticians, population and information specialists (who are

all now reflected in the Conference's change of name, adopted in

1994) to examine the economic and social situation of the region

since the last meeting and reflect on the ways in which the different

disciplines represented can intervene together to improve planning,

with the end result of an improved African economic and social

situation.  ECA also convenes this Conference to garner your advice

on what strategic interventions ECA can make to help African member

States in their efforts to meet the challenges of development

planning.





Distinguished delegates

Observers, and

Representatives of Agencies





     Since the last meeting of the Conference in March 1994, the

socio-economic situation in the African region has improved only

slightly.  According to ECA's estimates, Africa's Gross Domestic

Product (GDP) grew by 2.2 per cent in 1995, as compared to 1.6 per

cent in 1994 and only 0.8 per cent in 1993.  Had it not been for a

series of noneconomic setbacks, including regional conflicts and

civil strife, drought and other natural calamities, the economic

performance of the region would have been better.



     Looking at the economy regionally and by sectors, agricultural

output virtually stagnated in 1995 after the exceptionally good

growth performance of 3.5 per cent in 1994.  With per capita food

production falling by 2.6 per cent, Africa's food security continues

to give cause for anxiety.  In 1995 alone cereal production fell by

15 per cent.  Manufacturing output dropped as well, by 3.7 per cent

in 1994 and 2.8 per cent in 1995, due to a combination of factors

including low levels of investment and inherent structural

weaknesses.  Industrial decline, plant closures and capacity under

utilisation, regular features of the African industrial scene since

the 1980's, characterized 1994 and 1995 as well.  The poor

performance of the agricultural and industrial sectors, the

cornerstones of African economies, heightens our concern about the

sustainability of growth and development in the region.



     Improved GDP growth in 1995 came mostly from the mining sector.

Oil prices increased by 12 per cent and the volume of production grew

slightly, while metal prices rose by 20 per cent.  After stagnating

in 1994, African exports grew by nearly 16 per cent in 1995, as a

result of rising commodity prices and external demand generated by

the economic recovery of OECD countries.  African export prices rose

by 10.5 per cent in 1995, double the growth rate of 1994.  Import

prices also rose by 7.2 per cent in 1995 as compared with 3.8 per

cent in 1994.  As a result the terms of trade improved by 3 per cent

1995, an increase over the two per cent improvement of the previous

year.



     Adverse external conditions also negatively affected regional

growth.  For most of the 1990's, external resource flows stagnated,

and commercial lending dropped; official bilateral and multilateral

assistance now accounts for the bulk of resource flows to Africa.

Official resource flows declined from US$ 22 billion in 1990 to US$

20 billion in 1993, at which level they have remained since.  Thus

even official resource flows have dropped, while external debt has

been rising.  In 1994, Africa's external debt reached US$ 312

billion, an increase of about 1. 5 per cent over the 1990 level.  On

the other hand, debt relief measures are still too marginal and too

little.  The payments of accumulated arrears and changes in interest

rates have eaten up most of the anticipated relief.  Debt servicing

now exceeds 30 per cent of export earnings for most African

countries.  The effects of the heavy debt burden arc a worsening

balance of payments position, fiscal imbalances, scarcities and

rampant inflation.



     Africa's social situation continues to deteriorate.  Armed

conflicts and political crises continue to disrupt production and

social services in many countries.  Political and civil strife take

up too much of Africa's energy; they seriously affect Africa's fiscal

position, investment and its use, and the capacity of its

governments, to deliver even the most basic services.  Governments

have had to make severe cuts in education and health and medical care

at a time when some 220 million Africans live in absolute poverty.

If these trends continue unabated, African economic growth will be

too low to create enough jobs for the growing labour force and to

support sustainable human-centred development.  Those parts of Africa

where determined efforts at restoring peace and social order are now

showing positive signs are most encouraging.



     Your meeting is taking place at a time when the world at large

is undergoing considerable geopolitical changes that seek to set new

rules for international economic cooperation.  With the recently

signed General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT), world trade is

expected to increase to at least US$ 210 billion annually, of which

30 per cent will be shared by developing countries.  In the short-run

Africa will benefit the least of all the world's regions, given its

weak capacity to respond to new opportunities created by the emerging

international trading environment.  Production structures in Africa

do not lend themselves to global competitiveness.  To benefit from

the post Uruguay Round, it is imperative that Africa reform and

modernize its production structures to produce goods which are

competitive in world markets.



     Africa's marginalised position in the world economy makes its

pursuit of economic integration fundamental to its development.  We

hope that the treaty establishing the African Economic Community will

go a long way to alleviating the region's economic difficulties.

From cooperative arrangements among existing subregional groupings,

there needs to be rapid movement toward the economic integration of

the entire region.  In the Cairo Agenda for Action African

governments have reaffirmed their commitment to the goals of the

regional economic community.



     Midway through the period of the United Nations-New Agenda for

the Development of Africa (UN-NADAF), Africa has not yet grappled

successfully with the issues of international trade, finance, and

technology in a new setting of international economic cooperation.

To reach the goals of the New Agenda, African Governments need to

adopt appropriate policies and forge new partnerships especially with

multilateral and bilateral funding agencies.  To enforce UN-NADAF,

the United Nations is this week launching the System-Wide Special

Initiative for Africa.  You will be participants in the launch, which

will take place in this room at 5:30 p.m on Friday, with a

simultaneous video link between New York and Addis Ababa.  Throughout

the week you will be hearing more about The Special Initiative which

should give a new impetus to Africa's development with a concerted

international effort for resource mobilization.  The Initiative will

encompass enhancing food security, reducing poverty, harnessing

information technology for development, increasing trade access and

opportunities and assuring debt relief.  If these efforts are

successful, they will go a long way towards pulling Africa from its

present quagmire to a bright future.



Distinguished delegates,



     It is imperative for Africa as a whole to move faster on the

road of economic development.  Structural deficiencies including

weak, dysfunctional institutional structures and fragmented

production bases characterize most African economies.  Given their

small scale as well, it would be hard to expect individual

Governments to achieve significant breakthroughs towards socio-

economic transformation or to resolve strategic problems such as

those of food and energy supply.  Only through expanded

cooperation for development can the region attain the goals it has

set for itself and that its people need to raise themselves from

poverty.  Why is it that after four decades of political and

economic independence Africa cannot master its own natural

substantial resource base to achieve decent levels of self-

sufficiency in basic needs such as food, energy and basic

industrial inputs?



     In your last meeting you addressed the need to resolve

Africa's food problems in a cooperative context.  This meeting

will discuss the important issue of how to foster energy

development.  Although Africa's energy resources are considerable,

their unequal distribution makes the case for increased

cooperation imperative.  In spite of the enormous and unexploited

potential, the region's energy, production fluctuates directly

with the demand of industrialized countries while it obtains most

of its own energy requirements from outside the region.  The

agenda of this meeting addresses this issue.



     As you are aware, Africa has abandoned development planning

or crisis management for most of the period of the 80's and 90's.

Over the last two years African countries have continued to

undertake major domestic structural reform measures aimed at

achieving improved fiscal and monetary management and reducing

external debt.  The emphasis in several reform programmes was on

increased incentives for savings, measures to stimulate investment

and empowerment of the private sector to accelerate the

socioeconomic transformation.  To enhance structural reform,

Governments must reconcile short-term management goals with medium

and long-term development requirements in programmes dealing with

policy design and macroeconomic management.  I invite your meeting

to consider ways and means of strengthening the analytical

framework for policy reform.





Mr. Chairman

Distinguished participants,

Ladies and gentlemen,



     Let me turn to the issue of population.  Although Africa has

slightly more than one-tenth of world's population, its population

growth rates are higher than anywhere else in the world.

Persistently high levels of fertility, which show no sign of

abating in most of Africa, result from early childbearing,

closeness of births, low levels of contraception to reduce and

space births, cultural values accorded to children and the role

and status of women, among other factors.  Mortality and morbidity

levels, too, remain higher in Africa than anywhere else.



     The health of people in Africa has been deteriorating

recently as well due to economic malaise, resurgence of infectious

and communicable diseases such as malaria, cholera and many

ailments associated with poverty.  The rapid spread of HIV which

causes AIDS has resulted in great socio-economic and cultural

breakdown of the fabric of African societies.



     The influx of migrants from rural areas to urban centres in

search of a better life has contributed to overcrowding of towns

and cities, causing unbearably poor health conditions.  Numerous

outbreaks of waterborne diseases occur because of inadequate

sanitary facilities and unsafe drinking water.  Environmental

conditions have deteriorated in most of the region's countries

because of poor levels of technology, lack of knowledge about

better management of environment and prevailing conditions of

poverty.



     In all this, the hopeful signs are that in a few countries

across Africa fertility levels have started to decline.



     Since the last session of this Conference in 1994, the

International Conference on Population and Development was held in

Cairo, Egypt.  That Conference adopted the Programme of Action for

Development (ICPD.PA) that included (1) reproductive health and

family planning and (2) health, morbidity and mortality reduction.

Regarding reproductive and family planning, countries have agreed

to strive for expanded coverage and services accessible to all

through the primary health care system (PHC).  In the area of

improving health and reducing mortality, the programme emphasizes

the reduction of infant, child and maternal morbidity and

mortality rates.  Both the Dakar/Ngor, adopted at the third

African Population Conference, and the Cairo programmes of Action

agreed upon mortality reduction targets that African countries

should strive to achieve by the turn of the century.



     The third area of major concern in the ICPD.PA is that of

increasing access to education, especially for girls.  Research

has shown that the education and training of girls is one of the

most critical investments in sustainable development.  I therefore

urge you to strive to achieve goals of universal primary education

for all with increased access to secondary and higher education

for girls and women.



     In June 1995, less than a year after the Cairo Conference,

ECA, with support from the Governments of France and the

Netherlands, UNFPA, African Development Bank (ADB) and IPPF, met

with many of you as experts at the ICPD Africa Region Follow-up

Conference in Abidjan.  The Abidjan Workshop of Experts helped to

put in place the framework to implement both the Dakar/Ngor

Declaration and the ICPD.  PA.



     Matters related to the implementation of the Cairo and the

Dakar/Ngor frameworks feature on your agenda, in particular

guidelines for monitoring and evaluating implementation of

national population development programmes.



     Regarding the interface between population and environment,

this meeting will assess problems and policies associated with the

urban environment, the consequences of rapid urbanization for the

lives of city dwellers and on national economies.  You will also

examine environmental problems associated with waste disposal and

settlements in order to recommend pragmatic solutions.



     Policies to reduce population growth, in combination with

other efforts to accelerate socio-economic development, can go a

long way to alleviate poverty and improve the quality of life in

Africa.  In this Conference you will be discussing the perception

of family planning in the context of African socio-economic goals

and cultural values.  Obstacles to implementing policies and

programmes of family planning need to be overcome.  When this

happens, the result will be better implementation of effective

development programmes.



     You should also be aware of the new orientation in delivery

of ECA's advisory services supported by UNFPA in the areas of

population and statistics.  Since 1992 ECA advisers have located

in Addis Ababa, Dakar and Harare where they form County Support

Teams (CSTs) with other experts from WHO, ILO, UNESCO, UNFPA and

some NGOs.  This change was brought about by the decisions of the

UNFPA Governing Council.



     There have been some problems hindering implementation of

some of ECA's population activities.  Notable among these is that

associated with the dissemination of population information.

UNFPA previously provided resources for this activity, but this is

no longer the situation.  Some bilateral funds have been provided

by the French Government, but they were inadequate to do the job

effectively.  This is an area where we would like to improve our

performance in the biennium 1996-1997.



     We have also had problems in the area of demographic training

and research.  Both IFORD, based in Yaounde, and RIPS, based in

Accra, need increased financial resources in order to operate

effectively and meet increasing demands for trained manpower and

qualified teaching staff.  This Conference should recommend

actions to alleviate difficulties at these ECA-established

regional demographic institutes.





Mr.  Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,



     Since the adoption in 1992 of the Addis Ababa Plan of action

for Statistical Development in Africa in the 1990's and the

Strategy for its implementation by the twenty seventh session of

the UNECA Conference of Ministers responsible for economic

development and planning, ECA and the numerous other players

engaged in African statistical development have undertaken

significant groundwork and achieved a measure of organizational

progress.  As you know, the Strategy provides a comprehensive

framework for efforts to rehabilitate, revitalise and develop

African statistics and to build statistical capacities in the

region.  This meeting will consider progress made in the

implementation of the Addis Ababa Plan of Action and propose

measure to accelerate the process.



     The Coordinating Committee, on African Statistical

Development (CASD) and four subcommittees have been established to

support national, efforts in planning, appraising and implementing

statistical development programmes and activities.  ECA serves as

the secretariat of CASD.  While CASD has made progress in these

areas, some problems remain.  More efforts need to be made for

CASD to implement its mandate successfully.



     Two areas on your agenda require your particular attention.

These are:  the Statistical Needs Assessment and Strategy

Development (NASD) and the results of the pilot analysis of the

regional survey of statistical organization and training.



     The first step recommended at the national level by the Addis

Ababa Plan of Action is the undertaking of a Needs Assessment and

Strategy Development exercise to discover primary users' current

and future data needs and determine how national statistical

systems can try to meet those needs.  We are finding that African

Statistical Services find the NASD guidelines very useful.  Ten

countries have already conducted NASD exercises, and nine others

have plans to do so.



     In the area of statistical organization and training, the

results of the Pilot Analysis summarize the views of Directors of

National Statistical Offices on training of their staff and

organizational relationships within national statistical systems.

In your discussions you may wish to focus on ways in which African

countries can better organize their statistical services and take

advantage of available training opportunities to meet the

unsatisfied training needs of their staff.



     The present Conference will also pay particular attention to

the important issue of the implementation of the 1003 System of

National Accounts (SNA).  In adopting the 1993 SNA, the United

Nations Statistical Commission urged member states to consider

using it as the international standard for the compilation of

national accounts statistics, as an analytical tool and to promote

the integration of economic and related statistics.  ECA has

played a major role in promoting and monitoring SNA implementation

in the Africa region.  Member States have made commendable efforts

in the production of tables and accounts on Gross Domestic Product

(GDP) and Goods and Services.  However, serious deficiencies which

reduce their utility still exist in the National Accounts of most

African countries.  I recommend that you work out concrete

measures to be taken at the national level for the development and

integration of basic statistics, including training of national

experts and mobilization of necessary resources.



     I urge you to apply your experience and expertise to all these

issues to build sustainable national statistical development

within the framework of the Addis Ababa Plan of Action for

Statistical Development in the 1990's.





Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,





     Regarding the information sector in Africa, more and more

African planners and decision makers are coming to see that Africa

must become part of the Information Age to remain competitive and

part of an international economic order.  The most developed

countries have moved beyond both agriculture and industry into

information based economies.  The nature of the information age,

with its elimination of barriers of time and distance, means that

the economy has become truly global.  Suppliers can obtain

necessary inputs regardless of country of origin on a "just in

time" basis.  For Africa to export even its primary commodities,

it needs access to current information on a daily basis (if not

more often).  Development and utilization of information

technology are inextricably linked.  There is no longer a choice.

If African countries do not take part in the revolution in

information and communication technologies, which are becoming

daily more the same phenomenon, their economic and social

marginalization will increase.  The positive side of the challenge

is that if African countries choose to develop policies,

strategies and programmes in this area, the capital investment

costs are far lower than in other sectors, and the opportunities

greater for using the new technologies to leapfrog to improved

growth and sustainable development.  Rapidly declining costs of

many information and communications technologies will revolutionize

the prospects for numerous aspects of social and economic

development.



     There is increasing evidence that applications of the

information technology are spreading in many poor countries around

the world and producing many benefits.  Information technology is

increasing the scope and quality for long distance learning by

making it possible to share educational facilities including

teachers, whose store of knowledge can be accessed via on-line

facilities or CD-ROMS.  Information technology is also reducing

the time it takes to identify and exploit opportunities for trade,

investment and finance.



     For this to take place requires a composite of measures.

Inadequate telecommunications systems must be replaced.  A

critical mass of trained persons in fields such as computers, data

management, science, engineering and business is needed.  Laws and

regulations that impede the flow of information and information

technology must be reformed.



     Enhancing Africa's capacity to access rapidly the global

system of knowledge and information must be built upon a system of

timely, reliable and easily accessible data and information at the

national level.  This means the creation or strengthening of the

national information content, especially national data bases, both

statistical and textual.



     Last year's conference of Ministers of Planning passed a

resolution entitled "Building Africa's Information Highway" which

requested ECA to form an Expert Group to put together an African

Action Plan on using information and communication technologies to

accelerate socio-economic development.  Your Conference will be

the peer review for that plan, which will be presented this

afternoon, prior to its delivery to the Ministers next month.



     The Conference will also be looking at the work that ECA has

been doing to promote the development of information systems in

Africa, at the importance of Africa organizing its information

using appropriate norms and standards so that it is not inundated

by information from developed countries as the Information Highway

arrives, and at the details of information and communication

technologies easily available to Africa.  A special feature of

this Conference will be the incorporation of a two and one-half

day workshop on "data dissemination," organized by the U. S.

Bureau of the Census, incorporating the latest information and

communication techniques.



     In realization of the importance of information in African

development, in its forthcoming reorganization, "harnessing

information for development" will become one of five strategic

programmes in which ECA proposes to focus its efforts.



     This, then, is the preview of the challenges that the region

faces, the work that ECA is doing to meet them, and the

contributions that you will be making to surmount them both in the

current Conference and as you continue your important work upon

your return to your home institutions and countries.  In

recognition of your arduous task, I declare the ninth Conference

of African Planners, Statisticians and Information and Population

Specialist open.

.