Opening Remarks
By Abdoulie Janneh
UN Under Secretary General and Executive Secretary
Economic Commission for Africa
22 and 23 November 2005
Tunis, Tunisia
Mr President,
Honorable Ministers,
Excellencies,
Ladies And Gentlmen,
Allow me to begin by thanking the President of ADB for inviting me here and for giving me the opportunity to share with you my thoughts on the issues set out in the agenda for this meeting. I would like to also thank the host government for its hospitality and support.
For me this meeting is particularly significant as it is the first time I am addressing you in my new capacity as the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa. I would like to thank you for all the support and solidarity that you have expressed to me since my appointment to this position by the UN Secretary General. I would like also to thank you for the support you have extended to ECA over the years.
To ECA as to the Bank you are our most important constituency. How therefore we organize ourselves, will determine how we effectively support you. In this regard, I see the role of ECA as being crucial in terms of bringing technical support to Africa's efforts. In order to do so, it will be necessary for ECA to deepen dialogue with African countries and to continually reflect better the development priorities of the continent in its work. It will be important to strengthen its partnership with key African institutions, particularly the Africa Union Commission and the African Development Bank.
I have spent the last few days consulting with my brother Donald on how best we can optimise our partnership with you with the view to accompanying your efforts at meeting the development challenges of the continent. I am glad to note that we have strong convergence of views on how this can be done, including through the revitalization of the joint secretariat as well as harmonization and rationalisation of our respective statutory and consultative meetings.
This meeting is taking place at a critical juncture in Africa's renewed efforts at accelerated development and poverty reduction. As many of you are quite aware, the major challenge facing the continent in this connection include increasing the pace of shared growth in order to meet the MDGs, enhancing the continent share in international trade and capital flows, addressing the debt problem, improving the quality of governance and maintain the peace and security as well as reducing the heavy disease burden, particularly HIV/AIDs and Malaria.
In looking at these challenges, we need to acknowledge the notable efforts and the progress made by the African countries over the past few years such as significant improvement in economic growth performance and the macroeconomic stabilization. We need also to recognize the increased commitment of the international community to reinforce these efforts as demonstrated by the different initiatives introduced in the course of this year, notably the Paris Declaration on aid effectiveness, the Commission for Africa, the G8 action plan for Africa. As we move ahead, Africa and its partners need to work more closely together to sustain this momentum and focus on Africa's development.
Mr. Chairman
In turning to the agenda items of this meeting I would like to reiterate their relevance to Africa's development challenges. Starting with the debt issue, no single factor has constrained Africa's development efforts than the heavy debt burden. This is why I welcome the G8 initiative to alleviate the debt burden on some African countries. However, as you also know, the mechanisms for operationalising this initiative has yet to be fully worked out. I am sure that through your deliberations you will make proposals on how to implement this initiative to enable the African countries to benefit while safeguarding the financial integrity of the ADF. We also hope that in your deliberations you will make proposals to reinforce efforts underway to expand the coverage of the initiative.
Linked to the debt issue, is the broader challenge of meeting the continent's financing needs for development. In this regard, I have taken due note of the attention drawn by this agenda item to the various estimates made of Africa's development financing needs, the importance of stepping up domestic resource mobilisation, up scaling ODA and enhancing aid effectiveness and improving the levels of FDI. Given the importance of infrastructure development to improving the competitiveness of African economies, promoting regional integration and Africa's development in general, I welcome the emphasis placed on this issue especially within the context of the NEPAD priority programme. We recognize the critical role that ADB could play and I am encouraged by the efforts underway to prioritise infrastructure financing in the Bank's operations.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Oil like debt has had a profound impact on Africa's economic performance over the past years. The recent dramatic increase in the price of oil has impacted negatively on the non-oil exporting countries and I know that many of you have had first hand experience with this. For the oil exporting countries these increases, have generated substantial resources which they already started to utilise to meet their immediate development needs. In this context, the imperative of a better management of these resources taking into account the need to diversify these economies as well as the needs of the future generation is key. I also hope that the oil exporting countries will take this opportunity to strengthen and expand the acts of solidarity to mitigate the negative impact of the oil price increases and to address the broader development challenge of the continent. Here also I would like to welcome the specific proposals made by the Bank to contribute to addressing this issue and I am sure you will reflect on them and make the desired recommendations.
Mr. Chairman,
Regarding the issue of trade, it's critically important role to Africa's accelerated growth and poverty reduction can not be overemphasized. Hence the need for you as Ministers of Finance to take an increasing interest in this important sector. As you are aware, Africa's share in global trade has decreased from 5% two decades ago to less than 2% presently. The need to rapidly reverse this trend is underscored by the fact that each percentage share lost by Africa in global trade represents 44 billions $ in forgone earnings. In this connection, it's encouraging for us that you are focusing on trade expansion and diversification for African countries. I strongly believe that a pro-development outcome of the Doha Round will help Africa improve its position in global trade. Although as of now the immediate prospect of this are not as promising as all of us had hope, ECA will continue the strong partnership it has built with UNDP, ADB and the African Union in supporting the efforts of African countries at addressing market access issues and supply constraints. We believe that ADB has a particularly important role to reinforce the efforts aimed at diversifying and improving the competitiveness of African economies.
Mr. Chairman,
I would like to conclude by expressing the confident hope that at the end of this deliberations you will come out with concrete recommendations addressing the issues at hand and that you will agree on clear way forward. I wish to underscore the readiness of ECA to make its contribution in accompanying your efforts.