Twelfth Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the African Union

Statement by Mr. Abdoulie Janneh, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ECA

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
27 January 2008

Mr. Chairman,

Your Excellency, Professor Alpha Konare, Chairperson of the AU Commission

Honourable Ministers,

African Union Commissioners,

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen

I am pleased to welcome you again to Addis Ababa, home of the African Union and the Economic Commission for Africa. It is gratifying to have this opportunity to address you once again on behalf of the United Nations system and I am glad that many of my colleagues have been able to join us.

I wish to express sincere appreciation to Professor Alpha Oumar Konare, Chairperson of the African Union Commission for his constant friendship and his strong support for closer partnership between the African Union and United Nations. I also thank him, the Commissioners and entire staff of the African Union Commission for the commendable efforts they have made to ensure the success of this meeting and the forthcoming Summit.

Your meeting is yet another manifestation of Africa's strong commitment to seeking regional solutions to trans-boundary challenges and it is pleasing to note that Africa is making steady progress in this regard. Indeed, concrete efforts to improve the institutional basis for regional cooperation and integration are already manifest at both continental and sub-regional levels. Other emerging trends are similarly encouraging across economic, political and social sectors.

There is clear evidence, for instance, that Africa continues to govern itself better in keeping with the aspirations of NEPAD and supported in many instances by the instrumentality of the African Peer Review Mechanism. Of course, better governance and increasingly stronger institutions do not mean a lack of problems but rather indicate that disagreements will be addressed openly and resolved peacefully. We should not be discouraged even when there are lapses but should instead see such occurrences as part of the growing pains of a democratic dispensation.

Evidence of improved governance is also reflected in economic trends where better macroeconomic management has combined with high commodity prices and increased private capital flows to sustain improved growth rates. For instance, economic growth in Africa as a region was 5.8% in 2007, which was marginally better than the 5.7% achieved in 2006. The challenge therefore is to upscale and sustain this growth so as to significantly reduce poverty and achieve the other Millennium Development Goals in the whole continent by the target date of 2015.

Central to this effort is the mobilization of domestic and international resources to enhance productive investments, boost growth and reduce poverty. The ideal would have been to raise the required resources through domestic or, indeed, regional savings. However, the reality is that for several of our countries this is not possible in the short run due to a low-income base and an underdeveloped financial sector. External sources of finance are therefore required to meet the financing gap in Africa. This critical role of finance was recognized by world leaders in the 2002 Monterrey Consensus on Financing for Development which will be the subject of a global review in November this year.

High oil and food prices are also a matter of immediate concern for several African countries because of their impact on balance of payments and because resources being used to meet these high costs detract from what could otherwise be used to provide infrastructure and social services. This situation also requires vigilance because disquieting economic conditions in major industrial economies raises the spectre of the 1970s when a commodity boom was truncated by policy responses to stagflation in developed countries. These events foreshadowed the lost decade of the 1980s and given that several African countries are still weighed down by a debt overhang, there is need for vigilance, well-considered responses and continued close engagement with the international community.

Without a doubt, the international community has placed Africa's concerns squarely on its agenda and pledged support for its development efforts. This commitment to up-scale the quality and quantity of official development assistance has been demonstrated in several ways and acknowledged as such by African leaders. However, there is still much to be done as the quantum of support remains inadequate and the translation of commitments into reality remains a challenge. Despite the possibility of global economic slow-down, this is not the time to reduce assistance and all efforts should be made to keep Africa's improved economic performance on track. Indeed, the case for counter-cyclical action seems quite evident from recent actions in several developed countries to boost spending in order to keep their economies on track.

Another matter of immediate concern with long-term implications for Africa's development is climate change. All recent studies show that although Africa contributes least to global greenhouse gas emissions, it is one of the most vulnerable regions to the negative impact of climate change. It has been reported for instance that the glaciers of Mount Kilimanjaro have shrunk by 98% over the last century, while water levels have seriously decreased in major lakes such as Lake Chad, which has lost over 50% of its water since 1973.

Our collective efforts should therefore remain strongly focused on mitigating the impact of climate change, adapting to its effects and obtaining the required technology and finance to support adaptation and mitigation. These concerns were brought to the fore at the recent UN Conference on Climate Change which took place in Bali, Indonesia and as part of the contribution of the United Nations system, ECA will be establishing an African Centre for Climate Policy Studies here in Addis Ababa to provide technical backstopping to Africa on this matter.

The issue of climate change is very closely linked to theme of the forthcoming summit which is ‘Industrial Development of Africa” because there are concerns that proposed responses to climate change might make the path for industrialization in Africa more difficult. Of course, this need not be the case. As a matter of fact, it is quite timely and appropriate to deliberate industrialization in Africa because industrial expansion is needed to transform African economies through increases in productivity, improved skills and creation of additional opportunities for decent and productive work.

Industrial development in Africa will also reduce the dependence of Africa countries on production and export of primary commodities and integrate African firms and businesses into global value chains and help the continent to become dynamic, diversified and technologically advanced. We therefore need to strengthen our industrial capacities, improve productivity and competitiveness and raise the quality and standard of local products so as to be better able to use the increasingly available opportunities in international trade. At this juncture, I would like to acknowledge the close cooperation between the African Union and UNIDO in organizing the session on industrialization during this summit and in particular, I wish to salute the Director-General of UNIDO, Dr. Kandeh Yumkella whose drive in putting industrialization at the forefront of Africa's concerns, we welcome and commend.

In recognition of the key role of science and technology in development and its potential contribution to the industrialization of Africa, a Science with Africa Conference is being organized in Addis Ababa from 3 to 7 March 2008. The aim of this conference, which is intended to follow-up on the theme of last January's African Union summit, is to raise the level and range of participation and collaboration of African science-based entities in international research and development projects and also to inform a new science diplomacy within Africa. Through this process, it is hoped that a new dynamic will evolve to integrate Africa in global science processes and improve its access to scientific knowledge that would support the industrialization of the continent.

This kind of collaboration is also positive proof of how the United Nations system is working closely with Africa in the areas of peace and security, development, and human rights, the three pillars of UN work. Mr. Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations is in the forefront of such efforts and he has, for instance, set-up an MDG Africa Steering Group to mobilize the leadership of the UN system and major multilateral and intergovernmental agencies behind this noble agenda and in addition to provide policy guidance for accelerating progress in this regard.

The MDGs encapsulate the major social development objectives of the international community and striving to achieve them will require that necessary investments be made to empower our youth, advance the role women, protect vulnerable groups and provide the totality of our people with education, health and the opportunities to lead fulfilling and productive lives. It is essential therefore to remain firmly focused on ensuring that no African dies of malnutrition or preventable diseases, or is deprived of education or access to basic health care.

It is equally important that treatment, prevention, care and support for HIV victims are within reach, and that prevalence rate is reduced substantially. In this regard, we must acknowledge that important progress has been made against AIDS although it is still a leading cause of global mortality. In Africa, for instance, up to 5,800 people die daily and another 6,800 become infected in the same period. The African Union and the UN worked together to help develop the regional HIV and AIDS policy in Africa and we remain committed to helping African member States to meet regional and global commitments in this regard.

As this Council knows only too well, Africa's development agenda cannot be achieved if we do not collectively safeguard peace and security in every corner of the continent. It is therefore pleasing that the leadership of the continent through the mechanism of the African Union is constantly engaged in determined efforts to resolve conflicts and manage peace. The UN has also been actively involved in initiatives to promote peace and security in Africa, which extends beyond peacekeeping. For instance, we are cooperating with the African Union to move forward in areas such as mediation and good offices, training, desk-to-desk exchanges, conflict prevention and the AU Border Programme.

However, we can all do more especially in places like Darfur and Somalia to ensure that African people are able to live in peace and given the right conditions to secure their livelihoods. Moreover, all hands should be on deck to assist refugees and internally displaced persons while peacebuilding efforts in countries that have overcome conflict and are actively engaged in reconstruction and development should continue to attract international support.

In our efforts to achieve sustainable development in an environment of peace and security, Africa must continue to pay attention to the preservation of human rights. As committed members of the United Nations, we should remain faithful to the Universal Declaration on Human Rights the sixtieth anniversary of which is being marked this year. Also within the ambit of the Ten-Year Capacity Building Programme, a regional consultation was held to discuss the operationalization of specific elements of the cooperation between the AU and UN in the area of human rights, justice and reconciliation. A particular objective in this regard is to support African Union human rights institutions in building their capacities.

This Executive Council will be pleased to know that the United Nations has maintained its efforts to build coherence in its programmes undertaken in support of African development by revitalizing its Regional Consultation Meeting. This is a mechanism for UN inter-agency collaboration to work closely with the African Union in implementing the Ten-Year Capacity Building Programme for the African Union and its NEPAD programme. By this means, we hope to support the efforts of the AU Commission and regional economic communities in tackling challenges relating to poverty, climate change, AIDS, industrialization, trade, peace and security, human rights and institution building.

The 8th Regional Consultation Meeting took place in Addis Ababa last November and was chaired by Dr. Asha-Rose Migiro, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations to signal the commitment of the UN leadership to this mechanism. The regional consultation meeting took far-reaching decisions on how to deepen its work and in particular agreed that its nine sectoral clusters should draw up business plans and align their activities more closely with the programmatic structure of the African Union Commission. United Nations inter-agency collaboration through its regional consultation meetings will complement the existing strong partnership between the African Union, African Development Bank and Economic Commission for Africa which continues to be strengthened in accordance with the wishes of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government.

In this regard, it will please this Executive Council to know that the African Union Commission and the Economic Commission for Africa will be holding their first joint meetings of Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development from 31 March to 2 April 2008. This occasion will also be used to mark the 50th anniversary of ECA which falls in 2008 and will be celebrated throughout the entire year with a series of events and activities. I invite you to join us in celebrating ECA's golden jubilee during its Conference of Ministers and at other times during the year. At this stage, I would also like to take this opportunity to express sincere gratitude and appreciation to the Government and people of Ethiopia for being such generous and gracious hosts to ECA over the last fifty years.

In conclusion, I wish to emphasize that while Africa is making steady progress, it continues to face pressing and long-term challenges which can be overcome through dedicated leadership and a spirit of ownership and self-belief. The African Union can, in this regard, continue to count on the strong support of the United Nations in its noble efforts build a peaceful, developed, resilient and renascent Africa.

I thank you for your kind attention and wish you successful deliberations.