Presentation

by K. Y. Amoako,
Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa

Johannesburg, South Africa
Thursday August 29, 2002

Distinguished Panelists, Partners, Friends

Sustainable development is the merger of human well-being and natural resource stewardship. It focuses on the quality of life for present and future generations, and encompasses the economic, social and environmental contexts of development.

For Africa, our stakes are highest in this Summit because our sustainability issues are much more acute than in other regions of the world. Africa remains the poorest continent, with a per capita income of only US$ 330. Four out of every 10 Africans live in extreme poverty on less than US$1 per day. A total of 300 million people live in extreme poverty today, compared to 200 million 14 years ago.

On the social front, only half of Africa's countries are on track to have universal basic education by 2015, and a handful will achieve gender balance in primary and secondary schools. Only one African country will reduce infant mortality by two-thirds. Needless to say, the HIV/AIDS scourge is making things considerably worse.

Our environmental sustainability is also precarious. Fourteen African countries face chronic water shortages. About 5 million hectares of forests are lost annually in Africa, mostly due to the expansion of crop area. Africa is the only region where food production per person has declined over the last 40 years. The number of chronically hungry people has increased from 173 million in 1990-92 to 200 million in 1997-99. Only 6 countries are on track to cut malnutrition by half by 2015. If the current trend continues, it is estimated that by 2010, more than 35% of the population of sub-Saharan Africa will be undernourished, the highest rates among all world regions. In Southern Africa alone, 10 million people face drought and hunger.

What Does Reducing Poverty Entail?

Reducing poverty and achieving development that is sustainable implies a rapid, sustained and broad-based economic transformation that is equitable within as well as across generations. The key to realizing this sustainability is harnessing the capabilities of individuals and their communities. People that are sick, poorly fed, and living in a fragile environment can neither function effectively nor improve their capabilities. Moreover, partly because of rapid population growth, the severity of ill health, food insecurity, and environmental stress is likely to increase in the coming decades.

If African countries are to achieve and sustain annual growth rates of 7 % deemed necessary to reach the MDGs, innovative financing strategies will be needed. Aid is clearly part of the story, and we will need guaranteed long-term resource flows that are timely, stable, and high in quality. Doha, Monterrey and the G8 Summit showed that greater political will is required among our development partners to reverse the decline in aid and to maintain predictable support for the foreseeable future.

Much remains to be done. Rich countries need to fund accelerated implementation of the key agreements reached in recent years on climate, desertification and biodiversity. We need commitment from key governments to back the Kyoto Climate Change and other vital agreements. In the context of financing sustainable development, and together with our partners, we also need to move beyond current levels of debt relief and devise innovative ways to exit the debt trap. Yet aid alone cannot finance Africa's development. Africa also needs to take its responsibility seriously, by strengthening domestic resource mobilization, and attracting greater foreign private sector finance and investment. In-country public-private partnerships, such as those being explored at this Summit, may prove an important source of financing for sustainable development.

Earlier, I defined sustainable development in the African context and touched upon a number of key challenges for Africa. Let me end by stressing that combating ill health (particularly those caused by HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis), tackling food insecurity, and reducing environmental stress should be prominent objectives of our fight to reduce poverty and to achieve sustainable development in Africa. If we accept these as key objectives, then epidemiological and agricultural productivity transitions logically become the current priorities in the continent's quest for towards sustainability. Modern technology is indispensable to such transition.

The ECA has just released a report entitled 'Harnessing Technologies for Sustainable Development'. In it, we argue that new and emerging technologies can help Africa move towards sustainable development by lowering the incidence of disease, reducing food insecurity, and decreasing vulnerability to environmental damage by allowing more flexible crop management systems.

We caution, however, that the expected benefits of both medical and agricultural biotechnology can only be realized if a number of key challenges are addressed, including the extent to which the technologies are relevant to Africa, are pro-poor and mitigate biosafety and related risks.

(END)