| The twenty-second meeting of the
Committee of Experts of the Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and
Economic Development "Towards Greater Policy Coherence and Mutual Accountability for Development Effectiveness" Opening Statement by K. Y.
Amoako, Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia Mr. Chairman It is a pleasure to welcome you here and to be with you again. It has been barely seven months since we met in Johannesburg. It is good to greet those of you who kindly participated in that successful meeting last October and to welcome those of you attending these meetings for the first time. Your perspectives and advice are welcome and will help make this Conference another success. At our last meeting, I expressed optimism about Africa's development prospects in the wake of several major international meetings, which had just taken place then. These involved trade, financing for development, the African Union, sustainable development, and NEPAD and the G-8. I must admit, like many, that my optimism has waned, to some extent, as a result of Africa's sluggish growth in 2003 as the forthcoming Economic Report on Africa will show. The resurgence of conflict and terrorism in some areas of our Continent, and drought crises, have tilted the discussion away from some of our pressing longer term needs. But I also believe that there have been positive developments, including new initiatives within Africa and by some of our partners addressing longer term development, which make this meeting timely and which opens up opportunities for further progress if we are both aggressive and united. Let me begin by placing this meeting in the context of what we have achieved since our Johannesburg meeting. Mr. Chairman In Johannesburg our Ministers issued a statement of consensus on many matters of critical importance to meeting the challenge of implementing NEPAD. On the one hand were commitments to actions to be taken by African countries themselves. And, on the other, were recommendations for action by Africa's development partners. On the African side, your Ministers committed, among other things, to embedding NEPAD's objectives into national programmes. Some countries further committed to implementing specific aspects of NEPAD, including the African Peer Review Mechanism. I hope that you will have an opportunity during the meeting to share with us the actions your countries have taken in this regard. Africa's development partners have also committed to intensifying efforts to providing enhanced ODA levels. These commitments were made within the framework of the Monterrey Consensus as well as the G-8 Africa Action Plan for NEPAD. You will have the opportunity to examine this issue in detail as part of the work of this Conference. Your Secretariat has taken several actions to support specific recommendations from Johannesburg. First, we have addressed the need to rationalize our meetings with the African Development Bank. Therefore, this meeting is organized in collaboration with the ADB. We are pleased to team up with ADB whose meetings will follow immediately after the Conference. Second, we informed you in Johannesburg of our plan to establish an office in Geneva to support African delegations to WTO and to strengthen Africa's negotiating positions. I am pleased to report that we have established an office in Geneva for this purpose. Third, the UN system is playing a stronger role in supporting NEPAD. Following endorsement of NEPAD by the UN General Assembly, the Secretary General committed UN system-wide support to NEPAD. UN agencies working in Africa have constituted themselves into five clusters for coordinating their support to NEPAD. These clusters correspond to NEPAD's priorities and they will work in close collaboration with NEPAD's Secretariat. Each cluster is led by one agency as a convener for regional consultations. In the past year, two consultative meetings have been held focusing on NEPAD, the last one only three weeks ago here in Addis Ababa. All clusters have made significant progress, ranging from drawing up a common plan of action to mobilization of resources and actual implementation of projects. Fourth, In Johannesburg, I committed to expanding ECA's work on Poverty Reduction Strategies in order to help mainstream poverty reduction strategies into national development programmes. We have instituted the African Learning Group on PRSPs, which has become an important forum for exchanging experiences among African experts. We have so far carried out studies of PRSP experiences in 13 African countries. This year we plan to cover another 12 countries. These studies reveal a broad range of lessons. These include: the need for costing poverty reduction strategies in the PRSP to ensure successful implementation in each country; the need to entrench broad-based participation in the process; the value of harmonization of donor support for the PRSP process; and the need to focus on the content and composition of growth strategies in PRSP to ensure that they are, indeed, pro-poor. A partnership arrangement has been developed between the PRSP-Learning Group and the Strategic Partnership with Africa (SPA). The meetings of the two are now held in conjunction with the technical working group meeting of SPA. Thus, the PRSP-Learning Group now provides an entry point for African participation in the SPA. Mr. Chairman Having reviewed substantive work since Johannesburg, let me now discuss the theme of this meeting. One of the key issues ensuing from the Ministers' meeting of last year was the need to transform the development partnership, as called for in the NEPAD document. As the Ministers stressed, the new relationship will hinge on mutual accountability, coherence and consistency of policy among partners to maximize the effectiveness of development assistance. I believe this is a central and profound issue for our development, and you will see that I will take some time to underline this in the statement I present to the Ministers. ECA has pursued the mutual accountability issue with several of Africa's development partners, in particular, OECD. It is because we consider this issue critical for Africa's development that we selected as the theme for this meeting: "Towards Greater Policy Coherence and Mutual Accountability for Development Effectiveness." Not only is the theme of policy coherence and mutual accountability critical to development effectiveness. It has also gathered momentum in the international community which provides us with an opening to move our agenda forward. An issues paper has been prepared to serve as background for discussions at both expert and ministerial levels. It covers the vital areas of mutual accountability, policy coherence and development effectiveness. In addition, it addresses two major cross-cutting concerns for Africa's development: how the IMF can work better with Africa and the macroeconomic impact of HIV/AIDS in Africa. Please, allow me to briefly highlight some of these points. Mutual accountability is one of the key policy principles of NEPAD as summarized in the African Peer Review Mechanism. This meeting is invited to examine how mutual accountability by Africa and her development partners, and coherence of the policies of all actors, can help improve the effectiveness of development assistance. A few countries in Africa already have donor relationships that include mechanisms for mutual accountability. So our discussions can benefit from the on-going experiences of these countries. In particular, I believe the Ministers would also benefit from your insights on:
An important part of our general theme relates to the policies and programmes of the IMF. The IMF has played important roles in most of our economies. And it is now quite timely, at a time when the IMF is seriously re-examining its approach, that we expand productive dialogue with the Fund. Given Africa's challenges to focus on development outcomes, particularly the Millennium Development Goals and the consequent need to invest more heavily in poverty alleviation and social progress, there is joint interest in finding out how to better reconcile these needs and the traditional concerns of the Fund. Many of you have had direct negotiating experience with the Fund in the context of PRGFs and other matters. As well, there are two senior member of the Fund with us whom we also welcome. So there is a basis for an important and timely dialogue by real experts. We have outlined a number of questions in the issues paper, but I must candidly say that I will be particularly listening to advice on how fiscal resources can be freed up for poverty reduction. Perhaps we can think of two scenerios: that of ideal programmes and policies to achieve the MDGs and the scenerio bound by conventional fiscal and monetary prudence. How can we responsibly move from the conventional to the ideal? There is an opening here for new ideas on how expanding resources and expanding management capacities can grow hand-in-hand. A final but no less important issue that this meeting is invited to examine is the economic and social implications of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Africa's growth prospects are likely to be unfulfilled dreams if the rampage of the virus is not stemmed. I should note that in follow-up to ECA's African Development Forum on Leadership and HIV/AIDS and to the Abuja Summit on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other diseases in Africa, the UN Secretary General has established a Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa. ECA has been designated chair of the Commission, to be advised by a panel of eminent personalities. This meeting is invited to examine, most critically, the impact of HIV/AIDS on national budgets, on the mobilization of resources for health, the collateral with other diseases, as well as its claims on the poor and most vulnerable of our communities. These issues are of increasing urgency to our senior policy-makers. Mr. Chairman Let me now turn to actions to strengthen ECA as an institution. You may recall that, with your support and encouragement, in 1996 we set out on a path of reform of the Commission to improve its effectiveness, impact and relevance. I am happy to report that our institutional reform process continues to pay dividends. These are evidenced by the steady improvement in the quality of our analytical work as well as the growing level of confidence in our institution among national, regional and international partners. Encouraged by improvements in our service delivery, we have now turned our attention to improve the management of substantive work. Fundamental to reform in this area is the creation of conditions for continuous learning of our staff through improved alignment of core business, client sensitivity and performance measurements. In this regard, I organized an Open Space Forum last December involving over 600 staff. What emerged from this institution-wide consultation was an impressive number of recommendations. At the beginning of this year, I set up an Institutional Strengthening Programme Team to lead the implementation of these innovative ideas for change generated by the staff of the Secretariat. I should note that this work is consistent with the goals of the Secretary-General's new reform initiative to strengthen the United Nations. Our Institutional Strengthening Programme will run for a period of three years and will complete the evolution of ECA into a knowledge-based, high performance organization. This, I am sure, is no less than what member States expect of us. It is in this context that I welcome the initiative of this committee at our last Conference to have members review the work of ECA. This kind of review, involving key stakeholders and perhaps reaching out to other stakeholders, can be quite constructive and complementary to the on-going reforms I have outlined. A background note in your papers addresses this proposed review. I think there could be particular value added if the review is focused on three areas:
We look forward to working with you collaboratively to produce as useful a review as possible. If at this Conference we can establish the basic scope and a course to plan this review, there is no reason that it could not be completed in time for our next Conference of Ministers. Mr. Chairman Your agenda also includes other important issues. We will present to you an overview of the current economic and social conditions in Africa, report on the activities of the Secretariat over the past year and the programme of work for the next biennium, as well as statutory issues arising from the subsidiary organs of the Commission. Any overview of our current development must start with the fact that Africa's economy grew at a modest rate of 3.1% in 2002, compared with 4.3% in 2001. The slow-down of GDP growth in 2002 was due largely to the sluggish recovery of the global economy, decline in oil prices, drought conditions in certain parts of North, East and Southern Africa, and civil conflicts. The GDP growth of 3.1% in 2002 was barely above the average rate of growth of population. It, thus, translates to less than one per cent growth in per capita income, compared with about two percent achieved in 2001. As a result, little progress was made last year to reduce poverty in Africa. Most countries are still in the process of completing the preparation of the PRSP. The pace of implementation will be largely determined by consistent high level leadership support as well as the availability of human and financial resources in these countries. With regard to the statutory issues, two of the four sectoral committees were able to meet during the period under review. The Committee on Development Information held its third biennial meeting from 10 to 17 May 2003 here in Addis Ababa around the theme "Harnessing Information for Good Governance in Africa". It recommended a set of strategies for addressing issues such as: information and governance; decentralization, community empowerment and the role of the civil society; and facilitating transparent public financial management and accountability. The deliberations of the second meeting of the Committee on Human Development and Civil Society focused on the theme: "Participation and Partnership in Africa's Development". The meeting underscored the importance of participation and partnership as the basis for addressing issues related to ethics and accountability in public service delivery; HIV/AIDS; and the special development needs of countries emerging from conflict. A framework for enhancing and promoting participation and partnerships was developed, which will, among other things, create modalities for exchanging "best practices" within as well as outside the continent. In accordance with the decision of the Conference last year on the rationalization of the subsidiary organs of ECA, the Committee on Natural Resources and Science and Technology and the Committee on Sustainable Development have been merged, retaining the name of the latter. The new Committee on Sustainable Development will hold its first meeting some time in October 2003 under the theme: "Making Science and Technology Work for the Poor and for Sustainable Development in Africa". We also plan to hold, before the end of 2003, the next biennial meeting of the Committee on Industry and Private Sector. I am happy to report that all five Intergovernmental Committee of Experts, the policy organs responsible for the five ECA's Offices in the sub-regions, were able to hold their respective annual meetings since your last meeting in October last year. Central to the agenda of all the meetings of the subsidiary organs was the issue of governance both at the sub-regional and regional levels. All these meetings were requested to review the state of governance in their respective sub-regions. In some cases, special reference was made to the African Peer Review Mechanism. The issue of measuring and monitoring progress towards good governance was keenly debated and the need to have a better understanding of governance processes, mechanisms, policies and to promote an analytically founded dialogue on governance was underscored. Finally, we will present to you for endorsement the programme of work and priorities for the biennium 2004-2005. This represents our work programme for the second half of the current medium term plan (2002-2005), which you had previously endorsed. Mr. Chairman In my remarks, I have tried to summarize and help focus your discussions. We all realize that the outcome of your work will be presented to the Ministers at their one-day meeting on 1 June 2003. A two-day meeting of experts leading to a one day ministerial which is back-to-back with the ADB meeting is not a lot of time to cover the broad agenda before you. At our last session, where I implored the experts to focus on the big issues and to work expeditiously, we still had a nearly round the clock debate session. So I can only underline my belief, shared I am sure with almost all of you, that focus on the biggest recommendations and working in a spirit of compromise and constructiveness is not only a higher necessity this year, but will do better justice to the issues under discussion. Indeed we simply must finish on schedule this year. The topics are great and the experts are truly expert. I'm sure we will accomplish a lot. Thank you again for your key role in this Conference. |