Consultative Meeting on Partnership with ECA

Opening Address By
K.Y. Amoako, Executive Secretary, ECA 

15 April 1996, Addis Ababa

I. Opening 

Excellencies, distinguished colleagues: 

Our welcome to you has been in the making for a year. We have worked hard for this day and greet you with very special warmth. 

We thank you sincerely for undertaking arduous travel, for taking time from highly important agendas and for showing solidarity by being willing to sit with us to discuss what we sincerely hope is a shared future. Your presence shows a goodwill from yourselves and your governments and institutions for which we are truly grateful. 

We need not tell you that Africa has been in development crisis. For some countries on this continent the stagnation continues. But for an increasing number the promise of development is beginning to be felt. 

It is now possible to see a different Africa, an Africa of renewal. 

We are experiencing a new international economic environment of which Africa is becoming an integral part. Globally, macroeconomic stabilization is converging with international economic linkages. The latest U.N. projections for developing countries shows GDP growth projected to rise from 2.2% in the past decade to 5.2% in the next. In the region of Sub-Saharan Africa, expectations for improvement in regional growth over the next decade to 4%/year are conditioned on a number of assumptions. Among them are a continuation in the recent pace of reforms, a slower pace of decline in terms of trade, and a consolidation of civil peace in the sub-regions where breakthroughs recently have been achieved. 

ECA plans to play a significant role in enhancing the pace of these development trends in Africa. Looking ahead in the coming decades, ECA sees an Africa where poverty is being routed, where economic growth is far more pervasive, where pluralism is honoured to mobilize the brains and power of Africa's peoples and its increasingly diverse institutions, where growth is seen across the continent in human terms and where growth is sustainable. Such an Africa will be part of the future and not an anchor to the past. Such an Africa will know not only the hoe, but the computer keyboard. It will be linked not only to the village, but to the neighbouring markets of Africa and to the global economy. Such an Africa will find its united voice and be in the mainstream, not the margins, of consequential international decisions. 

This is the Africa to which we are committed. It is not a given that the Africa we envision will happen. But a willed future, a future well analyzed, well charted out, and well supported by partners is a future which moves from the possible to the probable. 

We are bold enough to believe that ECA can help bring about the future to which we are committed. 

II. ECA Today 

Today ECA is a collectivity of 200 professionals, four regional offices, 30 independent institutions we have sponsored and still have some responsibilities for, and the owner of publishing, informatics and conference facilities. In the grand scheme of things we are small. But in a continent where national capabilities are often weak, we are of particular and unique importance. 

ECA does not shy away from its past, but we are not satisfied with it. 

III. Africa Requires a Renewed ECA 

In fact, we are committed to a major renewal of the organization on a scale not seen in ECA's history and, it is fair to say, rare in multilateral life. 

Permit me to outline why we are so committed to renewal. We are renewing: 

-- Because our Member States...which encompass the entire continent... the UN General Assembly, and the OAU have given us significant Responsibilities. 

-- Because Africa is at a turning point where seizing opportunities and moving with forcefulness is possible unlike so many years in the past. 

-- Because there is a new generation of leaders at the technical and increasingly at the political level with whom I feel a strong kinship. We are eager to move ahead, not unaware of the wretched colonial past, but not immobilized by it; ours is a generation impatient for progress and willing to roll up our sleeves to work for it. 

-- Because marginalization must be arrested and that requires a strong and often unified African voice with solid proposals, strong alliances with friends, and the will to change the accepted wisdoms. ECA has a strong role to help prepare Africa for the realities and opportunities of globalization. 

-- Because ECA has received important responsibilities from the UN system and more are on the way: 

-- At lunch today you will hear about the United Nations System-wide Special Initiative for Africa which ECA co-chairs; 

-- We also expect to receive important responsibilities to help the UN family to harmonize their work in Africa. 

-- Because we can be a force to emphasize the positive, to help impart courage to beleaguered leaders, to emphasize what is working to help a sceptical world to increase its faith in Africa, and to make sure we do not have a failure of will. 

-- And because we just can do better. 

We must focus our resources and energies more sharply. We must seize new technology, new economies, new opportunities to aggregate thinking, new ways to showcase the best thoughts in Africa, new ways of encouraging and benefiting from the pluralistic forces in Africa, new ways to arrive at consensus, new ways to inform a wider public, and new ways to hold ourselves accountable for results. We must and will do all these things. 

As we have planned ECA's renewal we have opted not only to have focus, but to have Strategic Focus so that the things we do help achieve credible and worthy goals. 

The process of renewal entails three Guiding Principles: 

-- Excellence, where we aim at high quality and high impact; 

-- Cost Effectiveness, making the best possible use of our resources, particularly through reorganization, better modalities and more use of economical technologies; and 

-- Partnership, to create alliances, gather political and financial allies, and work together for impact. 

The Process of Renewal has entailed a number of progressive steps, themselves new for the organization: 

-- We have taken great care to have highly expert diagnostic and prescriptive work done on our programmes and management through the deployment of a number of studies utilizing the best resources we could identify around the world and the best of our staff. 

-- We have carried out the most participatory in-house reviews in memory, involving an extraordinary level of commitment from the entire professional workforce in open fora sessions (the last round of which took place just a few days ago), 

-- We held a major consultation two months ago on our proposed programmes with an impressive group of leading ministers, academics, and NGO and private sector leaders from throughout Africa; 

-- and from these studies and processes we are undertaking a major reorganization of the institution, a redeployment of staff based upon skills assessments; reform of key management, budget and approval systems resulting in firm accountability while achieving dramatic simplification; a complete reform of personnel systems, and many other changes. 

The response from staff, from our Ministerial bureau, from UN Headquarters, from the many African experts we have consulted and from the Staff Council has been uniformly positive. There is firm support for our renewal. Many valuable recommendations have been offered and incorporated in the papers we have sent to you. And there is a real sense of ownership: memorably captured by a leading South African scholar who proudly said at the conclusion of our January programme consultation: "This is our institution, carrying out our agenda on our continent." 

These three days with you and a conference of ministers we shall hold in two weeks are the capstones of all the work we have devoted over the past year. 

IV. Renewal in the Programmes 

While I would be happy to explain any part of our renewal, there are three aspects I would like to stress: our plans for institutional strengthening, our programme consolidation and the modalities our programmes will deploy in the future. 

First, institution strengthening. Over the next two years, particularly, we will be taking a number of steps to upgrade skills, augment staff and institutionalize ways of operating more productively and with greater impact. You will see in the document on partnership which we have sent to you that we particularly invite partnerships which can help strengthen institutional capacities. Training of staff, twinning of staffs, skills upgrading, fellowships, and sponsorship of sabbaticals with ECA all are attractive options, particularly the next two years during which we are re-engineering the institution. There will be greatly added value to the extent these capacity building activities can be designed within the context of the development and implementation of ECA's new programmes. 

Second, we are consolidating and refocusing programmes. From nine programmes in 21 different areas we have decided to concentrate on five core themes and 2 cross-cutting themes. This choice of programme concentration responds to very clear mandates from our Member States which we cannot ignore as well as to our own judgement as to what is essential to be covered. However, within each of these themes we will have great selectivity both to assure high quality work which is crafted for impact as well as to focus on what is truly significant and, in many cases, urgent. The themes are a framework for planning, budgeting and programme selectivity. 

The five themes are: 

-- facilitating economic and social policy analysis. 

Under this theme will be important work on longer term social and economic policy issues with a heavy emphasis on the alleviation of poverty and the propagation of best practices. 


-- Ensuring food security and sustainable development. 

Under this theme will be an integration of food production, population and sustainable environment. We call this fundamentally important area "the nexus". Nowhere on this continent is the intermix of these fundamental issues receiving the integrated attention we plan to give. 

-- Strengthening development management. This entails our future work on fostering an effective public sector, promoting private sector development and promoting popular participation in development. We build on well-established efforts. 

-- Harnessing information for development. This theme will entail an expansion of our work on development information systems, statistical development, dissemination of information within Africa and promoting information on Africa's development here and abroad. ECA will become a major force in promoting informatics in Africa. 

-- Promoting Regional cooperation and Integration. We will focus our work on implementing the Abuja Treaty, work with sub-regional organizations, and fostering linkages in transport and energy. 

We also will give serious attention to two cross-cutting themes: 

-- Gender, to enhance women's participation in economic development. Actually this is both a cross-cutting theme in our programmes and the focus of specific programmes in our African Centre for Women. We plan to be a force to help implement the Beijing Plan of Action on this continent. 

-- and, Capacity Building within Africa, which cuts across all the other programmes. 

We will spend the balance of the day describing the focus of all these programmes and benefiting from your comments and questions on our strategic focus. 

V. Renewal in ECA's Modalities of Operation 

Modalities. Our renewal intrinsically involves a major shift not only in what we do, but in how we do it. 

In the past ECA was too dependent upon meetings, written products and traditional technical assistance. In fact, the shear number of reports and meetings was somehow a hallmark of accomplishment for many UN entities, including ECA. This must be revolutionized. ECA must use up-to-date technologies and strive not for output but for impact. 

We will strive to expand ECA's comparative advantage as a respected centre for discussion on policy and as a place where thinking and action are brokered. We will become more: 

-- a think tank for economic development; 

-- a clearing house for best practices; 

-- a policy integrator respecting and integrating analyses from a number of fields; and 

-- a catalyst for ideas, enabling the best minds we can locate to focus on timely and fundamental issues; 

The technical way we operate shall change mightily. There will be: 

-- Far more use of electronic products; 

-- An overhaul in dissemination practices; 

-- Better assurance of country targeting through use of 

national representatives; 

-- Fewer but more policy-relevant reports, through, for example, publication of shorter policy analysis and house opinion pieces, as well as consolidation of publication series; 

-- Fewer meetings and those that are held will be oriented for implementable results; 

-- Rationalization of sponsored institutions; 

-- And, we, like many others of you helping on capacity enhancement, are searching for more effective ways to provide technical assistance, including more teaming with local and diaspora resources. 

We are clearly cognizant that the modalities we use must become a model of best practice. We are particularly anxious to deploy new modalities which leapfrog old ways of doing business. 


VI. ECA's Ability to Renew: The case for Support 

We are a UN Agency and that brings Strengths: 

-- We can draw upon a lot of agencies and expertise. Indeed, we will be working closer with the strengths in the U.N. family; 

-- We are in a leading role in the newly announced United Nations System-wide Special Initiative on Africa, which I co-chair with the Administrator of UNDP. 

-- We anticipate being given additional responsibilities to help harmonize UN work in Africa. 

There are also other factors. We are a part of the UN Secretariat and thus are part of the UN Headquarters's budget-squeeze where the interplay of rising peacekeeping responsibilities and declining paid-in resources is causing budgetary stringency. We welcome ways to economize, we are well ahead of many in the implementation of streamlining steps and in implementing new procedures and technologies for efficiency. Some in the organizational world are carrying out lean and mean restructurings. We like the lean part. 

Despite these economies, the budget problems of the UN are not timely for us. ECA can and will do a lot with its budget, but it cannot do a good deal of planned capacity building, and the design and implementation of programmes aimed at expanded impacts, without partnerships. 

What is at stake is not our survival, but the quality and added potential impact possible from this unique institution. 

VII. New Partnerships 

Having said this, I want to strongly underscore the point that even if somehow we had adequate financial resources we would still be seeking partnerships. The concept of partnership is an absolutely fundamental part of our renewal. 

Tomorrow and Wednesday we will focus on opportunities for partnership with the donor community. On this occasion, permit me to sketch out what the concept of partnership means to us. 

Partnership is basic to the process of ECA's renewal. The search for long-term partners connotes a shift in strategy in which ECA is less the self-contained producer of work and far more a networker helping to put forward the best possible thinking and doing so in ways which leverage the chances for good ideas having impact. 

We desire partnerships Within Africa with key intellectual networks so that the work of leading policy thinkers throughout the continent can be better utilized and so that our own work can be intellectually enriched. We are already in discussion with leading continental networks such as the African Economic Research Consortium, here today, and environmental groups. We will also work more with nationally located think tanks and policy centres in Africa so that we have more access to knowledge of best practices and so that relationships with member States will be strengthened. With some of these networks we expect mutual interests to be strong enough to permit thinking in terms of strategic alliance in pursuit of both capacity building and programme aims. 

We desire partnerships to promote South-South cooperation. The national policy and sectoral development experience as well as the investment potential of a number of recently poor countries offers tremendous potential benefit to this continent. I am so pleased that respected authorities from Asia are with us during this consultation. It would be fair to say that some of countries here represented were described a generation ago in the same apocalyptical terms that a number of African countries are popularly described today. I, along with my brother regional commission heads in Asia and Latin America, believe that the public and private sector leaders in countries rapidly progressing in Asia and Latin America have a number of lessons which should be shared with African counterparts and that investors from Asia and Latin America may well identify and act on potentials for growth in Africa earlier than others. 

We desire partnerships with the Donor community. During its 38 years of existence, ECA has enjoyed many partnerships with bilateral and multilateral donor institutions. We hope that as understanding and confidence of ECA grows that partners will move with us from project level support to more programmatic support, perhaps being in a mini-consortium to support a theme area. We also foresee that partners satisfied with the general progress of the institution may wish to be part of a consortium addressing institution-wide needs and general support requirements. 

But whatever the level of interaction, ECA hopes that a new quality of relationship with partners in the West and the East will be possible, one which draws upon intellectual as well as financial resources and one which transcends the old project approach to move towards longer term ties. We desire your interest in our institutional health and, through us, in undergirding Africa's ability to articulate its major economic and social positions on a much more mature and interactive basis within the continent and with the global community. 

These new partnerships could include: 

-- Networking. We invite you to foster linkages between ECA and key policy centres in your country so that there can be sharing of policy perspectives and so that we can benefit from opportunities to build our staff capacities and widen information exchanges; 

-- Collaboration. We invite exploration of linkages between selected entities in your country (of course including many of the institutions here represented), ECA and possibly other African institutions. Here I have in mind joint studies, joint seminars, exchanges of staff and regular consultation on policy issues. And, 

-- Sharing of information on common problems organizations like ours face. Here I refer to the experience of your own institutions. For example, because we are rethinking the modalities of our operations, we could benefit by learning your best experiences on deploying new technologies, learning how to improve the impact of technical assistance and learning better ways to assure that dissemination of products reach the right audiences. 

The object is a much richer and productive relationship which we hope is based upon a joint desire to see the work of ECA flourish and have increased relevance and effect. We would like to think your institutions and interests will also prosper in such relationships. 

Let me give you an example of partnership where combined strengths are leading to concrete results. This June, ECA, the World Bank and the Global Coalition for Africa will hold an international conference on Reviving Private Investment in Africa. The Government of Japan is among the donors providing significant support for this conference. The conference will bring together governmental authorities and private investors from within Africa and from other parts of the world to promote contacts, permit African governments to outline recently adopted more private-sector friendly policies, and to organize investor's forums in infrastructure, financial services, agribusiness and telecommunications. A number of African Heads of State will participate in a round-table with chief executive officers from major corporations. At the conference we will launch an African Capital Markets Forum which will be a multi-country advocacy group that brings together members of stock exchanges, leasing companies, financial institutions and investment funds. Each of the three co-sponsoring organizations is bringing something to the table. We are clear about results and together we will accomplish things difficult to do alone. 

I hope we can seed a number of such productive partnerships at this meeting. Let us explore the opportunities. Let us get to know each other better, and let us find levels of comfort so that there can be productive follow-up discussions. 

The next weeks will be busy ones for ECA as the momentum of renewal is picking up pace. In two weeks I will co-chair a meeting of the Steering Committee of the UN System-wide Special Initiative on Africa and immediately after that will meet with all UN agency heads to help keep the Special Initiative moving ahead. Immediately after that our Conference of Ministers will meet. We expect their endorsement of the whole process of ECA's renewal. Shortly after that we will put into place the remaining reorganization and staff redeployment steps we have been planning. The concept of partnership pervades all this activity. 

Let me conclude with an observation: The marginalization of Africa will end not by Africa asking for an end of it, but by hard development work including exactly the kind of mature relationships we seek with your governments and institutions. 

We seek your friendship. Friends share experiences, advice and work towards mutual ends. There is give and there is take. 

We offer a unique window into Africa, a service to Africa and an investment in inter-state cooperation. Just as Africa needs a new relationship with the World community, we do, too. It is South-South cooperation and North-South cooperation. It is the change from dependency into inter-dependency. 

I invite your interest in the renewal of ECA. I invite your collaboration to make sure that this season of renewal is long and productive. I invite your partnership. 

Thank you.