Statement by

Mr. K.Y Amoako, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)

15 October 2004
Addis Ababa

Excellences
Honourable Ministers
Friends All,

Well. In the interests of transparency, I have a confession. So many people tried to tell me that this topic just could not be done at this continent's premier venue for high level real dialogue on development. People said you could not talk about needs for improvements in governance in Africa in quite the candid way we wanted to.

And indeed, each of you who has spoken out candidly on these issues has demonstrated courage. Together we have shown that it is about time that we really talk frankly with each other. We cannot argue from rhetoric. We need to argue from facts. And the kind of facts we have given to you defy easy challenge. For the facts we have presented to you are what people throughout Africa, people in the tens of thousands, tell about our own governments.

That is what makes the accomplishments people report all the more authentic. Clearly, Governance is improving.

But, in life you have to take the bad with the good. So if we can have a glow of satisfaction about the accomplishments. We must also have continued courage to work for the improvements.

So, first, I salute all of you for participating, I thank my staff colleagues for diligent work, I am so grateful to our co-sponsors for their collaboration, I am also sincerely grateful to our partners and to all the thousands of cooperating stakeholders throughout Africa for being such solid parts of the process that led to this hour.

Second, I want to say that I hear clearly the concerns of some that this week was too over-scheduled. That ADF alone was taking up a huge topic. And the question came as to why we have concurrently held two other major meetingd ....Beijing Plus 10, and a meeting of the Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance. And there is a fourth meeting, that of the Big Table among partners and finance ministers starting tomorrow morning.

For any problems of overload, I do share my apologies. But we scheduled these meetings together deliberately because we believe there are very clear synergies between HIV/AIDS and governance which needs to be appreciated by all those concerned with governance in Africa, and there are fundamental opportunities and challenges between gender issues and all the other issues we discuss this week. Moreover, we felt that we gave you this week many opportunities to learn from allied fields and to think about synergies between your own work and gender, HIV/AIDS and governance.

None of us could be at all the meetings at once. So we have produced a CD-ROM with all the background papers from all the meetings so you can get caught up at home. Moreover, we will put the key documents on the ECA website, which is www.uneca.org.

Let me now talk about follow up.

I am pleased that the Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance held their second interactive consultation parallel with this Forum, and also had a major session in this Forum. The Commission will have three more interactive meetings around the continent and will then produce their report next June. I don't know precisely what the final report will say, but I do believe that it should be required reading to all of us concerned with governance on this continent.

I am pleased that the Beijing + 10 regional conference was vibrant, intellectually rich and also lively. As you know, the report of the conference will be the key African input to the global Beijing + 10 conference, and, I must say, will be taken very seriously in ECA's own work. I hope the conference added to the momentum of the empowerment movement and hope that all of us, men and women, study your results to see how we can become even stronger allies in creating an Africa of gender partnership.

As you know, ECA's work on governance is a work in progress. Once we digest the rich findings from this Forum and complete work in a few of the countries we have already studied, we will produce our first edition of the African Governance Report.

One of the most encouraging things to occur during this project is the inquiry from a number of countries as to why they have not yet been included. So we will be doing 12 additional country studies over the next 18 months. That will give us a total of 40 countries. Once we finish these additional studies we will then produce the second African Governance Report. And we hope in subsequent years to keep up this series of reports as a way of helping countries and regional officials track progress on the continent's governance.

We would like to have consultations at the country level on the creation of country specific action plans which draw from the recommendations that have come out of the individual country surveys as well as the insights from this ADF. We are in consultation with partners to see if this will be feasible. These country exercises will be an important part of strengthening identification and ownership of the actions needed.

At the same time, we had three sub-regional workshops to gain sub-regional perspectives on the topics for this ADF. Now, with the benefit of this Forum, we hope to again talk with the sub-regional organizations. The Economic Communities are the focal point for the implementation of NEPAD, so we will be exploring with them how to bring to bear the findings of this Forum to be of particular use in their work.

We also have regional consultations with all the UN agencies working on Governance and we will bring the fruits of this Forum to them to help them in their work.

Most importantly at the regional level, I am so pleased that President Obasanjo offered us his very important perspectives and encouragement. I look forward to the advice of leaders like President Obsanjo on how our work can have additional regional use and impact.

In all this work on governance, I know that the deliberations of the Beijing + 10 and the HIV/AID and Governance Commission will have an impact and I welcome that very much.

A major focus of the recommendations discussed this week, captured well in the consensus statement, is on capacity building. I was so pleased that Jim Wolfensohn stated his commitment to try to resurrect the idea of a major Capacity Building Trust Fund. It makes sense to do this. And now there is a much better chance of success. Why? Because this whole exercise, including this wonderful Forum, clearly documents that there is far more widespread popular demand for capacity building in governance in Africa than ever before. Partners can now be reassured that such a Trust Fund will not be seen as an imposed idea, but as a natural answer to our quest for learning the experiences of good governance and of reforming for good governance. These are capacities we want and need.

But just as attractive as a Capacity Building Trust Fund is, let us not invest our entire hopes on it, as if our attitude were that we can't do anything until the Fund is established.

For one thing, all our partners can go ahead now in helping on capacity building.

But, first and foremost, we have the onus here in Africa to sharpen our diagnosis of what is needed, to search out whether domestic resources exist for the task, and to formulate needs over and above available domestic resources and talents, if additional help is needed. All this work is ours and we need to treat such work with importance.

So if the global fund comes, and we should renew work on it, Terrific. But let us not wait for it.

Excellencies

Honourable Ministers

Ladies and Gentlemen,

You have worked hard this week. And we can take pride at what we have done. For we can be nothing but encouraged by ministers, parliamentarians, justices, civil society leaders, business leaders and partners all adding their insights and stories of their hard work and their courage on the subjects we have discussed.

Let us leave here uplifted in the knowledge that governance is improving in Africa and that those wishing to see further reforms are surely not alone. What we have seen in the surveys and in these discussions is a widespread demand for better governance. What we can tell our colleagues, our friends and our families, is that improving governance in Africa is surely now on the right side of history.

Now is it my pleasure to announce the topic of the next ADF, which will take place in June 2005 here in Addis. It is the topic which cuts across all the work we have had in these first four ADFs, and it is the hope of our present and future. It is the topic Youth for a Progressing Africa in the 21^st Century.

Safe journey. We will see you next June.