in te gr..t1on.
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111. SeJf "'''Hance, however, could be achieved ol'ly by putting science anu te chn c Logy ..t the se.r-vi ce of the Africa1'1 cont tnent , He therefol'" welcomed the
r~","l"tiol1s of the Cltiro Oonf'e ren oe of August 1978 co'"cerring int .. r alia the e xten at on of the role of science and tech1'1010gy 11'1 the areas of rur.. 1 de ve Lopment ,
irl,iuBtrial d e ve l opmert , the developme"'t of n on -oon vent Lor- .. l ~r.ergJ- sources a.d.apted to Afric", and the trai1'1il1g of sciel'tific and te chn a c .. 1 m"l'"o"er for deve lop me" t of th" African regiol1.
112. Therefore, Sel'eell1 was p L...sed to have been chosen as the ho st country fcr- the kfrican Regional Centre for Technology, and wi th the un an Lmo us support wld c h Afrio~1' States ha.l given to IDEP, the only bilingu.l institute oper"ted
i1'; .,;.frica by and for senior Jd'ric~n officials.
113. Oonce rnfr g matters cf procedure, Sene".. l believed th"t al1 anT'ual meeting of the Conference of Ministers was rot appropr1Q.te at j.r-e eert mair.ly because
( ) f th,;; fir.~f'ci9,l difficulties w:'ich Africo. w... s ellcoU!:t~r111g. Or' the other hard,
Sn'''6.l whole-ben·te(l,ly auppo.r ted the p r-opo sa I to a bo Li eh the 'I'e chri c.. l Corumitte e of "::q."rts, a in ce the Executive Committee waa well able to carry out such
fun ct ior. s ,
11". The represent"tive of Sierra Leone associated his lelegation with the sentiments Already expressed "I'd aa i.d that 21 years of' co-ttnuous existence of any or""l1iz.tiol1 "as indeed a1" achievement. Just .. s 21 w"s tba age at which
0.1" individual was considered capable of determiT'i1"g his own life style, so
ECA had, on coming of age, decided to place its e mpha sd a or self-reli"1"ce,
positive ar d dyn ..mic growth at the l'"tio1'1"l a1"d multin"tion"l levels. Through-out its 21 ye ar-s ECA hal performed inv.. 1uable services to its member Stat"s.
In th" t cor-ne xd or he referred in r.a rticul"r to the est" blishmsn t of the
~ULPOCs, ·'1hieh his Oovs rnment str-on gLy supported as .. means of achieving tlie socio-economic tr.Y1sformatio1" of the region a1"d subr-egLor a , an d to the Afric;;n r1"ati tute for Ecol1omic Development "l1d Planning (IDEP) and the Afrioan
Dev...Lopment, Bank (ADB). He a Lso noted with s.tisr-ction the level of
'.:o-oper".tio1" betw~e'" ECA ..nd other il'tergove1'l1me'l'ta1 org"1'1izatiors In Afri.c.,
I'~rti cu LarLy OAU, "JCO~iAS an d the Ma1"o River Union.
115. The question of AfriCa's 8tro.tegy for the Third United rations Deve Lopment Dec"ie w•. s • per ttrient one in thiOt Africa was still caught in a vicious
circ Ie of 1'0verty, unemployment and low ir comes "1"d productivity. Areas of
development in which his GoverY1ment felt th~t action by ECA would be piOrticularly h el.rfu L were the att'ji1"ment of regional self-re1i"'I'ce in food an d the est..
blish-J:I"~t of' agro-b",sed and capft . l goods il1dustries at the natio1"al and regio,""l 1e"..Ls , He also felt that ECA should help to ge'l'erate the fina.nc", e quLpmer-t ..",1 resources n~eded to d"velop the tr ansport anci ccmmuntc .. tiol"s ae cto'r in Afric.. I/,1'Hi mentio'l'ed the need. for a functional educ•.tion .. l system. IT' closing he pledged Sierra leone's suppor-t to the United F.ations system ..nd particul.. rly DCP- ..
116. The representative of the Sudan said th.. t, like other Africal'
countries, the Suda~ Was oelebr.ting the :t"enty-first anY1iviSrs"ry of EGA with .. sen se of leep appreci,lt10r. for the Commission's role in helping Afric..n St1\ te s to overcome their deve lopmen t problems. He oor-veyed to the Commissio'"
be at wishl'ls 1'01' its suc ce aa from ht s President, the cur-rent Ch.irmaJ' of OAU, who had been ur a b Le to attend the COl1fereY1ce because cf compelling affairs of
1-'- - .
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-State. His deleg~tio~ corcurred witt the pessimistic a~alysis of the African sitwttion made by the ).dmiT'istr~tive Secretary-Gensral of OAU in his open Ing stw.temsnt. It felt that the only way out .as for Africans objectively to assess their pote~ti.l, pool their resouroes and face the challenge of
developme~t s~uaraly. It believed th~t the development effort should st~rt
.ith the mobiliz.. tion of r~sources itt the natioT'al and regioral levels in
prefer~nce to Meking ..ssist~nce from the outside world. Regional plam'iT'g Was the most ~ff"ctive meaT'S of creati>lg a1'1 At'ricaT' pattern of development and life style. The Sud..r had embarked on that effort by deVising a programme of ecol'\bmic il'\tegrat1ol'\ with its northelT' l'\eighbour, Eg;;pt. That pr<Jsr.mme iT'clud..d projects il' tr,.nsjlort ar.d other aimed ,.t tile ;.chien,mart of self-re li",., ce ir. focd productior.
ll? His ccuntry "tt",ched ere.t import ..n ce to the rvle of the MULIOCs, iT'cludhi!, tl:.s l'orth At'ric~n I1it'LPOC, as effective tools il' the impleme1'1tation cf projects
""J.
ill striving for d"velcpment goals "t the regio"al a"dsub-regic~al levels. It .. lso believed i,., the ne e d for it1terregio1'1al co-oper.. tiol' and , in th"t respect, strongly supported the id"r, of a~ "gr"on.eT't between ECA
~l'\d ECLA _nU urged th~ Executive Secretary of ECA to enter il'to a similar agreement witt EC~IA, in view of the strol'g bonds between Africa .nd "estern Asia lOS '!JJ(pressed in Afro-Arab co-operation al'd it' co-oper..tiol', between OAU and the Arab League.
118. F:j.n a lly, he sad d that his delegation felt th"t the Conferel'ce of Ministers should meet _nru..lly al'!d that the Executive Committee should be abolished. It also f"voured lea.ving the COT'f'erel'!ce of At'ric&T' Pla~llers as it WaS and merging the Conference of At'ric.n St~tistiGi"ns.nd th~ ConfersT\ce of
Afric~1' Demographers.
119. The representative of Togo recalled the difficulties encountered by Afria"," countries in the international regotiatiol'1s of the future ACF/EEC conven tion, the gel" eralized eystem of preferen ce s, the Integr" ted Programme for Commodities or the debts of' developing countries which should make those
countries understand that they had to rely 01" themselves r.ther than on others.
The economic development of Africa depended on agricultural development, which would help to ensure he"lthy workers for other sectors of the eoonomy. The food gap ih Africa would widen if a eolution to the problem w~s not found.
Agrioulturalundtr-development in Africa was a ~uestion of methods of cultivation rather than of soil conditions. That was why FAO and related bodies had
been constar.tly requested to il'tensify their assilltance in Africa by
disseminating modern methods of cultivation to increase arable acreage and productivity. The efforts of sil'1g1e States might well be ineffectual without
collective determil'1ation and the help of specialized ageT'cies. Por eLolmple the World Food Plan's intention to achieVe that must be tral'slat.d iT'to facts.
Since all At'rical'1 countries did not have the same cap~citi"6, he welGomed
the import"l'c" attached to regio".l al'1d subregiOT1.l co-operation, and in partioular to the idea of setting up an At'rican common market. At'rican oountri4s could
emerge from their present st.te OT'ly by est.bliobirg mutual bOl'1ds of ecoromic co-operatiOl" which would enable them to bonefit from economies of soale through the creation of viable unite. To that end Wogo had spared no efforts in the creation of what h"d become the Ecol'1omic Community of West African St.tes. For its part ECA had also endorsed the idea of subregional groupiT'gs by settil'1g up the MULPOCs which should f.cilitate the creation of the Afrioan common market.