The Committee of Experts addresses the challenges involved in growth and employment in Africa, the central theme of its annual meeting
ECA-AU Joint Press Release No. 25/2010
Lilongwe, 27 March 2010 (ECA) - On the second day of their meeting, which is being held in Lilongwe, Malawi, from 25 to 29 March 2010, African experts from Ministries of Finance, Planning and Economic Development examined the heart of the issue during an interactive session which was wholly devoted to thorough consideration of the central topic of the meeting, “Promoting high-level sustainable growth to reduce unemployment in Africa”.
The discussions are taking place in the Committee of Experts, meeting in advance of the third joint annual meeting of the African Union (AU) Conference of Ministers of Economy and Finance and the Conference of Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), scheduled for 29 and 30 March in the capital of Malawi.
˝The economic and social challenges involved in jobless growth are not new for African countries”, said Professor Emmanuel Nnadozie, the Director of ECA’s Economic Development and NEPAD Division, in an opening statement. But, he continued, their persistence reflects the failure of policies pursued hitherto and demands innovative solutions.
Mr. Nnadozie noted that the past decade had been characterized by a paradox. Prior to the economic and financial crisis, economic growth had followed a rising trend, increasing from an average rate of 2.7 per cent between 1990 and 1999 to 5.3 per cent between 2000 and 2007. Yet despite this performance, unemployment had fallen by only a marginal 0.8 per cent in most African countries.
Hence there was an urgent need to rethink the link between growth, employment and poverty reduction. Countries must adopt proactive policies in order that employment should shadow economic growth. In Professor Nnadozie’s view, under this approach the engines of growth should not only be reactivated but must be redirected towards high-productivity, high-employment sectors such as agriculture, which must be modernized, textiles, construction and tourism.
However, sound economic policies for employment generation must be implemented in a favourable institutional environment which was conducive to good governance. Accordingly, ECA, which had carried out a study on the link between growth and employment, called for a series of actions focused on institutional reforms designed to attract more foreign direct investment; a restructuring of trade so as to place more importance on exports of manufactures rather than on commodities and mineral products; the introduction of an effective industrial policy; and the boosting of capacity in the field of new technologies as well as the introduction of incentives to encourage workers to become involved in high-productivity activities in the informal sector.
Dr. Maxwell Mkwezalamba, the AUC’s Commissioner for Economic Affairs, said that the most important challenge in the issue of growth and employment was effective policy implementation. The experts should not hesitate, he said, to draw on successful examples offered by some Asian countries, for example. The value of the Asian models lay in the primary role they assigned to education and saving.
More broadly, Abdoulie Janneh, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ECA, urged the experts not to approach the issue of unemployment solely from the viewpoint of States’ responsibilities. “We must secure the involvement of the private sector, which possesses high-quality human capital in the process of wealth creation and retention”, he said.
Meanwhile, he called on the experts to ensure that their efforts fell within the framework of regional integration.
During the discussion, States’ representatives highlighted the specific features of each country, which required targeted policies.
In order to maximize the creation of sustainable jobs, the experts also underlined the importance of appropriate fiscal policies, without which African countries could not derive full benefit from foreign direct investment.
The recommendations of the Committee of Experts will be submitted to the ministerial session, which will begin on 29 March.
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