Africa’s recovery must be pro-poor, inclusive—ECA’s acting executive secretary

BUSINESS REPORTER

Africa’s recovery efforts must be pro-poor and inclusive, with a view to fostering a new social contract that offers equal opportunity for all, the Economic Commission for Africa’s acting executive secretary Antonio Pedro has said.

The continent is beset by multiple financial, health, and climate crises. It is estimated that Covid-19 threw 55m Africans into extreme poverty.

Speaking at a press briefing ahead of the 55th Session of the Economic Commission for Africa Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (CoM 2023), Pedro (pictured) said Africa was falling behind with the continent now accounting for the highest proportion of the world’s poor of any region globally.

“It is important that our growth does not leave anyone behind and if we do so then the social contract that is key to have stability and prosperity will be completely disrupted,” he said.

Pedro said the emergence of a large number of newly poor and vulnerable people makes it harder to close the gap between the rich and the poor.

The ability of African countries to effectively tackle poverty and inequality is also severely constrained given declining economic growth, narrowing fiscal space, rising debt, commodity shocks and tightening global financial conditions, he said.

“The risk of missing the poverty and inequality targets set out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want, of the African Union, is higher than it has ever been before,” Pedro said, adding, “Poverty and inequality in Africa pose high risks to prosperity, peace, and security, and to the social contract more broadly.”

The 55th Session of ECA’s Committee of Experts of the Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, a statutory meeting of the ECA will be held from March 15 to 17 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The Ministerial Segment of the Conference will follow on March 20 to 21.

The Conference brings together Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development from African member States, governors of central banks, entities of the United Nations system and pan-African financial institutions.

In addition, the conference will also attract African academic and research institutions, development partners, intergovernmental organisations and other key stakeholders to discuss statutory issues pertaining to the function of ECA, engage and exchange views on economic and social development in Africa as well as take stock of progress on regional integration and other issues pertinent to the continent.

This year, the Committee of Experts and the Ministerial Segment will convene under the theme, Fostering recovery and transformation in Africa to reduce inequalities and vulnerabilities.

Pedro sees the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) as the platform to extricate millions out of poverty.

The AfCFTA, which came into force in January 2021, is touted as Africa’s Marshall Plan with a potential to lift 100m Africans out of poverty and contribute US$450bn to Africa’s GDP by 2035, according to a report by the World Bank.

Pedro said the design and implementation of the AfCFTA need to incorporate SMEs and the informal sector “so that they become part of the agenda moving forward. He said the cross border women should be incorporated in the AfCFTA strategies.

Pedro said the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war “wiped some gains we had made in the last decade”.

He said the crises prompted Africa to look inwardly and to promote “endogenous solutions”.

This saw the birth of Africa Exchange Trade Platform, a digital platform to boost trade in critical commodities under the AfCFTA.

Speaking at the same press conference, Second Vice-Chair of the 54th Bureau of the ECA and Zimbabwean Ambassador to Ethiopia and Permanent Representative to the African Union and ECA, Sophia Nyamudeza said that the theme of CoM 2023 was timely as African countries are recovering from Covid-19 and were experiencing world food crisis and suffering climate change shocks.