… ACBF Executive Secretary calls Africa to action
Addis Ababa – 27 June 2017 (ACBF) –Transformative leadership through mindset change could be the avenue through which Africa can tackle challenges of weak governance, high levels of corruption, and the inefficient growth common in most African countries, according to Professor Emmanuel Nnadozie, Executive Secretary of the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF).
Speaking on the sidelines of a recent China Africa High Level Dialogue and Think Tank Forum on Poverty Reduction, organized by the African Union in Addis Ababa (from 21-22 June 2017), Prof. Nnadozie said transformative leadership would be Africa’s shot-in-the-arm for real development outcomes, and therefore if Africa were to reach its development tipping point, the continent very much needed a mindset change that would lead to transformative leadership.
Defining “transformative leadership” as the “necessary attribute for Africa to be able to translate its development plans into significant development outcomes”, the Executive Secretary explained that Africa’s political economy had become central to the realization of the continent’s development agenda.
Therefore, African countries should strive not just for growth “but high-level double-digit growth that creates jobs, provides governments with more latitude to significantly invest in public service delivery, and raises incomes and the standards of living of the general population.”
Prof Nnadozie defined “high-level double-digit growth” as “efficient growth that eliminates poverty on the continent”. He cited Ethiopia and Rwanda as the two countries that were making the most progress towards “efficient growth”, and therefore he was confident that Ethiopia and Rwanda would likely achieve poverty reduction much faster than the rest of the continent.
The Addis Ababa forum was organized by the AU’s African Union Leadership Academy (AULA) in collaboration with strategic partners, including the government of China via the Zhejiang Normal University. The goal was to learn from the experience of poverty alleviation in China.
The forum thus brought together stakeholders from Africa and China involved in the design and implementation of poverty alleviation strategies and programs, to share lessons and experiences.
Prof Nnadozie moderated a session on “pro-poor growth policies and experience”, a topic that had been extensively dealt with in the past few years by the ACBF in several policy documents.
The Executive Secretary later held talks with the AU Commission Chairperson, Moussa Faki Mahamat, on the upcoming AU mid-year Summit scheduled for 3-4 July in Addis Ababa.
The Summit will focus on the theme: “Harnessing demographic dividend through investments in the youth”, another of the critical subjects that the ACBF has thoroughly dealt with in the recent past.
For example, in a February 2016 report, titled “The Challenge of African Youth Unemployment”, the ACBF took a comprehensive look at the challenges facing Africa’s youth, especially youth unemployment, and stressed that addressing the problem required integrated and long-term approaches to rural development as well as methodologies that stem rural-urban migration and ensure that educational systems provide marketable skills to Africa’s youth.
The report looked at the history of youth unemployment on the continent, and said the problem had worsened over time. Part of the blame was put on European colonialism that introduced a cash economy, the production of export crops, and the exploitation of minerals and forestry products, thus undermining Africa’s traditional socioeconomic systems to better serve European economic needs.
Unfortunately for Africa, as the European system created a demand for wage employment, the more stable and higher wages became the basis for migrant labour, as young men left their homes to look for work in distant places in cocoa, coffee, and tea plantations or copper, cobalt, diamond, and gold mines.
Even worse, according to the report, “the imposed arrangements created a disdain for agriculture and other traditional economic activities alongside a craving for Western-based wage employment in the formal modern system. And as rural-to-urban migration grew, employers sought to raise productivity by replacing labour with machinery, thereby adding to unemployment.”
The problem has further worsened in recent years with relatively rapid economic growth on the continent without adequate job creation, and a youth population bulge with few skills relevant to the labour market because of an educational system that fails to prepare the youth for existing jobs.
The solutions proffered by the ACBF report will come in handy for the upcoming AU Summit as African leaders will deliberate on possible ways to avert the threat that high youth unemployment poses to the continent.
As the report advised, “Africa’s youth unemployment problem was not created overnight, and so cannot be solved in a day. That requires long-term, well-targeted, and coordinated capacity interventions. Foreign seed funding may be helpful, but not as the primary instrument … Youth - Africa’s future - must not be wasted; they must be nourished and empowered to ensure a sustainable and prosperous future for all Africans.”
-ENDS HERE-
For more information, please contact:
Abel Akara Ticha – Senior Communication Officer
The African Capacity Building Foundation
Harare, Zimbabwe
+263 7+263-4 304663, 304622, 332002, 332014; Ext. 279
Email: A.Ticha@acbf-pact.org
About the African Capacity Building Foundation
Established in 1991, ACBF builds human and institutional capacity for good governance and economic development in Africa. To date the Foundation has empowered people in governments, parliaments, civil society, private sector and higher education institutions in more than 45 countries and 6 regional economic communities. ACBF supports capacity development across Africa through mobilization and leveraging of resources for capacity development; grants, investments and fund management; knowledge services; promoting innovation in capacity development and capacity development advisory services. The establishment of ACBF was in response to the severity of Africa’s capacity needs, and the challenges of investing in indigenous human capital and institutions in Africa. ACBF interventions are premised on four principles: the centrality of capacity to the development process in Africa; the critical role of a partnership and demand-driven approach in tackling capacity challenges; African ownership and leadership in the capacity development process; and a systematic, sequenced and coordinated approach to the capacity development process that pays attention to capacity retention and utilization. For further information go to: www.acbf-pact.org
