52nd meeting of the IDEP Governing Council : presentation by CARLOS LOPES UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ECA

Abstract

On resumption of the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in September 2012, a series of consultations and reflection exercises to determine the new strategic directions of ECA were organized. African countries are experiencing significant economic growth with many of them being amongst the fastest growing economies in the world. This growth is due to several factors including Africa’s youthful population, its burgeoning middle class, enormous natural resources wealth, improvements in governance and macroeconomic fundamentals, urbanization and the growing dynamism of the private sector. These developments have led to more positive assessments of Africa with visible changes from attitudes of Afro-pessimism to effusive Afro-enthusiasm. The conclusions reached were that the world is changing, Africa is changing and in order to meet identified priorities for accelerated transformation, ECA itself must change. Against this background there is an imperative to use current growth as a platform for broad structural transformation. Such growth must work for Africans and driven by their own priorities. It must also have a strong focus on the use of Africa’s economic strengths, upscaling of infrastructure, creation of productive jobs and domestic entrepreneurship. It should also assure food and nutritional security alongside viable social policies.