Embracing Africa: The Continent of Opportunities

Panel members Kofi Annan, Bob Geldof, Michel Camdessus, Olusegun Obasanjo, Peter Eigen and Bob Rubin recently convened an expert meeting recently to discuss Africa’s place in a changing world. Where geopolitical relationships have changed fundamentally, put in relief by the past year’s breakneck pace of change in the Middle East and North Africa. From Egypt to Davos, many are questioning assumptions about how the world works, including rethinking “donor driven” aid, mutual accountability, the role of the state and established development models, to mention a few. With this in mind, participants at the Africa Progress Panel Expert Consultation discussed these sea changes and what they may signify for African development.

In some respects, participants noted, the window of opportunity for Africa in this new global context has never been wider. Increasingly, the world is waking up to the great potential that Africa holds to drive economic growth and development both at home and on a global scale.

Underlying this wave of optimism, lays the fundamental dividend from Africa’s demographic nature. Africa is said to be experiencing a so called “youth bulge” precisely at the time when most regions of the world are ageing. Participants identified this moment as a tremendous opportunity for African development - economically, socially and politically - as well as a potentially global resource.

However, Africa’s demographic growth also translates into an initial seven to ten million young people entering the labour force annually. This has multiple ramifications in terms of the strain it will put on the African state to support its citizenry, and the optimistic short-term economic growth scenarios for Africa may not be sustainable over the long-term.

Public education, some form of “industrial policy” and infrastructure are areas identified by participants, as requiring intensive and immediate investment to seize development opportunities. Closely related to this is the issue of developing agricultural productivity.

Another challenge identified was the need for “jobs and justice”. This can only be achieved through good governance, which by definition must be inclusive of the voices of the governed and will have to incorporate diverse grass roots movements and a gender perspective that promotes meaningful involvement. Instability, fed by territorial and ethnic divisions continues to be an obstacle to popular participation, and therefore, security will figure as a key issue in implementing a “just” development agenda.

On balance, substantial “peace dividends”, strong economic growth and quantum leaps in technology such as those seen in the field of ICT, have brought new resources to the continent. However, this has yet to be translated into relative social and economic progress, creating a disconnect and the potential for explosion if the promise of electoral processes and freedom of expression are not met with greater opportunities for a wider range of participants.

Seizing opportunities for Africa in light of the changing global landscape will require greater resource mobilization across the board, domestically and internationally. Signs of this are already apparent from the sound fiscal policies maintained through economic downturn, to increased foreign and domestic investment, and current rethinking of development assistance, all of this provides an important resource base with which to confront the “risks” to realizing long-term gains.