{"id":49433,"date":"2012-10-31T16:23:28","date_gmt":"2012-10-31T16:23:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierraexpressmedia.com\/?p=49433"},"modified":"2012-10-31T16:23:28","modified_gmt":"2012-10-31T16:23:28","slug":"african-leaders-urged-to-invest-in-jobs-infrastructure-and-protecting-development-gains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/?p=49433","title":{"rendered":"African leaders urged to invest in jobs, infrastructure and protecting development gains"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kigali, Rwanda, 30 October 2012<\/em><\/strong>\u2014 Opening an unprecedented gathering of experts here, present and former African Heads of State urged business, community and political leaders to help turn the continent\u2019s impressive growth into economic opportunities for ordinary citizens.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rwandan President Paul Kagame, inaugurating the country\u2019s first African Economic Conference, said, \u201cIn Rwanda, we understand that politics and economics go hand in hand and we have made a conscious and deliberate choice of inclusive development based on our political reality. By and large, they have produced positive results. Growth has been consistent and poverty levels considerably reduced by 12 percent from 56.9 percent to 44 percent in five years.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Organized each year by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the title for this year\u2019s African Economic Conference will be \u201cInclusive and Sustainable Development in an Age of Economic Uncertainty\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Africa has weathered the economic crisis and achieved considerable advances in the area of poverty reduction and human development. However, the region is still home to high levels of poverty, hunger, unemployment and inequality in political voice and access to resources.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOver the first decade of this century, with the exception of 2008, Africa experienced exceptional economic performance and growth in GDP per capita,\u201d said Helen Clark, the UNDP Administrator. \u201cBut there is a way to go in many countries to translate that growth into higher human development. Deliberate policy measures and<\/em> targeted investments are needed to make growth not just fast, but also inclusive and sustainable.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Participants on the opening day said that the key issue for the continent was to shift from commodity-based to innovative, diversified economies at a time when foreign direct investment, aid and remittances were drying up.<\/span><\/p>\n

Donald Kaberuka, AfDB President, underscored the need for long-term solutions. He suggested that Africa\u2019s growth should include doing research on solutions on how African countries could internally finance their development, and learning from what has gone wrong globally to redesign their policies.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAfrica must invest in quality education in order to stop children from inheriting poverty from generation to generation,\u201d said Kaberuka.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is how you stop children from inheriting living conditions of debt, and once you do that you have stopped the transmission of poverty,\u201d he told an opening session.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cInclusive development must include equity, equality, popular participation not only in politics but also in the economy itself and then of course there must be transparency, and all those things that make the governed believe and have confidence in those who govern them,\u201d added the Former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Participants at the conference also said that protecting communities from food and fuel price volatility, climate change and political instability required putting in place bold measures for social protection, including insurance, credit and employment schemes.<\/span><\/p>\n

The African Economic Conference is organized as a series of open thematic debates, combined with sessions that review policy research from across the continent. The conference provides a uniquely open forum for political leaders, academics and emerging talent from the continent to discuss solutions to Africa\u2019s pressing development issues.<\/span><\/p>\n

The full event programme is available at: <\/span>www.africaneconomicconference.org<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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