Achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Africa: An Issues Paper

1. Achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Africa: An Issues Paper For presentation at the Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, 11-13 May 2005, Abuja, Nigeria by Prof. Augustin Fosu Director, Economic and Social Policy Division, ECA

2. Outline • Critical Development Challenges • Why the MDGs? • Progress toward meeting the MDGs • Conceptual Framework • Implementation Framework – The Second Generation PRS • Monitoring Framework – The Mutual Review • Conclusion • Issues for Discussion

3. Critical challenges in Africa • Poverty and hunger • Joblessness • Diseases • Lack of shelter • Environmental deterioration • Gender inequality

4. Why the MDGs? African leaders adopted the MDGs to address the above challenges

5. Progress towards achieving the MDGs • While the world made significant progress towards achieving the MDGs between 1990 and 2002, Africa fared worst among the regions • Africa saw the slowest overall progress & suffered reversals in some crucial areas • In SSA, the # of people living in extreme poverty rose from 217m in 1990 to 290m in 2000 • Adult life expectancy declined from a little over 50 years to 46 years

6. Aggregate progress: goal by goal Cont’d

7. Cont’d

8. Aggregate story masks countrydifferences

9. Cont’d

10. In short, • North Africa has been making significant progress towards achieving most of the MDGs • Progress in SSA remains unsatisfactory even though a few of them have already made concrete progress (Botswana & Mauritius) and some 20 others are on track to meet one or more of the targets • Global partnership • ODA to Africa has increased more recently but far from the 0.7% of donors’ GNI • Need for more development-oriented trade agenda

11. Why Africa, particularly SSA, is lagging behind in achieving the MDGs? Range of factors: • Weak economic growth • Although governance is improving, much remains to be done especially with regard to • accountability • the rule of law • corruption • creating a business environment friendly to domestic and foreign investors • social or ethnic exclusion Cont’d

12. Why Africa is lagging behind… Cont’d • The challenge of HIV/AIDS looms large • Gender inequality remains a big challenge • Violent conflicts disrupt livelihoods, destroy infrastructure, reverse gains and damage the investment climate. • Weak capacity to carry out basic functions of government [e.g., education, health, water and sanitation], as well as the provision of public goods (roads, harbours, etc)

13. Can Africa get back on track? Yes, but … • There is still a chance for African countries to achieve the MDGs through (A Conceptual Framework) • High and sustained growth in labour-intensive sectors [agriculture, construction, textiles, tourism] • High-quality growth: pro-poor and gender sensitive • Equitable distribution of income • Second generation of poverty reduction strategies (that focus on the MDGs)

14. Implementation Framework: Second Generation Poverty Reduction Strategies (SGPRS) • Broader longer-term PRS Planning in the context of MDGs, with emphasis on growth and employment (including non-PRSP countries) • Deeper ownership through meaningful stakeholder consultation • Attention toward gender-equality issues • Improvement of governance capacity • Widening of Fiscal Space based on country-specific realities, with special attention to post-conflict and other fragile economies • Regional dimensions: Exploitation of potential regional economic synergies

15. Critical drivers of high sustainable growth • Human capital and technology • Investment in human capital through high levels of education & improved health facilities • Mitigating “brain drain” through better governance & economic policies • Harnessing technological progress • Enabling environment • Peace & security, quality institutions, infrastructure & support for the private sector • Improving institutional quality: • reducing corruption, ensuring political rights, improving the efficiency of the public sector, removing regulatory burdens, providing legal protection of private property, & enforcing laws in an equitable manner Cont’d

16. Growth drivers, cont’d • For an inclusive development strategy, governments should also • recognize and support the entrepreneurial spirit of their nationals • readdress: • the inadequacy of irrigation and transport for farmers • the serious difficulties that farmers and SMEs face in accessing finance, • information inadequacy • the lack of critical skills

17. Monitoring Framework: The Mutual Review Commitments are required of: African governments • To improve governance, including institutional reforms for effective management of domestic resources • To create jobs & reduce poverty within the framework of the comprehensive SGPRS Development partners • To increase quality & quantity of development assistance • To effect a more development-oriented trade system • To widen and deepen debt relief

18. Conclusion • MDGs are tools through which African governmentscan advance and even fast-track their national development agendas • Critical actions open to policy makers to achieve the MDGs include • Embracing the need for faster, broadly shared, jobs-promoting growth • Designing the Second Generation of Poverty Reduction Strategies to prioritize growth and employment, addressing more deeply the issues of governance, capacity, & ownership • Using mutual accountability as a monitoring framework for development partnerships

19. Issues for discussion • What can be done to strengthen political commitment to growth and poverty reduction strategies? • How should capacity issues be addressed in SGPRS? • How do we best integrate regional economic communities in national PRS? • What is the role of the RECs in achieving the MDGs? • What are the first priorities for African countries to tackle the issue of human capital formation & retention? • What are the appropriate policies for reversing the brain drain? Cont’d

20. Cont’d • How can African countries and their partners harness technology? • What concrete steps should be taken to deal with the weak infrastructure at both the national and regional levels? • What priority steps should be taken in creating an enabling environment for private investors for SMEs and small farmers? • What strategies will be best for tackling youth unemployment in Africa & what contribution can public-private partnerships make? • How should the APRM process feed into the Mutual Review?

21. Thank you!