Lagos — African Governments and institutions have been called upon to eliminate waste, corruption and leakages as part of a commitment to enthrone better economic governance and management among member nations.

These measures, if adopted, would reflect transparency, probity and accountability in public expenditure on the continent, stakeholders have declared.

Also experts have raised an alarm that African countries will inevitably be unable to meet their development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), if far-reaching political and socio-economic restructuring is not undertaken, urgently.

These calls formed part of the various observations and recommendations reached by representatives of the civil society in Africa and other stakeholders at a dialogue on Africa's Response to the Global Financial Crisis; which took place at Midrand, South Africa on February 23-24.

The stakeholders in Africa's development, convened in Midrand, under the sponsorship of the NEPAD Secretariat and ActionAid International, to critically engage on the nature and implications of the current global financial crisis on Africa as well as an all-inclusive Africa's response.

Speaking on action points, the participants observed that the current global financial and economic crisis is a result of failure in the model of development, characterised by excessive deregulation and liberalisation in all sectors of the economy.

According to them, Africa has been nominally affected by the first generation impact of the financial crisis, in part, because its financial markets are insulated and not fully integrated into the global financial system.

"Africa will be particularly hard hit and is now facing a crisis in the productive sectors of the economy as evidenced by pervasive reductions in growth targets, contraction of economic activities; reduction in export earnings and trade credits, remittances from the African Diaspora; divestments, company closures; retrenchments and increasing unemployment", the participants noted, in a position paper, made available to THISDAY.

To them, the current financial crisis has compounded the existing challenges and shocks caused by high food and energy prices, which have impacted on the African poor, particularly women, children and small-scale producers.

"Realising that the current global economic model and system has not benefited the vast majority of Africans, particularly in the form of appreciable reduction in the level of poverty in Africa, there is an urgent need for a new people-centred macroeconomic policy framework, which puts people at the centre of economic planning, processes and development", the group noted.

They advised that this approach, as a principle, should be mainstreamed into all facets of macro-economic policy by African Governments and their supporting institutions, with human development as end-goal.

"Monetary and Fiscal Policy should move beyond the excessive focus on "stabilisation" and inflation-targeting and re-focus on promoting better conditions for domestic investment to create decent jobs, as well as shared growth that promotes human development, stimulate local economic activity and development and public spending in critical social sectors".

African countries, the participants admonished, must urgently create their own policy space to enable them to use appropriate fiscal and monetary policy to fight recession induced by the global financial and economic crises.

Participants called for a moratorium of African debt service payments; with such funds put into a facility managed by ADB that could address the short-term needs of highly indebted African countries and to bailout the poor.

"Domestic savings from debt cancellation should be invested in social services. However, the long-term goal of African governments should be a comprehensive cancellation of Africa's debts to allow for full economic recovery and the meeting of the necessary socio-economic needs of the African people" they stated.

There was a call for diversification of the economic base, including promoting value adding industries in Africa to address the perennial challenge of dependence on a few primary commodity exports; and to meet the deficit created by reduced export capacity/earnings in the medium to long term.

To the civil society representatives, top priority should be given to agriculture for its crucial role in food security and in providing industrial hub for agro-processing and agri-business, the strengthening of Africa's industrial base and boosting capacity to create job opportunities.

Domestic resource mobilisation should become a critical arena of leadership and strategy for Africa, in line with the AU/NEPAD priority strategies, the forum enjoined.

Africa was urged to embrace inward-looking strategies, including the utilisation of local resources, adding value to African commodities; given the high probability of reduced aid, FDI inflows and fall-out on over-reliance on external sources for budget support.

There was also a call for a paradigm shift that will accompany this process, in the resumption of domestic demand-led development strategy.

On the issue of social and human dimension: 'Bailing out the Poor' African Governments and their development partners, - particularly G8/OECD countries - were enjoined to promptly and fully fulfill their development commitments/pledges for the benefit of African people.

According to them, ongoing economic reforms in various African countries need to be more pro-poor with initiatives such as public works programmes being implemented to ensure greater employment opportunities.

"African Governments should urgently introduce where applicable, and enforce appropriate regulations to protect the African citizens from harmful environment practices as well as regulate the activities of multinational corporations operating in Africa", the communiqué read.