The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has launched an initiative to boost job creation through involving low-income people in Africa in business development programmes as customers, employees, producers or entrepreneurs.
The African Facility for Inclusive Markets (AFIM), launched recently in the South African city of Cape Town, is expected to benefit thousands of small and medium scale enterprises in agriculture, industry and the distribution sector targeting women and young people in rural areas.
"A new private sector is emerging in Africa with great potential for creating new jobs, income opportunities and products and services for all," said the UNDP Special Representative for AFIM and UN Resident Coordinator for Kenya, Aeneas Chuma, while launching the initiative at the World Economic Forum for Africa 2011.
Through its offices in Johannesburg, Dakar and Nairobi, AFIM will focus on markets, products or services with the largest potential for job and income creation benefiting people on low incomes. Those sectors include agriculture, food, tourism, mining and retail.
About 73 per cent of Sub-Saharan African's population - almost 560 million people - live on less than $2 a day, according to World Bank figures.
The initiative will build on knowledge sharing and best practices from regional and national private sector initiatives in more than 12 African countries, including Angola, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya and Malawi.
As a partnership-based initiative, it will bring together the private sector and regional and international development agencies into an alliance for pro-poor markets focused on environmental sustainability and post-conflict recovery.
AFIM's work will be modelled on similar initiatives, such as the Business Call to Action, a global partnership comprising UNDP and seven other international and donor organisations that challenges businesses to strive for commercial success while contributing to poverty reduction.
"The African Facility for Inclusive Markets is a great opportunity to broker partnerships and dialogues between businesses, governments, regional organisations and other development partners for sustainable and pro-poor markets," said Mr. Chuma.
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MY GREAT BROTHERS IN AFRICA THE TIME IS RIGHT FOR AFRICANS TO HELP EACH OTHER .CREATE MARKETS FOR EACH OTHER. THINK ABOUT AFRICA FIRST THEN YOU CAN CONQUOR THE WORLD. THERE IS NO NEED FOR BIG WESTERN COMPANIES TO GET INVOLVED IN AFRICA. THESE MARKETS ARE EXCLUSIVELY AFRICAN . EDUCATE THE PEOPLE . CREATE PEOPLE POWER. AN EDUCATED AFRICA IS A WEALTHY AFRICA. THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA SHOULD ALL BE LIVING IN MIDDLE CLASS ENVIRONMENMT NO MATTER THE EDUCATION ; THESE ARE NOT HAPPENIG SO EDUCATION IS THE WAY FORWARD WITH CERTAIN TECHNOLOGIES. LOOK AT LATIN AMERICA THE WHOLE CONTINENT IS CONNECTED.. TAR ROADS CONNECTIVITY AND GOOD TOOLS ALL CHILDREN BY LAW SHOULD RECEIVE PRIMARY SCHOOL EDUCATION NUMERACY AND LITERACY IS THE MODE FORWARD. THE YOUNGER GENERATION ARE QUICK THEY WILL LEARN VERY FAST HAVE FAITH I IN YOUR CHILDREN THEY ARE YOUR FUTURE. THESE IMPERIALIST ARE TRYING HARD TO GET THEIR FOOT BACKTHRU LIBYA . THE LIBYANS NEED HELP THEN ENCOURAGE THE FIGHTING TO STOP. MANY TRICKS ARE BEING EMPLOYED BY THE IMPERUALIST , WHAT PEOPLE MUST REALISE IS WARS ARE VERY EXPENSIVE, SO THEY HAVE AN AGENDA. SPIES AND THIEVES ARE BEING REDEPLOYED TO THE CONTINENT TO OVERTHROW THE TUNISIANS AND EGYTIANS AND ALL THE FREE THINKING AFRICANS. THEY ARE DESPERATELY TRYING TO RECOLONISE THRU TRICKERY; THEY HAVENT DEVELOPED THIS CONTINENT WHEN THEY HAD THE POWER SO THERE IS NO WAY THEY SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO PUT THEIR FOOT THRU THE DOOR. RUSSIA , CHINA, SOME OF EASTERN EUROPE WHO DOESNOT HAVE THESE CORRUPTED IDEAS AS THE WESTERNERS IN EUROPE WHO ARE SLAVE TRADERS AND IMPERIAL RACIST. TO THINK OTHERWISE IS TO DOMM YOURSELF TO FAILURE. THEY ARE FREINDS WHO YOU KEEP AT A DISTANCE