The 20th Intergovernmental Committee of Experts (ICE) opened here Monday with Kenya's Cabinet Secretary for the Devolution and Planning Ministry, Mwanji Kiunjuiri, urging African experts to find solutions to problems hindering the continent's growth and development.
Speaking during the opening session, Kiunjuri said East Africa in particular had some of the fastest growing economies but its youth continued to seek greener pastures outside the continent, sometimes at great risk to their lives.
"Africa is indeed rising," he told the annual meeting of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) that is held to discuss key issues and challenges pertaining to the economic and social development of the sub-region.
"As experts, tell us, why are conflicts escalating on the continent yet growth is supposed to open up economic opportunities, stimulate economic and social empowerment and thereby reduce tensions in society and more importantly give hope."
Kiunuiri asked experts attending the meeting to stretch their minds and develop strategies towards addressing some of the issues facing the continent, including why several resource-rich countries in Africa remained at the bottom of the international league-table in human development.
"I have confidence in your expertise in advising governments to move towards the right developmental path that will make economic growth meaningful at the household level and therefore make real the Africa is rising narrative.
The ECA Eastern Africa Subregional Office Director, Antonio Pedro, said the ICE, which this year is discussing institutions, decentralization and structural transformation in Eastern Africa, comes at the right time for experts on the continent to see how they can help African economies to be structurally transformed and reduce their dependency on commodities and exposure to their associated vulnerabilities and uncertainties.
This, in light of the falling commodity prices internationally and China's economic issues as it seeks to balance its consumer-driven economy and its waning appetite for natural resources.
"Indeed, the prices of oil, gas, solid minerals and other commodities are plunging, creating severe havoc to many African countries, especially oil exporting ones," said Pedro.
"These external headwinds will in the short to medium term affect negatively the continent's growth prospects, most obviously in commodity dependent countries."
He said the external market situation had uncovered the limitations of an 'extractivist' development model based on high-commodity prices.
"Certainly, we should learn lessons from what is happening," Pedro said. "This should certainly make clear to all of us that our economies need to be structurally transformed to reduce our dependency on commodities and exposure to their associated vulnerabilities and uncertainties."
The 20th ICA, running from the 8th to the 11th of February, is examining the role of institutions in promoting equitable growth in Eastern Africa. This will include a review of mechanisms that ensure the formulation of shared visions, enshrine good governance, strengthen public participation in decision-making and build social capital and cohesive pacts for transformational change.
The ICE, organised annually by the ECA through its sub-regional office for Eastern Africa (SRO-EA), is attended, among others, by African experts, senior government officials, representatives of inter-governmental organisations, private and public sectors groups, and research centres from 14 countries covered by the SRO-EA, that is Rwanda, Burundi, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Madagascar, Seychelles, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
For further information:
- About the 20th ICE meeting please contact Ms. Marie Francoise Umulinga on mfumulinga@uneca.org
- Media Relations, please contact Mr. Didier Habimana on Dhabimana@uneca.org
