Keynote Address By
Mr. Antonio Pedro
Deputy Executive Secretary
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)
at
launch of “Redefining African Futures: The State, Resilience, and Pathways to Progress”, Special Issue with the African Journal of Sustainable Development.
New York, 19 September 2024
Ms. Cristina Duarte, Under-Secretary-General and United Nations Special Adviser on Africa,
Mr. Ben Dotsei Malor, Chief Editor of United Nations News,
Esteemed Panelists
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It gives me great pleasure to deliver the keynote address today, as we gather to reflect on, challenge, and redefine the future of our continent under the theme “Redefining African Futures: The State, Resilience, and Pathways to Progress”.
These words are not just a guiding theme for today’s meeting, but a call to dig up and replant our seeds of hope, a call for all to look beyond rhetoric, beyond the promises of potential, a call to action, and into the realities of these actions, progress, and the resilience that will shape Africa’s future.
There are five publications that should underpin our conversation today. These are, OSAA’s own “Solving Paradoxes of Africa’s Development: Financing, Energy and Food Systems”; ECA’s “Transformative Industrial Policy for Africa”; Jakkie Cilliers “Challenges and Opportunities: The Future of Africa”; NEPAD and Pardee’s “Africa’s Path to 2063: Choice in the Face of Great Transformation”; and the Earth4All “SDGs for All: Africa” report.
These seminal publications recognize Africa’s wealth and potential, mention the paradox of plenty, discuss the structural challenges compounding sustainable development on the continent, and articulate pathways and policy options to foster Africa’s socio-economic transformation.
Different times, same old issues and rhetoric, cyclical booms and busts, excessive dependence on the export of commodities, resource extractivism, pundits would say. A broken record, critics would argue.
The diagnosis is clear, the recipe is known, implementation remains a challenge, I would note.
Ladies and gentlemen,
While Africa in recent times has faced trials of persistent economic and social inequalities, with the recent global pandemic laying bare its vulnerabilities, it is also a continent that knows resilience. Time and again, despite the odds, we have sown seeds of hope - seeds that take root and have sprouted in the most unlikely of circumstances.
In every corner of the continent, you will find these seeds. Be it in the resilience of communities that band together to establish local social protection systems and support each other through times of hardship, or in the ingenuity of our youth who continue to innovate and create despite limited resources, and also in the strength of African women, who form the backbone of both our economies and our societies.
But these seeds of hope are not enough by themselves. Hope alone, no matter how abundant, cannot bring the transformation we seek. These seeds must be nurtured by action, a clear vision and effective policy implementation to convert resilience into sustainable development outcomes.
We must operationalize Eric Maskin’s implementation theory, connect dots and create an ecosystem for transformational change. Our comparative advantages must build lasting competitive advantages.
As we discuss Africa’s future and the hope this holds, we must challenge one narrative that has long pervaded discussions about our continent: the notion that Africa’s potential alone will deliver the progress we seek.
Potential is important - yes, Africa has vast resources, a youthful population, and a rapidly growing economy - but potential alone will not deliver the SDGs. Potentials, just like the seeds of hope will not deliver the SDGs. Potential does not build schools. It does not deliver clean drinking water, neitherdoes provide jobs.
What will deliver on the SDGs and create a future where every African can thrive, is action. And not just any action, but a theory of action - a deliberate, synergistic, coordinated, and accountable approach to development that links our efforts to real, measurable outcomes, and maximize co-benefits for all within planetary boundaries and beyond GDP metrics. Action at global and local levels, in city halls or at the UN General Assembly.
This is a joint responsibility of governors and governed, home and host countries, local communities or institutional investors, CSOs or captains of industry, to name a few.
It calls for an inter-generational sustainable development licence to operate (SDLO), where success is measured on shared value creation and quadruple-bottom line indicators, namely inclusive economic gains, strong environmental fundamentals, social stewardship, and good governance.
Ladies and gentlemen,
At this stage, I trust we all believe in the indivisibility of the SDGs, the need to explore its linkages or nexus value chain through SDG levers, giant leaps, turnarounds, transitions, or transformations, and manage trade-offs or dependencies accordingly. We have frameworks that can support this integrated approach to development. I referred to some of them at the beginning of my statement.
In Africa, I see opportunities in the implementation of the AfCFTA and the economies of scale that it can unleash to establish globally competitive value chains, increase intra-Africa trade, and foster “Made in Africa” and “afroshoring”.
Equally so, is the development of the DRC-Zambia Transboundary Battery and Electric Vehicle Value Chain and the opportunity it creates to tap into a US$ 60 trillion-dollar market by 2050 and accelerate the deployment of renewable energy through local production of solar panels and batteries.
Our work to develop carbon credit registries in climate commissions in the Congo Basin, Sahel, and Island States is promising for it will facilitate price discovery, strengthen trust, and create dynamic carbon credit markets on the continent.
Human capital development, digital transformation, science, technology and innovation are key to enabling Africa benefit from its youth bulge, as well as build lasting competitive advantages beyond its initial endowments. This is a critical factor to break the middle-income trap.
Last, to make Africa a global competitive investment destination for resource-driven and trade-induced industrialization and economic diversification as well as a hub for climate action and investment, we must de-risk investments on the continent. This multi-pronged action combining growth diagnostics and other data analytics with harmonization of legal and regulatory frameworks, and country profiling, to name a few, is key to determining the national value proposition of each country, increase the pipeline of bankable projects, and create a favourable environment for domestic and international investors.
To achieve above goals, silos must be broken, requiring the establishment of a mineral-energy-climate-infrastructure-food systems-industrial-trade-and international relations policy delivery and implementation complex, in other words, a whole of government approach.
I thank you