INTEGRATING AFRICA ABDOULIE Janneh (Gambia) is currently United Nations Under Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). Mr. INTEGRATING Janneh strategically re-positioned ECA to better support Africa’s development agenda and initiated Business Plans to operationalize AFRICA the new strategic vision of promoting regional integration and helping Africa to meet its special needs. Under his leadership, ECA took significant steps to support African countries in the area of regional integration, poverty eradication, gender empowerment, trade, financing for development, ICTs, governance, statistics, climate change, the fight against HIV/AIDS, and natural resources management. Before joining ECA, he was Assistant Secretary-General and United Nations Development Programme Regional Director for Africa covering 45 countries with a complement of over 1,500 staff. Prior to that, he was UNDP Resident Coordinator and Resident Representative in Ghana (1996-1999) and Niger (1993-1996), as well as Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Capital Development Fund (1990-1993). Mr. Janneh remains particularly interested in the institutional transformation of the African Union and the successful implementation of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), including the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), as critical initiatives for achieving the Millennium Development Goals. He is the Chairperson of the Governing Council of the African Institute of Economic Development and Planning (IDEP) and of the African Trade Policy Centre. He also serves on the Board of the Global Green Growth Initiative, the Coalition for Dialogue on Africa, and as a Patron of the World Sustainable Development Forum (WSDF). Mr. Janneh was awarded the “Femmes Africa Solidarité Leadership in Peacebuilding Recognition” as well as the African Leadership Award in 2011. He has also been recognized by the African statistical fraternity for his work in promoting statistics in the continent. Abdoulie Janneh “Abdoulie Janneh’s stewardship at the ECA coincided with a period of steady growth in Africa and increased optimism about the prospects of our continent. The policy statements in Abdoulie Janneh this book contributed to shaping our strategies, policies and programmes in the pursuit of sustainable development and economic transformation. I am sure that many senior policy makers will find this book extremely useful.” — Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister, Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. Printed at ECA Abdoulie Janneh Integrating Africa Economic Commission for Africa Edited by Adeyemi Dipeolu, Chief of Staff, ECA and Adeyinka Adeyemi, Senior Regional Adviser, ECA Additional writing Sonala Olumhense Maria Thundu Layout Ferdos Issa Cover design Tsitsi Mtetwa © United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, 2012 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia All rights reserved First printing March 2012 Material in this publication may be freely quoted or reprinted. Acknowledgement is requested, together with a copy of the publication. Printed by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Publications and Conference Management Section/DPU. table of contents Part One: On the Africa Policy Agenda 1 Introduction 3 Strengthening peace and security for the success of Africa’s development challenges 5 Achieving the Millennium Development Goals in a challenging environment 9 Meeting Africa’s new challenges in the 21st Century 16 The Grand Debate on an African Union Government 20 Keeping Africa’s improved economic performance on track 25 Working collectively to achieve Africa’s development agenda 31 Steps towards achieving sustainable growth in Africa 37 Encouraging faster and deeper integration 42 Using science and technology to accelerate Africa’s development process 46 Productive capacities, economic growth and poverty reduction in Africa 51 NEPAD’s contributions to the MDGs 54 NEPAD and Africa’s regional integration agenda 59 Part Two: On Regional Integration 63 Introduction 65 Additional financing in the promotion of regional integration 68 Integrating Africa 72 Working together to advance AU priorities 76 The Regional Economic Communities as ECA’s allies 81 Strengthening collaboration with ECOWAS 86 Reaping the benefits of the Economic Partnership Agreements in Africa 93 On the capacity needs of the Regional Economic Communities 97 Taking forward the Southern African Development Community’s Free Trade Area 100 Using good governance to promote regional integration 103 Deepening regional integration to sustain Africa’s emerging potential 109 Transforming Africa into a destination for foreign direct investment 113 Building productive capacities for poverty eradication 118 Trade as the bedrock of Africa’s economic prosperity 121 Reviewing progress in regional integration in Africa 125 Integrating Africa iii NEPAD’s contributions to the MDGs 129 Part Three: On Partnerships 135 Introduction 137 Forging a seamless partnership with the African Union 139 Partnership around the African Trade Policy Centre 147 Getting ready for emerging challenges 150 Deepening stakeholder dialogue on the financial crisis 155 Engaging with fragile states: Challenges and opportunities 158 Harnessing Africa’s full potential through strategic partnerships 162 Japan’s role in the transformation of Asian countries: A useful experience to share with Africa 166 Enhancing capacities for development results 175 Activating the UN ten-year capacity building programme for the African Union 177 Part Four: On the Financial Crisis 179 Introduction 181 Africa’s response to the global financial crisis 183 Implementing Monterrey Consensus at a time of global crisis 188 Focusing on domestic resources mobilization 191 Consolidating macroeconomic gains at a time of financial crisis 195 Involving private sector in domestic resource mobilization 198 Africa and the financial crisis: An agenda for action 201 Giving hope to Africa’s youth 205 Part Five: On Africa’s Special Needs 209 Introduction 211 Improving climate data for development 214 Addressing the impact of climate change in Africa 219 Climate change and its humanitarian dimensions 224 Helping Africa respond to climate change impact 228 Facing the climate change and security challenge in Africa 233 Taking action on gender equality, women’s empowerment and ending violence against women in Africa 237 Implementing Security Council resolution on women, peace and security 240 Investing in science and technology 244 Powering Africa with ICT and entrepreneurship 253 Formulating a framework for action to secure land rights, enhance productivity and secure livelihoods 256 iv Table of content Responding to Africa’s food crisis 260 Achieving better UN coherence in support of the AU and NEPAD 263 Giving substantive support to the APRM process 266 Involving youth in Africa’s development 269 A charge to the African youth 272 Using knowledge and peer learning to improve policies to reduce poverty in Africa 275 Good governance for achieving the MDGs 281 Working together to prevent HIV in Africa 286 Promoting pro-poor growth to achieve MDGs 290 Tackling climate change: the abiding challenge of this era 296 Adopting a green economy for Africa’s structural transformation 300 The role of legislation and policy development in ensuring youth development at a national level 303 Enhancing AU’s capacity to achieve its strategic plan 308 Harnessing forests for economic livelihoods 312 Exploring hydropower for sustainable development in Africa 315 Green growth and sustainable development governance: Rio+20 and beyond 319 Integrating Africa v f oreword By Jean Ping, Chairperson of the African Union Commission I am pleased to write the foreword for this compendium of the state- ments and speeches delivered by my friend and colleague, Mr. Ab- doulie Janneh who has a passionate, dynamic and optimistic vision for Africa anchored on his firm belief our continent can play a major role in global affairs through the example of our shared values and as a key contributor to global prosperity. He has accordingly used his tenure as Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa to drive this agenda in an innovative and all-bracing manner. ECA’s strategic orientation under Abdoulie Janneh’s leadership has focused on promoting regional integration but it also meant assisting Africa to achieve its special needs by restoring neglected or previously dismantled programmes, deepening of work in existing areas of contin- uing relevance, tackling emerging development challenges that are of particular importance to Africa and building partnerships in this regard. Mr. Janneh has consistently laid out a vision for Africa to become one strong, robust, diversified and resilient economy, supported by a first- class trans-boundary infrastructure and a highly skilled, flexible and fully employed workforce living in conditions of political stability. His position is that such progress requires continuous debate, shared val- ues, deepening of transboundary cooperation and strengthening of the institutions of integration. This perspective and his keen pan-African- ism underpin his strong commitment to nurturing and sustaining the strong partnership between ECA and the African Union and other key actors in the continental landscape such as the African Development Bank and the Regional Economic Communities. In 2005, when Mr. Janneh arrived at ECA, there was growing concern about the absence of critical capacities in the continent in key areas of development and