The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has concluded its annual and fourth quarter (Q4) Accountability and Programme Performance Review Meeting (APPRM) and preparation of the 2022 Annual Business Plan (ABP) under the theme: “Strengthening Accountability and Joint Planning and Delivery to Advance Impactful Interventions”.
The four day meeting held virtually in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on December 14 – 17, was officially opened and led by the UN Under-Secretary General and ECA Executive Secretary, Vera Songwe.
Songwe said ECA is looking at how to strengthen its strategic directions (build, formulate, design, advocate, and integrate) in the context of the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres’ Common Agenda that aims to promote realization of Agenda 2030.
The Executive Secretary noted that 2021 has been a difficult year because of Covid-19 pandemic that has led to the loss of some ECA staff members and thanked the staff for their commitment on delivering their work despite the challenges.
“As an institution we are on the right track. We are proud of ourselves of what we have done. Looking forward we need to challenge ourselves on whether we are doing the right things so that we can do more and much better,” said Songwe.
A report on the Executive Secretary compact presented during the meeting indicates that as an institution ECA has made progress and is on the right track on its performance in terms of achieving the programme objectives, delivering reforms and delivering as a leader in the UN. The session also learnt of progress made in key audit recommendations, timely completion of end of cycle evaluations and other indicators of achievement.
Said Adejumobi, ECA’s Director of the Strategic Planning, Oversight and Results Division outlined a number of key achievements, such as the launch of the Liquidity and Sustainability Facility (LSF) at COP26, the global climate conference held in Glasgow, Scotland. Through this mechanism, African governments will save $11 billion in borrowing costs in the next five years, while fostering greener investments and sustainable development.
Further, ECA had spearheaded the organization of the multi-stakeholder Africa Business Forum in collaboration with the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo and other private sector partners. Held in November 2021 in Kinshasa, the Forum was based on solid technical analysis that will foster the development of a robust Battery, Electric Vehicle (BEV) and renewable energy value chain and market in Africa, echoing ECA’s continued push to industrialize through value addition and opportunities to improve livelihoods.
In addition, ECA made significant contributions in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic as a partner on the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT) that aims to increase manufacturing and distribution of vaccines on the Continent. Other milestones include the 2021 African Economic Conference in Sal, Cape Verde, the launch of the ECA Young Economists Network and a coding camp that trained hundreds of young girls in Cameroon.
“Joint, planning and delivery is a ‘work in progress’ for ECA. There is need for more cross collaboration among the SROs on programmes like regional integration, trade, implementation of African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA),” said Adejumobi.
Looking forward to 2022, the meeting articulated six possible areas of collaboration. These are: economic integration (AfCFTA); macro-economic policies (debt, macro-modeling and development planning); Private sector development; climate change; migration; data and statistics.
“The AfCFTA project needs to incorporate the free movement of persons, goods and services in its work. Without free movement of persons, trading and investments cannot be readily accelerated. Hence, ECA needs to work on this urgently, with the involvement of civil society,” urged Adejumobi.
On the issue of migration, the meeting stressed the need to recreate the narrative on the regional and global discourse from an economic perspective. “The global orthodox perspective on migration is quite negative, which sees migration as a burden, liability, and anti-developmental. Whereas migration has historically being central to human and societal development,” he said, and added that the migration project should explore intra and extra-Africa migration in the areas of labour, skills, investments, and employment in creating a new narrative.
The meeting also agreed on deepening the Commission’s work on strategic projects that are germane to Africa’s economic diversification. These include battery manufacture, renewable energy and just energy transition, and air transportation, which is important for reaping the benefits of the AfCFTA.
ECA annual review highlights major achievements with long-term value to member states
Rising from ruins: Gov’t to create a system to reconstruct war stricken areas
The government announces that it will establish a system to mobilize resources for reconstruction work at the war destructed areas.
The issuance of restoration bond has been recommended as an alternative source of rebuilding the areas that were smashed by the TPLF terrorist organization, which expanded the attack in two regions before it was engulfed by the national forces.
On the latest Addis Wog, a dialogue platform hosted by the Office of the Prime Minister regularly, Ahmed Shide, Minister of Finance (MoF), announced that the government is working to mobilize resources for the reconstruction work.
He said that comprehensive assessment will be carried out by the committee comprised of relevant bodies including; Macroeconomic Committee, MoF, Ministry of Planning and Development and a committee that engages on emergency response, chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister.
Ahmed stressed that the reform that was undertaken in the past three years has played a crucial role to the resilience in the conflict.
He reminded that despite the conflict in the past budget year, the economy was able to grow by 6 percent, while massive destruction transpired on the country’s resource.
“This budget year, mainly in the recent past few months the damage covered wide areas and was very huge which affected the economy in different forms which requires massive work from all sides,” he said, adding that the activities in other parts of the country is registering promising success even showing better performance compared with the preceding year.
The economic reform works will continue in connection with the rebuilding of damaged public properties and infrastructures including utilities and providing emergency support.
Ahmed said that the comprehensive assessment of the damage shall help to understand the effect in detail of the area affected by the war, “the assessment shall help to plan for the response.”
He recalled that MoF has already drafted a supplementary budget that is already tabled to the Council of Ministers and expected to be sent to the parliament for endorsement.
The supplementary budget shall have a portion to instigate the recovery and reconstruction works.
Designing the recovery and reconstruction program is finalizing to access USD 400 million from the World Bank, while under the disaster risk management program preparation work is undertaking to access additional USD 350 million, “these sum with the support from other bilateral sources shall be a resource for part of recovery and reconstruction work.”
The ‘build back better’ will be the principle on the reconstruction work of the damaged and destructed livelihood of the society in the conflict areas. Ahmed said that the recovery and reconstruction program shall takes up to five years due to the severity of the damage.
He also stated that new macroeconomic reforms shall be introduced which will have an inclusive and strong development in the country.
He said that for successful rebuilding concerted efforts is required by every citizen including the Diaspora.
At the dialogue, Alemayehu Seyoum (Prof), economic expert, suggests the government to consider issuing ‘restoration bond’ as alternative to mobilize resource for recovery and reconstruction work that will be carried out in the near future.
Ahmed responded that the government will have multiple views to mobilize resources for the reconstruction work.
The financing strategy would be properly done but the level of damage, which shall be known under comprehensive damage assessment, shall be understood, “when we have detailed knowledge about the damage, we shall have the cost estimation.”
At the event the introduction of ‘national service’ has got an attention on the aim to create a disciplined society.
He concluded that coordination of government bodies, partners and the society in general is crucial to come out with success on the upcoming reconstruction and recovery works.
Celebrating world Arabic language day
The Councils of Arab Ambassadors in Addis Ababa and the Economic Commission for Africa celebrated the world Arabic language day on Thursday December 23, 2021 at the United Nation Conference Center.
The language day aims to promote and celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity, as well as the equality of languages used in the organization and agencies.
Head of mission of the league of Arab states in Addis Ababa, community of Arab states, Council of Arab ambassadors and others attended the event.
World Arabic Language Day is observed to honor the Arabic language, which is spoken by over 400 million people globally. The day has been celebrated since 2012 to mark the adoption of Arabic as the sixth official language of the United Nations by the UN General Assembly.
Besides promoting the language, art exhibitions and promoting Arab foods was been part of this year’s celebration in Addis.
AFRICA-THE FINAL FRONTIER
As far as the prevailing modern world system is concerned, Africa is the last of the inhabited continent that still promises accumulation at a relatively decent scale. Even though the anticipated accumulation might not be as plenty as in the early phases of industrialization, (the Gilded Age, etc.) it is still expected to be significant, compared to other places on the planet! One should take serious note of the existential problem the system is facing. Since the early 1970s, the rate of profit has been consistently falling all across the world, in particular within the advanced industrial countries (core countries). The collapse of the Bretton Wood Accord (1973-the abandoning of gold-currency convertibility and its replacement with pure fiat money) openly ushered the end of the golden era of the system. This is the main reason why all sorts of financial and other concoctions (various trade agreements, currency manipulations, etc.) came to dominate the capitalist world system!
The expansion of massive un-payable debts to all and sundry is one critical design that has kept the system going. To prop up falling demand as well as stagnant income in the OECD (rich countries), the global regime introduced a credit system, which has been unprecedented in all of human history! From nation states to provinces, from counties to municipalities, all administrative structures of the modern nation states saddled themselves with unsustainable debts. From the largest corporations to owner-operated garages in the villages, debt became the mainstay of businesses all across the world. Business is no more a profit sustained economic activity; rather, it is a global hatchery of debt slaves, mostly in the monetized world. Even individuals or consumers as they are now called (starting from the humble school janitor all the way down to the well paid professionals) have not been spared. The sheeple are now wallowing in massive debts, compliment of the fraudulent financial system of the global order (fractional reserve banking, fiat money, etc.). Family/social lives as well as the general health of individuals and society at large (due to polarization/inequality, etc.) are all in dire distress, because of the systemically implemented global debt peonage system! Without the continuous creation of massive debts, the system will not last a single day. Like it or not, the day of reckoning will be upon us, sooner than later!
Behind this poser, there is still a dilemma. There is enormous capital in the world system that cannot find sufficient productive outlets ensuring reasonable rates of return. That there is a glut of capital (phony finance) in the system is one of the best-kept secrets of the reigning order. The narrative that is incessantly preached by global dominant interests about capital not being readily available is almost wholly false. If that were the case, bond yields in the OECD would not have become negative. In other words, what obtains today on the ground is; one has to pay money for the privilege of lending it to states (Germany, et al.)! Moreover, if capital were in short supply, the global pension funds, the real investors in capital markets, (equity or otherwise) wouldn’t have been in such dire strait. These funds assumed (all along) and of course wrongly, they would secure a return of about 7% per annum on their invested capital. Today that is a pipe dream, so to speak. These funds will be lucky if they can have an average return of 1% per annum. The story goes: it is not return on capital one has to be worried about, but rather the return of capital! As it currently stands, pension funds are having difficulties meeting their obligations to their members (i.e., pensioners). As a result, they are engaged in the old game of ‘kicking the can down’!
It is such scenarios (inadequate return, demographic change and saturation of markets at home, etc.) pressuring capital to look at territories in the periphery of the system. The intended mode of accumulation, we hope, might not be as wicked as those days of past (colonialism, slavery, etc.). The African states, gullible as ever and hardly knowledgeable about the ways of the world, continue to open up their territories for all sorts of so-called investments. To help implement this lopsided scheme, the continent has acquired plenty of learned idiots (products of the mill = universities) to do the bidding for their masters from abroad. These useful idiots have become increasingly confident and vocal, as they are encouraged by the power that be (TPTB) to flaunt their superficial knowledge about the world order. Committed activist intellectuals, particularly those in positions of responsibilities, must thoroughly articulate and challenge the prevailing global order that continues to undermine our fate. We shouldn’t fall for the likes of ‘Africa Rising’ memes, which, besides being vulgarly vacuous, (a symptom of internalized insecurity) are also predicated on commodity exports (renewable/non-renewable). Its associated domestic side effects of speculation and rent seeking, for example, in countries like Ethiopia and Kenya, are also facing boomerang effects. Beware, higher order accumulation that significantly leverages politicized ethnicity is neither cohesive nor lasting!
