African experts converged in Dakar on Sunday to discuss industrialization and infrastructure development on the continent with many agreeing more still needs to be done to ensure Africa is able to industrialize and create jobs for its youthful population.

In his paper delivered during a high-level meeting organized by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) on “Innovations for infrastructure development and sustainable industrialization” during the ECA’s Africa Development Week in Dakar, Stephen Karingi, Director of the ECA’s Capacity Development Division, said Africa still faces serious infrastructure shortcomings, both in terms of access and quality, despite the important contribution it has to leverage industrial potential.

“Albeit with some regional and national disparities, the continent is broadly characterized by poor transportation network,” said Mr. Karingi. “Also the power that is needed to scale industrial plants remains grossly inadequate and access to ICTs still has a long way to go in most countries although progress has been made over the past few years.”

His presentation evolved around the nexus between infrastructure development and industrialization, state of infrastructure development and industrialization in Africa and infrastructure development and industrializing efforts in Africa.

“Well-functioning infrastructure assets contribute to increasing cost efficiency by lowering production costs, improving access to larger regional markers, through regional integration, for productive resources and industrial output thereby creating new production, trade and business opportunities,” Mr. Karingi told the high-level meeting.

He said good quality infrastructure is a key determinant of countries’ and regions’ attractiveness to foreign direct investment hence the need for the continent to come together to develop infrastructure that will enable its transformation.

“Good infrastructure assets also yield education and health outcomes that serve the industrial. Good water and sanitation facilities result in better health and increased productivity of workers; road networks improve access of patients to hospitals while well-functioning medical centers would have to rely on good electricity supply,” Mr. Karingi noted.

“On the other hand, industrial development of a country would require specific infrastructure which suggests industrialization could also be a catalyst for infrastructure development.”

Participants also discussed the state of Africa’s transport network, which remains poor as characterized by low railway density as compared to other regions, access to energy, and CTs performance, noting although the continent has made progress in the past few years, it remains the poorest performing continent in terms of ICT development.

Mr. Karingi said Africa like some other developing regions, including Latin America, has recorded a decreasing of industrial and manufacturing contribution to GDP, a situation often referred to as de-industrialization.

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Calls for protectionism in the West should not scare Africa, says Abdalla Hamdok

Acting Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Abdalla Hamdok, says there’s no need for Africa to panic as sentiments of protectionism and populism grow louder in Western Europe and America.

Speaking during the regional meeting on innovations in infrastructure development and sustainable industrialization in Africa, Mr. Hamdok said the rise of populism and protectionism in America and some European capitals should not scare Africa but give the continent an opportunity to re-think and come up with policies that shape its own future in its own way.

“It is not all doom and gloom when you hear those protectionism sentiments,” he said. “We should use the opportunity to rethink and shape our own future, developing our markets, our value chains and all that. We should look at it as an opportunity to do that and move our continent ahead.”

Mr. Hamdok said Africa needs to work tirelessly on value addition and move away from the model of selling its rich natural resources which do not generate enough financing for the development of the continent.

“We really need to rethink this outdated model of relying on exports of our raw materials where we still have commercial activities going on in villages with no running water, no clinic and all that,” said Mr. Hamdok.

He said while designing infrastructure projects that could leverage industrial potential of African countries, it remained important to benefit for value chain maximization, preferably regional value chains with ongoing efforts towards regional integration in Africa.

“We need to rethink our commodities and link the entire investment in the commodities sector to the development of the continent and be part of developing our nations and provide that much-needed financing for development.”

Mr. Hamdok said the high-level meeting should come up with concrete recommendations on how Africa should tackle the issues of innovation, industrialization and infrastructure, especially financing mechanisms, including developing, strengthening and deepening financial markets.

Speaking at the same meeting, United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) President, Fredrick Shava, said anyone who has spent significant time in Africa knows that the question of infrastructure, industrialization and innovation was not merely a technical issue.

“It is at the height of the continent’s development plan and if adequately prioritized and supported, can ensure that Africa’s potential is unleashed and that individuals and societies are able to progress and break free from the shackles of deprivation and lack,” said Mr. Shava.

He said the potential for Africa was limitless. “Nevertheless, our economies and societies are not creating the quantity or the quality of opportunities needed to meet the demands generated by our rapidly urbanizing cities, our youthful population and diverse ecosystems,” he said.

Senegal’s Industry and Mines Minister, Ngouille Ndiaye, said it was crucial for Africa to move with speed to address the challenges affecting its growth and creation of inclusive economies.

He said his country is currently implementing a number of policies in its quest to transform its economy.

This is the first of two meetings that will be held in preparation of a bigger high-level meeting in New York in May to discuss and find ways to address impediments to industrialization, infrastructure development and innovation in Africa. The second meeting will be held in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, in April.

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Use innovation and technology to drive economic transformation, UN General Assembly President Urges Africa

Africa should take advantage of innovation and technology and use them to drive sustainable development, infrastructure and industrialization, the President of the United Nations General Assembly, Peter Thomson, told the high-level meeting on Sunday

Mr. Thomson said harnessing this potential requires effective leadership to champion the necessary reforms to ensure the transformative potential of innovation and technology is enjoyed by everyone across Africa.

“The rapid pace of advances in innovation and disruptive technology taking place across our world provides an opportunity for these tools to be harnessed in Africa towards advancing sustainable industrialization, development, and growth. Importantly these advances present opportunities to leapfrog high-carbon models, spur green economic growth, and build resilient economies,” said Mr. Thomson.

“In the volatile global environment, in which we live, driving an economic transformation to secure the sustainable growth needed to eradicate poverty, build infrastructure, and support industrialization, requires a smart, innovative and integrated approach.”

He said the topic of the meeting was of particular importance for both Africa, and the international community, as governments and partners look to scale-up implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, and the African Union’s Agenda 2063.

“With the sustainable development goals serving as a universal masterplan for building a safer, more prosperous, and more sustainable future for all, the need for catalytic action could not be clearer,” said Mr. Thomson.

He said the important question, that is not new however, is how governments and partners can work together to achieve sustainable development, and to ensure that the transformative potential of the SDGs reaches all people.

He said the question of ‘how’ to achieve sustainable development is made even more difficult when the compounding challenges facing African nations are considered.

“With many African economies largely reliant on natural resource exports, economic prospects are highly susceptible to external shocks, including price volatility and falling global demand,” Mr. Thomson told the high-level meeting.

Broader global challenges, he said, add to this economic vulnerability, including peace and security threats, humanitarian crises, rising terrorism and violent extremism, the large-scale movements of people, population growth, expanding inequality, environmental degradation, extreme weather events, and the destructive impacts of climate change.

He said while innovation and technology stand to revolutionise sustainable development, and drive economic growth, capitalising on this opportunity and turning the potential into outcomes requires the creation of enabling environments, at both national and international levels, to mobilise the financing, investment, and innovation needed.

These include sustaining peace as an economic imperative, and pursued as part of integrated efforts to prevent conflict, addressing its root causes, achieve sustainable development, and guard development gains from reversing.

He said policy and regulatory frameworks should be implemented to help build resilient institutions, strengthen governance, promote gender equality, ensure economic inclusivity, increase access to markets, diversify the economy, drive enterprise development, and create the decent jobs needed to ensure that Africa’s demographic dividend benefits the economy.

Strategic partnerships need to be established to bring together key stakeholders from across government at all levels, civil society, the private sector, and grassroots organisations, to drive inclusive and coordinated sustainable development efforts, added Mr. Thomson.

“And sustained support is needed from the international community for African-led efforts, including through capacity-building, investment, and technology transfer,” he said, adding efforts to strengthen the partnerships between the UN, the African Union, and sub-regional organizations, were also critical, including the Partnership on Africa’s Integration and Development Agenda, among others.

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The time to fast-track Africa’s structural transformation is now, says top UN official

Director David Mehdi Hamam of the Office of the Special Adviser on Africa (OSAA) told the high-level meeting that it is time to fast-track Africa’s structural transformation and create inclusive growth that will leave no one wallowing in poverty.

Mr. Hamam said Agenda 2063, the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Third Industrial Development Decade of Africa, are all reviving industrialization and infrastructure development for inclusive growth and sustainable development on the continent.

“It is time to fast-track Africa’s structural transformation. As we intend to achieve the aspirations of African people and the world, it is critical to create wealth, income and employment,” he said.

“Industrialization through local value-addition and local processing offers great opportunities in this regard, particularly if it allows to build forward and backward linkages.”

Mr. Hamam said achieving industrialization requires an enabling environment which includes, among other things, sustainable infrastructure and services in energy, transport, water, sanitation, and information communication technologies. It also requires soft infrastructure such as institutions, adequate skills and technology, as well as peace and stability, he said.

“Poor infrastructure in general has been undermining the competitiveness of African economies and thereby slowing the per capita growth by two percent annually according to the ECA,” he told participants as he urged African leaders to take advantage of innovation and technology to ramp-up Africa’s industrialization drive.

“It is therefore imperative to fast-track infrastructure development and the implementation of PIDA in Africa in order to foster sustainable industrialization and ultimately leave no one behind,” said Mr. Hamam.

He spoke in a session which examined the current status of infrastructure development and sustainable industrialisation in Africa and other developing countries, both of which are enablers for sustainable development in their own right, but whose current state of development could act as a serious drawback to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda.

The session examined how countries can develop policies and implement programmes that can mitigate the various constraints and fast-track the industrialisation process.

In his closing remarks to the meeting, ECA’s Stephen Karingi said it is crucial for Africa to allow for ways to support small to medium enterprises that have potential to unlock the continent’s industrial potential.

He said some issues to consider include how Africa can build an enabling environment for start-ups to grow; design urban centers of service to support SMEs; work out mechanisms to ensure SMEs do not remain in a permanent state of SMEs and informal sector but rather grow to become large-sized and or formal enterprises and create level playing fields for SMEs in national, regional and international markets.