The African Economic Conference, jointly organized each year by the African Development Bank (AfDB), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), opened on November 1 in Addis Ababa with the first plenary session focusing on the conference theme of “Knowledge and innovation for Africa’s transformation.”

Panelists established that, for Africa to meet challenges of water, agriculture, education, health, sanitation, environment, gender inequality and its participation in the global economy, increased scientific and technical knowledge is required, as is innovation. Knowledge and innovation are critical dynamics for Africa’s sustained growth, they noted.

The speakers also recognized that the region has become a knowledge society. For two hours, they highlighted the constraints to a broader sharing and better management of knowledge and innovation in Africa.

African Development Bank’s Acting Chief Economist and Vice-President, Steve Kayizzi-Mugerwa, outlined that knowledge and innovation are crucial for effective growth and sustainable development “but it must be planned, with strong leadership.”

He noted that transformation is happening in Africa and everywhere in the world, but wondered if Africa had truly harnessed the development benefits of technology. “Real transformation will only come with people. We need to move from inspiration to action. What is lacking is the implementation.”

Kayizzi-Mugerwa emphasized the key role that good universities delivering quality education can play in providing qualified resources to contribute to innovation on the continent.

Kayizzi-Mugerwa also underscored that, thanks to the Bank’s Ten Year Strategy, it has contributed to increasing supply of skilled workers across the continent, and has stepped up its support for technical and vocational training linked to specific needs in the labour market.

Adebayo Olukoshi, Director, African Institute for Economic Development and Planning (IDEP), said, “If all processes are sufficiently accompanied to drive transformation, an important area is the political space as well as systemic governance.

“If knowledge and innovation are to provide a development path out of poverty, there is an urgent need to strengthen science, technology and innovation (STI) policies, with emphasis on learning and innovation; strengthening human resources development and improving science and STI infrastructure,” he said.

Olukoshi also identified “smart industrialization, infrastructure management, maximizing traditional sources of financing, harmonization of curricula and revamping training programmes,” as ways to help achieve transformation.

For his part, Ayodele Odusola, Chief Economist and Head, Strategy and Analysis Team, UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa, recognized the mobile sector as a key transformational pillar. He stressed the need for the implication and expansion of mobile systems in vital economic sectors, as it contributes to enhancing agricultural productivity, promoting financial inclusion, improving women’s health and reducing child mortality.

Anthony Maruping, African Union Commissioner for Economic Affairs, expressed the need for stronger knowledge-sharing and strengthened human capital, with focus on “training people who can think.”

“There should be a flow of knowledge among Africans and with people from other regions in the world through partnerships,” he said.

Echoing other speakers, Lemma Senbet, Executive Director of the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), also recognized that knowledge and innovation can help spark sustainable growth on the continent. “There is urgent need to strengthen science, technology and innovation policies, with emphasis on learning and innovation, promoting national and regional innovations systems,” he said.

Leading practitioners from the public and private sectors, as well as researchers from academia, also participated in the discussions.

The African Economic Conference runs until Monday, November 3.

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Opening Statement by Carlos Lopes, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of Economic Commission for Africa – 1 November 2014

I am pleased to welcome you to the Ninth Session of the African Economic Conference.

Over the past nine years, together with the African Development Bank and the United Nations Development Programme, this conference offered a platform to learn, debate and enrich the African intellectual discourse. This year’s conference theme is “knowledge and skills for Africa’s transformation” a subject dear to our chairperson.

The continent abounds with examples of knowledge helping change the narrative. Kenya’s financial inclusion performance through mobile banking is now quoted worldwide. Cardiopad, invented by Arthur Zang, a 24 year-old Cameroonian engineer, enables heart examinations through tablets. The Saphonian, invented by Anis Aouini, from Tunisia, attempts to offer an alternative way to harness wind and generate green energy that can be converted to electricity. In South Africa, a pedal-operated, self contained, easy to assemble waterless toilet called the SavvyLoo is being rolled out to respond to the need for innovative sanitation solutions. Eneza (“to reach” or “to spread” in Kiswahili), a virtual tutor and teacher’s assistant on a low-cost mobile phone is making wave in East Africa. M-Farm, provides up-to-date market information and links farmers to buyers through a virtual marketplace and shared current agri-trends.

These innovations bode well for the future. However, supplemental work is still required to speed up the pace of creation as well as the absorption rate of new technologies and spread it to all sectors of our economies. I am encouraged by your strong turnout. Both young researchers and highly respected professors are here to make a contribution. Your respective institutions continue to create opportunities to engage and exchange with industry leaders from Africa’s emerging knowledge and technology-driven commerce. I cannot over-emphasize the importance of fostering a continuous dialogue between those who create knowledge and those who commercialize knowledge in the quest for structural transformation, industrialization and sustainable development of the continent. As you know, sharing has a multiplier effect on knowledge dissemination.

Arguably, one of the most important developments of the 20th century for enhancing economic development has been the emergence and establishment of the knowledge-based global economy. Africa has to be prepared. We can actually be net beneficiaries of this focus on the role of information, technology and learning as a determinant of economic performance. We can leapfrog. We can offer frugal innovation. Technology has important implications for our ability to identify and exploit opportunities to transform our economies and for the employability of our growing young population. In today’s knowledge-driven global economy, innovation and technology-oriented education is vital for sustained economic performance and competitiveness. In practical terms, innovation and technology-oriented education gives our youth critical building blocks to secure their future. It ensures their integration into the more productive sectors of an economy, and also gives them the capability to generate new sectors and products. In this context, the Common African Position on the Post-2015 Agenda is clear – no one is to be left behind. The continent is aiming for inclusive and sustainable growth that leads to the uplifting of each and every single African: we want simple households to be capable of building wealth, whether by establishing a competitive small business or by plugging into an industrialization drive. For this to happen, we have to upgrade skills and make them responsive to the employment demands.

A key challenge for many of our countries is mobilizing finance and investment to make the required reforms happen. The solution might come from building public and private partnerships, for instance, much of the job of re-skilling our labour force takes place at the level of structured on-the-job skills development programmes, in which business is a driving force.

Where needed, business is already finding enough skilled workers to start low-end value addition. This is good news but hardly heartening. We are only going to scale up industrialization if we respond to higher and sizeable skills demands. For that, we need more synergy and synchrony between public and private sector actors.

Capacities is not the same as capabilities. We have lots of capabilities; but we need capacities. We need capacity for strategic decision-making. Capacity for enhanced productive economic activities. Capacities for aggressive absorption and generation of knowledge intensive technologies. In one sentence: capacity to transform growth into quality growth. This is a fantastic challenge for an inter-generational group of African economists.

Download the full statement below.