by Joseph Ngwawi – SANF 06 No 10
The world’s top business and civil society leaders say the solution to Africa’s quest to embark on a sustainable growth path rests on infrastructural development, levelling of the playing field in global trade matters and long-term investment in education.
Meeting at Davos, Switzerland, for the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) meetings at the end of January, the world’s top business leaders and policy-makers identified poor infrastructure, or lack of it, as being at the core of Africa’s challenges in a world whose rapidly changing systems require quick responses.
The business and civic leaders pledged to assist the continent to improve its inventory of physical, human and capital infrastructure.
The chief executive of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), Firmino Mucavele, said lack of adequate infrastructure hampered efforts at attaining food security on the continent.
The poor infrastructure was manifesting itself in post-harvest losses that had a bearing on countries’ abilities to fight hunger.
“The climate, the soils, the water is all there in Africa,” said Mucavele. “Good regions can grow not one or two but seven tonnes of grain per hectare. But while family farmers can grow enough excess to generate income, transaction costs remain too high.”
He told the business leaders and other policy-makers that African farmers would continue to struggle unless there is serious investment by the private and public sectors “in small roads, small storage, small places to sell goods. Farmers can increase profits 45 percent once the infrastructure is improved. Then you get a humane business.”
Mucavele estimated that about 30 percent of Africa’s food stocks are lost each year due to poor storage facilities and transport systems on the continent.
He said the solution was an improved transport system, which would significantly reduce transaction costs for people in rural areas.
“If a country were to build sufficient roads and railways over two to three years, it would solve the problem for the next 20 years,” said Mucavele.
World Bank president, Paul D. Wolfowitz, said his institution would consider funding infrastructure projects in Africa.
“The bank is trying to get back into infrastructure projects”, he said, while avoiding “mistakes”, red tape, environmental impacts and “white elephants”.
Southern Africa has embarked on a fast-track programme to boost its infrastructure and is pursuing a number of initiatives to build facilities.
In its 15-year regional development blueprint, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) acknowledges that bridging the infrastructure gap has the potential for deepening integration through the sharing of the production, management and operations of infrastructure facilities, hubs and development corridors.
The business leaders at the WEF Davos meeting also identified top priorities for pragmatic action, including getting global trade talks back on track, exposing corruption both by givers and recipients, investing heavily in long-term primary education in Africa, and taking aim at the “sacred cows” of European, Japanese and American farm subsidies that make it impossible for African farmers to compete.
“We (in affluent countries) used to talk for centuries about what we could do for Africa,” said Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom, who pushed for, and received, a commitment from his colleagues to strive for universal free primary education in Africa.
Brown noted that “on trade, we haven’t done well, on aid, promises have been made but will they be delivered,” and that the “next stage is to move towards empowerment”.
The WEF is an international forum that brings together business and civil society leaders, media practitioners and policymakers in an intensive five-day programme of workshops and panel discussions that focus on crucial economic issues.
