Harness African diaspora's expertise to benefit continent

By Shaun Benton
BuaNews, Cape Town
June 14, 2007

The expertise of the African Diaspora should be harnessed to provide the extra capacity Africa needs as it moves to the next stage of development, said the Vice-President of the Africa Region of the World Bank on Wednesday.

Obiageli Katryn Ezekwesili was speaking in a session at the World Economic Forum on Africa held in Cape Town and moderated by Tokyo Sexwale, who is one of four co-chairs of this year's forum.

The discussion on Wednesday evening included President Thabo Mbeki, President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal and Cynthia Carroll, the chief executive of mining giant Anglo-American.

"The [African] diaspora constitutes an amazing army of talent to develop the continent," said Ms Ezekwesili, adding that that Africa's opportunity for rapid economic growth with all its accompanying benefits "is now", and should not be missed.

The "amazing African brain lying outside of the continent" [among expatriates and in the diaspora] has the capacity to lift development on the continent to its next level, she said.

Her remarks come as the South African government is moving to consolidate African unity in a number of areas.

Next year, South Africa is hosting a global summit with the proposed theme, "Towards the realisation of a United and Integrated Africa and its Diaspora".

The summit will focusing on unity between Africa and the African diaspora scattered around the world, from the Caribbean to Europe, with the aim of producing a shared vision of sustainable development for both the African continent and the millions of people around the world who share an African heritage.

At the WEF-Africa this year, delegates are focusing on how the continent can build the capacity it needs to lift economic growth beyond the current African average of around 5,8 percent, under the theme of "Raising the bar".

Speaking in the discussion on Wednesday evening, President Mbeki said that certain "critical interventions" needed to be made to ensure the continent is lifted out of poverty.

He said that while governments could lay the foundations for success, partnerships with the private sector were important to ensure that money for development was forthcoming.

Governments - whose planning is long-range - need to listen to private sector concerns while convincing investors of the potential that exists, while examining prospects for value-addition of Africa's commodities.

Another key issue, said the president, was that of open markets in Europe and the West as a whole for African agricultural products, given that agriculture constituted a major component of African economic endeavour.

If developed countries agreed to open their markets to agricultural products, African farmers could export surplus production.

President Wade agreed that sustainable development needs human resources to move a country forward, and emphasised the investment Senegal was making in education of its citizens. He lamented stereotyped views of African that gave disproportionate weight to poverty and disease.

Ms Carroll, for her part, said that the key challenge for multinationals is to build local supply chains.

This view has echoes with government's strategy for building capacity for competitive local suppliers as state infrastructure projects, too, face tight supply constraints of the capital goods needed for expansion.

Ms Ezekwesili said that economic growth was being experienced even in African economies that were not oil exporters or mineral rich.

This meant that the right policies were being followed, that these policies that were working, she said, but more needs to be done in different areas, such as in financial systems, which need to be deepened.

In his opening remarks, Klaus Schwab, the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, said he saw much greater, all-round confidence from Africans this year as the continent begins to reap the benefits of several years of positive economic growth.

He added that the global financial architecture needs to be restructured in line with changes in the world's economic balance, adding that South Africa's chairing this year of the G20 group of central bankers and finance ministers could perhaps be seen as a forerunner to more radical changes.