Antonio: Africa’s Regional Forum for Sustainable Development will focus on promoting inclusive industrialization
The Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Antonio Pedro, disclosed on behalf of UNECA (ECA), that Africa’s GDP is expected to slow in 2023 in a volatile global environment that led to combined negative effects of inflationary pressures, depreciation of currencies, disruption of supply and demand chains, deteriorating terms of trade and higher borrowing costs, while the adverse weather events have led to a 2.4% gap in production for Africa compared to the real output expected before the coronavirus pandemic.
Addressing the opening meeting of the Regional Forum for Africa on Sustainable Development at Gandhi’s Conference Hall today, Antonio said that last year the African Union held a summit on industrialization and economic diversification in Niamey to emphasize that work would not succeed in Africa, stressing the need for this year’s review of the Sustainable Development Goals (6, 7, 9, 11 and 17) with particular emphasis on Sustainable Development Goal 9 related to the: “Build flexible infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and promote innovation.”
Antonio stated that the African Union Summit on Industrialization and Economic Diversification, provides us with a road map for achieving Goal 9 of Africa’s Sustainable Development Goals, noting that African leaders have developed a path to industrialization based on sustainable value chains that will create decent jobs and offer communities, c alling on ECA leaders to support this important endeavour, he said: “We and our partners look forward to working with African countries to provide the tools needed to transform their economies.”
Antonio pointed to the importance of working with partners to expand energy investments as a key priority for industrial development, adding that promoting sustainable industrialization and economic diversification will require a fair and equitable transition to energy for all on the continent, considering that there are still approximately 600 million Africans without energy and this needs to be urgently addressed, as Africa’s equitable energy transition depends on large-scale investments in widely available renewable energy resources across the continent, indicating that the past two decades, less than 2% of global investment in renewable energy has been implemented in Africa.
Pedro pointed out that the AfCFTA Agreement (AfCFTA) is the framework within which we can ensure an independent African transformation, announcing that on March 1st there will be deeper thinking here in Niamey, on how the Africa Regional Cooperation Platform can help accelerate the implementation of the continent’s sustainable development goals, an opportunity to discuss how to integrate the 28 national strategies of the African Continental Free Trade Area that have been completed to date under the leadership of the African Union Commission into the work of the United Nations country teams, besides the supporting of digital technologies for Africa’s accelerated transformation.
Antonio emphasized that Africa must build large-scale infrastructure investments accompanied by sound policies and strategies at the national and regional levels.
Adding that als Africa must also end the digital divide, especially with regard to gender, to ensure genuine inclusion and truly unleash the potential of the fourth industrial revolution, explaining that e-commerce is set to grow by 50% in Africa by 2025, hence, investing in capacity-building will be critical to fulfilling this promise, indicating that by adopting appropriate standards and emphasizing the value of sustainable value chains, we can maximize the continent’s job creation potential.
He outlined an ambitious plan to stimulate sustainable development goals, with a view to significantly increasing the resources available to invest in sustainable development goals.
It is worthnoting that a study by ECA showed that 250% more jobs could be created through green value chains than traditional fossil fuel-dependent sectors.
The continent could also offer access to more vital metals, for example, by investing in a valuable battery chain in countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia, where recent studies had shown that battery components would be greener and less expensive to manufacture than in the United States, China and Europe.
In addition, the ECA supports the objectives of the Sustainable Debt Alliance launched by Egypt in Sharm el-Sheikh – to reduce the cost of green borrowing, facilitate debt to invest in climate adaptation, and to promote the use of key performance indicators identified by the debtor to improve sustainability.