06 February 2013
Economic Commission for Africa
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African countries urged to embrace appropriate development planning frameworks
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alling on African countries to learn from past failures associated with their development strategies, UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Mr. Carlos Lopes, said in Dakar that African countries can transform and continue to grow their economies with appropriate planning frameworks and implementation mechanisms.
In an opening statement on "50 years of Development Planning in Africa: Retrospect and Prospects",Mr Lopes said Africa's early development plans of the 1960s, which promoted state-owned enterprises in most of the productive sectors, had limited success due to deficiencies in the plan documents, the failure to implement them, ambitious
formulation of targets, institutional weaknesses and some political factors. The second phase of development planning in Africa, the Bretton Woods-supported Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs), was marked by a "wholesale abandonment of planning", reducing the role of the State in production and service delivery, and emphasizing macroeconomic stability, reduced public sector and M&E systems that feed back into the policymaking process, he said. But Africa's turbulent experience with development planning in the past is ceding ground to a more positive outlook for the future, said Lopes, citing Cape Verde, Ghana, Zambia and Botswana, as success
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Analysts say Dlamini-Zuma was impressive in new top AU role
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outh Africa's Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma hit the ground running as new chairperson of the AU Commission at her first summit. Analysts praised her "businesslike" performance in chairing her first meeting of the AU. But they also expressed some doubt she would succeed in her effort to keep the
summit focused on its official developmental aims and not get distracted by the current crises on the continent, mainly Mali. With a new war raging in Mali against Islamic jihadists linked to al-Qaeda, and older rebellions still bubbling away in the Central African Republic and the Continued on page 2
A production of the RCM-Africa Secretariat, Economic Development and NEPAD Division (EDND), United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Director: Emmanuel Nnadozie email:
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Chief of Section Kwabia Boateng Editor Yinka Adeyemi Assistant Editor Meseret Arega
NEPAD TODAY
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African countries...
stories amongst countries which graduated from low income countries to middle income countries. "In addition, some African countries, such as Ethiopia, Nigeria and Uganda, have adopted long-term development visions and planning frameworks with far more ambitious growth and social development objectives and detailed strategies than in the Poverty Reduction Strategies," he said. Lopes said ECA's ongoing repositioning exercise would strengthen African countries' capacities to design, implement and monitor effective planning frameworks. To this end, said Lopes, ECA has created a new Section called "Renewal of Planning", which will comprise a team of planning experts dedicated to conducting planning-related research. "Planning works and it has worked for many countries in Europe, Latin America and East Asia," said Lopes, adding that the experience of Brazil, India and China in reducing inequality and poverty and in embarking on sound urbanization programmes provides important lessons for Africa. But effective national planning systems depend largely on the quality and availability of data which will inform the setting of priorities and facilitate performance tracking, he said. Lopes said ECA is aware of the data challenges faced by member States and is currently strengthening its institutional structures and processes to better support countries in addressing their data challenges. "Our statistical capacity will be multiplied
by ten in one year," he said, adding that ECA's subregional offices would play an important role by according greater priority to the collection and assembly of credible data to support countries' needs. Lopes also underscored the importance of effective coordination between ministries of finance and those in charge of development planning, which, he said, would better link the planning cycles to those of the budget, therefore ensuring an effective implementation of the national development plan. For planning to work for Africa, countries must address the problems of past failures as well as the experience of successful countries in and outside the continent. "Planners in Africa must understand the changing nature of planning in a changing global context that requires not only context-specific approaches, but also plans that are dynamic and sometimes targeted to specific outcomes," said Lopes. Source: Special to ECA Continued from page 1
Analysts say... Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as an international war between Sudan and the breakaway state of South Sudan, the summit appeared likely to be preoccupied with conflict. For full story: Argus Weekend (South Africa), January 27, 2013, E1 Edition
Upcoming Event • Third Meeting of the Committee on Governance and Popular Participation, 20 - 21 February 2013, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia • 6th Joint Annual Meetings of the AU Conference of Ministers of Economy and Finance and ECA Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, 21–26 March 2013, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire
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