The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has tasked African leaders on the need for robust economic reforms aimed at sustainable growth and human development in the continent.
A statement issued on Tuesday by Mr Kelechi Onyemaobi, the Head of Communication, UNDP Nigeria,?said that the call was made at the Seventh African Economic Conference held in Kigali, Rwanda.
The theme of the conference was “Inclusive and Sustainable Development in an Age of Economic Uncertainty”.
The statement quoted the UNDP Administrator, Mrs Helen Clark, as saying that deliberate policy measures and targeted investments were?crucial to fast and sustainable growth.
According to the statement, the four-day conference highlighted the need for policy-makers to create diversified economies capable of generating employment, implementing better social policies and inclusive growth.
It said that the continent’s poverty rate?remained high, adding that progress on health, education and job creation had been too slow to accommodate its fast-growing population.
“One of the running threads of the conference was how to use natural resources to create economic benefits for ordinary citizens.’’
The statement further noted that Mr Donald Kaberuka, the host of the African Economic Conference (AEC) and President of African Development Bank (AfDB), said the world had high expectations for the African continent.
“According to the African Economic Outlook 2012, economic growth across the African continent is expected to rebound from 3.4 per cent?in 2011 and accelerate to 4.5 per cent?in 2012 and 4.8 per cent?in 2013,’’ it added.
Kaberuka, however, said that the challenges were likely to become more difficult to tackle in the current global economic environment.
“Rich countries are very much concentrated on their own immediate problems and how to fix it.
“As we can see from the trade and climate negotiations, there is limited appetite for the multilateral solutions, so we need to trade our way out of poverty and deal with the impact of climate change,’’ he said.
Also, President Paul Kagame of Rwanda noted?that Africa had become the world’s second-fastest growing region.
Kagame, argued that African countries had even done better than the statistics depicted in the conference.
“Because some countries from other continents show signs of economic stagnation, commentators have been inclined to think that this is Africa’s time,” said Kagame.
The annual conference was?organised by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the AfDB and the UNDP.
The conference featured about 500 participants. (NAN)