Africa: Crucial Year for Africa's Development
January 15, 2015
By James Mackie and Rhys Williams*
Decisive summits in Nairobi, Addis Ababa, Paris and New York will make 2015 a year during which Africa’s vision of its own future can start becoming a reality – but challenges lie ahead.
The next African Union Summit in just a few weeks’ time in Addis Ababa will kick off what will be a busy and extremely important year for Africa – a threshold year for international cooperation, with Africa and its international partners in a position to play pivotal roles.
Later in the year, at the United Nations General Assembly in September, global leaders are expected to endorse new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Africa has been leading from the front, and its voice has been much more pivotal in shaping these new SDGs – in stark contrast to some 15 years ago, where many of the important decisions were directed by western donor countries.
So what challenges lie ahead for Africa in 2015?
Financing a Future
African leaders and international donors will have to decide how to effectively finance the new, multidimensional (and we may hope) demanding goals for global development. In July, policymakers from around the world will converge on Addis Ababa for the Third UN International Conference on Financing for Development, where their main task will be to devise effective financial tools for delivering on the new “post-2015” goals.
Recent reflections on how African states and financial institutions can finance the continent’s development have produced several approaches. In addition, illicit financial flows out of the continent need to be curtailed, not just as a moral imperative, but as a good starting point for transformative policies and a major source of support to strengthening national domestic tax revenue. Stronger cooperation between Africa and its partners, especially the European Union, is needed to tackle this challenge effectively.
Africa needs to tap into its own wealth to finance its development agendas, most notably the African Union’s “Agenda 2063”. Significant resources could be raised from within Africa, enough to cover about 70 percent of development financing needs. Accessibility and costs of financing, for example, all need to be addressed.
Without Peace, there can be no Prosperity
The African Union’s tools to promote and sustain democracy, governance and human rights acknowledge that democratic governance and peace and security are interdependent and mutually reinforcing imperatives, and good governance is often the missing element.
Given continued unrest on the continent, the focus on peacebuilding should be reinforced in 2015. The situations in Sudan, South Sudan, Mali, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and the Central African Republic, with continued instability in North Africa, suggest that Africa and its partners must consider ways to strengthen further their commitment to peacebuilding and inclusive political processes. A more bottom-up and sustainable response to conflicts on the continent is needed.
No Leadership Without Leaders
Nkemnji Global Tech
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