African policy makers haven’t done enough - ECA

African policy makers haven’t done enough - ECA
By Joan Chirwa
Tuesday November 20, 2007 [03:00]

ECONOMIC Commission for Africa (ECA) secretary general Abdoulie Janneh has said African policy makers and scholars have not done enough to advance intellectual discourse beyond conventional understanding in view of the region’s growth resurgence.

Janneh noted that many recent assessments of Africa’s growth resurgence indicate that oil and high commodity prices were driving the region’s growth, saying this has persisted because policy makers and scholars have done very little in advancing intellectual wisdom beyond conventional understanding.

“What do we read in many recent assessments of Africa's growth resurgence? Oil and high commodity prices are driving the region's growth. I believe this to be a very narrow and incomplete explanation and policy recommendations and action derived from this analysis is not likely to fit our new reality,” said Janneh during the African Economic conference in Ethiopia on Sunday.

“But if the source of growth is much more than the boom in commodities exports, will the establishment of stabilization fund be an appropriate policy response on how to deploy rising receipts from commodity and minerals exports? Would it not be better to deploy those resources to reinforcing the sources of growth and enhancing their contribution to growth?

Do not get me wrong. I understand and appreciate the importance of stabilisation for ensuring inter-generational equity.”
Janneh observed that many African policy makers and scholars lacked initiatives to deviate for fear of being punished.

“This type of behaviour results in the sub-optimal contribution of economics knowledge to growth and development,” Janneh said.
He further said enhancing the contribution of knowledge to Africa’s economic development was critical this time considering that the continent was growing at a steady and fast pace.

“The explanations that I hear for the resurgence do not appear to me to be sufficiently grounded in an in-depth knowledge and understanding of what is happening,” Janneh said. “This presents a number of risks such as inappropriate economic policy advice.

Second, the lessons of this experience might not be well learned and future growth could be jeopardised as a consequence. Africa is growing and our forthcoming 2008 Economic Report shows the continent growing at a rate of about 6 per cent per annum.”