Vitalice Meja Africa’s Agenda on Sustainable Development

The negative effects of the triple crisis of 2007–2009— food, energy and finance—still linger, and the euro area sovereign debt crisis has aggravated the structural imbalances in the world economy and cast doubt on the prospects for sustained growth and a quick recovery. African economies however rebounded quickly from the 2008 financial crisis as commodity prices rose and export revenues returned to pre-crisis levels, enabling them to finance the necessary investments. In 2011 Africa’s growth fell from 4.6 per cent in 2010 to 2.7 per cent in Mainly owing to the political turbulence in North Africa and severe drought in other parts of the continent

We however note that the economic growth of Africa as a continent has been much higher only behind Asia on a comparative basis over the last 6 years. Despite the acceleration of economic growth in Africa over the past decade, Africans’ welfare has generally failed to improve Social indicators have picked up only modestly, unemployment, particularly among youth, remain high, while income inequalities have widened. Higher inflation also remain a characteristic of the continent. This is largely due to low global interest rates and high food and fuel prices Africa lags behind on most of the MDG indicators

The index for world commodity prices approached a historical high in April 2011, and apart from crude oil, all major commodity category price indices registered record highs in the first half of 2011

World Comodity Prices

Comments on Africa’s Rio+ 20 Agenda Africa’s Position is not guided by a balanced integration economic, social and environmental There are no clear suggestions/ proposals on how to address the conflict that arise from the three pillars The position seems to be based on the need for fundraising rather than addressing the challenges affecting the continent Emphasis seem to be on how the continent can be helped rather than what it is going to do for itself and its proposal to the rest of the world There seems to be fighting for mandates on issues of implementation between the countries and regional organisation Key negotiating points are very few –Additionality –Conditionality –Indicator Development