Africa: Research Needed to Improve Livelihoods

By Peter Omondi

TUNIS- - The Director of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) Economic Development Division Prof Emmanuel Nnadozie called on Africa’s economists and policy makers to rise to the challenge of assisting African countries in using research and analyses to improve the livelihood of Africans.

In a closing remark at the end of the three-day 5th African Economic Conference in Tunis, Nnadozie said while the traditional and emerging development partners of Africa should be called upon to sustain their support to Africa, “the future of this continent falls upon us – policy makers and researchers alike – in formulating and designing the right strategy for its long term growth and development”, he said in a statement sent to news rooms at the end of the conference.

In the short run, he said, Africa needs to create a favourable climate for a rapid and sound economic recovery from the adverse effects of the recent global financial and economic crisis. “But in the long-run, African countries should intensify economic structuring, optimize economic growth patterns and raise the quality of socio-economic development.

Stating that the African Economic Conference had been firmly anchored in Africa’s development debate landscape, Nnadozie called on the participants to keep the discussions going. “I assure you that ECA and the African Development Bank are determined to sustain the annual conference and will spare no efforts in pursuing the policy directions that emerge from them.”



He said ECA was fully committed to advancing the regional integration agenda, promote better planning and the role of the state in socio-economic development, the economic transformation of Africa that yields diversification and more resilience to exogenous shocks and mobilizing resources to finance development.

The sixth African Economic Conference will take place in Addis Ababa in 2011.