Africa forum 2016 summary record

ABOUT THE 16TH INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC FORUM ON AFRICA

Africa’s ongoing, multi-faceted urban transition and densification offer new opportunities for improving economic and social development while protecting the environment. These can be better harnessed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – especially SDG 11 on sustainable cities and communities – and the objectives of the African Union’s Agenda 2063. Both urban and rural dwellers could benefit, provided governments adopt an integrated approach.

The 16th edition of the International Economic Forum on Africa addressed the opportunities and challenges of Africa’s urbanisation process. It shed light on the informality in urban areas, the role of cities as drivers of economic transformation, and innovative ways to provide adequate and predictable financing for local governments and municipalities.

The OECD Development Centre, the African Union and the Sahel and West Africa Club organised the event. Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Marcel Alain de Souza, President of the Commission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), René N’Guettia Kouassi, Director for Economic Affairs of the African Union Commission (AUC), and Jean Pierre Elong Mbassi, Secretary General, United Cities and Local Governments for Africa, opened the Forum.

AFRICAN CITIES FOR AFRICA’S DEVELOPMENT Cities are at the heart of Africa’s development; they are places where a range of actors come together to improve the living conditions not only of the community that resides within their boundaries, but also of the wider rural population surrounding them. The idea of cities as important drivers of sustainable development is relatively new — it wasn’t until 2003 that the African Union mentioned cities as one of their priorities.

The Forum’s participants highlighted the fast-paced urbanisation process in Africa and the unprecedented challenge it presents for African governments, which need to develop and implement policies to accommodate such rapid levels of urban development. At the same time, speakers recognised the role of cities in driving economic development and innovation.

To take full advantage of this ongoing process, Africa must pursue a double green revolution in urbanisation and industrialisation and thus leapfrog stages of development. It should choose a lowcarbon, light ecological footprint for its urbanisation.

“Political will and a common sense of purpose are preconditions for sustainable urbanisation” Aisa Kacyira, Deputy Executive-Director, UN-HABITAT

Financing the cities of tomorrow Africa’s urbanisation will require considerable amounts of investments. Yet, the lack of financial resources of local authorities in Africa is striking: local tax collection is estimated to be about 1% of national income in most countries.1 Local authorities in 19 African states receive only 9.5% of national revenues2, compared with 26% in the European Union.

To bridge this financial gap, governments can implement context-specific solutions, including empowering local authorities, raising new financial resources through innovative finance mechanisms and harnessing the international community’s financial resources. Involving development banks should be considered as they provide long-term financing and can leverage additional investment resources.

1

AfDB/OECD/UNDP (2016), African Economic Outlook 2016, Sustainable Cities and Structural Transformation, OECD Publishing, Paris.

2 AfDB/OECD/UNDP/UNECA (2010), African Economic Outlook 2010, OECD Publishing, Paris.

Urban strategies require multi-level governance Urban strategies must be planned and implemented through a multi-level government approach involving national, regional and local administrations as well as other stakeholders. Central governments have an important role in supporting local governments with innovative instruments to help them leverage their resources. They can also help cities build relationships with the financial world. Local actors are best placed to calibrate housing and public investment with land-use management regulations.

“With greater autonomy comes greater accountability” Angel Gurría, OECD Secretary-General Decentralisation entails more transparency and accountability from local authorities, which can help attract finance, increase the efficiency of projects and improve fiscal legitimacy. Weak decentralisation often means that local projects depend excessively on decisions from the central government, discouraging local initiatives.

In June 2014, the African Union (AU) adopted the African Charter on Values and Principals of Decentralisation, Local Governance and Local Development, agreeing on the need to pursue more comprehensive decentralisation to achieve the goals of Agenda 2063. Nevertheless, until now, only Mali has ratified it, demonstrating that while the continent widely accepts the concept, effective implementation has been slow and difficult given the high political stakes.

Support the formal and embrace the informal Without productive jobs in rural areas, most economies on the continent have seen labour move from agriculture into urban, low-skilled and informal services. The informal economy is estimated at 61% of urban employment and 93% of all new jobs created.3 Despite GDP growth rates of over 5% a year, the proportion of the labour force in vulnerable employment dropped by only 2% between 2000 and 2015.4 Participants agreed that Africa will have to develop a hybrid economy for the foreseeable future, with a thriving informal sector. Procedures, including those of local authorities, must be able to

3

Kessedis, C. (2005), “The urban transition in sub-saharan Africa: Implications for economic growth and poverty reduction”, Transport and Urban Development Department, Working Paper Series, No. 97, World Bank.

4 Parnell, S., E. Pieterse and G. Haysom (2016), African Dreams: Locating Urban Life and Infrastructure in the Post 2015 Development Agenda.

integrate people and businesses from the informal sector. At the same time, governments need to design new social protection schemes that include informal workers.

Investing in intermediary cities and rural-urban linkages Intermediary cities and towns play an increasing role in sustaining the benefits of urbanisation. They help alleviate the congestion of megacities by capturing a share of demographic growth and rural migration and spread the benefits of urbanisation nation-wide by enhancing productivity and promoting development in surrounding rural areas. Cities that emerge from rural-urban agricultural linkages have a stronger impact on the development of surrounding rural areas than cities growing around extractive activities, such as mining.5

“Africa has a strong urban-rural nexus that should be taken into account” Gilbert Houngbo, Deputy Director General for Field Operations & Partnerships, International Labour Organisation (ILO)

Secondary cities and towns also play an important role in enhancing the efficiency of wholesale markets and supply chains. The rural non-farm economy needs to sell goods and services in urban areas. Thus, improving infrastructure and urban markets could increasingly unleash agricultural potential in the long term.

5

Reardon, T. and C.P. Timmer (2014), “Five inter-linked transformations in the Asian agrifood economy” Food security implications”, Global Food Security, Vol 3/2, Elsevier, pp.108-117.

MEDIA OUTREACH

The Forum was well attended and covered by news agencies as well as TV, print, radio and online media. The organisers were pleased to collaborate with five media partners, namely Devex, This is Africa, Jeune Afrique, Le Monde Afrique, and the Xinhua News Agency.

Some selected headlines following the Forum include:

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Réduire les bidonvilles en Afrique, un impératif! Reussir Business Afrique/développement : plaidoyer pour une urbanisation qui participe au développement de l’Afrique Abidjan.net OCDE : les villes au coeur du développement de l'Afrique Jeune Afrique Afrique-Urbanisation : l'augmentation du niveau de productivité est liée aux infrastructures et aux services en ville Xinhua OECD chiefs weigh in on Habitat III priorities Devex Time to connect the dots on urbanization and women and girls Devex New Urban Agenda good on ‘what’ but not on ‘how’, critics warn Cityscope Forum économique sur l’Afrique : La part des villes africaines dans le développement du continent au menu Le Soleil Forum International économique sur l’Afrique en France : le ministre Sidi Touré partage l’expérience ivoirienne Abidjan.net African Cities for Development, Special OECD Observer

WEB VISIBILITY The Forum’s official website (www.oecd.org/africa-forum/) registered 9 774 visitors in the lead-up to and on the day itself of the event. The official photos of the event are available on the OECD Development Centre’s Flickr account. Feel free to use these images, including the OECD copyright and the photographer’s credit. This year, 1 240 tweets were sent using the hash tag #AfricaForum on 29 September, and in the days before and after the Forum, reaching approximately 2.2 million accounts and generating 11 million impressions (see graph below).

ABOUT THE ORGANISERS The OECD Development Centre was established in 1962 as an independent platform for knowledge sharing and policy dialogue between OECD member countries and developing economies, allowing these countries to interact on an equal footing. Today, 27 OECD countries and 24 non-OECD countries are members of the Centre. The Centre draws attention to emerging systemic issues likely to have an impact on global development and more specific development challenges faced by today’s developing and emerging economies. It uses evidence-based analysis and strategic partnerships to help countries formulate innovative policy solutions to the global challenges of development.

For more information on the Centre and its members, please see www.oecd.org/dev.

The African Union (AU) is a continental body consisting of 54 countries headquartered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The AU was launched on 9 July 2002, and replaced the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). The AU vision is: An integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the global arena. The AU’s new collective vision and roadmap for Africa’s growth and development, known as Agenda 2063, was adopted by the AU Assembly on 31 January 2015 at its 24th Ordinary Session. Its framework is anchored on the AU Constitutive Act, AU vision, AU Assembly 50th Anniversary Solemn Declaration in 2013, as well as national, regional and continental priorities.

For more information on the African Union and its work, please see www.au.int.

The Sahel and West Africa Club (SWAC) is an international platform for policy dialogue and analysis devoted to regional issues in West Africa. Its mission is to enhance the effectiveness of regional action in the common and interdependent area composed of the 17 countries of ECOWAS, UEMOA (West African Economic and Monetary Union ) and CILSS (Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel). Created in 1976, it is the only international entity entirely dedicated to regional co-operation in Africa. Some 100 stakeholders participate in the SWAC platform: governments of West African countries and OECD member countries, regional organisations, professional associations and civil society groups, and bi- and multi-lateral development partners and research centres. Under the guidance of its Members, SWAC’s Secretariat provides factual, innovative and forward-looking analysis, facilitates dialogue, information-sharing and consensus-building, and formulates policy recommendations. Based at the OECD, the Secretariat helps ensure West Africa’s presence in global fora.

For more information on SWAC and its work, please see www.oecd.org/swac.