Africa Has Ingredients To Be Successful— UN Envoy For Africa
• Says Continent Needs Inspiring Leadership
THE Director, Gender, Poverty and Social Policy Division, United Nations’ Economic Commission for Africa ( UNECA), Sweta Saxena, has said that African Continent has all the ingredients required to be successful.
Speaking at the Third Conference on Dialogue Between Chinese and African Civilisations holding in Beijing, Saxena added that all the continent required to be great were inspiring leadership, inclusive institutions and economic and social policies that ensure upward social mobility for current and future generations. In her keynote address entitled, ‘ Navigating the Path to Prosperity: Addressing the Challenges of Poverty Reduction in Africa’, she identified poverty as one of the biggest hurdles in attaining sustainable development, stressing that poverty was deep in the continent.
“With 65 per cent of the world’s arable land, 40 per cent of world’s solar irradiation potential, 30 per cent of world’s mineral reserves, 71 per cent of global cobalt production and 77 per cent of global platinum residing in Africa, it has all the ingredients for success.
“A continent so rich cannot afford anyone to be poor. What it needs is inspiring leadership, inclusive institutions and economic and social policies that ensure upward social mobility for current and future generations”, she stated.
To achieve inclusive growth and eliminate poverty, Saxena urged African leaders to up hold their values, stating that the power of cultures and civilisations should not be underestimated.
“China tailored Western policies to its own culture and values, calling it socialism with Chinese character. I see India doing the same - after 60 years of following colonized policies, she has started to invoke her own civilisational and cultural values and looked inwards to homegrown solutions. In the same vein, Africa needs to decolonize its mindset and revive its own civil is at iona land cultural values and chart its own path to prosperity.”