The progress of Africa’s blueprint for inclusive growth and integration (Agenda 2063) remains ambitious on paper, characterised by slow implementation on the ground, says Dr Daniel Amataye Anim-Prempeh, Development Economist.
Dr Anim-Prempeh, the Chief Economist at the Policy Initiative for Economic Development (PIED), noted headways on areas like inclusive economic growth, youth development, peace and justice across the continent.
He, however, argued that implementation has lagged far behind the vision, saying; “for a continent that wants to ensure growth and create opportunity for its citizens across board, the execution of the Agenda 2063 has been quite slow.”
He said this in an exclusive interview with the Ghana News Agency as the African Union (AU) commemorates its 63rd anniversary of the founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), calling for speedy implementation of the vision.
Adopted in 2013 during the African Union’s 50th anniversary and officially launched in 2015, the Agenda 2063 is the Union’s 50-year strategic framework for transforming Africa into a global powerhouse of the future.
The Development Economist identified weak resource mobilisation, fragmented trade positions and lack of leverage of the capacity of the continent’s youthful population as the gaps hindering Africa’s growth and integration under Agenda 2063.
“We are not yet there. Even with the establishment of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement, we still have individual countries negotiating with the West. We don’t have the AU negotiating on behalf of the continent as a block,” he said.
That, he noted, made the continent vulnerable to the dictates of other nations, weakening its bargaining power, slowing down the pace of integration that Agenda 2063 was meant to accelerate and exposing it to external economic shocks and policy shifts.
On resource mobilisation, he said Africa had not demonstrated the capacity to pool and deploy its own resources to finance the agenda and drive homegrown development, a challenge that limited the continent’s ability to show to investors that it could finance its own growth.
He recommended that effective pooling of financial resources and leveraging its demographic dividend to change the narrative, while leaders aligned their political will with the continent’s policy.
“As a continent, we have the largest youth with a lot of potential to contribute meaningfully to economic development but this demographic dividend risk being wasted without faster integration and job creation,” he said.
He urged African leaders to move beyond declarations and treat Agenda 2063 as an urgent operational plan, saying, “we have what it takes to grow our economy and also take advantage of our demographics, but only if we act as one.”
The Agenda 2063 is being implemented under 15 flagship projects, including the AfCFTA to create a single market, high speed rail network to connect African capitals and commercial centres, and ending all wars and conflicts in Africa by 2030.
Others are establishing a single African air transport market, creating an African passport and free movement of people, Pan-African E-University, and the construction of the Great Inga Dam – as the largest hydroelectric power station in the world, with a potential capacity of up to 40,000 megawatts (MW).
Source: GNA
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