Addis Ababa, 1 May 2014 (ECA) - In remarks delivered at the 28-30 April Conference on the theme, Inequalities in the context of structural transformation, in Accra, Ghana, Ms. Takyiwaa Manuh, Director of Social Development Policy Division at UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), said that Africa’s last two decades of fast and consistent economic growth have not yet succeeded in translating economic gains into commensurate social development outcomes. “Many of our economies are dependent on the production and export of primary commodities and that far too many are highly unequal,” she added.
The meeting learned that the United Nations High-Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda recommended that the new agenda be guided by the vision of “eradicating extreme poverty once and for all in the context of sustainable development”. In addition, it was mentioned that the inequality global background paper that ECA with other partners has developed for the Post-2015 Development Agenda has placed tackling exclusion “as the kernel of the Post-2015 Development Agenda and the African Union Agenda 2063.”
“However, this agenda will not be realized without effective, creative and consistent partnerships,” she stated.
While elaborating on the contributions of ECA’s work in respect to inequalities, Ms. Manuh reported that the ECA has recently developed the African Social Development Index (ASDI)-a tool that attempts to respond to the calls for a paradigm shift towards an inclusive and equitable development path. The Index gauges the depth of human exclusion over the life cycle to capture the inter-generational transfer of the “exclusion risk” factor, she said.
Ms. Manuh stated that the exclusion of the most vulnerable from developmental processes is unsustainable, not only for the economic and social reasons that underpin an inclusive sustainable developmental path, but also as a fundamental human right and a condition for a more stable political environment.
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