Addis Ababa, 12 May 2018 (ECA) – As Africa progresses towards sustainable development, the continent must get up to speed with four global megatrends: artificial intelligence, technology, infrastructure development and resilience/response to climate change. And given that corruption represents a major drawback to making progress in these areas, UN agencies will have to work in synergy across several specific sectors as part of their unified support to the African Union (AU), in stemming corruption across the continent to leverage development. The Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) – Vera Songwe hammered home these points while chairing a panel to kick-start the 19th session of the Regional Coordination Mechanism for Africa (RCM) under the theme: “United Nations System Support for the African Union in winning the fight against corruption: a sustainable path to Africa’s transformation.”
The two-day session taking place in Addis Ababa as part of the 51st Session of the Commission (ECA) has provided a platform to substantive and informative exchange on the cost of corruption to development in Africa and how the plague can be surgically treated, moving forward. “In every sphere of our lives, the question of corruption is holding us back; it is the elephant in the room and we must boldly talk about it,” Ms Songwe intimated.
Experts of the panel noted recent African Union findings showing that annually, the continent loses $150 billion to corruption compared with the $57 billion it receives in aid. Specific reference was made to the public sector corruption in Africa with the extremely low salaries of most civil servants blamed as one of the causes of the ill.
“Let’s face it: many civil servants in Africa are not paid even a living wage – so we must consider this in our work to help the AU fight corruption,” said Mr Lamin Momodou Manneh – Representative of the Africa Regional Chair of the UN Development Group (UNDG). He said, in programs to help Africa obliterate corruption in order to boost development, the UN can further support the AU in systemic and technical issues, such as: budgetary processes and tax administration; public sector management systems including addressing the sector’s low salaries; business sector issues; regulatory framework matters; and knowledge sharing in best practices and lessons learnt.
The Deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC) – Thomas Kwesi Quartey hailed the UN for its continuous support to the AU’s programs noting that “the UN’s Agenda 2030 and the AU’s Agenda 2063 have 90 per cent of convergence” which calls for this institutional collaboration and synergy between the two parties.
Mr. Haile Menkerios, Under-Secretary-General and Head of the UN Office to the AU (UNOAU) mooted the need for a strong AU-UN partnership.
For her part, Ms Bience Gawanas, Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Africa to the Secretary-General underscored the need for anti-corruption institutions and services in Africa to be independent, impartial and well-resourced to succeed in their missions.
The meeting will issue an updated plan of action for the UN’s Regional Coordination Mechanism to support the AU.
The UN and AUC consider the drastic reduction in corrupt practices, as a strong enabler of internal resource mobilization for development in Africa. Recent studies have established that when corruption falls by a factor of 2 in a country, its GDP would increase by a factor of 10.
For details about the conference, related videos and information for participants, visit:
https://www.uneca.org/cfm2018
For more on the Side Events:
https://www.uneca.org/cfm2018/pages/side-events-and-other-meetings
For details on the Regional Coordination Mechanism:
https://www.uneca.org/rcm19
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Issued by:
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Economic Commission for Africa
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