| “Africa is full of potential and we need to convey it” says UNDP Administrator, visiting Ghana. With Job-Rich Growth, Investment in Agriculture and in Basic Social Services, Africa Can Make a Decisive Breakthrough to Meet the Millennium Development Goals. UNDP Administrator Meets with Ghana President, Ministers, Discussing the Importance of Sound Management of Oil Reserves for Sustained Human Development Accra, 16 July 2010 –Africa can decisively move forward on meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) provided the continent adopts a critical breakthrough strategy to get more services to more people, and the right combination of investment in agriculture, social protection and job creation, UNDP Administrator Helen Clark said today upon her completion of a three-day official visit to Ghana. The UN Development Chief met with Ghanaian officials, including His Excellency Professor John Evans Atta Mills, President of the Republic of Ghana; and several Government Ministers. Throughout her discussions, Helen Clark praised Ghana’s advances on the MDGs, discussing the prospects for continued growth and development, and the country’s expected graduation to middle-income country, which will have important implications for its access to development financing. Citing Ghana’s impending oil and gas exploitation, Helen Clark said that “Ghana has a great story to tell about how investing in agriculture drove down poverty, and there are many blessings to share: a successful democratic transition, the establishment of solid institutions, legal reforms… We are prepared to help Ghana put a framework in place to ensure oil becomes part of those blessings, with robust planning and budgeting.” By 2006, Ghana became the first African country to have almost halved the proportion of people living in extreme poverty. The country has implemented several flagship programmes that have helped to accelerate the country’s MDG achievement, including a school feeding programme that covers over half a million pupils, a national youth employment programme employing an average of 100,000 youths annually. The country has also improved the delivery of services in various state-run sectors such as the police, the health care system, and has increased the number of women in decision-making positions. On the first day of her visit to Ghana, Helen Clark met with women leaders to discuss their contribution to Ghana’s impressive progress towards women’s empowerment and gender equality. The women leaders present at the meeting included the Minister for Trade and Industry, the Deputy Minister for Women and Children Affairs, the former Deputy Director-General of the International Labour Organization, the Acting Chief Director of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, and the Government Statistician. Helen Clark lauded the “tremendous amount of activity on the legal framework for women,” including the adoption of the Domestic Violence Legislation in 2007, a UNDP supported initiative, and the creation of a domestic violence victims support unit within local police departments. Clark added “the law can lead change, and examples abound in the world of legislation paving the way for profound social progress.” Enlarging the discussion to Africa While on official visit to Ghana, Helen Clark was also able to attend UNDP’s annual regional managers meeting, which will be examining, until 17 July, Africa’s recent economic and development progress, looking into “The African Moment: Seizing the Opportunity for Transformational Development”. Speaking at the meeting opened by Ghana’s Vice President John Mahama, Clark said that Africa’s economic prospects are encouraging, citing the IMF’s recent economic outlook projecting that Sub-Saharan Africa will be the second-fastest growing region in the world this year and next, with double digit growth rates. Clark said Africa is “an important contributor to the global economy, Africa is not part of the problem. Africa is part of the solution.” She warned that while robust growth is required to meet the MDGs, growth must serve to create jobs and make investments that can benefit long-term human development. “Halving the number of people living with extreme hunger is achievable, and so are our targets on education, but as we meet the basic benchmarks, we will also need to tackle the next generation of goals”. The UNDP Administrator cited maternal mortality as an area of concern, and applauded the fact that the African Union Summit in Kampala later this month will feature it in its agenda. About Africa development Over the past ten years, Africa has achieved significant economic and development gains, spurred by a favorable global economic situation and relatively high growth rates, but also sound macro-economic policies and improvements in governance. Although it remains the region with the highest number of people living in extreme poverty, poverty rates have dropped rapidly since 1990, hovering around an estimated 46 percent in 2008. Although there has been important progress in areas such as the fight against HIV/AIDS, primary education and the representation of women in parliament, Africa remains vulnerable to major risks. For instance, the global economic downturn, coming on the heels of the food and fuel crises, has put economic and social progress on hold. Together with global economic volatility and external shocks, political crises and conflict, demographic pressure and climate change pose serious threats to the region’s development prospects. Helen Clark and the participants to the UNDP meeting also examined intra-regional and intra-south trade, as a potential for increased development and economic stability in Africa. For more information, please contact Iddrisu Siddiq, UNDP Communications Officer in Accra:
iddrisu.siddiq@undp.org or Tel: +233 541 504093. Maimouna Mills, UNDP Regional Communication Adviser, Dakar Regional Center Maimouna.mills@undp.org, or Tel: +221 77 529 1298 UNDP is the UN’s global development network, advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. We are on the ground in 166 countries, working with them on their own solutions to global and national development challenges. As
they develop local capacity, they draw on the people of UNDP and our wide range of partners.
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