Conference Agenda
= Archive Video Available
- DAY 1: Thursday, May 29
- DAY 2: Friday, May 30
Venue: Joaquim Chissano International Conference Center,
Avenida da Marginal 4441, Maputo
Friday, May 30Back To Top |
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| 8:30am-9:30am
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Plenary Panel Session 3:Structural Transformation and Private Sector Development in Sub-Saharan AfricaThe public sector remains the most important source of formal sector employment in most Sub-Saharan African countries, but global experience suggests that the key to long-term growth is boosting private sector activity. While constraints are diverse and country specific, reducing business costs, streamlining regulations, and promoting trade remain important goals for many African countries. Moreover, despite sustained high growth, structural transformation has been limited in many African countries. Manufacturing sectors are small in most of SSA; agriculture is characterized by low productivity and little use of technology; and mining sectors are typically foreign-owned enclaves with limited job opportunities and little integration into the overall economy. Yet, population projections suggest that Sub-Saharan Africa will enjoy a demographic dividend, reflected in much faster-growing working age populations than other regions of the world. Moderator: Eleni Giokos (Senior anchor, Bloomberg TV Africa Panelists:
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| 8:30am-9:30am
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Concluding Roundtable: Next Steps and Joint ActionThe panel will draw key conclusions from the conference Africa Rising:
Moderator: Nikiwe Bikitsha (Television and Radio Journalist) Panelists:
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| 8:30am-9:30am
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Closing Press Conference |
Thursday, May 29 | |
Opening (Joaquin Chissano Conference Center) |
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| 8:30am-9:30am
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Introduction and welcome by:
Video Remarks by:
Opening speeches by:
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| 10:00am-12:00pm |
Plenary session I: Opportunities and Challenges in Sub-Saharan AfricaMuch of SSA has proven to be extraordinarily resilient to the 2007-08 global financial crisis. Growth slowed to 3.6 percent in 2009, but quickly recovered to over 5.5 percent in the sub sequent years. For low-and middle income countries, the key challenge in reducing poverty is to maintain high growth going forward, while boosting job creation and accelerating structural transformation in the context of pervasive informality and the predominantly rural nature of poverty. But for others, notably the fragile states, the first priority remains to establish sufficient political and economic stability to join the ranks of the “African Lions.” At the same time, all of Sub-Saharan Africa is facing significant long-term challenges, including those stemming from climate change and demographic developments. Moderator: Nikiwe Bikitsha (Television and Radio Journalist) Panelists:
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| 12:30pm-2:00pm | Lunch—Keynote Speech
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| The afternoon sessions will look at specific challenges facing African economies. To discuss these issues, four panel sessions will cover four inter-connected themes. | |
| 2:30pm-3:45pm |
Parallel Panel Session 1: Harnessing Africa’s Natural Resources for the Benefit of Current and Future GenerationsIn many sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries, extractive industries—forestry, mining—account for a significant share of output and a major share of export earnings. Rising commodity prices have boosted economic growth and exports in many countries and new countries are joining the ranks of natural resource exporters. Yet, enormous challenges remain in managing these flows in often weak institutional and governance environments. Macroeconomic strains include competitiveness problems stemming from appreciating real exchange rates, narrow tax bases, and exposure to volatile commodity markets. But there are also microeconomic challenges, not least in the tax and regulatory frameworks. Despite the large trade and financial flows, extractive industries often make a relatively small contribution to budgetary revenue, and, consequently, the wealth of the state. Increasing the returns from these industries, while balancing the interests of investors,must be a primary objective of resource-rich SSA countries, but doing so remains challenging. Weak institutional frameworks, including poor transparency and accountability and strong vested interests, have often compounded this challenge. Moderator: Geoffrey Lamb (Chief economic and policy advisor, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) Panelists:
Parallel Panel Session 2: Financing Infrastructure in Sub-Saharan AfricaInfrastructure investment, rehabilitation and maintenance needs remain massive in most Sub-Saharan African countries. Limited availability and quality of transport, energy, and water infrastructure pose obstacles for productivity, business development and external competitiveness. In particular, power generation capacity in SSA has stagnated for the past two decades, in contrast to rapid expansion in other regions. Wide-spread and costly energy subsidies have absorbed increasing budgetary resources in many countries and have discouraged investment in the energy sector. But while increasing financing options are available, public investment and debt management capacity often remains inadequate. Moderator: Wallace Kantai (Business editor, NTV) Panelists:
Parallel panel session 3: Creating Sustainable Deeper and Broader Financial MarketsFinance is critical for long-term growth. However, financial markets in many African markets lack depth, and therefore offer limited financing opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as insufficient access for the population at large to financial services. Yet, rapid increases in connectivity offer new opportunities to all, even the poorest land-locked countries. With microfinance institutions, mobile banking, and an intensification of the development of debt markets, innovations over the past decade have led to a broader range of institutions in a number of countries, but the reach of those institutions is narrow and the sector remains largely bank-centric. Most recently the fast growth of some African cross-border banks has raised concerns about maintaining financial stability in the context of rapid expansions of home-grown institutions, and about adequate cooperation among financial supervisors. Moderator: Aly-Khan Satchu (CEO, rich.co.ke) Panelists:
Parallel panel session 4: Overcoming FragilityTop priorities for fragile states in Sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere are establishing the legitimacy of political and economic institutions and fostering social cohesion to set the basis for stability and growth. Effective policies thus require due attention to the social, ethnic, and political environment and well-defined achievable goals for the near-term. Much progress has been made in recent decades, but exit from fragility is still a challenge for several countries. Against this background, this session will focus on the lessons to date and how best to overcome fragility, including how to deal with the governance challenges in natural resource sectors, which are particularly acute in an environment of weak institutions, and how to foster employment creation, especially for young people. Moderator: Pascal Fletcher (Journalist, Thomson Reuters) Panelists:
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| 4:15pm-5:45pm
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Plenary Panel Session 2:Fostering Inclusion and Job CreationThe over-arching objective for low-income countries is poverty reduction. How can SSA’s growth acceleration be translated into improvements in living standards for the majority of the population, particularly for the poorest? Recent IMF work shows that while the poor have generally benefitted from high growth, relative income disparities have widened and employment generation has been disappointing. Whether growth was inclusive or not depended in many countries to a large degree on developments in the agricultural sector, often neglected. Social safety nets, which can provide direct support to the poorest, remain limited in SSA. Moderator: Eleni Giokos (Senior anchor, Bloomberg TV Africa) Panelists:
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| 5:45pm-6:45pm | Special session between the Managing Director and African Ministers and Governors |
Wednesday, May 28 |
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Registration opens |
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| 6:30-8:30pm | Opening Reception |
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