A growing number of countries in Africa has reached a point when they can end their dependence on external aid and fund their continuing development from their own resources, according to a report launched here Friday.
The report, launched on the sidelines of the ongoing AU Summit, said across most of the continent today, growth is buoyant, new livelihood opportunities are emerging and poverty is falling.
It said Africa is changing at a dizzying speed and, in the coming period, the combined pressures of a growing population, environmental change and rapid economic growth would transform the lives and livelihoods of Africans “at an unprecedented pace”.
“These changes are inevitable, and in many respects desirable. If they are managed well, they will provide the impetus for Africa’s continuing rapid development,” said the report.
It however noted that with change also comes risk, and that rapid urbanisation, youth unemployment, inequality and social exclusion, new natural resource finds and a changing climate “all have the potential to place African societies under considerable strain”.
Therefore, the report said, urgent attention must be paid to the transition of national movements into state building and peace building processes.
Commissioned by the African Development Bank (AfDB), the report was prepared by a High Level Panel on Fragile States in Africa (HLPFS), chaired by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia.
The HLPFS was established at the initiative of AfDB President Donald Kaberuka to review the likely sources of fragility in Africa in the coming years and make recommendations both to the Bank and the wider policy community on how to tackle such.
