African leaders release action plan to combat poverty, joblessness

OUAGADOUGOU – African heads of state released an action plan Thursday aiming to provide “remedies” for the chronic unemployment problem that has kept hundreds of millions destitute on the world’s poorest continent.

The plan, the result of a two-day African Union summit in Burkina Faso, included ideas on how to revitalise the agricultural sector, a backbone of Africa’s mostly rural economies, and how to regulate and adequately compensate those engaged in informal work, particularly women. A monitoring commission led by the AU would chart the progress of each country towards fulfilling the plan and manage a database of employment statistics to better track how best to disburse aid for jobs creation.Long on strategy, the plan stopped short of concrete steps to reduce joblessness that has kept some 320 million of Africa’s 821 million people in extreme poverty, surviving on less than a dollar a day without access to clean water, sanitation, or decent health care or education.It recommended that each country consecrate 10 percent of its budget to agriculture to smooth entry to world markets as well as promote trade between African countries themselves.The plan also supports the use of micro-credits, small loans to individuals to develop informal work into gainful employment, as well as an increase in the quality and scope of health care for rural and urban workers.Hoping to better integrate women into the formal employment sector, where they currently represent just one-third of the workforce, the heads of state recommended that laws be passed guaranteeing women the right to own property and the right to apply for credit.Another component of the plan, which failed to include either a timeline for implementation or an approximate cost analysis of the new initiatives, was greater attention to developing alternative energy sources as both a source of jobs and an attempt to harness Africa’s renewable resources.Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region where the quality of life has decreased rather than improved over the last two decades, according to the United Nations, and is predicted to be alone in the developing world in not attaining UN Millennium Development Goals of halving poverty by 2015.But what is missing from Africa is not the will to succeed, according to International Labour Organisation Director-General Juan Somavia, but the resources.New initiatives to boost African development cannot come soon enough, as the continent, already confronted by a joblessness problem that keeps up to 94 per cent of its citizens from the formal employment sector, must create eight million jobs annually over the next decade to forestall an even greater crisis.New employment must also take into consideration the growing trend towards urbanization in Africa as mega-cities such as Lagos, Nairobi and Kinshasa expand with job seekers who will represent one half of an estimated 366 million-strong new labour force by 2015.Creative, country-specific assistance plans with greater attention to debt relief will help spur African economic growth, projected to reach five per cent in 2005.-Nampa-AFPA monitoring commission led by the AU would chart the progress of each country towards fulfilling the plan and manage a database of employment statistics to better track how best to disburse aid for jobs creation.Long on strategy, the plan stopped short of concrete steps to reduce joblessness that has kept some 320 million of Africa’s 821 million people in extreme poverty, surviving on less than a dollar a day without access to clean water, sanitation, or decent health care or education.It recommended that each country consecrate 10 percent of its budget to agriculture to smooth entry to world markets as well as promote trade between African countries themselves.The plan also supports the use of micro-credits, small loans to individuals to develop informal work into gainful employment, as well as an increase in the quality and scope of health care for rural and urban workers.Hoping to better integrate women into the formal employment sector, where they currently represent just one-third of the workforce, the heads of state recommended that laws be passed guaranteeing women the right to own property and the right to apply for credit.Another component of the plan, which failed to include either a timeline for implementation or an approximate cost analysis of the new initiatives, was greater attention to developing alternative energy sources as both a source of jobs and an attempt to harness Africa’s renewable resources.Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region where the quality of life has decreased rather than improved over the last two decades, according to the United Nations, and is predicted to be alone in the developing world in not attaining UN Millennium Development Goals of halving poverty by 2015.But what is missing from Africa is not the will to succeed, according to International Labour Organisation Director-General Juan Somavia, but the resources.New initiatives to boost African development cannot come soon enough, as the continent, already confronted by a joblessness problem that keeps up to 94 per cent of its citizens from the formal employment sector, must create eight million jobs annually over the next decade to forestall an even greater crisis.New employment must also take into consideration the growing trend towards urbanization in Africa as mega-cities such as Lagos, Nairobi and Kinshasa expand with job seekers who will represent one half of an estimated 366 million-strong new labour force by 2015.Creative, country-specific assistance plans with greater attention to debt relief will help spur African economic growth, projected to reach five per cent in 2005.-Nampa-AFP