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Jacob Zuma Joins the Davos Debates in Africa

South African President Jacob Zuma was one of the many leaders at the World Economic Forum on Africa to join the Davos Debates on YouTube. President Zuma replied to the question about the impact the FIFA World Cup 2010 will have on the entire continent.

Numerous participants at the meeting held in Cape Town from 10 - 12 June 2009 taped their answers to the question: "Will the whole of Africa benefit from the FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa?" at a specially designed video corner at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.

Leaders say crisis represents opportunity as well as challenge for Africa

While sub-Saharan Africa has been less impacted by the global recession than most other emerging regions, the economic crisis still represents both a challenge and an opportunity for the continent and its people, political and business leaders told participants at the closing plenary session of this year’s World Economic Forum on Africa.

Summing up two days of intensive discussions and workshops that addressed the short-term economic outlook, as well as Africa’s longer-term development needs, key leaders took a relatively optimistic view. They said the continent’s resources – both human and physical – leave it well positioned to return to a rapid growth path, as long as governments move aggressively to deliver on their commitments to market reforms, political accountability and investment in infrastructure and education.

“I agree that Africa has many opportunities,” said Jacob Zuma, President of South Africa. “The challenge comes back to the leadership: Are we able to see those opportunities and are we able to utilize the appropriate structures to take advantage of them.”

Read more about the World Economic Forum on Africa 2009 which ran from 10-12 June

Closing Africa's gender gaps for real growth

A growing weight of academic research strongly suggests that investing in adolescent girls – by ensuring equal access to education, technology, employment and political participation – is one of the most cost-effective tools for reducing poverty in lesser developed countries. Yet, governments in many countries, as well as the global donor community, have been relatively slow to change their social and budgetary priorities accordingly.

In a World Economic Forum on Africa session dedicated to this issue, Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum, noted the Forum’s recent efforts to document the progress – or lack of it – in eliminating this aspect of the gender gap.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Managing Director, World Bank, Washington DC; Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum on Africa, said the bank’s studies show that the economic gains from secondary and university education for girls are even higher than from primary schooling. For every year of secondary school attended, average wages for girls increase by 10 to 20%, even higher than the 5 to 15% wage gains seen for boys. “If you can catch them before some critical life decisions are made, it can have an enormously positive effect on themselves, their families and their nations.”

Colin Coleman, Managing Director and Head of Investment Banking, Sub-Saharan Africa, Goldman Sachs, South Africa, reviewed highlights from a research report -- entitled Woman Hold Up Half the Sky – issued by his bank last year. Among the key findings: Education greatly increases the likelihood that girls will work outside the home, dramatically improves the wages of those who find employment and results in lower rates of child mortality, HIV infection and other diseases. This makes education for girls a powerful driver of long-term economic growth.

Graça Machel, Founder and President, Foundation for Community Development (FDC), Mozambique; Co-Chair, Global Agenda Council on the Future of Africa, argued strongly that the most critical need is not for increased funding or political commitment, but a fundamental change in traditional cultural attitudes, which frequently place a greater value on boys. “This is one of the most fundamental reforms we can make on this continent – to dismantle this belief,” Machel said.

Read the full summary of the session

FIFA World Cup 2010: Building a legacy for Africa

Very interesting World Economic Forum on Africa 2009 session on the FIFA World Cup 2010 which kicks off in exactly one year from now. Watch it on http://www.weforum.org/africa2009/webcasts. Here's the line up of panellists:

Abedi Pele Ayew, Head Coach and President, Nania Football Club, Ghana; Jane Carter, Director, Coaching for Hope, United Kingdom; Michael Jordaan, CEO, First National Bank of Southern Africa, South Africa; Daniel Alexander Jordaan, CEO, 2010 FIFA World Cup Organising Committee, South Africa; Kgalema Petrus Motlanthe, Deputy President of South Africa; Helen Zille, Premier of the Western Cape Province, South Africa.

Jacob Zuma kicked off the countdown to the World Cup 2010 on a tour of Green Point Stadium in Cape Town exactly 365 days before the kick-off.

Also join the Davos Debates in Africa and answer the question leaders at the World Economic Forum on Africa 2009 are answering: Will the whole of Africa benefit from the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa?

World Economic Forum on Africa opens with call for global governance reforms

While the London G20 Summit represented a step towards a more inclusive global governance system, further institutional reforms are badly needed to ensure the interests of low-income countries are adequately represented, according to national leaders and other participants gathered at this year’s World Economic Forum on Africa in Cape Town.

In particular, they urged the major industrialized countries to accept long-stalled changes in the governing structures of the IMF and the World Bank.

“A critical lesson from the current crisis is the need for a transformed global financial system,” Jacob Zuma, President of South Africa, said in his opening address. Reform of the so-called Bretton Woods institutions, he added, would “reflect changing economic realities and provide a voice for emerging and developing countries.”

The G20, Zuma noted, endorsed such reforms – which would increase the voting power of the lesser developed countries – in its communiqué following the London Summit. Now, he said, African and other developing world leaders will need to carefully monitor progress towards that goal, as well as the other objectives laid out in the communiqué, such as pledges from the major developed countries to meet their millennium development goals, shun additional protectionist measures and increase IMF and World Bank lending resources.

Read more about the opening session of the World Economic Forum on Africa here.

Kenya takes lead in Business Alliance Against Chronic Hunger

Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga and a group of CEOs announced today at a press conference during the 2009 World Economic Forum on Africa that Kenyan leaders will take over an innovative business alliance aimed at reducing hunger in Africa.

The Alliance, coordinated by a Kenya-based secretariat, comprises over 30 companies and organizations working to develop business-led solutions to hunger.

Alliance members have developed innovative business models through 14 on-the-ground initiatives in a Kenyan pilot district - creating 150 small-scale businesses, increasing the income and production of 2,300 farmers and reaching thousands of consumers with improved products and services.

Formed in 2006 by global CEOs and then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the Alliance has been managed to date by the World Economic Forum. Under its new structure, the alliance will be led and managed by Kenya-based organizations, with continued support from global partners.

The MDG Centre in Nairobi, which manages the Millennium Villages Project in East and Southern Africa, will serve as the institutional host.

Kofi Annan launches Africa progress report at World Economic Forum on Africa

Kofi Annan, speaking at the launch of the Africa Progress Panel (APP) Annual Report 2009 on the opening day of the World Economic Forum on Africa in Cape Town, called on African leaders to turn the current global economic meltdown into an opportunity for the continent based on shared responsibility with their international partners.

The financial crisis has underscored Africa’s vulnerability, notwithstanding a decade of solid progress, the APP said at the launch of its annual report. The key conclusion of the report is that Africa needs to drive its own development agenda as the basis for partnership and shared responsibility for progress. “The global economic crisis can serve as a wake-up call for both African leaders and their international partners,” the panel said.

The report, launched at the World Economic Forum on Africa by Kofi Annan, Graça Machel and Linah Mohohlo, states that the global economic crisis imported from the North is hitting Africa harder than any other region. Nevertheless, it presents “a unique opportunity” for Africa to pioneer a low-carbon development model. More investment is needed in Africa’s real economy, particularly infrastructure, renewable energy, agriculture and communications. The report notes that “investment in these sectors will not only generate jobs and boost trade in Africa, but also create markets for the world.”

Financial development, trade crucial to Africa’s competitiveness

African businesses can become far more competitive, but African governments and their international partners will need to improve access to finance, resist pressure to erect trade barriers, upgrade infrastructure, improve healthcare and educational systems, and strengthen institutions.

These are the conclusions of The Africa Competitiveness Report 2009, released at the start of the World Economic Forum on Africa 2009. The findings of the report reflect research efforts of three institutions – the World Economic Forum, the African Development Bank and the World Bank.

Limited access to financial services remains a major obstacle for African enterprises, but underdeveloped infrastructure, limited healthcare and educational services, and poor institutional frameworks also make African countries less competitive in the global marketplace.

The report also points to a number of success stories in the region that highlight steps countries can take to improve the business environment.

Do you agree with the findings of The Africa Competitiveness Report 2009? What do you think the major barriers to greater competitiveness in Africa are?

Young Global Leaders address HIV crisis in Africa

On the eve of the World Economic Forum on Africa, a group of the world’s most exceptional young leaders have combined forces to tackle one of the most pressing global health problems in the place where it is most keenly felt – the HIV crisis in Africa.

The Forum of Young Global Leaders (YGL) is a multistakeholder community of young leaders committed to shaping the future, with a focus on collective action and tangible results. Kate Roberts, a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader since 2007, led around 30 of her contemporaries through one of the poorest townships in South Africa to meet with those most affected by the disease. Roberts is Vice-President of Corporate Marketing & Communications at PSI and is the Founder of one of PSI’s global HIV education and prevention programmes, YouthAIDS.

The visit to the Khayelitsha Township – just 30 kilometres from central Cape Town where the World Economic Forum on Africa is being held – took place in three parts.

Their first stop was a local high school, where the YGLs developed an understanding of HIV prevention objectives across Africa and the challenges inherent in the grassroots implementation of those objectives.

The second part of the journey took place at the local community and in partnership with another non-profit HIV prevention organization, also co-founded by a Young Global Leader, Dennis Karpes. Dance4life works throughout South Africa and in 20 other countries across the globe, inspiring, mobilizing and uniting young people, through the universal language of music and dance, to fight against HIV and AIDS for life.

The day ended with a panel discussion focused on creating tangible solutions and meaningful action to reduce the spread of HIV, specifically by harnessing the power of the private sector and through innovative models of success within the sector.

Shape the agenda of the Forum on Africa through social media

Participate virtually in the 19th World Economic Forum on Africa through direct interaction on numerous social media platforms with world leaders who will gather in Cape Town from 10 to 12 June.

You can engage with participants by directly addressing them at press conferences that will be live streamed as well as plenary sessions. Simply use the chat function of our Livestream channel forum to send your questions to panellists.

With one year to the kick-off of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, the meeting will explore the economic and social impact of this major international event. Participants as well as the public are invited to join the Davos Debates in Africa and send their video response to the following question: “Will the whole of Africa benefit from the FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa?”

The meeting will begin with a highly interactive session engaging over 350 leaders in a brainstorming exercise. Leaders will examine the current changing global landscape and determine the major challenges that African countries need to be most prepared for in the coming year. The Forum has invited the public to help shape the debate and vote on the key challenges. Results and video responses will be presented in the session, which will be broadcast on http://www.weforum.org/africa2009/webcasts.

Key quotes from plenary sessions will be tweeted on the Forum’s Twitter account - http://twitter.com/davos - which has over half a million followers. Ashley Judd, Actress and Member of the Board, PSI, USA, will give her first Twitter interview from the meeting. The public will be invited to send questions to her and vote on the top five they would like her to answer. Finally, follow the meeting’s key outcomes right here on the Forum’s blog! Send your comments and views and join the discussion on the future of the African continent.