The Sunday News
Garikayi Chipfunde, Correspondent
SEVERAL African countries have always been bullied politically and economically by the West, particularly Europe and America who have taken it upon themselves to dictate the pace of development as well as how African states should use their resources.
The world economic systems have relegated Africa to the periphery while the West through a culture of repression and exploitation continues to occupy the centre and shows no signs or desire to accommodate other countries and close the inequality gap.
The fight for economic dominance explains the tiff between Washington and Beijing where Africa as a trade partner to both has been drawn into the matrix.
However, the turn of events seems to suggest that the economic dominance of the West is not going to last forever as the new crop of leaders in Africa is mounting a lot of pressure to eject foreign influence in every other part of the continent through steps that tell a story of economic independence and not dependence.
Several economic and political platforms to deliberate on the total emancipation of Africa have been created where the gospel of self-rule has been preached with unrestrained eloquence giving momentum to the desire by African leaders to be masters of their destiny.
Such platforms as the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) Conference of Ministers (CoM), a platform that interrogates and problematises the world economic system, its composition and representation of Africa in the global financial institutions, digital divide, Artificial Intelligence (AI), poverty and unemployment, industrialisation, green economies and climate change among others.
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is also among the key platforms whose objective is to have a single continental market for value-added and beneficiated products in Africa and beyond.
The success of AfCFTA is the real definition of the Africa that Zimbabwe wants, that Malawi, Botswana, Zambia, Ethiopia, Cameroon and Egypt also want. It is that which the 55 African countries want.
It is hinged on economic co-operation and facilitation of trade among African countries through the removal of unnecessary barriers that perpetuate the subjugation of the continent to the West.
The AfCFTA agreement, if fully embraced and implemented, will lead to real African integration economically, politically, socially and technologically which arrangement the West does not want to see because it will be an affront to its dominance economically.
The vision of an economically empowered Africa is shared among the African Union member states whose desire is to build a continent that will be counted among the powerful blocks of the world.
This was mutually shared recently when the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) Committee of Experts of the Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development met in the resort town of Victoria Falls to deliberate and make recommendations on several issues.
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These include Vienna Programme of Action for Landlocked Developing Countries for the Decade 2014-2024, where engagements are about global financial architecture reforms to address the intersection of debt, climate change and development in Africa, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Agenda 2063, whose focus is on private sector development, regional integration, trade, infrastructure, industry and technology, financing the transition to inclusive green economies in Africa: imperatives, opportunities and policy options as well as technology for development in Africa among many others.
Officially opening the 56th Session of the UNECA Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning, and Economic Development in Victoria Falls recently, President Mnangagwa encouraged collaboration among African States to deal decisively and effectively with various challenges bedevilling the continent, which include climate change.
The President reiterated the need for Africa to unite and use its abundant resources to leapfrog towards the improvement of infrastructure development as well as inclusive green economies and economic development in general
“Let us capitalise on collaboration as African states and mobilise resources for financing our transition towards inclusive green economies.
“Through investments in science, technology, and innovation, the transition to inclusive green economies must aid in the development of technologies that emphasise on sustainability, resource efficiency and emissions reductions,” said President Mnangagwa.
Speaking during the COM2024 Global Financial Infrastructure Reform session, the Secretary General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Ms Rebecca Grynspan bemoaned the under-representation of African States in global financial institutions and urged African countries to amplify their voices and speak in a unified and coordinated manner to bring about the much-needed reforms and changes that matter most to African countries.
“We need to push for more reforms in the global economic and financial institutions and have more voice for African countries. We need unified voices to be more effective in negotiating for the things that are more important to our countries,” said Ms Grynspan.
The Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) Dr Claver Gatete also said: “We need to bridge the technological gaps and design innovative financing mechanisms that can work for us with the right governance frameworks.”
