Commission for Africa

Both the Commission for Africa’s reports in 2005 and 2010 emphasised the role the private sector had to play in promoting a strong and prosperous Africa – alone and in partnership with others. It was in this vein that the head of the Commission’s Secretariat Myles Wickstead chaired a Business Fights Poverty event in London last …

Commission for Africa today launched its new report – Still Our Common Interest – which calls upon African leaders to step up efforts to convert unprecedented economic opportunities into poverty reduction and development.

The Resources chapter of the Commission for Africa report looked at how the steps recommended in the rest of the report would be financed.

Trade has been a key driver of growth in many developing countries over the last 50 years. But, as the More Trade and Fairer Trade chapter of the Commission for Africa report highlighted, Africa’s share of trade is very low and trade amongst African countries had stagnated in the preceding three decades.

“Africa is poor, ultimately, because its economy has not grown” argued the Commission for Africa. Going for Growth and Poverty Reduction, the fourth chapter of the Commission’s report, focused on how Africa can increase and sustain a higher economic growth rate and use this to reduce poverty.

The Commission for Africa’s chapter on ‘Investing in People‘ covered a wide range of topics relevant to development – health, education, HIV/AIDS, water, sanitation and help to the most vulnerable.

The Commission for Africa was relaunched at the World Economic Forum in Dar es Salaam in May 2010 to look at progress since the Commission published its original report in March 2010. The film of the launch is now available here.

A growing number of reports on progress against the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are being published in the build up to the UN’s MDG Review Summit in September. The headline that often emerges is that Africa is not on track to meet the targets – but a new report published today has challenged that view.

Paul Vallely, one of the co-authors of the original Commission for Africa report, has written an article on the changing face of Africa to mark the start of the football World Cup in South Africa today.

With less than a week to go until the World Cup, all eyes are turning to Africa. A key message emerging from all the coverage is that perceptions need to catch up with the reality of a continent that is changing fast.