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 worlds poorest continent, reports the World Bank press review Friday.
The plan, the result of a two-day African Union (AU) summit in Burkina Faso, included ideas on how to revitalize the agricultural sector, a backbone of Africas 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 to create a database of employment statistics to better track how best to disburse aid for jobs creation.
It recommended that each country consecrate 10 percent of its budget to agriculture to smooth entry to world markets as well as to 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 increasing the quality and scope of health care for rural and urban workers. It is an attempt 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 Africas renewable resources.
Chinese Xinhua adds the action plan set out 11 sectors as priority fields, and promised to adopt a strategy leaning toward sectors with bigger employment potentials, such as agriculture, fishery and farming. The governments agreed to pursue policies encouraging enterprises to take social responsibilities and create an environment conducive to production and employment.
Meanwhile, rising prices for crude oil could inject some 15 billion US dollar into the coffers of African oil producers, helping them to diversify their economies and lift their populations from poverty, IMF chief Rodrigo de Rato said Thursday.
– It will be a chance for African oil producers to attain a new development objective and ensure an effective use of their resources in a medium-term strategy, de Rato said. Increased oil revenues will help “stabilize funds, reduce debt and increase funding for social and industrial programs that will attract investment,” he added.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
