07.10.2024
“Africa is not a problem to be solved, we are part of today’s solution.”
Mavis Owusu-Gyamfi advises governments in Africa on economic matters. In our interview, she argues in favour of a green restructuring of African economies.
As President and CEO of the African Center for Economic Transformation, Mavis Owusu-Gyamfi advises governments in Africa on economic and financial matters. At the Hamburg Sustainability Conference 2024, she advocates a green restructuring of African economies and a more flexible approach to debt. In this interview with GIZ, she explains why.
Ms. Owusu-Gyamfi, we are not achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Apparently, the way we live does not work for the planet and its people. Are our economies to blame?
The current structure of our economies is not working. The last century of economic growth in most of the world has come at the expense of our climate, nature, and biodiversity – driven heavily by a dependence on fossil fuels for manufacturing and industry. We have an unprecedented opportunity in Africa to do things differently, to develop without destroying our planet.
What should socially just and ecologically sustainable economies look like?
From the African viewpoint, it starts with addressing the vast energy poverty and underemployment on the continent. Countries with large solar and wind energy resources and the minerals for green industrialisation like Namibia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo need the technology, skills and finance to take advantage of these endowments and produce green solutions for the world while improving their peoples’ livelihoods.
You advise African governments of countries such as Ghana, Mozambique, and Rwanda. Which countries do well, which struggle?
On average, economies in Africa are less diversified and less export competitive today than in 2000, as our African Transformation Index shows. Most depend heavily on raw material exports, making them less resilient to economic and social shocks such as COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine. At the same time, domestic challenges are making recovery even harder – high levels of debt, stalled growth, unemployment especially among young people and women, poverty, and inequality – and public finances are often too tight to fund basic social spending.
What is your advice to countries facing tight budgets?
Our advice is four-fold. First, focus on fiscal discipline and efficient and effective public spending. Second, increase revenue by building the tax base, being fairer and more efficient in collection, and addressing illicit financial flows. Third, restructure debt payments on terms that do not hinder healthcare, education, poverty reduction, and other critical priorities. Fourth, invest in transformation, focusing not solely on growth, but on five pillars of economic success: diversification, export competitiveness, productivity, technology, and human well-being, which we call Growth with DEPTH.
You advocate a different view on Africa. Can the Hamburg Sustainability Conference showcase what Africa has to offer?
Africa is not a problem to be solved, we are part of today’s solution. We need more African voices, representation, and influence in global decisions. It is good that the conference offers room for that. I hope that the Hamburg Conference will do for sustainability what the Munich Security Conference does for security.
| Mavis Owusu-Gyamfi is President and CEO of the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET), a pan-African economic policy institute. She is a speaker and moderator at the Hamburg Sustainability Conference. |
