African countries have been told to be realistic and stop depending on Development Partners (DPs) for funding of critical infrastructure.
“They can’t continue to depend on DPs. DPs won’t give money, unless they have interests,” Nardos Bekele-Thomas, CEO of the African Union Development Agency NEPAD (AUDA NEPAD), told journalists at a press briefing in Addis Ababa during PIDA Week 2024.
She called for ‘derisking’ of the continent. “We like talking about our problems,” she said, and urged Africans to focus on their positive stories.
She further called on African countries to see private sector involvement in infrastructure as important and harmonise their legal frameworks to facilitate the involvement of the sector.
She said African countries should “work in partnerships and collaborations,” adding that, “infrastructure development should be people centered. Because empowering citizens is empowering yourself,” and urged countries of the continent to have the integrated approach to infrastructure development, by making people the focus of the development.
“Countries should have their own development agencies insulated from the politics,” she added.
The Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) is a framework of the African Union operationalised by the (AUDA NEPAD.
This year’s PIDA Week is being organized jointly by the African Union, AUDA NEPAD, the African Development Bank, and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa under the theme: ‘Fostering Resilient and Inclusive Infrastructure for Africa’s Sustainable Growth: Leveraging Transformative Financing and Regional Integration.’
The week being held in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, from November 24 to 29, 2024, is to deliberate over the continent’s infrastructure gaps and the need for investment in the sector.
The PIDA Week is an annual event organized under the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa, which serves as a platform for stakeholders to come together and discuss the progress, challenges, and future directions of infrastructure development across the continent. Inaugurated in 2015, PIDA Week has become a critical forum for accelerating infrastructure implementation in Africa, linking infrastructure to regional integration, economic growth, and job creation, the AU says on its website.
By Emmanuel K Dogbevi, back from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
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