Round table dialogue

Structural Economic Transformation in the context of the AU Vision 63 and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals:

What does equitable and sustainable economic transformation look like in Africa?

Rough notes

DAY 1

Introductory session

1. UNECA introduction- Generally in Africa we’ve seen good growth but we’re still to see the demographic benefits of this

growth and we still face many challenges.- For UNECA Structural transformation: wanting to see a sectoral shifts, rural-urban shifts,

demographics shifts and shifts in quality of life- Agenda 2063 – inclusion and sustainable development and growth at the core. Want a deepening

of the value of good governance, pan-Africanism etc – About people centred development. Hoping for this current conversation to be a very practical road map of how this can be done (looking for practical suggestions and ideas)

- Committed to accelerating manufacturing as a generator of decent jobs o Important in context pf large informal sector.o Value addition and beneficiation at the core of agenda 2063 – for many years we’ve been

primary commodity based. o Greening agenda – industrialisation through business as usual isn’t what we want. Requires

rethinking the role of private sector – how do we engage in diversification and value addition in a way that growth doesn’t destroy the environment. This is at the core of both agenda 2063 and the SDG’s

- Other key issues for consideration:o A need for understanding how the broad framework and agenda should be interpreted at

national and local level. How do we make sure local people are included?o Regional integration: how does Africa leverage regional integration in a positive way?o Food security: how do you transform and make sure you don’t have a starving population.o Climate smart agriculture that can cope with droughts etc.

2. Dereje’s introduction and framing as organiser (TJN-A)- We as CSO’s haven’t been engaging with this (economic transformation) agenda enough: UNECA

have been publishing annual economic transformation documents but there’s been no reaction from civil society.

- We know DFID’s agenda more than our own agenda- We need an African civil society voice- How do we together play a role in the global and African agenda? How do we situate Africa’s

agenda in the global one? How do we situate ourselves as civil society within this?

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- Africa has relative policy space now compared to the past to set their own policy agenda. We as civil society are lagging behind. What role do we have to play?

3. Gyekye’s introduction and framing as organiser (TWN-A)- Idea of transformation has been universally accepted. But we’ve experienced a deindustrialisation

and a retardation of agriculture at the same time. - Structural transformation often becomes a notion of structural reform – how do we position Africa

within global value chains. This isn’t transformation. We need to instead be asking what are the alternatives to these value chains.

- ET needs to be economic and strategic intervention. - Interrogate critically the internal and external structures (debt structuring reform, tax governance

reform that are binding us)- Collaboration is going to be key to this agenda.

Session 1: Framing the debate

1. Input 1: Charles Abugre: Africa’s structural transformation agenda: Paradigms, elements, challenges and opportunities).

- Transformation is necessarily a long term result of a long-term process- There are elements of transformation that we can see now

o We’ve some economic growtho There’s been an expansion in per capita incomeso Inflation levels have declined.o Shift to urban areas and out of agriculture (because of pull of manufacturing higher

productivity and higher income jobs)- However, the dominant component of industry isn’t manufacturing it’s construction and oil and

gas. We haven’t seen the shift in manufacturing (key in economic transformation) which is needed to address the de-industrialisation impacts of structural adjustment.

- Income inequality has risen. Both functional and gender shift in income from wages to rents. - There are 3 main, interconnected factors that should constitute the critical elements of structural

transformation (and these are included in both the ACET index and the UNECA writing)… the state has a key role to play in engineering all three.

o Manufacturing : a nation is better off with an inefficient industrial sector than none at all. The purpose of development is really about increasing returns and the support for the engineering of and protection of manufacturing. These are the basis for wealth creation, job creation (with living wage), equitable income distribution, increasing economic sectors. And in turn, these things are necessary ingredients for stable states.

o Endogenous financing : financing for development has to come predominantly from within. Capital needs to be made at home. It also has to exhibit increasing returns in order to trigger the dynamics of development. To finance development through international finance and trade isn’t likely to yield the broader development impacts that are needed: there’s a tendency is for international finance is to go into consumption and this destabilises finance. Foreign finance can only play a limited supportive role and only under strict conditions.

Disguised unemployed (surplus labour) is in fact a disguised saving when you deploy that labour: We need to think of production orientated social protection

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rather than consumption orientated social protection. But importantly this needs to be accompanied by an expanding investment in skills – think of this as increasing returns on investment.

There were a lot of ppl working in the ag sector in low productivity. Even when they produce there was very little market. Increasing productivity will increase earnings this feeds back into consumption and demand. Public works can therefore play a key role. An example is Bolsa Famila in Brazil.

If you deploy them fully into building dams, roads etc, you’re unleashing untapped into finance. We need to understand finance more broadly then cash loan through a bank.

Finance is not always money. All productive resources can be put to use for finance.

o Balanced growth, development and economic expansion approaches : i.e. we can’t just look at leading industry. Rather we need integrated planning in such a way that you target multiple modes of expansion, ideally so that that each part serves as a demand for the other.

Industrialisation for export is critical. If just domestic and agricultural focussed you will be left with a focus on large scale commercial agriculture if you’re to scale up quick enough to provide for everyone. [

- These three things will ensure that the economy expands within in a balanced development framework. It also forms basis for inclusive democratic governance and for labour to be organised.

- What are the challenges?o Developmental state needed: Requires a state to have understanding of interconnected

elements of industry and the economy. Transformation won’t come from the market. It has to be engineered. Market has a very important role but not enough alone. The state therefore needs the awareness to organise, plan and decentralise: Public expenditure and incentivising investments has to be engineered

o We’re trying to engineer this at a time when there’s a global liquidity glut: This may lead to increased debt or may undermine the strategy for transformation. Governments under pressure to find money quick to provide consumption goods that are affordable with growing middle class populations – so resisting liquidity is challenging

o We are thinking about manufacturing at a time when there’s a global glut in goods and particularly consumer goods. This makes a price competitiveness problem. This impacts on our ability to manufacture competitively. We’ll have to force ourselves to be more competitive.

o A serious problem of infrastructure and energy. Ethiopia had the cheapest energy on the continent – the rest of us have to burn fossil fuels / expensive renewables. We have a large infrastructure gap we need to fill.

- But there are opportunitieso Industrialise on the back of agriculture and non-precious minerals – harvest granite, clay

and minerals for construction. o Climate friendly agriculture offers opportunities for innovation, tech and research. If we

invest in this we may in fact be several steps ahead of other regions in the futureo Creative taxation – resources for governments. Return to developmental banking. Taxation

of land and properties could be a major source of revenue (not left to municipalities). Land

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banks – a source of leveraging additional liquid finance. Taxation that reduces tendency for rent seeking and ehich doesn’t punish agriculture and manufacturing is important.

Land banks: pooling land as collateral for raising money. By holding it you’re holding an asset that can be collatoralised. Also done to avoid land grabs without disposing users of the land. So it can be for leveraging finance but also for development impacts.

o Infant industries – supporting these

2. Input 2: Dereje Alemayehu: What is Africa’s current Vision for Structural Economic Transformation and what internal and external constraints does it confront

Industrialisation as a priority is not new.

1. African governments were forced to drop their own agendas when SAP’s were forced on them. Though this states then had to leave economic development to the market. We’re still living with the consequences.

2. After 30 years of these structural adjustment regimes a new dialogue has started in Africa. Africa doesn’t need structural adjustment, Africa needs structural transformation. This requires moving away from neo-liberal mould of development.

3. Africa will go nowhere if it maintains it current exports: e.g. Cote d’Ivoire was dependent on 3 major exports (coffee, cacoa and timber) at independence. When the crisis set in the coffee and cacoa exports had grown hugely – but foreign earnings were more or less the same. It’s not about selling on the world market – it’s how you’re integrated.

4. We also need to be aware that it’s a hostile international environment within which Africa’s trying to transform its economy – WTO rules make it harder for African countries to demand even local content policies in investment agreements.

5. Donor countries: telling developing countries what to do, not what we did and we do. E.g. US government is and was actively involved in promoting their industries but give very different policy advice to other countries.

6. We have to look at the institutional capacities of the state to lead transformation. a. Technological and bureaucratic capability to lead transformationb. Political capability – creating a national platform for engagement and accountability c. Capability to defend national interests (current and future) in international processesd. Capability of managing the market

7. Positive shifts in pan-African discourse a. Inclusive development isn’t just growth with jobs / job creation. b. Addressing intersectional inequality is now recognised as a means and an end to

sustainable development. c. Welfare packages not just something to mitigate effects of economic development but

potentially as a central aspect if reconceptualised. d. Low-carbon development – recognised but still need to work out the how-to’s. Financing

transformation is now mainstreamed in discussion which is good – but we still need better policies.

8. There are lots of positive shifts, but this is work in progress there is still lot to do. Need to take measures to protect this from capture.

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3. Input 3: Gyekye Tanoh: Globalisation, the global policy environment & Africa’s structural economic transformation” (including reflections on global trade, investment, finance and tax regimes)

9. Actual performance of African countries to date: a. Decade and a half of growth.b. This has largely been through primary production for export. This has meant that the

trajectory of development is very vulnerable to external demand and shocks. This is a growing trend rather than a decreasing one.

10. There are a number issues about industrialisation in Africa that need to be teased out:a. Production and production relations are at the heart of any discussion about structural

transformation. i. All technology in Africa is imported – we’re import dependant.

ii. Increasing returns another word for productivity growth. Wherever you have productivity growth it’s driven by external technology. This needs to instead become endogenous.

iii. Artisanal sector is key but it’s collapsed. Where it’s grown it’s too often mimicked the mainstream approaches resulting in (land grabs, abuse of women and children in labour, environmental degradation).

b. Mining productivity gone up exponentially in Africa – but this is totally captured by MNC elite and there is a very clear, racialized earning structure. The only way they can ensure this growth is if you can keep costs and domestic value low.

c. We now see enclaves in almost every sector, not just mining. See it hugely in financial sector: Foreign bank dominance has really impacted us. When you have foreign banks dominating it brings in foreign finance – it means that returns must be paid in foreign terms. It means that there’s a rent being extracted.

d. Debt market in Africa – seeing financial deepening developments. But the debt market is built on foreign finance. Distorting.

e. Government expenditure in Africa is the smallest of anywhere in the world. f. Global tax regime is anti-interventionist – our tax structure is completely paralysed. You

cannot tax incomes when they don’t exist. You can’t tax companies when they’re in a state of collapse. So you move to indirect tax – import taxes. But these also need to go down.

11. It’s possible to draw out a number of stylised facts about globalisation and ET in Africa a. Commodity dependency has been accentuated. So transformation dynamics are weaker

than expected. b. Joblessness is indicative of the type of structural transformation we’ve had. Joblessness

and real output remains a real impact. e.g. Tanzania has highest manufacturing growth in Africa. In China which has also seen massive manufacturing growth, the labour share has grown. In Tanzania labour share has declined.

c. Surpluses generated in our economy are externalised.

Roundtable plenary discussion

What role can our states play in challenging global power relations to drive economic transformation

- ADB, AUC, ECA – what role for these institutions

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- We make the assumption that the state is there to do good. But too often we see a captured stated.

1. When we as civil society discuss the role of the state we have to be a bit schizophrenic. We’re saying something about the people we’re fighting. But ultimately, you can’t throw away the state, you have to make it functional

2. As civil society we’ve contributed to an anti-state dialogue. We have to re-establish our role and the role of the state in state-society dialogue and accountability. Rather than chuck out the state our role is to challenge them to do better.

3. CS can’t be anti-state any longer, it must instead be the bridge between society and the state.

- Inter-country competition – race to the bottom- Development of AU2063 itself is foreign funded. - Monetary policy / banking system

1. Francophone Africa – the last bastion of colonialism2. MP is essential for generating money for investment. You can’t talk about financing without

thinking about monetary policy. - We have been going through industrialisation in whatever form, but economic transformation not

in the form we want. How do we reverse that?- There is no low-cost labour in Africa- Tanzania: seeing jobless growth when you look at the main activities. The people still in agriculture

there as a sponge, people are contributing informally to productivity. - Market protectionism – is the debate still relevant and something we should advocate for?

1. We have enough space even in our global agreements to inform the types of incentives necessary to stimulate domestic production. So it really depends on the vision that underpins our development policy

- Is it all hopeless given that globalisation forces and global markets are so strong? 1. The very fact that we’re in a state of global paralysis opens us a space to put forward strong

alternatives. We have opportunities now.- Commercial agriculture doesn’t need to be large farms, monocrops. But concentration is important

if you’re thinking about industrlisation, energy etc. - Climate change as a cross-cutting issue: the need for de-carbonisation within industrialisation. Do

we have the required capacities within states?- Patriotic national bourgeoisie used to be seen as having a key role

1. Patriotism can be fostered. It remains critical to foster the type of change we need. But we dropped the effort of trying to mould and develop this and community.

2. Leadership: this works when it’s driven by a mission for the collective. Where this goes depends on how far they go with listening, reading, learning etc. but we’ve dropped the collective. So policies are driven by ad hoc and increasingly rent seeking needs.

- How much is our work driven by this larger agenda and context: how do we move conversation to a broader constituency? Here is the challenge.

- The discourse that they’ve highlighted is an endangered species. Neo-liberalism is now so mainstreamed, even with our own governments. There are internal contradictions in AU. We have a role to play here as civil society in informing the ideological discussion.

Session 2: Agriculture and Africa’s economic transformation6

1. Input 1: Kato Lambrechts: The role of agriculture in economic transformation- We cannot ignore agriculture: food, employment, livelihoods, input to industry. It’s not often

mentioned enough in economic discussions. It is a part of our cultural identity in Africa, our link to the land.

- We are still very much agricultural based economy and we need to work with this to engineer economic transformation

- Agricultural productivity is key; but dominated by small holder farmers (SHFs). But SHF’s aren’t a homogenous group and we need to discuss, analyse and understand the differences within this group.

- This group faces two major systemic challenges: 1. Rain fed irrigation (in a region where drought is a common occurrence rain fed farmers are

in a poverty trapped), 2. Decreasing land size (which has major implications for productivity)

- There is also an adverse enabling environment for agriculture- Despite all of this it’s the backbone of societies. - Agricultural Transformation is necessary: the literature and economic history tells us that this is the

first pathway towards industrial transformation. 1. Agricultural productivity is key – growth in agriculture correlates with poverty reduction at

a much higher level than any other sector2. Key issues to consider within agricultural transformation

Surplus labour Linkages (consumption and production) Expenditure linkages infrastructure, innovation, tech

- Challenges for us to consider1. What about those still left behind? Governments often focus on ‘strategic crops’ and a

focus on export markets. Some governments are making links to industry but they’re in a minority. What are we doing to engineer linkages between primary and secondary production?

2. Local content is important but can be challenging in certain contexts3. Missing middle: the discussion tends to focuses on social protection or global value chains.

What about those who fall in the middle? We have a vibrant domestic SME sector (these players can’t access micro finance or major loans for example). Who’s supporting these? (Especially in terms of infrastructure, energy and finance?)

4. Global value chains are purported to be the answer in most donor and government development plans and yet these often lead to Islands of success rather than any spill overs into the broader economy.

- Positives1. Agriculture is high on the policy agenda again (CADAP)2. In a number of development plans there is a focus on agricultural infrastructure – small-

scale irrigation, rural feeder roads etc.

2. Input 2: Geoffrey Chongo: Agricultural transformation: tackling poverty, inequality and environmental degradation – reflections from Zambia

- The Zambian context:

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1. In Zambia you can’t talk about ET without talking about copper2. Zambia's one of the few countries in the region that is said to have a lot of potential: It was

born with a 'copper spoon'; the local currency was stronger than the pound at independence; It has huge, fertile agricultural land; it has a lot of water bodies: But the potential is yet to be realized.

3. Now we’re seeing both a decline in the manufacturing sector and the agriculture sector.4. There has been strong economic growth over the last 10 years – but it’s been FDI in the

mining sector. Agriculture has contributed a small amount (mainly through grain). So effectively we see an economy dependent on one or two primary commodities with few linkages to the broader economy.

5. Despite growth, poverty, unemployment and inequality remain high. Environmental degradation is also a serious challenge especially from the mining sector. Overall, despite the strong growth there’s been little impact on the lives of the people: and at times a negative impact.

- Agriculture in Zambia1. Agriculture hasn’t been fully exploited. It holds the best chances for us to develop and

diversify: we need to explore opportunities for diversification further2. Over 60% of the Zambian population are involved in agriculture yet it’s the most neglected

sector. We need to think about and plan for transformation here, and how we think about the role that value addition can have: especially for SME’s and other small, or at least domestic processors.

3. Government has promoted one crop – maize. This is often large-scale commercialised and mono-cropping agriculture. The other products that small-scale farmers grow such as cassava, millet, sorghum and beans are ignored

- We also need to consider how we balance the role of government and the private sector. While the private sector has demonstrated potential to enhance production in given sectors such as the mining sector, government must be strong enough to ensure that increased production benefits the people: i.e. a strong state is needed to successfully engineer inclusive economic transformation.

- Agricultural transformation and agro processing offers Zambia a more sustainable economic transformation path as the country has a greater comparative advantage in this area: large tracts of arable land, water, good weather patterns, cheap labour etc. A few companies have demonstrated that agro processing has potential for Zambia. In fact agro processing consists of the largest share of manufacturing sector in the country at the moment.

- Challenges1. Finances: Interests rates in Zambia are at 20% - how can business run with this there?2. Energy deficit 3. Poor infrastructure 4. Market access

3. Break-away groups

Scale: Does scale of agri-enterprise (including production, processing and services) matter? And if so what scale of agri-enterprise can catalyse inclusive agricultural transformation and why? (Mostly small-scale / combination / mostly large-scale?) What are the implications for civil society?

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1. A balanced approach is needed: There is a need to think about both small and large scale agriculture and the economic value of both. We then have to think about the issue of inclusivity and who benefits within both of these.

2. We have to ask the question, what is agriculture for when thinking about scalea. Food (70-83% from small scale agriculture)b. Work and jobs (most employment in SSA currently; and with the growth of every 1 job in

large scale, 9-11 jobs in SSA killed)c. Inputs to industry d. Consumer of industry’s products

Within all of these small-scale can and does play an important role for inclusive transformation3. The need to think systemically: we can’t just think about individual economic units of small vs large

scale farmers. We have to think about integration of marginalised actors into the system. 4. Productivity: The need to increase productivity is a given. But this isn’t an issue of small vs large

scale. It’s a structural issue. We can increase the productivity across the system but we need to tackle the structural challenges that make it (1) low productivity (2) not very inclusive.

Linkages: How does agricultural investment, including by farmers themselves, stimulate rural transformation through forwards and backwards linkages? Are there examples that can be replicated? What are the implications for civil society development interventions and advocacy? [please send any notes from this discussion to smontgomery@cafod.org.uk]

Markets: What role for domestic, local vs export markets in driving inclusive agriculture transformation? Can stimulating segments of global value chains drive overall inclusive economic transformation or will these remain islands of success? Where is this strategy most feasible? In those areas where it’s not feasible, what needs to happen? What are the implications for civil society development interventions and advocacy? [please send any notes from this discussion to smontgomery@cafod.org.uk]

Session 3: Economic Transformation and Environmental Sustainability

1. Input 1: James Murombedzi: Climate resilient economic transformation- 2015 was the year of major global agreements: The Paris climate agreement was another key

agreement of 2015- Climate change represents a crisis – it’s a crisis of industrialisation (emissions increased

dramatically after industrialising) - Globalisation also a major obstacle to the climate response.

1. The transition to green fuels requires state intervention – globalisation however tends to promote liberalisation and privatisation. Both of these things make tackling climate change really hard.

- Leapfrogging has been encouraged: to industrialise without investing heavily in fossil fuels.- Climate governance and implications for resilient economic transformation

1. COP 21 highlighted that every country has a priority to pay for emissions Each country is therefore putting together a plan to reduce their emissions. African countries have had to calculate how much carbon they will emit before reaching a certain level of development which is difficult.

- Issues for consideration

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1. Global warming: Global increase of 2 degrees means an increase of 4 degrees for Africa – this isn’t viable. This is the first challenge that is going to face us in Africa when we think of resilient structural transformation

2. Climate change another issue – constant change we in Africa have to face3. How to finance adaptation – could leave Africa with many challenges e.g. stranded assets &

huge debts because of the investments they’ve already made in fossil fuel industries4. Significant innovation is needed – and resources to support this (importance of

endogenous financing again.5. There are issues within the Paris Agreement which are themselves problematic: it

continues to rely on market mechanisms. If we rely on a governance regime that continues to rely on markets there won’t be any sustainable transformation in Africa

2. Input 2: Robert Muthami: Can renewable and decentralised energy fuel economic transformation?

- In thinking about economic transformation that is sustainable and environmentally viable we have to think about the role of energy. What levels of energy do we require as a continent to support ET. What are the projections?

1. Africa will need huge amounts of Energy to realize its economic agenda 2. It is projected that Sub-Saharan Africa will consume about 1,600 terawatt hours by 2040, 4

times what was consumed in 20103. Even these projections leave 43% without access to energy4. Overall power generation needs to increase at least 10-fold by 2040 if Africa’s energy

systems are to support the growth in agriculture, manufacturing and services needed to create jobs and raise living standards.

- Do we have the capacity, technology and resources?1. We have huge renewable energy capacity – enough to meet the demand.2. South Africa has fastest renewable energy procurement programme in the world. 3. Hydro-power will remain the major source of non-fossil fuels, but there’s also wind, solar

etc that we can tap into.- Importantly there is a need for a balanced mix. - Finance: there’s a major finance gap at the moment. We have to look at our own national budgets:

reducing wasteful subsidies, shifting away from oil products etc.- Key issues to consider and tackle in moving towards renewable energy

1. Africa largely has a low tech capacity2. Financing the move towards clean energy 3. Governance in the energy sector is key

3. Input 3: Mamadou Goita: Agricultural transformation and environmental sustainability- Ivory Coast: at independence, 14 million ha of forest. 50 years later, 3 million ha. due to two

crops mainly: coffee and cocoa- There are only a few countries that have an agricultural policy – this is insufficient for integrated

planning: You can’t talk about environmental sustainability unless you have a clear vision of where you’re going.

- Research in Africa is dominated by companies that don’t care about the environment – they want to make profit out of this system. We need to therefore prioritise independent research. Our own research into measures to scale up sustainable practices is one of the missing pieces of the puzzle.

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- 3 categories of risk that the family farming system is confronting1. Technical 2. Economic (market issues up and down stream, linkages between different sectors and

different elements of ag)3. Social and political (lack of vision).

- There are many things farmers are doing, but to scale them up is problematic. We therefore need:1. Public investment in the sector – especially for sovereignty of our research systems. Not

just funded by big companies. We also need to recognise the role that farmers themselves could play in research and as researchers.

2. Agro-ecological productions systems (organic is one mechanisms, but can also bring mixed interventions: as long as not destroying ground for future generations it falls within agro-ecological work (fertilisers that feed the soil not just the plant as traditional fertilisers tend to do use of fertilisers is a key destructive measure in mono-cropping.

3. Watershed management4. Human and social capital – investment trends: most subsidies are going to chemical

fertilisers – because we think productivity is linked to this. Need to rather think about the efficiency of yield and this is often related to building skills and awareness amongst farmers and processors.

4. Yonas – Seeds- AFSA: land, seed and agroecology three things closely related to food systems and biodiversity- Mainstreaming agroecology is a key to sustainable food system. Liberates farmers from external

inputs and external influence. Seed dependency is a major issue.

5. Discussion- Government needs to play a role in bringing the cost down around energy. This requires:

1. An enabling policy framework that enables access to energy2. Looking at ways to get energy to rural areas3. Taxation around energy technologies that can be used needs to be explored: e.g. in

Zambia’s 2016 budge, government gave tax concessions to those wanting to set up hydro-power projects, yet there was no taxation for those wanting to install solar. So we need a friendly tax regime to address the energy deficits.

4. Fiscal policies: we need to explore further how these incentives attract investment in renewable energy sectors. Specifically we need research here – what has worked? What is the best practice?

- The move from non-renewable to renewable energy can be seen as kicking away the ladder. What do we do? Is it feasible to realise our industrial transformation

1. In Morocco they’ve set up a solar system which is feeding industry. They have also started exporting energy to Europe.

2. In Mali we’re seeing social benefits from renewable energy possible to scale this up and have a mixed system, linking solar / wind / small dams.

3. A mixture of renewable energy sources key Hydro important for large-scale. In immediate future solar can’t drive industrialisation

4. A key challenge with solar is storage not generation. Policy innovation to tackle this challenge has been to promote mechanisms for distribution of this power – e.g. feed in tariffs where people who produce excess can feed this into the national system. Feeding in

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tariffs can however be very complex since this is coupled managing the interests of various producers including the independent power producers

5. At current levels solar can’t a full transformation since the cost associated with solar equipment’s required for a full energy support are still quite high

- With regards to renewable energy, CSO’s need to consider access to energy as a right: a social and economic right. Seen in this way it is something that we can and must push for. There is also an important task of collating evidence and using this for advocacy.

Sustainable agriculture

- Given that we already have the evidence about the importance of agro-ecological, why are our governments not investing in the research needed to scale this up? Can we do more to publicise and raise awareness about this evidence?

1. Agro-ecology – debates linked to issues of viability and scalability. There is the widespread perception that it’s not modern and that it’s for resource poor farmers. This is a major obstacle.

2. Biggest investment on agroecology is by farmers themselves3. In Mali, most of the system is agro-ecological4. Agro-ecology doesn’t only mean organic it’s about an approach to food production that

protects the environment for future generations.5. There are so many examples of modern commercial farming on agro-ecology throughout

Africa including in cash crops 6. Research in agro-ecology is needed but it’s not profitable for private companies and

governments to invest in this- In Zambia it’s been a battle to convince government we don’t need fertiliser. We need to start our

influencing from a policy perspective – government doesn’t have a policy to promote alternatives to fertilisers. Government also doesn’t want stranded assets, they’re saying we’ve already invested millions of dollars into this fertiliser plant – how can we move away? Fertilisers is also a very political issue (more than purely a technical issue) as it’s often a way for government to make money. We have to bear this context in mind when looking to influence towards alternative approaches.

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DAY TWO

Reflections on day 1

Still to be added

Session 4: Economic Transformation and Equity

Unpacking some key terms

- Horizontal inequality – measuring inequalities among social groups. Social groups could be defined by gender / space etc. but this is group based inequalities

- Vertical inequality – based on household largely – aggregation of income by households across a country. If you do a household income / expenditure survey you compare the largest earning household with the lowest household. This is what the Gini coefficient measures. It’s like stacking everyone up.

- Functional inequality: how wealth is owned and that the output of wealth is shared. Its about sharing of ownership and output between labour and capital. Functional are the various contributors to production (land, rent). Typical distribution between wages, profit and rent

- Access to opportunities: related to revenue issues. The abilities of different groups to access opportunities.

1. Input 1: Zenebework Tadesse Marcos: Gender and equity in Africa’s transformation- Gender equality rather than equity is more important - Economic transformation has very serious gender implications: without a very strong and

committed state focussed on this agenda there won’t be a gender equality agenda- Gender isn’t just one more inequality within a long list. Gender is affected by all other inequalities

and is intimately linked to all of them a long shopping list of inequalities with gender thrown in misses the intersectionality that is at play. Take the example of a rural woman, from an ethnic minority from an isolated part of the country – she will experience both vertical and horizontal inequalities.

- Gender and poverty can’t be conflated. It’s often expressed / represented that if poverty is addressed gender will be too. While it is true that women are disproportionally affected by poverty the two issues are not synonymous. Poverty isn’t the only gender issue that needs to be addressed.

- Agenda 2063 and SDG’s1. Both frameworks maintain rather than challenge the neoliberal agenda and so this limits

the transformative aspirations that are embedded in some parts of the two agendas.2. Neither talk about the way the global economic framework limits the type of economic

transformation that is needed3. Agenda 2063 talks about Africa being in charge of its own development – but a critique of

globalisation and the limits this has on our own policy space is not addressed at all4. On the positive side however, it is the first time that an Africa-wide framework

acknowledges the importance of gender

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- What lessons can we learn from the structural adjustment period with regards to gender?1. This period really put a spotlight on the type of work women do. An avalanche of literature

came out during this time challenging ‘housework’ and understanding the central role of care work to African economies and for future economic transformation. Some important considerations that have emerged around care-work include:

Human capital and ‘skills’ can’t be limited to formal education. Care work that’s disproportionally carried out by women plays an important role in skills development.

Despite all the knowledge generated there has been no investment at all in terms of making this care work feasible

Not enough attention has been given to the type of institutions needed to tackle gender discrimination – and to understanding the type of discriminations within institutions

Africa has played a huge price by this neglect and by not embedding these issued in their strategies.

- Had we learnt from the challenges imposed by the structural adjustment period perhaps we could have been ready for the challenges (like Ebola) that have come upon us now.

- Too often our approaches have been too narrow: The thinking that enrolment in elementary school and that micro credit for women is enough it hasn’t addressed these real issues.

- The new structural transformation that we aspire to has to make sure horizontal and vertical inequality challenges are taken account of in their development strategies and planning.

- Women are located in the intersection between production and reproduction- The Pan-African Agricultural development that is being pushed by many of our governments

1. Despite avalanche of literature about the role that women play in subsistence agriculture, there is not enough focus on this in any of the pan-African strategies. Just saying “their energy to be unleashed” isn’t enough

2. Need a critical analysis of who the farmers in Africa are.3. If women are included in value chains, it will still be in very low-paid, low-return roles –

jumping on value chains won’t address these issues. 4. The evolving development agenda needs to tackle the unpaid burden of work that is placed

on women especially in agriculture and the potential to grow agriculture5. Women not having land / other resources to boost production environmental

degradation have boosted their inequality further.- We need to look back at what the previous frameworks missed.- Tokenism of women has been one of the most dangerous challenges to tackling real inequality.- Women have mostly not benefited from manufacturing employment. Most women are in the

informal sector – extra types of inequalities and challenges this creates.- Analysis is needed: what are the requisite skills and what measures should Africa take to make sure

that a whole sector of society is not left to informal, precarious work?- There is therefore a critical role that the state must play – but itself must be a transformed state- In terms of political dimensions of inequality: we must give voice to women, men and children

needs and priorities. The need to enrich what we mean by voice and participation is key here this has been diluted.

2. Input 2: Sylvester Bagooro: Economic transformation and income inequality- Distribution of income can be measured among households or individuals.

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- Income inequality globally: GDP has more than doubled over last 10 years – but the gap between rich and poor is only widening. Increased 11% in developing countries between 1990 & 2010

- Income inequality in Africa: Africa is the second most inequitable region in the world and the growth in Africa hasn’t addressed the equality we need at all.

- Income inequality in Africa is driven by a number of structural factors1. Weak, undiversified economies that are primary commodity dependent:

this makes us vulnerable to inequality: the owners of capital get more and more whereas wages are constantly depressed

the total number of incomes in primary commodity sectors is also decreasing Rise of the TNC’s – promotes inequality. There are 65,000 of these across Africa–

most are in the commodity sector2. Dualism in most African economies

Parallel to the undiversified primary commodity sector is the growing informal sector.

Trade and investment regime impacts on the informal economy- The route out is industrialisation, changing the structure of Africa economies - Agenda 2030

1. Currently the agenda doesn’t recognise the value and importance of domestic demand and domestic markets as a key route to structural transformation

2. You need a framework that integrates livelihoods, incomes and employment – this would change the nature of the intervention and ensure that wages aren’t depressed

3. If that is done then a tax regime could be rebuilt because the connection between incomes, saving and investment would be re-established. This in turn would help us to deal with income inequality.

- Agenda 20631. Does consider local content and financial intermediation which is good

- Inequality is with us, we can deal with it only if we deal with the structure of our economies and deal with this in an integrated way. This will free a lot more resources that can be invested in other sectors such as education, health etc in an integrated approach.

3. Input 3 – Charles Abugre – Economic transformation and spatial inequality- Spatial inequality is a dimension of horizontal inequality. It’s about inequality in relation to where

people are located spatially – rural-urban; specific geographic spaces and the national average; continental / global. There’s been a lot of work on global inequality on the concentration of wealth in different spaces of the globe

- It’s difficult to define spatial inequality without understanding vertical dimensions of inequality which looks at how wealth is generated and shared: Vertical inequality is a major driver of spatial inequality

- All inequality driven by 3 major factors:1. The stage of capitalism that an area or a country experiences matters a lot in terms of

spatial inequalities. Early capitalism – feudal: inequality driven by the ownership of land. We see the

effects of this even now: Those who own land own wealth. And the output from this is owned by the landowner and the owner of capital: if the two converge then inequality is deepened.

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Understanding inequality in our countries: some of the poorest areas in our region have much high inequality in terms of land ownership. Land ownership is correlated with the number of wives, children and labour.

2. The ownership of assets: this drives the global distribution of incomes. Defines the inequalities we experience

Between rural and urban, output is shared between owners of capital and labour. In the context of surplus labour – this has a direct impact on the bargaining power of wage and labour. Wages are driven down because of continuous impact of surplus labour. One way to deal with this is to deploy surplus labour as surplus savings.

This same factor reflects global inequalities between rich and poor countries – also driven by ownership of assets and global weakening of bargaining power of labour.

We have information about impacts between men and women but not enough about asset ownership between men and women – and the variety of assets (land, machinery, stocks and bonds, bank account) – this ownership of assets defines the level of inequality and distribution of incomes from output

We have to focus our attention on assets as well as incomes. Assets can be created – not just inherited. And where inherited it can be redistributed.

So assets are important to understand spatial inequality and vertical inequality.3. our place in the international division of labour and the commodification of our economies

- When we’ve discussed spatial inequality in the past it has been in terms of a poverty reduction lens. But this isn’t enough. It doesn’t address the drivers of this spatial inequality and it can ethnicise the arguments – or overlook these. This second issue can have an explosive impact on peace, security and nation building. Spatial inequality must be recognised as a national issue rather than an ethnic issue.

- If areas have been historically discriminated against – you need to think of a mode of production that’s not just about commodification for the global economy. Every space has to be engineered with news assets. Have to be aware of gendered impacts – who owns, who has access, who is involved in aggregation of marketing units. Every space can be engineered

- If you’re thinking proactively about multiple interventions – then you’re conscientiously tackling these spatial and asset ownership issues

- We need to think critically about skills. Skills creates ideas and provides flexibilities – this can generate wealth by itself. The nature and skills and skills building

4. Input 4: Walter Chambati: economic transformation and inequality of access to land - Africa’s land problems (contributing to inequitable distribution of land)

1. Settler colonial land expropriation and consequent racial inequalities has been a hallmark of much of Africa’s agrarian history and continues to impact us today.

2. This has been exacerbated by post independent land expropriations by the state which has led to reallocation of land (and a concentration of land ownership) to local elites has further marginalised minority groups (e.g. San groups in Botswana, Herero in Namibia and Massai in Tanzania and Kenya and particularly the dispossession of women)

3. Foreign land ownership and concessions4. Outward & export focused land use policies / agriculture – development policies including

macro-economic incentives and public allocations has allowed accumulation by small elites rather than national development (e.g. in Zimbabwe 65% of the credit goes to export-

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orientated agriculture). This is accompanied by limited support for domestic market goods produced by peasants

5. Discriminatory customary tenure systems and land markets: At independence most African countries inherited dual, unequal and hierarchical system of land tenure in which freehold and leasehold land rights were treated as superior forms of land rights over customary land rights. In the current context, tenure inequalities are reinforced by expropriation of land for commercial and social development by central state institutions in the name of national interests

6. Gender inequalities in land access and tenure insecurity: Women’s access to and control of land is inadequate and constrained by various customary and generally patriarchal social relations

- Recent land grabs and subordination of the peasantry1. Foreign land grabs mainly target 20 African countries 87.3% is concentrated in 11

countries 2. Contours of Recent Land Grabs: Recent land grabs occur mainly in non-settler countries (i.e.

where there has been no significant prior land alienation and/or land privatisation) with high-potential land (limited agro-ecological potential such as lower rainfall has restrained land grabs in Namibia, S. Africa, Botswana, N. Africa, etc.). Over 80% of the overall land grabs in Africa happens around customarily owned lands and are facilitated by the state;

- Agrarian Reform is essential to tackle these issues of land inequality. The immediate purpose of agrarian reform is to “… create the conditions for a rise in [agricultural] productivity, such that [the] raw materials and wage–goods needs of a growing manufacturing sector can be met, while labour is released” (Utsa Patnaik, 2003). Agrarian reforms include the re-orientation of agricultural production to satisfy the home market (food and industries) and forex earnings, within a national development strategy. The goal of this needs to be to address the prevailing food insecurity, high unemployment levels and absolute poverty.

5. Plenary Discussion- Communist manifesto “you accuse us of wanting to abolish ownership, but you’ve already done

this, private ownership is already abolished for the 90%, it just exists for the 10%” - High levels of landless youth, migration etc. how does this fit into this whole thing? How do we

protect these young people who have nothing: The problem isn’t the migrants. The problem is the need for a more equal distribution of wealth between owners and labour. This will help them to stand in solidarity.

- The question of labour is central Africa as a source of cheap labour is very important. China’s growth came from release of cheap labour. Exploitation – the way accumulation of profit takes place is through exploitation. If we understand this we can understand how different identities can find areas of commonality and a unified agenda.

- What is the key thing that needs to be done to link inequality with ET 1. Spatial: We have to address asset creation and distribution – and we have to create

multiple sites of productivity. Each unit acting as a demand for another. For this we have to organise – this solves the both the power and distribution question

2. Gender: first understand what the constraints that different sectors of society face and then consider the type of ET strategy that would sufficiently tackle these issues. Gender can’t just be seen as a social issue. It has to be seen as an economic issue too.

3. Land:

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6. Breakaway group discussions

Group 1: What is happening in current economic transformation processes across Africa? Who are benefiting, who are being left behind? Which regions are growing faster? What is happening to the incomes and land assets of women? Is there transformations in the ‘informal’ economy? How are agricultural transformations affecting access to land? What are the implications for civil society development interventions and advocacy?

- Who’s benefitting who’s being left our1. All marginalised actors: youth, rural, disabled, ethnic minorities and those operating in the

informal economy. However, it’s not sufficient to just name groups, we have to understand the some of the particular dynamics of who is being left behind in terms of culture and history (history still informs the status quo today)

It’s therefore not enough to just say ‘women’ are being left behind, we need to particularly understand that it’s about their unpaid care work and this contribution to the economy not being recognised or rewarded.

2. This exact question is something key for governments to ask and analyse when thinking about any economic transformation intervention / strategy.

- The informal economy: this was a key area of discussion within the group with definitions being unclear amongst colleagues. Key questions raised where

1. what are we focussing on? 2. what will it take to ensure they’re incorporated?3. What’s the role of the state – particularly in providing incentives and support 4. Voice – how do we create a platform so that people in the informal sector can air their

views collectively? What are the implications for civil society?

5. Pushing governments on data on the informal economy6. Recognising the informal economy and the needs there – giving space and platform

Group 2: How can African countries avoid an increase in spatial, gender, income and land inequality during the process of economic transformation? What is the role of social policy? Can women’s empowerment strategies work without accompanying deep change in social and cultural norms? What can we learn from the Asian or LA NICs? What are the implications for civil society development interventions and advocacy?

- What type of social policy is needed1. We need to understand the historical route of the course of inequality. 2. Commercialisation of social services is problematic3. Power relations within inequality need to be understood4. Disconnections between social and economic need to be understood.

- Some country examples must get- State needs to look at social and economic policy holistically: universal access to education this

sort of policy having social and economic dimensions. - We need research to understand what has been done in different country

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Session 6: Wrap up

1. Input: Godfrey Kanyenze: Personal reflections and summing up lessons learnt so far: Economic Transformation in the prevailing African context with a particular focus on the role of the developmental state

Stylised facts

- Structural transformation: goes beyond growth to look at structural change and reallocation of resources.

- Africa has experienced some structural transformation. We’ve seen a shift out of agriculture but it hasn’t been into industry, rather speculative finance and construction. We need to be wary of this.

- The need for the developmental state is important to engineer and ensure better poverty impacts. Transformation cannot be left to markets – if you do this it will lead to further inequality. We need a state with a tenacity to stay the course; political and technical capacity.

- The process of industrialisation has to be done very cautiously - Traditional mechanisms of financing don’t result in equitable and inclusive growth- Underutilised resources as a basis for finances and related issues of domestic resource mobilisation- Need to focus on the longer term development aspects rather than the shorter term quick wins- The importance of an integrated approach. - We need to industrialise on the basis of where we are.

Developmental states

- Coined to describe the eastern states and their successful economic transformation – able to achieve high growth rates which were associated with transformation of their society.

- Leadership and coordination of highly organised states. - What can we learn

1. Export led economic transformation 2. Investment in education3. High savings rate

- The states in SE Asia were embedded in elites – and cheap wage labour and suppression of voice and labour (trade unions etc)

- Democratic developmental states are what’s needed – this wasn’t the case in SEA1. Much of the SEA experience it was cold-war context – authoritarianism was accepted2. Issues of democracy and rights are now key – they’re seen as universal and interconnected. 3. Democratic factor – how decisions are made and resources distributed are key.

2. Plenary Discussion- Embeddedness

1. When our starting point is the fragmentation of African society how do we do embeddedness? The wealthy have the ability to capture the state.

2. Finding a process of aggregating interests is the key – how do we aggregate interest in a fragmented society

3. How do we mobalise interests groups to articulate themselves – we don’t have the right to represent anyone

- We have claims on the state, but we also have an agenda that’s independent of the state and so we don’t always have to target the state. We have to create our own independent movements and

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agendas. We can’t over-fetishize the state. We say we want strong states, but we also want to weaken aspects of the state’s control

- Easier to reframe the state than reframe CSO’s1. Fragmentation amongst CSO’s

Religious CSO’s t Para-military CSO Political CSO Financial CSO’s – linked to private sector foundations who are key in financing

development and very2. The reason for being for civil society is to challenge the state – for its omissions and

commissions.- We have a certain ambivalence about agriculture and industrial agriculture & agriculture to scale is

an issue we need to discuss and unpack further. You can create commercial agriculture from small scale agriculture. You can create commercial agriculture without industrialisation. Each thing creates both good and bad outcomes.

3. Closing thoughts: Alvin Mosua & Gyekye Tanoh

To be added

Mapping the way forward

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top emerging areas of concern/priorities

new areas of work and collaboration

gaps in knowledge and analysis

Who else is working on this agenda nationally and regionally

lead on developing the agenda

- Agrarian Transformation-land access, use, in equality-Linkages in productivity: Cross cutting issues – Gender (Who is left behind), Climate Change

- Domestic resource mobilistaion

- Energy transformation

- Social Policy as against social protection

- Industrialization of agriculture

- Redressing the imbalance of commodity regime against producer countries as a way of transformation from commodity dependence

- There is a shift towards structural economic transformation. CSO’s are not on that train

- This new concept has inherent limitations that CSO’s need to interrogate and problematize

- The operationalization of the agenda to ensure but not limited to the following: equity, sustainability, the role of state, financing, productivity, etc

- Bringing together CSO’s on this theme

- Research – connecting with academics and influencing the research agenda around this theme.

- Connecting with social movements

- Demand side (macroeconomic) policy alternatives

- Holistic integrated approach to socio-economic transformation

- Transforming finance for development (endogenous and domestic financing)

- We need to frame our areas of work within the context of the transformation discourse.

- Populate the concept within existing collaborative vehicles / platforms

- Research and data

- How to share knowledge, information and technical evidence with grassroots

- Understanding states of transformation in different parts of the continent

- Climate resilient economic transformation

- The role of the State and how to engage with the state

- Engagement within and among CSOs

-Climate change, Trade networks

-trade networks,

-tax networks,

-farmers networks

- African technology policy Studies

-RECS (SADC, ECOWAS, COMESA, EAC, IGAD)

-AU

-Multilateral institutions

-CNC – Coalition of non-state actors working on CADAP (African and INGOs)

-Gender commissions and networks

-Researchers

-Socio-economic interest groups-trade unions, women’s groups etc

-AfDB

-UNECA

Use competencies to complement each other (CSOs)

Use our own constituencies to create a broader framework

Keep engaged with the pan African institutions like UNECA onwards to the AU to facilitate a more dialogue like engagement

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