Foresight Africa 2015: Making Sense of Global Development Efforts in Africa

As the Millennium Development Goal process moves toward completion in 2015, many countries in Africa must face the harsh reality that they did not achieve much of what they set out to do. In fact, African countries underperformed in striving towards many of the MDGs and particularly lagged behind the rest of the world in the key areas of poverty, job creation and food security. Despite this lackluster performance, there is much to be optimistic about as African countries prepare for the post-2015 development agenda.

According to a Foresight Africa brief by Brookings Global Economy and Development Deputy Director and Senior Fellow Homi Kharas and research assistant Julie Biau, the three prongs of the post-2015 agenda—job creation; peace and security; infrastructure and governance—are particularly well-suited to the specific challenges in the region and will be critical to development success in Africa going forward.

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In their brief, the authors review the African Union’s Common African Position (CAP) on the Post-2015 Development Agenda and see important synergies with the global development dialogue in 2015. They argue that, in many ways, the focus should now shift to implementation and identifying financing mechanisms for renewed development efforts, with an emphasis on the upcoming Third International Conference on Financing for Development to be held in Addis Ababa in summer 2015.

Kharas and Biau write:

“This year provides a window of opportunity for African governments that have already signaled a willingness to take on and own politically sensitive issues in the context of the CAP to now develop  a strong regional vision for monitoring and accountability, with clear plans for financing and implementation strategies at the country-level.”  

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Read

Foresight Africa 2015


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which details the top priorities for Africa in the coming year, to learn more about global development processes in Africa as well as other critical issues for the region.