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African Union marks 50 years
South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Botswana, Senegal, Tanzania, Mozambique, Rwanda and Uganda are emerging economic powers, while citizens in countries like Somalia, Sudan, D.R. Congo and Chad still suffer from warfare and poverty.
Africa now hosts nine of the world’s 15 fastest growing economies, Rwanda President Paul Kagame wrote last weekend in The Wall Street Journal, and the AU head says the continent’s future is brighter than its past.
“If you look at the last 10 years, Africa has been growing economically,” said AU chair Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. “There has been quite a lot of development even in terms of infrastructure, not enough yet, but countries have been working hard.”
The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa says Africa’s medium-term growth prospects remain strong, at 4.8 percent in 2013 and a projected 5.1 percent in 2014.
Many African economies still depend heavily on commodity production and exports, with too little value addition and few forward and backward linkages to other sectors of the economy. The African Union is working to resolve this. Improvements are being seen in education, child and maternal mortality rates, and gender equality. As Africans leaders meet later this week, the 50-year strategic plan is expected to be high on the agenda.
Dlamini-Zuma said the decades-long quest for Africa’s political and economic integration are to be answered by the blueprint. Energizing and galvanizing the people of the continent toward an African Renaissance is the aim of the week’s celebrations, Dlamini-Zuma said over the weekend.
