The University of Ghana, over the weekend, hosted a “Shared Prosperity Forum” organized by the World Bank Group. The Forum aimed at ending extreme poverty in Africa by 2030 and to effectively promote income growth among people in every country of the world.
The open forum, moderated by Lerato Mbele of the BBC Africa Business Report, was addressed by panelists drawn from different parts of the world including the President of the World Bank Group, Dr. Jim Yong Kim. The other panelists were the President of the African Development Bank Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, the Minister of Education, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, and a private entrepreneur and a philanthropist, Mr. Tony Elumelu.
The panelists emphasized strong leadership and good governance practices as the means by which African leaders can end poverty on the continent. They also mentioned the provision of financial and logistical resources for women, quality education as well as the provision of employable skills and jobs for young people as other ways to stem poverty.
Prof. Opoku-Agyemang expatiated on the role of women saying empowering women would translate into excellent training for children and the household. She grounded her argument on the popular saying by Kwegyiri Aggrey that “If you educate a woman, you educate a whole nation”. Touching on education, she identified the medium of instruction in school, especially at the basic level, a the major challenge in delivering quality education, stressing that the medium needed to be changed to one that the child understood “Because we are teaching our children in a language they can’t even follow, we are drawing them back,” she said and added, “I believe every subject can be taught in a language the child understands.”
In his submission, Dr. Adesina challenged African universities to introduce courses that met the requirements of the labour market by training graduates who would not only go out looking for jobs, but were themselves job creators. His take on good governance was directed at Africans, who he urged to hold their leaders accountable for their stewardship, saying it was only by so doing that corruption would be reduced to translate into poverty reduction “because the poverty we see today is absolutely unacceptable.”
Dr. Adesina further encouraged the youth to consider agriculture as big business and not see it as that dirty job reserved for illiterates and the aged, citing farmers in USA and other parts of the world as the richest. He also said the future of Africa rested on agriculture and charged Africans to move into agro-industrialization by exporting finished products to depart from the current situation where products were exported in their raw state.
With regard to the Ebola pandemic, Dr. Kim said the World Bank, in collaboration with the African Development Bank, was the first to provide $100 million, upon learning of the pandemic. He paid tribute to the African medical professionals who through their dedication to fighting the pandemic to save the lives of infected persons, lost their own lives. He lamented that the world failed to respond promptly to the outbreak, noting that the only time America became deeply concerned was when 10 of its citizens got infected.
Adding his voice to the empowerment of women and children, Dr. Kim emphasized the need for Africa to pay attention to the plight of women and children as a strategy to end poverty on the continent.
The Prime Minister of DR Congo, Mr. Augustin Matata Ponyo Mapon, said ending poverty was achievable and possible in Africa but that it required good governance, discipline and courage on the part of the leaders to implement certain decisions.
The forum attracted the presence of officials of the University including the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Ernest Aryeetey, the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (ORID), Prof. John Gyapong and the Director of Public Affairs, Mrs. Stella Amoa. Also in attendance were students, media representatives and members of the general public.
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