By Winifred Bulus
The Deputy Executive Secretary United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Giovanie Biha, has called on African governments to make deliberate efforts to create links between urban and industrial development in the context of their national development plans.
The call was made at the Economic Commission for Africa’s flagship, “The Economic Report on Africa 2017”, which was launched in Ethiopia, Addis Ababa with Deputy Executive Secretary, Ms. Biha, who presided over the meeting.
In her remark, the secretary stated that reconnecting urban and industrial development in Africa through deliberate policies, strategies and investments was a priority for the sustainability of both cities and industries.
“As countries are developing overarching frameworks within which strategic targets for structural transformation are defined, national development plans offer an ideal context within which urbanization and industrialization targets could be linked.
“In this way, urban and industrial strategies could be explicitly linked to broader national goals such as poverty reduction and improved well-being in both urban and rural areas,” she said.
Ms. Biha said available evidence suggests that urban and industrial development in Africa were disconnected, resulting in lost opportunities for job creation and improved well-being.
“It is therefore not surprising that Africa’s cities are crippled by severe infrastructure and service gaps and are unable to generate employment at the level and scale required to meet increasing demands, especially for the youth,” she added.
