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More often that not, into stories on Africa and African countries iswoven the word “impoverished”. Evidence to support this characterisationabound: Worsening social indicators; conflicts; bottomranking in all leagues of human development. But things are changing.Strong growth has resumed and many of our countries havegrown at more than 5% per annum consistently over six years now.This impressive performance, as reported in ECA’s 2006 EconomicReport on Africa is not only due to strong commodity prices, but alsodue to much more prudent and knowledge-driven macroeconomicpolicies..Notwithstanding these developments and initiatives, it is clear thatdespite impressive country-level performances and overall improvementsin macro-economic performance, poverty remains high. Itis difficult for me as a development practitioner to understand whythis is so since Demery and his co-authors some time ago showedthat growth was associated with poverty reduction in Sub-SaharanAfrica. What the current evidence does suggest is that presently,rates of growth in Africa are performing rather poorly with respectto meeting the MDG targets. Inequalities in access to social servicesand jobs as well as the poor employment growth remain a problem.The growth process remains too narrow and is generally said to bewithout jobs.Without doubt the studies whose main findings you have come hereto disseminate will confirm the current evidence and also proposesome policy options.But I also hope that your conference will also address the much morecritical question: What should Africa do to secure the positive gainsof the recent past? A very commonplace answer to this is:“More emphasis needs to be placed on improving the productivebase of African countries and in parallel expanding market access. Inthis respect, both African leaders and development partners have ashared responsibility. African leaders must continue to be supportiveof the private sector through the pursuit of prudent policies thatnurture domestic price stability, minimize the cost of doing business,promote export competitiveness and facilitate market access.”276 Part Five