G20-Germany-Hamburg-2017

Strengthening the G20 system
www.paulmartin.ca
Paul Martin
Former Prime Minister of Canada
particularly Canada’s welcome focus on
“gender equality and the empowerment
of women and girls as the most effective
way to challenge poverty and inequality”.
This priority works to ensure women
and girls the world over are empowered
to reach their full potential. This is as
much an economic issue as it is a social
responsibility. In order to keep up with the
constant waves of technological advance,
generation after generation will require
new skills invented for worlds we can
barely imagine. Young people – girls and
boys – must be developers of technology
rather than simply consumers.
Fourth, the G20 must support new
initiatives such as Germany’s Compact
with Africa, incorporating at the same
time several of the recommendations
in Germany’s proposal to the European
Union for an African Marshall Plan.
When it comes to Africa, the first thing to
recognise is that ‘donor money won’t do
the job, investment will’ – investment in
energy, schools, hospitals and the sinews
of trade, ie infrastructure. Fifteen years
ago it was recognised across the continent
that Africa must build a common market
based on regional trade agreements already
in place. Since then, little has happened:
in some places, the will is not there but
primarily the cross-border infrastructure
that supports intercontinental trade
everywhere else simply does not exist in
Africa. Infrastructure is now being pushed
by world governments mostly in terms
of economic stimulus. The reality is that
without physical infrastructure there will be
no economy to stimulate.
ILLUSTRATION: STUDIO NIPPOLDT
African jobs
The jobs that Africa’s ballooning
population will require if the poverty
in its growing cities is to be overcome
must be found. According to the
African Development Bank, across
the continent “10 to 12 million youth
enter the workforce each year, [but]
only 3.1 million jobs are created”.
This has obvious and far-reaching
implications not only for Africa
but for those countries that seek to
deal fairly with mass migration and
refugees – this will be even more
the case in 2050 when the continent
contains a fourth of the world’s
population. G20
G7G20.com July 2017 • G20 Germany: The Hamburg Summit 159