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African Economic Outlook Presentation: The Honorable Charles B. Rangel and the Honorable Donald Payne co-chair this presentation by Louka Katseli, Director of the OECD Development Centre. Discussant is Franck Wiebe, Millennium Challenge Corporation.

Event Description:

The Director of the OECD Development Centre, Louka T. Katseli, will present the findings of the recently released African Economic Outlook, a joint project of the OECD and the African Development Bank. In addition to providing comprehensive comparative data on the economic, political and social evolution of 31 African economies from 2006 to 2008, this year’s report provides an in-depth analysis of water and sanitation infrastructure provision – a critical subject for Africa’s development prospects. It identifies serious reforms in institutions, legal frameworks and policies that are needed in order to ensure the sustainability of expanding access to drinking water and sanitation while preserving the environment.

Key findings of the report include:

• Half the Population of Sub-Saharan Africa is without easy ACCESS TO DRINKING WATER and two-thirds lack proper sanitation facilities
• ECONOMIC GROWTH in Africa was above 4% for the fourth consecutive year. Oil and mineral exporting countries, however, are outpacing others by a substantial margin.
• Since DEBT RELIEF is now complete in many African countries, aid of this type is likely to fall sharply after 2007. This loss will need to be compensated by a rapid rise in other forms of aid.
• ONLY SEVEN African countries are likely to ensure by 2015 that all children complete primary school.
• Progress towards PARTICIPATIVE DEMOCRACY is encouraging. Presidential elections held in 10 countries during 2006 saw a turn-out rate of over 67%. Moreover, seven countries organized multiparty legislative elections.

With regard to US POLICY INITIATIVES IN AFRICA, the report examines how sustainable development will depend in part on the quality of donor support, including initiatives from OECD countries, such as the US African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which reduced entry barriers for $44.2 billion of the $59 billion total African imports to the United States. The Millennium Challenge Corporation, too, could help in rewarding good government through its FY2006 $3 billion in funding for compacts with qualifying countries. Dr. Franck S. Wiebe, Managing Director for Economic Analysis for the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), will provide the MCC perspective on these issues.

Biographies:

Congressman Charles B. Rangel, Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, is serving his 19th term as the Representative from the 15th Congressional District, comprising East and Central Harlem, the Upper West Side, and Washington Heights/Inwood. Congressman Rangel is also Chairman of the Board of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Dean of the New York State Congressional Delegation, and a founding member and former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. A graduate of New York University and St. John's University School of Law, he has spent his entire career in public service, first as an Assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, and later in the New York State Assembly.

Congressman Donald M. Payne has represented New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District since 1988. He is a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, where he serves as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health and as a member of the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere and the Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight. A graduate of Seton Hall University, he pursued graduate studies at Springfield College in Massachusetts. He holds honorary doctorates from Chicago State University, Drew University, Essex County College and William Paterson University.

Louka T. Katseli, Director of the OECD Development Centre and Professor of Economics at the University of Athens, received her Doctorate in Development and International Economics from Princeton University in 1978, has spent most of her academic career at Yale University (1977 -1985), and the University of Athens (1988 – present), where she was chair of the Economics Department from 1997 to 2001. She was a member of the United Nations Committee for Development Policy, where she has served as Rapporteur and Vice-Chair, and served as Greece’s representative to the international conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey in 2002.

Dr. Franck S. Wiebe is Managing Director for Economic Analysis for the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). Prior to joining MCC, Dr. Wiebe was Chief Economist and Director of Economic Reform and Development programs at The Asia Foundation. Dr. Wiebe also worked for the Harvard Institute for International Development, where he served as project associate on the Customs and Economic Management Project in Jakarta, Indonesia.