THE African continent has continued experiencing sluggish economic growth despite having huge resources  compared to European counties.
Africa’s growth continued to increase from 3.7 per cent in 2013 to 3.9 per cent in 2014, a performance that is underpinned by improved macro-economic management, diversified trade and investment ties with emerging economies, among other factors.
Africa’s social development indicators, however, reveal the often observed economic performance which includes high unemployment and poverty co-existing with robust growth.
This inconsistency which has not spared the Zambian economy has dominated most African leaders, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other organisations as they aspire to ensure that African resources work and benefit the continent.
The current concern of the continent in the past few years about growth and development formed the major discussion topics at the 9th annual joint African Union and Economic Commission for Africa (AU-ECA) Conference which was held in Addis Ababa- Ethiopia recently.
The conference took place in the framework of the African Development week, which comprised an experts segment, 23 side events and a two-day ministerial session.
More than 1,000 delegates attended the conference, which drew African leaders, experts, policy makers, development partners and activists from across the continent.
During the nine days leaders from the 54 member states including Zambia and senior officials from United Nations (UN) deliberated on what needs to be done to drive Africa’s transformation and appealed for coherent and harmonious implementation of Agenda 2063 and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
UN under-secretary general Carlos Lopes says this progress needs to be accompanied by structural transformation for Africa to become sustainable and inclusive.
Mr Lopes says this remains the only option to lift the people of Africa out of poverty. “To be sustainable and inclusive, this progress must now be accompanied by structural transformation, which remains the only option to lift the people of Africa out of poverty,” he says.
Africa must industrialise to fully benefit from its rich natural resources and to reap the benefits of the demographic dividend.
African countries including Zambia should look into “structurally transforming, focusing on the potential offered by industrialisation.
Mr Lopes suggests that Africa should consider expanding commodity value chains and attract low-value manufacturing from Asia.
He, however remarked that “transformation will not happen spontaneously but rather come as a result of deliberate and coherent policies that are entrenched into a coherent development strategy, enlightened by a transformational leadership.
According to a report dubbed  ‘Economic Report on Africa’, industrialisation promises to address this paradox by promoting economic diversification, inclusive growth, efficient utilisation of abundant physical, mineral and human resources and in the process  eliminate poverty and hence,  structurally transform African economies.
The Africa’s ministers of finance and economies and other stakeholders deliberating at the joint Annual Meetings of the African Union Specialised Technical Committee on Finance, Monetary Affairs, Economic Planning and Integration tagged the African Development Week, had extensive discussions on the continent’s economy and regional integration.
Not surprisingly, the quest to harness the resources of the continent for the purpose of achieving positive socio-economic transformation within the next 50 years became primary focus of the conference whose theme was, ‘Towards an Integrated and Coherent Approach to the Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation of Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)’.
The Conference resolved that if Africa will achieve the goals set in the Agenda 2063 and the SDGs, issues o  resourcing must also be of priority.
It is for this reason that the issue of how Africa will finance Agenda 2063 and the SDGs became a recurring one during most of the sessions.
Agenda 2063 is a 50-year vision and an action plan developed by the African Union to guide the continent towards the realisation of a pan-African vision of unity.
Realisation of these goals, as expressed by most stakeholders at the conference, are however dependent on Africa generating its own resources to back up the plans.
In the opinion of the African Union commissioner, Anthony Mothae -Maruping, Africa has to implement the goals of Agendas 2030 and 2063 through national development plans.
For Africa to finance its own developmental needs, however, strategies must also be developed to plug all the loopholes through which it is losing critical resources, mostly caused by Illicit Financial Flows  (IFFs).
As revealed in the report of the AU High-level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa, the continent’s loss to illicit transfer of fund annually is between US$50 billion and US$148 billion a year (ECA, 2013).
Losing US$50 billion annually for the continent means that funds that would have gone to funding public goods and services such as public schools, hospitals and clinics, roads, power and water are taken away and thus poverty and inequality continue to thrive in Africa.
Of the three mode of illicit financial flow from Africa, commercial transactions, crime and corruption, the panel found that IFFs from Africa are enabled mostly through commercial activities.
Based on the panel’s report, three per cent of IFFs stem from corruption, while 33 per cent originate from criminal activities and 64 per cent from commercial transactions.
Action Aid International tax power campaign Africa coordinator Luckystar Miyandazi, who participated in  the African ministers’ conference emphasises  that, ‘Africa’s commitment to Agenda 2063 and
the SDGs could not be reached without adequate resources to fund implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the two agendas.
“Without financing, the hopes that Africa’s most vulnerable people have for a world free from poverty and inequality cannot be realised. Tax is the most sustainable and reliable source of financing and wealth redistribution that states have in order to fulfill their obligations”, he said.
Explaining further the impact of IFF, Mr Miyandazi said that ‘it is the world’s poorest and most marginalised people, mainly women and children, who ultimately paid the price for tax dodging’.
Action Aid international, a global agency with presence in 40 countries campaigning against poverty, has been running a campaign titled ‘tax Power’ since 2012 to encourage African governments to close loopholes that allow for tax dodging by multinational corporations.
This can also help governments to use this money to promote development and decent public services for impoverished people.
At the meeting, Action Aid International worked with journalists from 10 African countries to highlight the issue of IFFs and encourage finance ministers and policy makers to begin to act on their own accord through introducing strong policies to tackle IFFs.
The conference concluded its activities with the adoption of 17 resolutions that support Africa’s efforts towards implementing the SDGs.