May 14, 2006, 22:30
Ministers and experts from across Africa met to hone policies to promote employment in the world's poorest continent, as economic growth driven by commodities exports fails to translate into jobs.
Economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa has crept up from barely 3% in 2000 to stabilise above 5%, but that has made little impression on widespread poverty. The jobs many Africans are crying out for have not materialised.
The meeting in Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou is a follow-up to a summit of African leaders here nearly two years ago which agreed to help create jobs by, among others, fighting corruption, promoting agriculture and regional integration.
Analysts say poor economic and employment data, given the fact many Africans work in informal or unregulated jobs, makes it hard to precisely quantify unemployment. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Nigerian finance minister, said the past two years had seen good economic growth, but it fell short of the 7% average the UN Economic Commission for Africa deems necessary to halve poverty by 2015. - Reuters
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