In
order to achieve Africa’s socioeconomic transformation, the continent’s
leaders have to embrace new thinking, and break with the past,
according to Donald Kaberuka, President of the African Development Bank.
Kaberuka
urged leaders to follow in the footsteps of Ethiopia’s late Prime
Minister, Meles Zenawi, whose zeal to reform his land saw him assess the
country’s experience, create a growth plan while establishing viable
policies to enhance development.
“He
had the determination to build upon the country’s own experience,
assessing any outside advice against that experience, not vice-versa. He
had the stamina to see through a strategy, even if unpopular in the
short term. These are all traits of a transformational leader,” observed
Kaberuka. The Bank President was presenting his inaugural lecture
during the launch of Meles Zenawi Foundation at the sidelines of the
just concluded African in Addis Ababa.
Kaberuka
noted Ethiopia’s steady growth over the years, a result of the radical
steps undertaken by its late leader. “In 1991, Ethiopia was one of
Africa’s least developed economies, exhausted by communist ideology
after decades of feudal rule; a poster child of poverty and recurrent
famines.” But by the time Meles passed away in 2012, Ethiopia was a net
exporter of food. It was already a net energy exporter, attracting
massive investments and laying a basis for industrialisation.
According
to Kaberuka, Meles’ legacy is a challenge to other leaders,
illustrating what happens when a country takes charge of its own
destiny.
“While
we know what can impede development, our knowledge of how development
happens requires a deep level of modesty not assisted by a
fundamentalist approach to complex political economy issues,” Kaberuka
said.
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