Only the best is good enough for Africa: Paul Boateng at TEDxEuston

sisters or brothers chick wing Depot Femi paddy and Kim okay Dylan if eonni chica nazo adobo Felicia Chuck's AG o ma that's the TEDx 2011 TV and in our tradition to respect you must first name so let's demonstrate to them our respect sisters and brothers we are invited by the TEDx team to redefine and to reimagine Africa to redefine and to reimagine you first have to be very clear about where you came from and we need to be clear in Africa about where we came from and as I grow older I find that becomes even more important to me it's one of the ironies one of the many ironies of advancing age and for me it's important to remember that I am the grandson of a cocoa farmer from a chimp and a printer from Hoxton and it's about the a chim about the gun inside that I want to reflect this morning and to reflect about my grandfather in the context of redefining and reimagining the Africa of today and the Africa we want for the future because this cocoa farmer who farmed a modest farm in the a Chim region of what was then called the Gold Coast managed to educate all his children from the proceeds of that farm send one of them my father first to furrow Bay in Sierra Leone and then to King's College here in London and onto grazing to become a lawyer managed to do all of that from the proceeds of his cocoa farm I myself was educated in Ghana with an education partly funded by a coca Marketing Board scholarship I would not be Who I am and what I am therefore if it were not for my grandfather and for Coco and what helped my grandfather then well a number of things his cocoa was of the highest grade and commanded the highest prices not simply because of his skill but because he was a beneficiary of the best scientific research then available from the West African the West African cocoa Research Institute and you know he was fortunate in one sense because his farm was directly adjacent to that Institute that was of course partly because the then colonial government stole my grandmother's farmlands and set up the Institute in the first place on that land I don't make that as a claim for reparation from the government I subsequently served in but he was also the beneficiary of something else a rail line that directly linked achem to Takoradi a rail line that no longer exists the West African cocoa Research Institute still exists but in a diminished form as the Ghana cocoa Research Institute it was then itself the depository of world-class scientific research from a regionally integrated base and that integration that transport integration enabled my grandfather to transport his cocoa directly and at a cheaper price relatively then it would cost today to transport the same amount of cocoa to Takoradi and that's why no farmer of a medium-sized farm in a gym today can afford to educate their children from the proceeds of that farm alone and so as we are redefining and reimagining Africa we have to remember where we came from we have to remember also that in redefining and reimagining Africa we can only do so if we recognize the importance to Africa to its development of science technology innovation and agriculture and all too often science technology and innovation are not the things you hear about when you hear about Africa you hear about governance they bang on and on about governments I don't underestimate for one moment the importance of good governance funny though isn't it that when people talk about they don't bang on about governance we have to think about that so yes good governance is very important poverty reduction they bang on a lot about poverty reduction I've been on a lot about poverty reduction and rightly so but you can't reduce poverty without growth and you can't reduce poverty without creating wealth and so as we redefine and reimagine Africa I would suggest that we have to talk a little more about agriculture we have to talk a little more about science innovation technology and the importance of research and development doesn't mean we need to talk less about governance we do because you know if there have been good governance they would still be that rail line from Tafolla chim to Takoradi but governance you know not just of Ghana but governance - of the IMF in the World Bank who in the 70s and 80s and well into the 90s until the African Commission weren't talking they weren't talking about infrastructure maybe because that's because the IMF and the World Bank weren't so well government so let's talk about governance but let's talk about governance in the whole let's talk about poverty reduction but let's talk about poverty reduction within the context of creating wealth for the whole and seeing that wealth properly and fairly redistributed through effective taxation and governance so I want to talk a bit if I may in my remaining 10 minutes about about agriculture agriculture the dominant economic sector in Africa comprising some 30% of GDP and over 70% of employment with the growing demand for food crops from emerging markets agriculture has a significant added growth attention we know that a dollar increase in agricultural value-added generates a one point three to a one point eight dollar increase in the rural non-farm economy overall GDP growth originating in agriculture is two to four times more effective in reducing poverty than growth generated outside agriculture that's why the great Asian Tigers were all inspired and rooted in their success post-war by the success of their agricultural economies however today in sub-saharan Africa cereal yields are an average only 44% of observed levels in South Asia and 25% of East Asia's in addition to that growth in yields is very slow now these gaps are a problem yes but I would suggest that as we redefine and reimagine Africa we need also to see them as an opportunity just as we need to see the fertiliser youth youth in ss in sub-saharan Africa which is again extremely low and the gap that exists there with farmers in South Asia's Asia and Latin America using on average a hundred and forty three kilograms per hectacre farmers in sub-saharan Africa applying only night for nine point four kilograms per hectacre so the growth numbers are low and Africa lags behind the adoption and use of technology for farming in 2008 there were about 15 tractors per square hundred kilometers of land in sub-saharan Africa while there were a hundred and eighty-three per square kilometre per square hundred kilometer of land in Southeast Asia and again when you look at data on irrigation the best available figures suggests that only 4% only 4% of land in sub-saharan Africa is irrigated compared to 40% in Southeast Asia at current levels yields are estimated at only 20% of potential in sub-saharan Africa whilst if you look at Southeast Asia and South America 65% so there is a huge potential for increasing yields in sub-saharan Africa on currently cultivated areas and if we could raise yields in Africa on key crops to 80 percent of the world average similar to other countries which have experienced a green revolution in agriculture that would see an increase in the annual value of its agricultural production by 235 billion u.s. dollars over the next two decades or more than 80 percent of the current revenues according to the World Bank estimates so improvements in African agriculture would have a huge impact on growth and job creation so let's redefine and reimagine Africa through the spectacles of the rural farmer and when we do that let's not allow ourselves to be divided let's not allow ourselves to be divided between urban and rural because we all know that there is and rightly and understandably so a huge increase in the demography of urban Africa that's part of the excitement of this the youngest demographically of continents that's part of the excitement of Africa as a growing and emerging market for the rest of the world but to counterpoise urban and rural in this way isn't helpful we need to learn the lessons of what's already happening in the most progressive areas of our continent you one of the exciting things I think about Africa today all the stuff that's going on all the opportunities that are now coming to the fore as you go in from Lagos Airport into Victoria Island you'll see on the sides of the buses advertisements exhortations around that the exciting development of a rice project that is designed in Lagos State directly to provide employment opportunities for urban young people and so linking enhanced rice production with employment opportunities for legacies youth and it's delivering with massive increases in yields and at the same time addressing the issue of urban youth unemployment so let's redefine and reimagine Africa let's do that in ways of respect agriculture that respect also that you have to link agriculture with science technology and innovation let's celebrate the fact that as the Africa Union sets spending targets for African countries on agriculture which sadly still only a handful literally only five have actually met those targets that's a challenge for citizens and governments alike in sub-saharan Africa to spend what the AU itself has pledged ought to be spent on agriculture but when we do that let's spend it on enhancing those yields let's spend it in ways that see an increase in agricultural research and development let's see the example of the Archie hinnies new University of Agriculture Science and Technology in key B energy in Ghana and you'll excuse me from going on about Ghana but I'm in a gym boy I'm in a gym boy at heart but that's an exciting that's an exciting innovation why it's so exciting because actually it stems not simply from government saying it's a good thing government has said it's a good thing not simply for the World Bank and the IMF and the donors saying it's a good thing they have said it's a good thing but actually none of them have given any money towards it the money has come from the traditional ruler of the achill area from enlightened Ghanaian philanthropists and from the private sector and I would suggest that as we reimagine and redefine Africa we need also to restart reassessing the relationship between Africa its own private entrepreneurial wealth creators and the relationship to between citizens and their traditional leaders because in Africa and to understand Africa you cannot separate development from culture we cannot separate development from culture and for us in Africa our traditional leadership our ancestors are part of what we are and part of what where we are coming from and so we have to develop progressive alliances that are rooted in African and indigenous culture that are rooted too in a recognition that we can no longer continually look outside the continent for our salvation that we need to look at intra African trade as well as extra African trade we need to be building on the good work that is being done with the support of agencies like DIF it actually in creating one stop border posts between African countries in order to promote intra African trade but that too requires an active engagement of citizens and government alike to make it happen it requires new and exciting partnerships for change and progress and partnerships too aren't things that can simply be left to other people you know partnerships are tough it's a warm soft cuddly word that politicians and preachers are far fond of but for those of us who know anything about partnerships in any aspect of life including our own lives our own personal lives partnerships have to be worked on you know yes they're warm soft cuddly moments but it requires honesty it requires hard-headed calculation and it requires strategy so we need in Africa to move from sentiment to strategy sentiment is all very well but without strategy it is nothing we need to be both fighters and builders it's not a choice you know you don't choose whether you want to fight or whether you wanna build you do both because if you are an African you recognize that if you don't fight as you build what you build will be destroyed I'm old-fashioned that's a lesson I've learned from my life that you constantly have to fight because they are those who constantly wish to destroy and we have to be vigilant and bold and innovative and prepared to think outside the box so I just urge and ask that we start thinking about science and technology and about agriculture that we start thinking about linking the urban and the rural that we start delivering on infrastructure with partners that involved governments that involve the private sector and that we do all of that with the spirit that demands of ourselves and our partners the best you know the late great dr. a gray used to say only a gray of Africa you used to say only the best is good enough for Africa only the best is good enough for Africa so let's demand of ourselves as individuals of our fellow citizens of our governments of our partners internationally of our donors let's demand the best because only the best is good enough for Africa and there is the saying - saying that you know I I learnt when I was so sorry when I when I was in South Africa but it's it's something that I think is true throughout the continent because throughout the continent when you look at our coats of arms time and time again you find the African Eagle demonstrated there and reflected there in our coats of arms if you look at our great African skies those clear clear blue skies it's the eagle that you see up there and the saying is and it's true that it's each and every feather that makes the Eagle saw each and every feather that makes the Eagle saw because if you look at an eagle you find this diversity in terms of shape and size and color and function this diversity of feathers on that great bird and it's the way the feathers interact with one another with all their differences with all their diversity with all the different roles that enables that great bird to take off to take to the air to spread out its wings and soar so let's have more of science technology innovation let's talk more let's do more let's build the practical partnerships on the ground that enable us to do yet more let's move from sentiment to strategy and let that strategy embrace true partnerships based on mutual respect not on dominance not on the exercise of power relationships but on muchang the basis of mutual respect and when we do that and when we open up our minds and set those minds free of the constraints that others would seek to impose when we do that when we set up ourselves the task of only doing the best for Africa because only the best is good enough for Africa when we do that sisters and brothers the Eagle will truly saw so let the Eagle saw let the eagle let the Eagle let the eagle only the best is going enough for Africa thank you very much you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 24,096

Rating: 4.8319325 out of 5

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Id: v0SQb3ti65c

Length: 23min 5sec (1385 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 02 2012