{A regional forum bringing together 14 African countries in Nairobi has lauded Kenya\u2019s devolution process.}<\/p>\n
The United Nations director of Economic Commission for Africa’s eastern Africa sub-regional office, Dr Antonio M. A. Pedro, on Thursday said Kenya is a pacesetter in the decentralisation process and as such, other countries could borrow a leaf from what the country has achieved.<\/p>\n
He spoke during the final day of the 20th Intergovernmental Committee of Experts (ICE) meeting held in Nairobi.<\/p>\n
\u201cKenya can play a very important leading role because overall it is in an advanced stage of devolution,\u201d he said, moments after the four-day meeting was officially closed.<\/p>\n
The meeting was arranged to identify the connection between structural transformation, institutions and decentralisation in realising economic growth.<\/p>\n
It brought together delegates from 14 eastern Africa countries including Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Somalia, Seychelles, Democratic Republic of Congo, Comoros, Djibouti and Eritrea.<\/p>\n
The forum noted that although most countries in Eastern Africa have experienced strong economic growth, unequal growth had created pockets of underdevelopment in some regions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to promote broad-based development for which decentralization is fundamental process particularly when trying to ensure that there is no geographical or spatial inequities,\u201d said Dr Pedro.<\/p>\n
FAST GROWTH<\/p>\n
The four-day meeting addressed various issues deemed important to fast economic growth in in the region.<\/p>\n
These included infrastructural development, as well as creation of stable institutions and the decentralisation process.<\/p>\n
\u201cParticipants have recognised that structural transformation is key to Africa in claiming its rightful place in global trade dynamics.<\/p>\n
We have recognised that the current pattern of growth, which is not inclusive enough, is not sustainable,\u201d said the director.<\/p>\n
He highlighted the reasons of its unsustainability as Africa\u2019s overdependence on agriculture and exploitation of raw materials for export.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe current growth is essentially based on the exploitation of raw materials and export of the same, but we are living in a period where commodity prices are down and are fluctuating.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Pedro called on the leaders to address leadership and development gaps in both national and county governments and the society in general for Africa to achieve progress.<\/p>\n
Delegates agreed that, as a way forward, member countries would establish a dynamic community where experiences from successful countries would be shared to help other countries still in the early stages of the devolution process.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of the things that have been agreed is that there are pockets of leadership existing everywhere, both at national and sub-national levels as realised in private sector, government, civil society, in local communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will be documenting best practices on decentralisation and we will facilitate exchanges between communities in the sub-region,\u201d said the director.<\/p>\n
Source:Daily Nation:[UN official lauds Kenya’s devolution as ‘pacesetter’ for the region->http:\/\/www.nation.co.ke\/news\/UN-official-lauds-Kenya-devolution\/-\/1056\/3073272\/-\/g2i5yqz\/-\/index.html]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{A regional forum bringing together 14 African countries in Nairobi has lauded Kenya\u2019s devolution process.} The United Nations director of Economic Commission for Africa’s eastern Africa sub-regional office, Dr Antonio M. A. Pedro, on Thursday said Kenya is a pacesetter in the decentralisation process and as such, other countries could borrow a leaf from what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000072122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[99],"byline":[2461],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-23156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-daily-nation"],"bylines":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":{"id":2000072122,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton23156.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton23156.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton23156.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton23156.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton23156.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton23156.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000072122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23156"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=23156"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=23156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}