Should Africa Industrialize Event
75:02
21 April 2011
The United Nations University Office at the United Nations is organizing a discussion as part of the Worldwide In New York Series entitled "Should Africa Industrialize?" presented by John Page, Senior Fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC and Project Director of the UNU World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER).
Africa's post-independence leaders - like many developing country policy makers in the 1960s and 1970s - looked to industrialization as the key to rapid economic growth. But, the state-led, import substituting industries they created were frequently unsustainable, and efforts to spur industrial development in Africa largely vanished in the 1980's. While the last two decades of the 20th Century were boom times for industry in low and middle income countries; industry was moving out of Africa. This presentation addresses two questions: why Africa should industrialize and how.
Recent research indicates that economies with more diverse and sophisticated industrial sectors tend to grow faster. Africa, however, is moving in the opposite direction. New evidence on changes in industrial structure and sophistication for 18 African economies between 1975 and 2005 shows that industry in most African economies has declined in relative importance, diversity, and sophistication. Lack of industry limits growth: this is why Africa should industrialize.
How Africa can industrialize presents a complex challenge that calls for two broad areas of policy action. The first is the less controversial: continuing the investment climate reforms urged by the international financial institutions, but with increased emphasis on infrastructure, skills and regional integration. The second is likely to provoke more debate: Africa must learn to compete. Industrial policies - such as an export push, spatial industrial policies, and efforts to attract task-based production - are likely to be needed, but we know relatively little about the costs and benefits of such initiatives. For this reason the Brookings Institution and UNU-WIDER have launched a collaborative research program on industrialization in Africa called Learning to Compete.
With the Worldwide in New York Series, the United Nations University Office at the UN, New York, as part of its mandate, showcases the recent work of UNU Institutes from around the world. In conjunction with other experts from different organizations, UNU researchers share new ideas and highlight new policy avenues in the areas of security, environment and development.
Speaker
Dr. John Page
Senior Fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC
Moderator
Jean-Marc Coicaud
Director, UNU Office at the UN, New York
Should Africa Industrialize Interview
36:05
21 April 2011
The United Nations University Office at the United Nations is organizing a discussion as part of the Worldwide In New York Series entitled "Should Africa Industrialize?" presented by John Page, Senior Fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC and Project Director of the UNU World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER).
Africa's post-independence leaders - like many developing country policy makers in the 1960s and 1970s - looked to industrialization as the key to rapid economic growth. But, the state-led, import substituting industries they created were frequently unsustainable, and efforts to spur industrial development in Africa largely vanished in the 1980's. While the last two decades of the 20th Century were boom times for industry in low and middle income countries; industry was moving out of Africa. This presentation addresses two questions: why Africa should industrialize and how.
Recent research indicates that economies with more diverse and sophisticated industrial sectors tend to grow faster. Africa, however, is moving in the opposite direction. New evidence on changes in industrial structure and sophistication for 18 African economies between 1975 and 2005 shows that industry in most African economies has declined in relative importance, diversity, and sophistication. Lack of industry limits growth: this is why Africa should industrialize.
How Africa can industrialize presents a complex challenge that calls for two broad areas of policy action. The first is the less controversial: continuing the investment climate reforms urged by the international financial institutions, but with increased emphasis on infrastructure, skills and regional integration. The second is likely to provoke more debate: Africa must learn to compete. Industrial policies - such as an export push, spatial industrial policies, and efforts to attract task-based production - are likely to be needed, but we know relatively little about the costs and benefits of such initiatives. For this reason the Brookings Institution and UNU-WIDER have launched a collaborative research program on industrialization in Africa called Learning to Compete.
With the Worldwide in New York Series, the United Nations University Office at the UN, New York, as part of its mandate, showcases the recent work of UNU Institutes from around the world. In conjunction with other experts from different organizations, UNU researchers share new ideas and highlight new policy avenues in the areas of security, environment and development.
Speaker
Dr. John Page
Senior Fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC
Moderator
Jean-Marc Coicaud
Director, UNU Office at the UN, New York
Where is Global Health Heading- Event
62:48
21 April 2011
The United Nations University Office at the United Nations is organizing a discussion as part of the UNU Worldwide In New York Series entitled "Where is Global Health Heading?" presented by three scholars from the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health (UNU-IIGH). The presentation will focus on the following topics:
* Role of UNU-IIGH in Capacity Building for Global Health by Dr. Mohamed Salleh Mohamed Yasin, Director, UNUIIGH
* New Case‐Mix System Tool for Sustainable Health Financing in Developing Countries by Prof. Syed Mohamed Aljunid, Senior Research Fellow, UNUIIGH
* Environmental Impacts and Climate Change Mitigation for Global Health by Prof. Jamal Hisham Hashim, Research Fellow, UNU-IIGH
Threats to sustainable global health include poverty and inequality, rising vulnerability diseases and natural hazards, water and sanitation issues, uncontrolled urbanization, marginalization of rural populations, unsafe living conditions, and lack of health infrastructure. Most importantly, there is a severe lack of human capacity building programs for the health sector critical to achieving reasonable health indicators in developing countries. This can be attributed to policy restrictions, migration of healthcare workers, and constraints in finance, infrastructure and expertise.
At the same time, the environment continues to be an important contributing factor to disease and mortality, where 23% of all deaths globally can be attributed to environmental risk factors like sanitation, disease vectors, accidents and air pollution. Among children, they account for up to 36% of global deaths. On a global scale, the greatest threats to health from environmental change and modifications, which are yet to be realized, have to be those related to climate change.
Case-mix or DRGs is a disease classification system with the objective of creating mutually exclusive, clinically meaningful categories of cases with similar resource utilization. The system has been used as a tool to enhance the quality and efficiency of healthcare services in many developed countries. Case-mix has the reputation as an effective and efficient tool for providing payment for health financing schemes. The use of case-mix system in resource-challenged countries is erratic due to the lack of awareness among health decision makers, low technical capacity and inaccessibility to low cost and reliable case-mix groupers.
With the UNU Worldwide in New York Series, the United Nations University Office at the UN, New York, as part of its mandate, showcases the recent work of UNU Institutes from around the world. In conjunction with other experts from different organizations, UNU researchers share new ideas and highlight new policy avenues in the areas of security, environment and development.
Speakers
Dr. Mohamed Salleh Mohamed Yasin
Director, UNUIIGH
Prof. Syed Mohamed Aljunid
Senior Research Fellow, UNUIIGH
Prof. Jamal Hisham Hashim
Research Fellow, UNU-IIGH
Moderator
Jean-Marc Coicaud
Director, UNU Office at the UN, New York
