Leveraging ODA to Build Enduring Development Institutions:
The Case for Vocational Education and Training

Speech by Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
June 23, 2017

Annual Conference of Swiss Development Cooperation
École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland

1. Opening remarks
•I am so happy to be here today to join you in your reflections on the importance of vocational education and training. But I would like to discuss the topic in the context of institutions and why they are necessary as the bedrock of all aspects of sustainable development and a stable and successful and fair society.

•It is important to talk about this context of institutions today because Switzerland is an important player in the field of development aid and cooperation, spending over US$ 3.5 billion a year on bilateral and multilateral ODA. Some of that goes to support institution building in countries of focus in Africa and South Asia. Not too many donors focus on institution building, so I want to congratulate Switzerland and urge it to stay the course. Congratulations also on a steady increase in ODA since the early 2000s, both in volume terms as well as percentage of GNI. You are now at 0.52% of GNI, well above the OECD average, and commendably most of the aid is untied.

•So let me get back to institutions. What do I mean by institutions? According to Douglass North, the Nobel Prize winning economist, “institutions are the humanly devised constraints that structure political, economic, and social interaction. They consist of both informal constraints (sanctions, taboos, customs, traditions, and codes of conduct), and formal rules (constitutions, laws, property rights). Throughout history, institutions have been devised by human beings to create order and reduce uncertainty in exchange.”

•So, whether we are talking about education, health, politics, economics, or civil society, it is through solid institutions that rules, laws and social norms enable people to work together effectively and peacefully; they define how power is managed and used, how states and societies make and implement decisions, and how they measure and account for the results.

•Strong institutions are the foundation for human development, economic growth, and well-functioning societies. They help to reduce corruption, promote transparency and ensure that decision-making processes are more inclusive and representative, all of which help to build trust in governments.

2. Switzerland, a model of strong institutions
•For an example of this you need to look no further than this country. Switzerland is a country built on strong institutions that are the envy of the world. It has a long history of social harmony, economic stability and long-term, rational decision-making.

•Strong educational institutions are at the core of Switzerland’s success enabling the creation of a broad, educated, and secure middle class. Switzerland devotes a larger share of public expenditure to education than almost any other OECD country, allocating US$ 16,090 per student, compared with the OECD average of US$ 9,487. This enables the recruitment and retention of highly qualified teachers who receive average salaries at the primary and upper secondary levels that are nearly double the average salaries of their peers in other OECD countries.

•Switzerland is a particular leader in its approach to vocational training. I don’t know how many of you saw a very interesting article in the Financial Times of June 16 on the issue of vocational education and training in the US. It is titled, “Paying Young Americans to Learn.” There, Switzerland is raised along with Germany as one of the countries where vocational training receives as much attention as university degrees. So Switzerland has a global reputation for good vocational training institutions.

•More than 65% of students in upper secondary education in Switzerland were enrolled in pre-vocational or vocational programmes. And these vocational education programmes are highly practical, with 90% of students combining school and work-based learning, unlike other OECD countries that are only school-based. This system equips individuals to find well-paying jobs and provides the country with a high-skilled workforce that has contributed significantly to its economic success.

•Perhaps this is why Switzerland also has such an extraordinary track record for innovation. Although best known for its precision clocks and watches, I probably don’t need to tell you that this is also the birthplace of everything from Velcro, aluminium foil and stock cubes, to the electric toothbrush.

•Switzerland’s public transport network similarly reflects the strength and performance of its institutions. At its core are railways, which connect almost every corner of the country integrating the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) with private railways and every other form of public transport. Like everything else, the efficiency of the system is judged by high standards. Perhaps that is why the SBB’s drop from 95.9% of trains on time in 2007 to 95.8% in the following year made news headlines.

•The fact is, there is a reason why so few people outside Switzerland can name the Swiss President (presently, Doris Leuthard) and yet so many are willing to put their money here and send their children to Swiss finishing schools. It is because they trust Swiss institutions.

•Just consider the opposite. Without strong institutions, the sustainability of economic growth and development – and even the sustainability of the state itself – is at stake. You need only look at fragile states, such as Yemen, Sudan and Somalia, to see evidence of this.

•This is one reason why institution building will play such an important part in our achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, and why Switzerland will become the epicentre of the work that gets us there. With Geneva home to representatives of around 175 states, nearly three dozen international institutions, bodies and secretariats – including Gavi, the organisation which I chair and to which Switzerland is one of the newest donors (thank you!) – hundreds of NGOs and corporates, and where 200,000 people come every year to have dialogues, Switzerland is where people come to figure out how we survive and thrive together in this complex world.

3. How do we build strong institutions?
Continue reading here https://www.facebook.com/NgoziOkonjoIweala/posts/1557566714293587

A proud day for Nigeria: President Akin Adesina, President of the AfDB, is announced as the recipient of the 2017 World Food Prize at a ceremony presided over by the Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue.

With Ambassador Kenneth Quinn, President of the World Food Prize, and Ambassador Hakeem Balogun from the Embassy of Nigeria.

The award will be conferred on October 19, 2017, in Iowa.

Sharing a very special Swiss Development Day at the annual 2017 Swiss Development Corporation Conference in Lausanne focused on Jobs, Vocational Education and Training with some terrific Burkinabe brothers Sylvain Simpore, Ambroise Tapsoba and Issa Campaore.

Good for developing countries to look at the very successful Swiss model which integrates theory and practice, with students working, directly into the secondary school curriculum in collaboration with employers.

Institutions matter too as a bedrock for VET and Switzerland has some of the strongest and most stable institutions as I pointed out in my speech at the #DDCSECO17

In Berlin at a well attended German G20 Africa Conference. #GermanG20. Chancellor Merkel, Finance Minister Schauble and Development Cooperation Minister, Gerd Muller, have prioritized private sector investments into Africa as a way to help spur inclusive growth and create jobs.

President Ouattara dubbed the German-Africa Marshall Plan the Merkel Plan!

African Presidents Conde, Akufo-Addo, Kagame, Macky Sall, Keïta, Issoufou, El-Sisi, Essebsi, all made strong statements emphasizing self-reliance, recovery of illicit flows, jobs for youth, security, infrastructure and human capital as key priorities for the continent.

Good outing for Africa! Let's keep self-reliance at the forefront!

At G20 meeting with Nancy Birdsall and Benoît Chervalier in Berlin

Discussing 21st-century challenges of climate and planetary health, technology, Artificial Intelligence and youth employment, affordable medicines at the 21st Century Oxford Martin School, Oxford University, with Vice Chancellor Oxford University Prof Louise Richardson, Director, Oxford Martin School Achim Steiner, Lillian Martin, and other members of the Martin School Advisory Board.

Deeply saddened to hear about the passing away of our brother, Prof Babatunde Osotimehin. Nigeria and Global health had lost an amazing advocate.

My condolences to the family of Nigeria's former Minister of Health and Executive Director UNFPA. May he live through the good work he has done transforming the lives of many around the world!

NOI

G20 finance ministers have formed an Eminent Persons Group to review global financial governance and see how the financial system can deliver better and more impactful outcomes for people, especially those less well off.

It's great to be part of the Group to see how we can make a difference to achieving global objectives of the SDGs and Climate for poor people.

http://www.straitstimes.com/business/economy/whos-who-in-g20-eminent-persons-group

At lunch with Presidents Talon of Benin, Macky Sall of Senegal, former President Mahama of Ghana, Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley, of India and AFDB President, Akin Adesina in Ahmedabad, India at Afdb annual meetings May 23, 2017.

Visiting with Reema Nanavaty and the wonderful women of SEWA in Ahmedabad.

SEWA is the 2 million strong trade union of poor self-employed women in India, the largest association of poor women entrepreneurs in the world.

Now they are going global to Nepal, Sri Lanka and elsewhere.

These amazing women use technology to enhance their incomes. With smart phones they buy and sell farm inputs, produce and other products they make getting better prices. They garner and share information on health, education using this to train thousands of other women. They use the African made MPesa mobile payments system.

Proud of these extraordinary women. They are true sisters of the hardworking and multi-talented women of Africa!

Discussing how to "Fast Track Africa" the report of the AfDB Special Panel co-chaired by former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, and former President of Germany, Horst Köhler, to look at the political, economic and financial frameworks needed to best achieve the AfDB High 5s strategy.

Presenting findings at Afdb annual meetings Ahmedabad with fellow panel members Lars Thurnell, former CEO of the IFC, and Justin Yifu Lin, former Chief Economist of the World Bank, as well as Harinder Kohli, CEO of Centennial Group and AfDB President Akin Adesina and Bronwyn Nielsen of CNBC panel moderator.

As Nobel prize winner, Douglass North, once said, "It is polities that shape economic performance because they define and enforce the economic rules of the game."

With Justin Yifu Lin and Celestin Monga in Ahmedabad, at the African Development Bank meetings, launching their interesting new book on Development "Beating the Odds: Jumpstarting Developing Countries."

Let's open our minds to new ways of spurring development but underpin it all with building institutions.

Q&A with Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former finance and foreign minister of Nigeria and World Bank managing director; now a senior adviser at Lazard

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) asked Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former finance and foreign minister of Nigeria, about the drivers of prosperity and job creation in Africa and the developing world. This Q&A is the fourth in a series sponsored by the United Nations Foundation that will explore progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and what remains to be done. In 2015 more than 190 countries agreed to prioritise these 17 UN-backed goals as national targets. These objectives include improving education, economic growth, gender equality, infrastructure, health and industrial innovation.

As former finance and foreign minister of Nigeria (and the first female one), Ms Okonjo-Iweala led a tireless crusade against corruption that helped attract investment to Africa’s largest economy. In 2012, she raised a red flag concerning growing oil theft under the country’s president at the time, Goodluck Jonathan, as stolen oil cost the Nigerian economy US$1bn a month. At the World Bank, where she served as managing director from 2007 to 2011, Ms Okonjo-Iweala pushed for additional assistance for low-income countries. Her integrity and leadership helped put her on the World Bank’s shortlist to assume its presidency. Ms Okonjo-Iweala is the chairperson of the board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and a senior adviser at Lazard, where she is a member of the firm’s sovereign advisory group focused on helping countries manage debt and restructure their finances.

Excerpts from an interview, as told to the EIU.

EIU: What incentives, programmes or government policies are needed to promote development and prosperity in Africa and developing countries around the world? Who should lead these efforts? Where or to whom should these programmes be directed?

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala: The first job for government is to create a macroeconomic environment that lets people seize opportunities with low inflation and reasonable interest rates while keeping prices and the exchange rate aligned to fundamentals of the economy. You need to couple this with transparency and a strong anti-corruption stance to let your citizens and businesses know that there is a level playing field.

Which sectors create the most jobs? Let’s take agriculture. There is a lot of potential to improve the value chain in Africa because we grow many primary products that are exported to be processed. That takes away jobs. Why can’t the private sector invest in transforming those products in Africa? Instead of exporting cocoa to Belgium, manufacture chocolate in Ghana or in Côte d’Ivoire. Instead of exporting cotton or hides and skins, set up mills and factories to do the processing and manufacturing in Africa, like Ethiopia has done with China for shoes. If you create a value chain, you create many more jobs.

Entrepreneurial citizens are important for prosperity in developing countries, but they also need a supportive regulatory and business environment. Entrepreneurs need access to credit, to electricity and to water. They need the capacity to market their goods. Governments, with the help of the private sector, need to invest in infrastructure to support entrepreneurs and to develop specialised programmes that target small and medium enterprises (SMEs). For example, the Nigerian government, with a consortium of actors including the German government, the World Bank and the African Development Bank, created the Development Bank of Nigeria to support SMEs with access to credit.



EIU: The World Bank recently announced a record US$57bn in financing for sub-Saharan Africa over the next three fiscal years. Of that, US$8bn comes from private-sector investment. What needs to be done to mobilise more private investment in Africa?

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala: You have to look at the conditions that stand in the way. One is the perception of risk. The return on investment in Africa can rise to 30% and above, so it is profitable to invest in Africa. People perceive risk in Africa to be much higher than it really is. Political instability in one country, for instance, may overshadow news of ventures that are delivering high return on investment in other countries. Remember, the continent has 54 countries, so there is a diversity of performance. One way to confront that perception is by offering financial instruments that de-risk investment. There are many ways of doing this, and it allows the private sector to have confidence to invest further. Governments also need to maintain policy consistency to minimise uncertainty for the private sector.

Infrastructure is the second area to mobilise investment. Without infrastructure it is very difficult to attract private investment. Private investors need supportive infrastructure like industrial parks, electricity and access to roads. It is estimated that Africa will need US$93bn–120bn in infrastructure investment per year. Governments cannot do it alone. There have to be public-private partnerships to bring capital and know-how in execution.

Third, remove bureaucratic hurdles that stand in the way of investment. Requiring businesses to go to multiple agencies to get all sorts of licences and permits leads to corruption. Simplify the processes for investors to invest.

Lastly, governments should attract domestic investment too. If international investors do not see domestic investors putting money into Africa, they will not be as willing to invest either.

If you focus on those areas, you will go a long way in attracting private investment.



EIU: What existing partnerships have been especially effective in driving development? What is needed to encourage similar collaborations, and whom do you see as key stakeholders?

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala: Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, brings together governments, the private sector, civil-society organisations and foundations—Unicef, the World Health Organisation, the World Bank, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation—to deliver one goal: immunisation of children in the developing world. This partnership has led to nearly 580m children being immunised in over 73 developing countries since Gavi was formed in 2000. Immunisation is one of the most effective instruments for delivering on the SDGs. One dollar of investment in immunisation delivers US$44 in avoided health costs and lifetime benefits. That is a very high return on investment.

To be a successful partnership, everyone at the table needs to see that the common goal delivers benefits for all. Gavi has the power to aggregate demand for vaccines from dozens of countries and thereby assure volume. This helps the pharmaceutical industry to offer lower prices to developing countries whilst still covering their costs. Citizens get immunised and businesses get healthy workers.

You need to look at each sector—whether in education or in building infrastructure—and ask, “What is the bottom line for each actor?” Once you can show a common benefit for all, it is much easier to form successful partnerships like Gavi.



EIU: What are ways that countries can measure their progress on development?

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala: If you look at the SDGs, each has a list of indicators to monitor whether countries are really delivering on development, from ending hunger to improving health and education and vaccinating children.

The most important thing is for each country to measure itself. How is it doing alongside the indicators? Is it really lifting more people out of poverty? Are people still going hungry? Are children being vaccinated? Are all children in school and getting a quality education, such that they are trained to meet the job requirements of the future? Do people have access to energy?

One good thing about the SDGs is that they are universal. The SDGs really measure the quantity and quality of life for people. It is not just, “Do people have higher incomes?” It is, “Do they have access to services to make their lives materially better?” The most important thing for people in developing countries is that they monitor their progress, and civil-society organisations can be instrumental in helping countries do this.



EIU: You want “a more sophisticated dialogue” regarding aid. For instance, the African Risk Capacity (ARC), a specialised agency of the African Union, enables member nations to prepare for crises by relying more on their own budgets and by paying insurance premiums against severe drought or extreme weather. What other sophisticated responses beyond aid can support economic growth?

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala: First, we need to realise that most African countries already finance the bulk of their development, so they need to continue and do more. They also need capacity to raise more domestic resources. The countries that give aid are focusing more and more internally on their own populations and their own problems. There are nationalist movements around the world, so we have to be realists. If the future of aid isn’t looking bright, what other financial instruments are available beyond aid?

The ARC uses sophisticated instruments of insurance to manage natural disaster–related events. Countries can pay a premium, based on a model developed by ARC, to insure against drought. They do not have to wait for the UN to make an appeal for aid; member states can get money right away to take care of millions who might otherwise starve or die. They can start immediately. It saves lives.

There are other innovative financial instruments. Social-impact bonds can deliver financing for development by those willing to take somewhat lower returns in order to deliver a social good. These bonds are subscribed to by private investors, governments, philanthropic organisations, foundations and the like. You have instruments like the International Finance Facility for Immunisation used by Gavi to raise money on capital markets; it is backed by donor guarantees and frontloads resources for immunisation, thus saving millions of lives.

By the way, a lot of young Africans are innovating in finance and other areas, and they are creating things, like ways to clean water or to improve sanitation, that can shape development and the environment. But they don’t have anyone to invest in their ideas or products. This needs to change.



EIU: What needs to be done to ensure Africa remains on track to meeting SDG targets related to development? Is it combatting corruption or supporting youth employment? Who should lead in addressing areas of concern?

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala: You need leadership, and you need it to come from all levels, from the central government to the provinces and local communities. Women are good leaders and should be supported especially at the local level. Civil society has to hold the leadership of countries accountable for delivering on SDG targets. But most of all, if Africa is to remain on track, it needs resources. Lifting people out of poverty means investment in infrastructure, health and education. These resources have to come from the domestic environment as well as the outside, from government as well as the private sector. Government has to be transparent and fight corruption.

There also has to be a focus on youth employment! Absolutely. Sixty percent of Africans are under 25 years of age, and in the next decade, over 200m young people will be looking for work. Therefore, the issue of youth employment is paramount for the continent. There has to be a focus on sectors that create jobs and support our young entrepreneurs. We must also look at the creativity of young people using technology as a means to employ themselves and others. Structural transformation and diversification of the African economy are vital.

Source: https://www.eiuperspectives.economist.com/sustainability/global-development-goals-opportunities-and-obstacles/blog/drivers-prosperity-africa

Photo with members of Harman House which was my father's house class of 1939

'Glad to be honoured with Lifetime Achievement Award for Distinguished Service by the Kings College Old Boys of North America

by Isabella Lövin & Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

LAGOS/STOCKHOLM – In Ghana, a group of enterprising women and young people is building bicycles out of an unlikely material: bamboo. Ten farmers grow the bamboo, and 25 builders craft it into environmentally friendly bikes that can be used on Ghana’s bumpy roads or exported overseas. Bernice Dapaah, the founder and CEO of Ghana Bamboo Bikes, plans to build two new factories soon, adding 50 more workers in communities with high unemployment.

Ghana Bamboo Bikes is just one example of the major role women can play in driving the transition toward sustainable economic growth and development. But such examples increasingly need to go together if we are to ensure a prosperous future on a healthy planet. The world needs more women climate leaders, whether around the tables where policy is made or at the helm of businesses, steering them toward sustainability.

When more women work, economies grow. According to the World Economic Forum, greater gender equality, which implies greater use of human capital, correlates positively with per capita GDP, competitiveness, and human development. Squandering that capital has the opposite effect: the United Nations Development Programme reports that gender inequality costs Sub-Saharan Africa, to name one example, $95 billion (or 6% of GDP) per year, on average.

Yet women around the world still face a massive gender gap in employment and wages. The proportion of women participating in the global labor force has hovered around 50% since 1990, compared to more than 75% for men. And, in most countries, the women who work earn, on average, only 60-75 cents for every dollar that men earn.

To support economic growth and development, we need to tap the potential of all workers, giving women opportunities not just to earn, but also to lead. Women need to be empowered, and their role in the economy transformed. What better moment to achieve this than now, when the world is pursuing another economic transformation, toward a green economy?

In fact, transforming women’s role in the economy could be even more urgent in the context of climate change. Traditional divisions of responsibility mean that men and women are often affected differently by climate change, particularly in developing countries.

Because men are more likely to perform wage labor or farm cash crops, a climate-driven event like drought may cost them their wages and force them to move to cities to find employment. Women, who are often responsible for growing local subsistence crops and taking care of their families, do not have that option.
Instead, women must find alternative means of securing food locally and of generating income to support their families, such as selling small assets or even withdrawing their children from school to help. The challenges women face are exacerbated in regions where women already spend hours each day fetching drinking water, and changing rainfall patterns could force women to travel even farther for it.

Against this background, it is crucial to empower women to seize the opportunity presented by the transition to a sustainable economy. Changes in four key areas could prove particularly valuable.

First, women need greater access to the financial system. In Sub-Saharan Africa, men are 30% more likely than women to have a bank account. To close this gap, we need to design loans and savings vehicles with more flexible requirements that work for women. This includes, for example, the expansion of microcredit – an approach that has already enabled women in many countries to become entrepreneurs.

Achieving this requires convincing still-skeptical creditors that women are dependable – and, indeed, valuable – clients, including by citing data on microcredit, which prove that women repay loans as reliably as men, if not more so. Once women gain access to the financial system, they can create and invest in small businesses, while feeling more secure about dipping into savings when confronted with emergencies.
Second, women need equal rights to land. Ownership of land – whether co-ownership, for a married woman, or sole ownership, for a single female head of household – not only improves economic security and productivity, but also boosts access to traditional finance. With a formal claim to the land they are farming, women are also more likely to invest in the fertility of the soil, contributing to more productive and sustainable land-use patterns.

Third, women need policies that support their active participation in the emerging green economy, including better education, skills training, and protections against workplace discrimination. Because the clean-energy industry is so new, it could help draw women into non-traditional higher-paid jobs like engineering.

Finally, women need to be empowered politically. If half the population doesn’t have a say in political decisions, the legitimacy of policymaking suffers. Women can play an important role as governments implement incentives and regulations that support the transition to a sustainable and inclusive economy.

Even without such support, women are already seizing the opportunity presented by this transition. Solar Sister is a social business that has created jobs for 2,500 women selling affordable solar lighting in Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda. Lumos, another solar solution, empowers women entrepreneurs in Nigeria.
But women still don’t comprise a large enough share of the workers in the clean-tech industry, and those who do work in that industry are generally low on the job ladder. Changing that – enabling all citizens to meet their economic potential – will require active efforts to promote women’s social and political inclusion.

Closing the gender gap is the right thing to do for women and the planet. It is also smart economics. Let’s not miss this opportunity.

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/sustainable-economy-women-empowerment-by-isabella-lovin-and-ngozi-okonjo-iweala-2017-05

Chair, Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance

Education is the strongest antidote to poverty and we have the opportunity to dramatically expand access to this remedy

Vaccinations of 1.6 million children are halting an outbreak of measles in Cambodia. In drought-stricken Somalia, 450,000 people are being immunized against the spread of deadly cholera. And in Brazil, 3.5 million doses of yellow fever vaccine are being deployed to quell a potential epidemic.

All this happened in the past month, thanks to vaccines.

Nearly two decades ago, global leaders initiated a ground-breaking effort to get new and underused vaccines to the world’s poorest people. At the time, millions of children were dying each year from preventable diseases. The solution was ambitious but feasible: create a financing facility that would mobilize and leverage funds to vaccinate as many children as possible. What became known as the Gavi Vaccine Alliance has saved more than seven million lives. And over the past 20 years, child mortality has plummeted in nearly every country around the world.

Today we’re faced with a need that is just as urgent: we are endangering the futures of more than 800 million children who will not have access to quality education. By 2030, these young people will lack the basic secondary school-level skills necessary for 21st-century jobs. They will not be able to shape their own futures or the economies of their countries, most of which – like my home country Nigeria – are struggling to climb out of poverty. Without the stabilizing foundation that an education provides, our youth might feel hopeless and turn to violence, fueling conflict and threats to global security.

We cannot afford to let this happen. But is there a clear solution? Can we vaccinate the world against poverty?

The answer is “yes,” but any solution will require both political will and a clear vision of what can be achieved. I am a member of the Education Commission – a group of political, business, and civil society leaders from countries as diverse as Australia, Mexico, Pakistan, the UK, and Tanzania who work together to ensure that the world’s children are all in school and learning.

Our message is clear. The strongest antidote to poverty is quality education, and we have the opportunity to dramatically expand access to this remedy through a breakthrough financing plan for an International Finance Facility for Education.

We recently presented the proposed Facility during the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings. At a series of gatherings in the U.S. capital – with development experts, African finance ministers, and more – the demand for such a Facility was evident, and we intend to act on this need. In July, we’ll take the same proposal to the G20 Summit in Germany. It’s been shaped by listening to hundreds of people across 80 countries, representing a wide variety of organizations and sectors, including many young people.

The Facility would be built on a partnership between international donors and developing countries that have a deep desire and commitment to improve learning for their children. These latter countries would do much of the hard work, committing to scale up their investment in education from the current average of 4% to 5.8% of their GDP – up to $3 trillion annually by 2030 – and implementing meaningful reforms to ensure children are in school and learning. But even these high levels of spending plus external assistance from donors won’t be enough to cover costs. This is where the Facility comes in, working with the world’s development banks to coordinate funding and create attractive financing packages that multiply the impact of donor dollars to fill this funding gap.

Once in operation, the Facility could mobilize upwards of $13 billion annually for education by 2020. This would double the available external support we give today. Together with the commitments of developing countries, that will go a long way toward putting those 800 million children on track for healthier, more fulfilling, and productive lives. This investment in human capital would strengthen their families, communities, and countries, and make our world more stable and prosperous. That’s good news for everyone.

We know from experience that an innovative public-private partnership like Gavi can work. But can global leaders bring the same energy, funding, and focus to the challenge of dramatically expanding access to education? We hope that they will say yes, and give education funding a much-needed shot in the arm.

Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is the Chair of Gavi and the former Minister of Finance of Nigeria

http://news.trust.org/item/20170427101226-bno34

by Aliko Dangote and Bill Gates
25 April 2017

This week, more than 138,000 vaccinators will fan out across five African countries in the Lake Chad area in a push to eliminate polio in Africa and rid the world of this terrible disease forever.

They will take boats across fast-flowing rivers, ride jeeps along sandy ravines, walk crowded street in towns and cities and navigate cramped quarters of refugee camps to ensure that every child is immunized. Traveling for hours a day, these dedicated women and men will visit children in homes, schools, train stations, and transit points across Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon, and the Central African Republic.

This also marks World Immunization Week, a coordinated effort to make sure that people everywhere understand the importance of getting immunized to protect against vaccine-preventable diseases.

And by coincidence, it was almost seven years ago that the two of us first met in a hotel conference room in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital. We were there as part of a diverse group—public officials, religious leaders, business people, polio survivors, and journalists—to discuss how we could work together to stop polio in Nigeria.

At the time, Nigeria had done an amazing job tackling polio—reducing reported cases by 95 percent in just one year. But it was still circulating in six Nigerian states. While 95 percent might seem like success, as long as a single child remains infected, children across Africa and around the world are at risk.

Thanks to the effort of so many, Nigeria’s Borno State is now the only place in Africa today where polio is still circulating. It will take ingenuity to end polio there, and it will take persistence to continue reaching children in the surrounding area with vaccines to protect them from the disease until it is eradicated. But we’re confident it can be done. And when that happens, Africa will celebrate one of the biggest victories ever in public health.

Since our first meeting in 2010, the two of us have worked together on a range of other projects to help improve health in Nigeria and across Africa.

We supported the establishment of emergency operations centers in Nigeria and other countries to keep polio from spreading. This turned out to be a blessing during the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa. When the disease first appeared in Nigeria—an international travel hub that is home to more than 180 million people—the staff of an emergency operations center set up in Lagos jumped into action and stopped the disease in its tracks. It’s almost unimaginable to think what would have happened without them.

In the state of Kano, we are working with the government to ensure that children can get essential childhood immunizations against tetanus, pneumonia, liver cancer and measles. And when parents bring their children into a clinic for vaccinations, health workers can address other health issues, too, like nutrition, care for pregnant mothers and newborns and malaria prevention and treatment. We have since widened the program to several other states.

Vaccines are also one of the best tools to save lives in an epidemic, such as the meningitis C outbreak happening now in Nigeria and other West African countries.

And because of the devastating impact malnutrition has on Nigeria’s children – leading to 300,000 deaths annually and causing stunted growth and development in millions more – we have expanded our partnership to include nutrition programs across 12 states.

Earlier this year, we also helped launch the End Malaria Council, a group of influential public and private sector leaders committed to ensuring that malaria eradication remains a top global priority.

Underlying all these efforts is our belief that strengthening health systems is the key to breaking the cycle of extreme poverty and disease—and kick-starting a virtuous cycle of health, productivity, and prosperity.

In our work together, we have learned a few important lessons.

First, improving the health of communities depends on a successful partnership between government, communities, religious and business leaders, volunteers, and NGOs. This ensures that everyone is rowing in the same direction. And it is essential to building trust so parents have the confidence that vaccines are safe and will protect their children from life-threatening diseases.

Second, we must keep innovating to speed up progress. This month, for example, vaccinators will test a new vaccine carrier that keeps the temperature of vaccines stable for up to five days, even in blistering heat. This breakthrough will enable vaccinators to finally reach children in extremely remote areas with life-saving vaccines.

Last, accurate and reliable data is central to any effort to improve health. Data can tell a health officer which communities are running low on vaccine supplies, where there are gaps in vaccination coverage, and which new mothers need reminders to take their babies to the health clinic to be immunized.

An Africa without polio is within reach. So is the vision of getting life-saving vaccines to every child. Success will generate more enthusiasm and support from across different sectors – government, business, civil society, the media – to tackle other killer diseases and the underlying conditions that affect people’s health, including fixing broken health systems.

We know that strengthening health systems takes time and diligence. We are optimistic that Africa can achieve the future it aspires to. That future depends on people working together—across national borders and across socioeconomic strata—to build the better world we all want.

http://www.einnews.com/pr_news/377796349/why-we-are-hopeful-about-improving-health-in-africa-by-aliko-dangote-and-bill-gates

Fortune Lists Okonjo-Iweala, Seth Berkley among 34 Leaders Changing Global Health Care
https://fortune.com/2017/04/20/digital-health-care-leaders/

With President Adesina of the African Development Bank, Nancy Birdsall, former president of the Center for Global Development, Antoinette Sayeh, former Finance Minister of Liberia, looking at ways for the AfDB to unlock more investment in Africa for developing infrastructure and ensuring young people receive the education they need. The proposed $100 billion big Bond can support all this.

LAGOS – The countries of Sub-Saharan Africa have reached a critical juncture. Strained by a collapse in commodity prices and China’s economic slowdown, the region’s growth slipped to 3.4% in 2015 – nearly 50% lower than the average rate over the previous 15 years. The estimated growth rate for 2016 is lower than the population growth rate of about 2%, implying a per capita contraction in GDP.

Sustained economic growth is essential to maintain progress on reducing poverty, infant mortality, disease, and malnutrition. It is also the only way to create sufficient good jobs for Africa’s burgeoning youth population – the fastest growing in the world. As Gerd Müller, Germany’s development minister, noted at a recent press conference, “If the youth of Africa can’t find work or a future in their own countries, it won’t be hundreds of thousands, but millions that make their way to Europe.”

One way to sustain growth and create jobs would be to collaborate on planning and implementing a massive increase in infrastructure investment across Africa. Public infrastructure is particularly important. This includes highways, bridges, and railways linking rural producers in landlocked countries to Africa’s urban consumers and external markets; mass transit and Internet infrastructure to accommodate greater commercial activity; and electricity transmission lines integrating privately financed power plants and grids.

Major regional projects are also needed to knit together Sub-Saharan Africa’s many tiny economies. This is the only way to create the economies of scale needed to increase the export potential of African agriculture and industry, as well as to reduce domestic prices of food and manufactured goods.

While governments in Africa are spending more on public infrastructure themselves, outside finance is still required, especially for regional projects, which are rarely a top priority for national governments. Yet aid from Africa’s traditionally generous foreign donors, including the United States and Europe, is now set to shrink, owing to political and economic constraints.

But there may be a solution that helps Africa recover its growth in a way that Western leaders and their constituents find acceptable. We call it the “Big Bond” – a strategy for leveraging foreign aid funds in international capital markets to generate financing for massive infrastructure investment.

Specifically, donors would borrow against future aid flows in capital markets. That way, they could exploit current low interest rates at home, as they generate new resources. With 30-year US Treasury rates of about 3%, donors would have to securitize only about $5 billion to raise $100 billion. That money could come from the $35 billion in annual official development assistance (ODA) to Africa (which totals about $50 billion) that takes the form of pure grants.

Donors would pass on the interest cost to African countries, reducing their own fiscal costs. For African countries, the terms would be better than those provided by Eurobonds. In fact, as audacious as it may sound, passing on the interest costs to recipient countries could actually bolster their debt sustainability.

According to a study of eight countries by the African Development Bank’s Policy Innovation Lab, a 3% interest rate in US dollar terms would be lower than the marginal cost of commercial borrowings undertaken by several African countries over the last five years. Moreover, far longer maturities and grace periods, compared to market finance, would ease growing pressure on foreign-exchange reserves.

Frontloading aid in this way is not new. Doing so in the early 2000s to finance vaccines saved millions of lives in the developing world. Big Bond resources, managed by the African Development Bank, could be used to help guarantee financing for major regional infrastructure projects that have long been stuck on the back burner, such as the East Africa Railway connecting Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi, and a highway stretching from Nigeria to Côte d’Ivoire. Such projects could also be co-financed by private investors.

Moreover, the Big Bond could help to reinvigorate the relationship between donors and African countries. And, as it supports investments with important country-level benefits, it could serve as an incentive for African countries to pursue reforms that increase their absorptive capacity, in terms of choosing and executing public infrastructure investments.

The Big Bond approach represents a much-needed update to the ODA framework – one that supports higher and more sustainable growth in recipient countries, while lowering the burden on donor countries. At a time when aid is under political pressure, perhaps such a bold approach to maximizing the efficiency of donor resources is exactly what the world needs.

Nancy Birdsall is President Emeritus and a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a former finance minister of Nigeria and managing director of the World Bank, is a distinguished visiting fellow at the Center for Global Development.

SOURCE: https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/africa-regional-infrastructure-investment-bond-by-nancy-birdsall-and-ngozi-okonjo-iweala-2017-04

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu6xKlyOnu4

At the Mo Ibrahim Foundation weekend in Marrakech. Africans, young and old, discussed how Africa can make itself "fit for purpose" for this 21st century.

How can the older generation make way for younger Africans to contribute to and govern what is their own future?

Delighted to be in Dubai for #AbraajWeek to talk about the role of private sector in making markets work for #globalhealth and development.

Got an amazing tour de force by Arif Naqvi giving a global overview of potential in developing countries growth markets. Some optimism in the midst of so much pessimism.

A wonderful International Women's Day celebrating the achievement of all women, and especially women of color, at Howard University Washington DC where I got a surprise Vanguard Award for supporting women's empowerment, together with Congresswoman Karen Bass as well as Diplomat and NDI Director Ms. Sandra Pepra. Flanking us are Profs Josephine Dawumi and Clarence Lusane of Howard University.

Happy International Women's Day to all girls, women and especially to the men who also need to act to make the empowerment of women a reality.

Educating girls is the most powerful weapon the world has to improve the well being of its children, households, and society and the economy.

Please see the link below to read the article that Sheikha Lubna and I have put together from our work on the Global Commission on Education @EduCommission

http://cnn.it/2mhrIZO

Many people have found this World Bank's free online course on Financing for Development useful.

I’m delighted to be a video speaker on it for the second time.

You might want to consider signing up: http:///f4dmooc #fin4devmooc

Please read @BillGates and @MelindaGates' Annual 2017 letter at http://gates.ly/2kLE4KI.

It shows how investments in saving children's lives by BMGF, GAVI, and others, in conjunction with governments of developing countries, have saved 122 million children's lives since 1990.

Take in the compelling statistics, then reflect on what it means for our children and the tasks still ahead of us to make their lives better.

Best.

NOI

by Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Gavi Board Chair

One of the unfortunate consequences of more people surviving childhood and living longer lives is that you start to see cases of cancer steadily increase. But while medical advances are helping to improve survival rates of cancer patients in high-income countries, the limited access to screening and treatment across Africa means that a growing number of people are dying young from largely preventable and treatable diseases. Because of this Africa is now in serious danger of sleepwalking into a cancer crisis.

This is particularly the case with women and cervical cancer, which in many countries is the most common cancer affecting women. Currently 266,000 women die horrible deaths of this disease every year – one every two minutes – of which 87% are in low- and middle-income countries, with the eight highest rates of incidence all in Africa. In Nigeria alone more than 14,000 women are diagnosed with the disease each year, more than 8,000 of whom die. And yet, tragically most of these deaths could be prevented thanks to the existence of an affordable and effective vaccine. Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines targets the virus that is responsible for 70-90% of cervical cancers, depending on the vaccine. It is safe and one of the most effective and high-impact vaccines that exist, preventing 1,500 deaths for every 100,000 girls vaccinated. So then why aren’t African girls getting it?

Historically one of the major barriers was price. In wealthy countries, this relatively new vaccine can cost more than US$ 100 for each of the two doses required. Today it costs just US$ 4.50 per dose for poorer countries, bringing it within reach of those most in need, thanks to the efforts of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, of which I am Board Chair. In addition to this the age of the target population has also posed challenges. HPV vaccine is most effective when given to women before they become sexually active, so campaigns are aimed vaccinating adolescent girls, typically between 9-14 years old. Since this falls outside the age range when infants receive most of their vaccinations, it has meant finding reliable ways to reach these girls, such as working with civil society organisations, community health workers and youth friendly services to establish school-links and develop health platforms for adolescents.

Since 2013, this sort of approach has enabled more than 1 million school-aged girls in poor countries to be vaccinated against HPV, with more planned for 2017. However, progress so far has largely been achieved through dozens of relatively small-scale “demonstration projects”. If we want to make a long-term dent on mortality rates, and prevent cervical cancer from continuing to rise, to the point where it kills more women than childbirth, then HPV programmes need to be scaled-up to a national level. Countries like Rwanda and Uganda have already demonstrated that this can be achieved by first recognising the scale and severity of the problem, and then to acting on it. If other countries do the same, Gavi hopes to reach 40 million girls between now and 2020, preventing 900,000 deaths.

We saw a significant step in the right direction exactly one year ago, when on World Cancer Day, the then UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon issued a rallying cry to eliminate cervical cancer once and for all. Then this week the African Union, which is made up of 55 states, endorsed the Addis Declaration on Immunization, a commitment to ensure that all Africans – no matter who they are or where they live – can access the vaccines they need to live healthy and productive lives. The next step is for governments to earmark funds and commit to national HPV vaccine introductions.

Across Africa there remains a desperate need for cancer clinics offering women affordable screening and treatment, but compared to immunisation these are much more expensive to set-up. This is one reason why in Nigeria, for example, far more women die of cancer than men, even though Nigerian women tend to drink and smoke less, and are on average more physically active. So, prioritising HPV will not only contribute to the social and economic development of countries and help governments meet the Sustainable Development Goal of reducing premature deaths from non-communicable diseases, such as cancer, by one third, but it will also go a long way towards addressing the terrible gender gaps that exist across Africa.

A development economist and former Finance Minister of Nigeria, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has served as Board Chair of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, since January 2016

SOURCE: http://www.cnbcafrica.com/news/special-report/2017/02/03/cervical-cancer/

My attention has been drawn to this campaign making the rounds on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/OkonjoIwealaAdesina2019Rescue/…
I have nothing to do with this and I urge those behind it to stop, as I am focused on other things.

While I thank those who want to have my name constantly in the headlines for one important position or the other in the country, rest assured I am fully occupied with my international assignments and loving it.

Best.

NOI

Written by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
Chair, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance

For Africa, the road to prosperity must begin with investment in its most precious resource. Not its minerals, oil reserves or plantations, but something even more critical to Africa’s future: the health of its children. I don’t mean this figuratively; an investment in children’s health is precisely that. Compelling evidence now suggests that every dollar, shilling, pound or rand spent on preventing disease does not just reduce needless human suffering, but it also makes sound economic sense too.

With more than 30 vaccine doses administered worldwide every second, immunization is already recognized as one of the most cost effective health interventions. But recent research published in the journal Health Affairs, now puts a more precise figure on it. For every dollar invested in childhood immunization we can expect to save $16 in healthcare costs, lost wages and productivity due to illness. If you take into account the full value placed on people living longer, healthier lives, then that return on investment increases even further to $44.

For governments, this represents a huge opportunity. But it also means that when it comes to child health the buck shouldn’t stop with health ministers; protection of child health needs to be a national priority for all government, and all governments. Yet, even though vaccination is such good value, one-in-five children globally are still not getting access to even the most basic shots, with many countries having immunization coverage rates of below 50%, the vast majority in my home continent of Africa. Because of this 1.5 million children still die every year from vaccine preventable diseases.

Part of the problem is failure by leaders to recognize vaccines as a top priority investment. In particular, finance ministers too often fail to recognize that vaccines aren’t just good value for money, but are investments with very high returns. In addition to this there is a widespread assumption within governments and beyond, that childhood mortality is just a matter for health ministers. In reality, it has implications for just about every aspect of government.

That’s because preventing illness through immunization can have a huge impact in helping to contribute to the social and economic wellbeing of individuals, families, communities and countries. A healthy infant does not need medical treatment or care, both of which come at a cost. She also has a greater chance of growing into a healthier child, who is able to attend school and ultimately become a more productive member of society. And instead of caring for a sick child, her parents are in a better position to go out to work and increase their own ability to earn, which means they will have a greater disposable income to feed back into the economy.

All of this is not just good for boosting local and national prosperity; strong routine immunization programmes also form a vital part of robust universal healthcare systems, which are themselves critical to helping national leaders achieve economic and development targets. To put a figure on it, this latest study, which looked at 94 low- and middle-income countries, predicts that between 2011-2020 childhood immunization stands to offer up to $1.43 trillion in economic benefits.

However, if we wish to harness these benefits, as well as further economic returns beyond 2020, then we need to see greater long-term domestic commitment towards immunization. Since 1990 we have seen childhood mortality more than halve, and since 2000 we have witnessed more than 580 million additional children receive vaccines, thanks to organisations like UNICEF, the World Health Organization and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, of which I am the Board Chair. But if this kind of progress is to be sustained then we need to see strong immunization policy backed up by long-term health spending allocation.

That means the focus needs to shift away from just health ministers, and instead engage all aspects of government, in particular finance ministers. As former Finance Minister for Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, I know how important it is for health ministers to make a better case for immunization to finance ministers when it comes to defending their health budget. They need to make finance ministers understand the critical role that reducing infectious disease has in boosting the economy, and the role they have to play in making that happen.

To some extent we have already seen some very positive signs of progress, not least with the former President of Tanzania, Jakaya Kikwete, last year agreeing to become Gavi’s Global Ambassador for Immunisation to help spread the word to his peers about the benefits and value of vaccination that he saw in his own country. In addition, we have seen increases in spending on health. Over the next five years we expect to see the 39 poorest African governments contribute around $6 billion towards the cost of immunization. If childhood mortality is to continue to fall we will need to ensure that in the years to come that figure continues to rise.

Source: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/01/the-first-step-to-africa-s-prosperity-saving-children-s-lives