WEF Africa to focus on inclusive growth

The co-chairs of WEF Africa are Winnie Byanyima, the executive director of Oxfam International; Siyabonga Gama, group CEO of Transnet; Frédéric Lemoine, chairperson of the executive board of Wendel; Rich Lesser, global CEO and president of Boston Consulting Group, and Ulrich Spiesshofer, president and CEO of ABB.

With prospects for growth and development in Sub-Saharan Africa for 2017 very much a mixed bag, the 27th World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa taking place in Durban in May will seek to define strategies and actions to restore the region on a path towards a sustainable, prosperous and inclusive future.

In a statement on Monday, WEF said that the Sub-Saharan region accounted for some of the world’s fastest growing economies, but was also home to countries whose “commodity-dependent economies have struggled to adapt to structural downturns in prices”.

It said the purpose of the May 3-5 meeting would be to convene leaders from across all stakeholder groups to define strategies and actions to restore the whole region on its path towards a sustainable, prosperous and inclusive future.