Sustainable Development of African Countries: Myths, Reality, Ways to Achieve It
SDG 1SDG 8SDG 10
About the Session
Africa, which stores huge reserves of various minerals in its bowels and has predominantly young, and therefore most active labor resources, is at the same time the poorest continent in the world. According to the UN, 33 out of the 46 least developed countries in the world are African countries. Being on this list is not just an official recognition of the country’s economic weakness, it is a signal of vulnerability and extreme instability in its economic development. The instability of agricultural production against the backdrop of a constantly growing population, recurring social and political upheavals, which nullify the achievements of previous years, monocultural exports dependent on the world raw materials markets conditions: listing the pain points of the African continent means listing the reasons which gave rise to the need to promote the goals of sustainable development of mankind. At the session, we will talk not so much about the causes of Africa’s economic disasters as about their consequences and challenges to overcome these consequences.
How can effective interaction between the state and business mitigate the property stratification of society? Is it necessary to chase the global trends of lean production and consumption to the detriment of the developing economy trying to gain its foothold? Can the existing tools of international support for the least developed countries be considered effective if this support has achieved very modest success in combating the set of problems which hamper Africa’s development over the decades of its existence? How can one differentiate a monocultural economy and what role can tourism play as a component of the service sector? These and other issues will be discussed both using relevant examples from various African countries, and in the context of developing recommendations based on Russian and international experience in achieving individual sustainable development goals.
