Veep attributes Africa's underdevelopment to lack of capacity

Accra, July 15, GNA - Vice President John Dramani Mahama on Thursday said Africa's underdevelopment was not due to the lack of resources, but lack of skills and capacity to harness the available resources.

"That is why I will like to appeal to all our development partners to support us in all our endeavours to become self-reliant and development-oriented in all sectors of our lives."

Vice President Mahama said these when he addressed the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) four-day Regional Bureau of Africa cluster meeting in Accra.

The meeting which had as its theme 93The African moment: Seizing the opportunity for transformational Development," attracted 45 Resident Directors from other African countries.

It would among other issues discuss the millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the causes of underdevelopment and poverty in the African countries and health and sanitation needs of the continent.

The Vice President said already government was collaborating with other Agencies to reduce the country's high rates of child and maternal deaths and called on the UNDP and other development partners to support the Millennium Development Goals concerning those areas.

He said Africa's renaissance depended on their own development initiatives and called on all African countries to cooperate with development partners in order to streamline areas that lacked skills and capacity.

"Africa's moment is now and we need to take advantage of all the necessary support to succeed in our endeavours."

Vice President Mahama said peace was a paramount ingredient for development and hoped that Ghana's National Peace Architecture would by the end of the year be passed into law to give stakeholders the mandate to carry all kinds of peace initiatives.

"The world economic recession that affected all African countries has created a platform for us to forge ahead to meet the challenges of similar problems in future."

Miss Helen Clark, Administrator of UNDP, pledged the support of her outfit to enhance development devoid of poverty and hunger on the African continent.