SPEECH BY HIS EXCELLENCY HON. UHURU KENYATTA, C.G.H.

,
PRESIDENT AND COMMANDER IN CHIEF OF THE DEFENCE
FORCES OF THE REPUBLIC OF KENYA DURING THE AFRICA
FORUM ON INCLUSIVE ECONOMIES AT WINDSOR GOLF AND
COUNTRY CLUB, NAIROBI, 8TH DECEMBER, 2014

Mr. Mamadou Biteye, Managing Director, Rockefeller Foundation Africa Regional Office,
Mr. Donald Kaberuka, President of the African Development Bank,
Cabinet Secretaries,
Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Let me begin by thanking the organizers for their excellent work in convening this Forum. I share
their conviction that we can develop a common understanding of the opportunities and agenda
for inclusive economies in Africa, and that we can encourage new practices of inclusion and
equality on the continent.

Distinguished Guests,
Africa is at a crossroads, with a youthful population that will be the largest global workforce in the
next two decades; a land blessed with natural resources beyond compare; and a continent that is
the very embodiment of resilience and hope. Before us, stands opportunity, for our people, our
nations and our future; behind us, a past in which we have not always lived up to the highest
expectations of our people.

In the last decade, Developing and Least Developed Countries were spurred by the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs). The attainment of these Goals by 2015 has been an imperative for
us.

In this regard, African countries are playing an active role in leading and advancing discussions on
the Post-2015 development agenda. Kenya is co-chairing the Open Working Group on Sustainable
Development Goals, which is steering the dialogue on the post-MDGs agenda.

These goals will play a vital role in shaping development thinking in years to come. I am glad to
note that Africa is the first region in the South to have developed a Common Position on the post
2015 discussions, which emphasizes structural economic transformation,inclusive growth and
environmental sustainability alike. Africas own growth agenda is now at the very heart of
international development practice.

We, African leaders, are working more closely than ever before with our continental institutions.

We have defined and committed ourselves to the establishment of building blocks, for a future
that is critical for our continents growth. We identify that investment is multifaceted, humancentered, future focused and sensitive to both the intrinsic and unlocked value of our human and
natural resources. This approach, I believe, is the very bedrock of what an inclusive economy is
typified by expanded economic opportunity for the majority of a nations population and
leveraging on the societys assets in order to increase overall wellbeing of the people.

Distinguished Guests,
Today, the most significant challenge confronting the world and to our continent is inequality. But
Africas narrative is now changing. The impressive economic potential and prospects has bought
about a great sense of optimism in Africa. The continent Africa has over the last decade become
one of the fastest growing regions in the world, with 8 out of 10 fastest growing economies being
in Africa. In2013, Africa maintained an average growth rate of about 4%. This is in comparison to
3% growth in the global economy.

Further, Africas average growth is projected to accelerate to close to 5% in 2014 and to 6% in

2015, thus to levels last seen before the onset of the 2009 global recession.

In this regard, Africa is standing in an incredibly privileged position becoming a center for global
growth. We are proudly watching the continent rising to be an international powerhouse and
becoming an investment destination for both advanced and emerging economies.

Indeed, it is no surprise that frontier economies such as Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Nigeria and
Botswana are roaring loud as theAfrican lions. And yet, the tide of growth is rising at an
incredible pace and the glorious Africa is yet to reveal itself fully.

In the last decade, Foreign Direct Investment to the continent has increased fivefold, with the
largest share of that investment flowing into the mining and extractives sector.

As African countries, our focus should now be on developing a skills base that is reflective of the
opportunity that rapidly growing sectors hold. As we develop our future workforce, we must start
thinking more broadly about our educational investments that will cement our growth in years to
come.

Distinguished Guests,
It is important that we harness the skills and expertise that is critical to growth and development.

Engineering skills to run drilling operations; legal skills to negotiate positions that protect our
present day assets into the future;technology skills to run the digital networks that are needed to
monitor operations; and outstanding vocational skills to build and maintain these investments,
are critical to our economic and intellectual maturity as nations, and to economic and livelihood
prospects for our young men and women.

In Kenya, we have re-energized our National Youth Service, as a programmed that instills dignity
in all spectrums of work, embeds national values and social cohesion, as a benchmark for a new
generation of young Kenyans. Not only impacting the servicemen and women of the NYS, but
also the communities that they serve.

Further, Africa is rapidly growing its digital footprint and Kenya has established itself as a leader
in the field of IT innovation with groundbreaking inclusive products such as M-Pesa and Ushahidi,
putting this country on the global map. My Government has committed to ensuring it reflects a
digital DNA and this is evidenced by our commitment to building these skills from primary level
and shifting the modus operandi of how government works through an e-government platform.
Our Huduma Centres have been established to accelerate service provision to citizens through eservices.

Such commitment has been actualized by our partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation
through their Digital Jobs Africa initiative whose goal is to connect high potential but
disadvantaged youth to jobs in the digital economy. Through this partnership and in collaboration
with the private sector, high school graduates from Nairobis informal settlements undertook
digitization of medical records at Kenyatta National Hospital, the countrys largest referral hospital
and the digitization of judicial records in partnership with the National Council for Law Reporting.

This initiative, not only made these legal records available digitally, but also converted the
records into formats accessible to the visually and hearing impaired thereby providing access for
an often excluded segment of the population.

Distinguished Guests,
This multi-impact approach builds jobs for youth who may not have been absorbed into
employment; enables citizens quicker access to their information; enables companies to have
triple bottom line value and improves the skills of these young people through on-the job practical
experience that enables them to move up the employment chain. It builds on the significant
growth of ICT infrastructure that has taken place across the continent and leverages what is
perhaps our continent's greatest asset, a talented youth population, and our own demographic
dividend.

Moreover, this approach exemplifies new thinking by challenging employers to embrace inclusive
hiring as a sound business practice,extending opportunities to those who might otherwise have
been excluded.

In 2013 we launched the Uwezo Fund, which is aimed at enabling women, youth and persons with

disability access finances to promote businesses and enterprises at the constituency level,
understanding that jobs are also self-generated and entrepreneurship is a key driver of our overall
growth.

In addition to Kenya, this approach is currently being deployed in Ghana, South Africa, Nigeria,
Egypt and Morocco and has resulted in thousands of jobs. Our next frontier should be focused on
how to replicate these multi-impact models in a variety of sectors including infrastructure
development, natural resource management, health, conservation, and agriculture.

Distinguished Guests,
Turning to agriculture, we recognize that this is still the backbone of many of our economies,
supporting 90 percent of basic livelihoods across the region, and yet food insecurity and improved
livelihoods remain elusive for many of our nations citizens, evidenced by the fact that 70 percent
of Africas poorest are engaged in agriculture.

Moving towards systems that are farmer focused and that ensure highest value returns along the
value chain, while maximizing the incomes derived for the producer of that good, has to be the
future of our agricultural approaches. Innovative and human centered models that meet the
income aspirations of our farmers, while allowing our children, families and communities to
benefit from proper nutrition which we know yields outsized productivity benefits for every
shilling, cedi, rand or dollar spent, should be the way we approach our investments in this sector.

I am glad to note that one of todays panel discussion focus on the symbiotic relationship
between consumers, producers and buyersin agriculture, and how the value chain can be
enhanced for all; keenly informed by both successful and not-so successful practices that have
been employed in the past.

On infrastructure, my Government is paving the way in opening up regional trade across the
continent understanding that nations are intrinsically co-joined to their regions and have a
responsibility to that relationship.

Recently we flagged off the joint South Sudan - Ethiopia Transport Corridor, which will spur
regional trade and economic inclusion for the people of this region. Trade integration is essential
for Africa to realize its full growth potential, to participate in the global economy,and to share in
the benefits of an increasingly connected global marketplace.

Having 54 individual countries, often without the physical and economic machinery to act in
tandem, significantly limits optimization of this opportunity.

Regional bodies can shoulder this responsibility of strengthening an integrated and economically
diverse Africa to include young and old,women and men, rural and urban communities alike, to
firmly establish our continent as the premier global emerging market.

Distinguished Guests,
While progress towards inclusivity may seem a difficult goal to measure, new African centered
approaches have now been developed that are reflective of our interest, intellectual input and
continental goals.

As part of our commitment to be a beacon on the continent, Kenya was a pilot country, along with
Cameroon, Morocco, Senegal andZambia in the recently launched African Social Development
Index, developed by the Economic Commission for Africa in collaboration with the Ministry of
Devolution and Planning, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics and the University of Nairobi.

The Index will enable us assess the actual extent of exclusion and inequality in our nations by
measuring human exclusion, and assessing our performance towards inclusive development
along the entire life cycle. We are honoured to be part of the first phase of this pilot, knowing
that lessons learned from here will be used to strengthen the application of the Index. I
encourage the other 49countries on the continent to rapidly adopt this tool as a way to set
targets and monitor their own progress with regards to inclusivity.

Distinguished Guests,
As you engage today, my challenge to you is to be provocative, to be bold in your thinking and to
have an open mindset, so as not to reinvest our scarce resources in approaches of yesteryear
that have not yielded optimal results for our people. But most of all, to think about our
continents future and how in your individual and institutional capacity you are contributing to a
higher quality of life and better future for the multitudes whose voices are not present in this
room. After all, we are not inheritors of this land, but keepers for the generations of Africans as
yet unborn.

It is my pleasure to declare this inaugural joint Forum of the Rockefeller Foundation, the African
Development Bank and the Economic Commission for Africa on Inclusive Economies in Africa
officially opened.

I thank you.