Africa Business Debate

THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL CRISIS HAS THE POTENTIAL TO UNDERMINE THE RECENT ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL PROGRESS MADE ACROSS SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA. AT THE SAME TIME, IT PRESENTS AN OPPORTUNITY TO STIMULATE NEW THINKING ON HOW TO GENERATE INNOVATIVE AND MORE SUSTAINABLE WAYS TO SUPPORT THE REGION’S GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT.

Business Action for Africa has invited a wide range of leading thinkers from business, government and the NGO community – both international and from Africa – to share their views on how to ensure the private sector continues to act as the engine room of growth and development, and the type of policies required to help businesses to manage and innovate through the crisis.

We would like to invite you to join the discussion – by posting your comments on their blog posts here on Business Fights Poverty (a full list is set out below) and adding blog posts of your own. You can download our latest publication, “From Crisis to Opportunity” here.

You can download our previous report, “MDGs at the Midpoint”, here.

Lord Malloch-Brown
Minister for Africa, Asia and the UN, Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Sir Mark Moody-Stuart
Chairman, Anglo American

Professor Paul Collier Professor of Economics, Oxford University, Director for the Study of African Economies

Obiageli Ezekwesili
Vice President of the Africa Region, World Bank

Jim Kolbe
Senior Transatlantic Fellow, German Marshall Fund
of the United States

Nicky Oppenheimer
Chairman, De Beers Group

Dr Peter Eigen
Chairman of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Member of the Africa Progress Panel

Omari Issa
CEO of the Investment Climate Facility for Africa (ICF)

Gareth Thomas
Minister of State for International Development, DFID

Miguel Veiga-Pestana
Vice-President Global External Affairs, Unilever

Richard Laing
Chief Executive, CDC

Razia Khan
Regional Head of Research, Africa, Standard Chartered Bank

Gabriel Solomon
Senior Vice President, GSMA

Petter Mathews
Director, Engineers Against Poverty

Dr Nick Blazquez
Managing Director, Diageo Africa

Arne Cartridge
Executive Vice President
& Sean De Cleene
Vice President,Yara International

Keith Palmer
Chairman of InfraCo and AgDevCo

Brenda D. Colatrella
Executive Director, Corporate Responsibility & Global
Policy Support, Merck & Co., Inc.

Adam Leach
Chief Executive, International Business Leaders Forum

Alison Evans
Executive Director, ODI
& Karen Ellis
Research Fellow & Programme Leader,Business and Development Programme

Mark Bowman
Managing Director,
SABMiller Africa