Though Africa's economy is growing, it is not at the pace required to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) said Friday.

Kasrim Mnuke, head of poverty and MDGs with ECA, said committed leadership and political will are the preconditions for scaling up interventions to accelerate growth and development in Africa with a view to attaining the MDGs.

The ECA official made the remarks while presenting a report to the 26th meeting of the committee of experts, prior to the conference of African ministers of finance, planning and economic development.

The African ministers are to meet in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa next week to discuss how to accelerate growth on the continent to meet the MDGs.

The MDGs, which were established in 2000 at the Millennium Summit in New York, include eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education; promoting gender equality and empower women; reducing child mortality; improving maternal health; combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensuring environmental sustainability; and developing a global partnership for development.

He said scaling up financing and public sector investments to address critical growth bottlenecks would also have a significant contribution to achieving MDGs.

Education, health, water and sanitation, and social protection are critical for building up a country's stock of human capital and for achieving the MDGs, said Mnuke.

Raising agricultural productivity and transforming the rural sector have been, and remain, major challenges to most African countries, he said.

By boosting agricultural productivity and achieving rural transformation, poverty, hunger and poor health status, which increases vulnerability to HIV/AIDS and other diseases, could be alleviated, he said.

Source: Xinhua