Carlos Lopes bows out of ECA after standing firm on issues including illicit financial flows
UN Under-Secretary and Executive Director of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Dr. Carlos Lopes is stepping out of office after four years, the Addis Ababa based organization has announced in a press release copied to ghanabusinessnews.com.
He will step down at the end of October 2016.
Lopes, known as a firm believer in Africa’s ability to tackle its own challenges, has stood for, among others structural transformation and kept a keen eye on illicit financial flows from Africa – which costs the continent some $50 billion a year.
The organization, describing the Guinea-Bissau national, as a champion of Africa’s structural transformation through industrialization, said he had transformed the ECA’s role towards becoming a Think Tank of reference with the uptake of ECA products by Member States for policy formulation rising exponentially.
“Some of the issues he has stood firmly on include the loss of Africa’s billions of dollars from bad contract negotiations, lazy fiscal reforms or illicit financial flows. He was the first to call for debt cancellation for Ebola-affected countries on the continent and led a team that demonstrated the economic impact projections on Africa were highly exaggerated and part of a negative narrative,” the release said.
According to the release, he also helped and advised African leaders on how to finance their economies from domestic resources.
“One of his main achievements while with the ECA was his role championing the need for improved data and statistics for informed decision-making on the continent. In that regard, he repositioned the ECA’s sub-regional offices into sub-regional data centres collecting and collating data on emerging issues of relevance to Africa’s transformation, including country profiles and an African statistical flash, and the proposal for an Africa data Consensus and statistical information platform,” it ssaid.
Commenting on his tenure at the ECA, Lopes said, “I have enjoyed my time at the ECA. But unfortunately all good things come to an end. I will always cherish the times that we shared together, especially working with the ECA experts in developing strategies to help the continent industrialize; fostering intra-regional integration and trade.”
Mr. Lopes was appointed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as the eighth Executive Secretary of the ECA at the level of UN Under-Secretary-General in September 2012. He previously served as Executive Director of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) in Geneva and Director of the UN System Staff College in Turin at the level of Assistant Secretary-General from March 2007 to August 2012.
Prior to that, Mr. Lopes was the UN Assistant-Secretary-General and Director for Political Affairs for Secretary-General Kofi Annan, during the period 2005 to 2007, the release added.
By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi
Finally Good riddance! ECA is in worse shape than ever! An inexperienced appointee who ruled like a Napoleon and a “know it all” is leaving the mother of all African institutions in disarray and diminished. For once accountability of Tenure is required. The institution is on the rocks with programs messed up and staff in intellectual coma. An independent assessment of Mr. Lopes claims of success is needed to right a sinking ship that he is abandoning.
He used the organization to promote himself & squandered resources human & financial. I agree! There should be a proper audit to enable an objective assessment of the Lopes’ tenure dogged with all kinds financial, managerial skullduggery. He cannot claim credit for ECA’s work on Illicit Financial Flows. His predecessor Abdoulie Janneh is the one who championed this cause.
Check facts https://africaresearchonline.wordpress.com/2012/03/15/africas-illicit-financial-flows/
Lopes should bow his head in shame.
Carlos Lopes has left the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa UNECA) in a state of smokes and mirrors… and, might we add, in flames after 4 years of spin, borrowed slogans and broken morale across the length and breadth of the organization. Indeed, when legacies are dissected and put under the spotlight, that of Lopes will bear one adjective – ‘woeful’. After tasting high power as the ECA’s Executive Secretary, a position he long coveted, and one that he was ill-prepared for, he shamelessly substituted the organization for his personal fiefdom sending eviction notices to those that dared to challenge him, and banishing staff members he judged as ‘outsiders’, a short hand for those that did not follow his reforms. His ego grew exponentially as his craving for ‘shocking statistics’ intensified. And perhaps the greatest irony is that whilst Lopes tormented his officials for big numbers, he allowed ECA’s African Centre for Statistics to rot, a Centre he claimed will become the statistical powerhouse of Africa, and one he vowed to stock with more than 60 statisticians in a pooled recruitment. As if words were not enough penance, he left the Centre rudderless without a director for 4 years and the bewildered officials chanting vacantly “ if you don’t control the number you cannot tell your own story.” As Lopes belted flaky numbers extracted from the very people he sought to intrumentalise throughout his tenure, it became obvious that he was not only addicted to shocking numbers but also to a sound bite culture and podiums where he could exhibit his numbers to impress, to stir, to shock and to awe an enthralled audience. Equally, claims of fighting illicit financial flows as a premier think tank, and attempts to jump on the bandwagon of industrialization and structural transformation revealed deep technical cracks as Lopes sought to thrive on the hard-won successes of his predecessors and dedicated lieutenants. But the horror story does not end there – what is striking is that Lopes continued his reign of terror as the United Nations watched imperviously and the African ‘big men’ seemed bowled over. The horror is that whilst Lopes stretched his cheap analogues, he received applause as a supposed savvy communicator, a transformer, not to mention an intellectual giant (no pun intended). Lopes and his well known profligacy for big events squandered ECA funds that others before him worked tirelessly to mobilise, with programmes choked, staff members stifled, donors indifferent and a forced rhetoric of “Africa First” (baptized in-house as Lopes First, Africa Last) as if to eulogize a man that must be revered. Yes, ECA is transformed beyond recognition, to a voiceless group of lackeys who have understood that beyond Lopes’ half baked theories, the facile comparators, the blistered anecdotes, the fixation for the high stage, their only salvation was to serve ‘Napoleon’ to the full. Africa deserved better and now deserves considerably better from the withered stump of an organization set up to serve a continent and not one egocentric individual.