The Honorable Cristina Duarte, Minister of Finance and Planning, Republic of Cape Verde and Candidate for Presidency of the African Development Bank in 2015, joined the Executive Master in International Negotiation and Policy-Making (INP) at Villa Barton, for a presentation in which she highlighted her policy achievements and resulting socioeconomic impact for Cape Verde during her tenure.

Despite a lack of natural resources and arable land, and suffering from frequent droughts, the Republic of Cabo Verde has navigated a course of economic transformation, while concurrently delivering higher social goods.  According to Duarte, this comes from "good governance and sound macroeconomic policy", adding that these initiatives were bolstered by foreign investment and remittances.

Minister Duarte's presentation gave context to four decades of change, as Cape Verde moved to a Middle Income Country (MIC), and she shared how a bipartisan commitment to consistency of fiscal policy helped the country lead effectively--especially during the particularly vulnerable years after the 2008 financial crisis, with an economy highly interdependent on the EU zone.  As a result, the country's leadership had the financial resources, the collective will and the vision to re-invest in social programmes to protect its most vulnerable (while other countries struggled under policies of austerity).  Today, the country, while faced with many challenges, continues on its path toward further poverty reduction and diversification of its economy.

The event was hosted as part of the Executive Master INP, as part of the programme's ongoing series of guest speakers and events, following a recent INP panel event on the UN Development System Reform.

The address included an informal question-answer session, providing INP participants an unique opportunity to engage a successful policy-maker whose own campaign for advancing African leadership is in full swing.  Ms. Duarte's presentation came on the heels of a talk at Chatham House in the UK, and in advance of upcoming interviews on CNN and Al Jazeera media channels.

Ms. Duarte shared a series of "Lessons Learned", including the following:

1. Development is possible without traditional natural resources
2. The State must be credible -- institutions must engender people’s trust and confidence
3. Development must be inclusive in order to be sustainable on a long-term view
4. The State should concentrate on its core business, leaving clear roles for civil society leadership
5. Civil society must be given sufficient "social space", including economic and political freedoms
6. A transformation agenda requires a strong, clear and shared strategic vision
7. There needs to be some consistency of policy for investors and private sector growth
8. Strong capacity-building programmes are required for the transitions to a diversified economy
9. Strong leadership and "enlightened follower-ship" are equally important
10. Internal and international financial accountability are critical
     

Minister Duarte, who was also in attendance at the Africa CEO Forum in Geneva this week, was accompanied by Ambassador José Luís Monteiro (Permanent Representative of the Republic of Cabo Verde to the United Nations and International Organisations in Geneva) and Ambassador José Brito, Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The Executive Master in International Negotiation and Policy-Making (INP) is a part-time degree programme for mid-career and senior leaders from across sectors.  A flagship degree within the Executive Education portfolio of programmes, the Executive Master INP meets in both modular and weekend format, with participants joining from as far as California, USA and Colombo, Sri Lanka.