ADDIS ABABA, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Africa was badly hit by the second-round effects of the global economic and financial crisis, especially falling export earnings and the drying up of financial flows, though the continent's financial systems were relatively immune to the effects of the crisis, said a UN official on Thursday.

    "What this points to is that previous growth, while benefiting from improved macroeconomic management, was largely dependent on commodity exports and resources flows from outside the continent," said Abdoulie Janneh, UN under-secretary-general and executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).

    "It is also evident that the dominant paradigm in economics proved inadequate for responding to the global crisis for both developed and developing economies," said Janneh at the Fourth African Economic Conference.

    The annual African Economic Conference kicked off here on Wednesday under the theme "Fostering Development in an Era of Economic and Financial Crisis". The conference was jointly organized by the UNECA and the African Development Bank.

    But the UN official said the current economic and financial crisis "does provide us with a good opportunity to redirect Africa's development trajectory to make growth more enduring and sustainable."

    "This is because a crisis concentrates the mind and forces us all to consider options that were previously considered as impractical, overambitious or not deemed as urgent.

    "We are now compelled to come up with policy options that would enable African countries to surpass the 6 percent annual growth achieved prior to the financial crisis."