Activities of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)

The 39th Commission Session Endorses ECA Reform and Issues Proposals to Improve Employment

The 39th session of the Commission/Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development Conference, held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso from 10 to 15 May 2006, ended with specific proposals to improve the employment situation in the continent. The conference also endorsed the Secretariat’s proposals for “Repositioning ECA to better respond to Africa’s priorities”. The Commission’s reform and repositioning exercise is an initiative of the new Executive Secretary, Mr. Abdoulie Janneh, who was appointed last September. The initiative aims principally to enhance ECA’s support for the advancement of the regional integration agenda and the achievement of the MDGs in Africa.

The ministerial statement issued at the close of the meeting stressed the need to incorporate employment objectives in national development and poverty reduction policies. It also emphasized the importance of policies that will fully exploit the job creation potential of the private sector and target the employment needs of disadvantaged segments of society. Such policies will also seek to build the human and institutional capacities that are the “key stepping stones towards the generation of decent employment”.

Ministers highlighted the importance of strong partnerships in this field and called on ECA “to take leadership in the development and coordination of statistical activities on the continent, such as the Reference Regional Strategic Framework, in collaboration with the African Union (AU), the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Regional Economic Communities (RECS)”.

Brazzaville Commitment: African Countries Task ECA, Others on Universal Access to HIV Treatment, Prevention, Care and Support

About 250 delegates from 53 African countries adopted in a consultative meeting held in Brazzaville from 6 to 8 March 2006, the “Brazzaville Commitment”, a broad list of 26 action recommendations which, they hoped, would help African countries towards meeting the goal of universal access to HIV/AIDS treatment, prevention, care and support. The meeting was organized by the AU, with the support of UNAIDS, ECA, WHO and the Department for International Development of the UK Government. The delegates represented Governments, parliaments, civil society, faith-based organizations and the private sector. Eight of the delegations were led by Ministers of Health.

The Brazzaville Commitment calls on the AU, ECA and RECs to establish innovative ways to mobilize resources for AIDS at the sub-regional level and to strengthen the role of the AfDB to raise resources and influence allocation for HIV/ AIDS. The Commitment also recommended that the ECA, World Bank, Global Fund, and AfDB urgently support the RECS to set up regional and national bulk purchasing, technology transfer, south-south collaboration and sub-regional production of AIDS-related drugs and commodities, including support in using Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) flexibilities.

The Commitment was formally handed over to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Congo for endorsement by African Heads of State at the Special Summit in Abuja, Nigeria, in May. The Brazzaville Commitment formed the African position on Universal Access at the UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS in June 2006.

ECA Report Says African Governance Improving, But Could Be Better

A new ECA report concludes that overall governance is improving in Africa, but stresses that major challenges still remain. The African Governance Report (AGR), launched in March 2006 is the culmination of a three-year survey of experts and households in 27 African countries aimed at gauging citizens’ perception of the state of governance in each country. The research has shown significant improvements in political governance indicators, especially if compared to a decade ago. Many African countries now have multi-party Government, with varying levels of stability, acceptance and legitimacy. Political systems, political party freedom, security and power distribution are the indicators that scored the highest, with percentages above 60 percent, while decentralization, tax system efficiency and corruption scored the lowest.

Poverty Reduction Strategies: African Ministers Chart a New Way Forward

Africa must intensify its efforts to design bold strategies to combat poverty and achieve the MDGs, said 70 African ministers and policymakers from 37 nations, gathered in Egypt’s capital from 26 to 28 March 2006 for an “African Plenary on Poverty Reduction Strategies and the Implementation of the Millennium Development  

Goals”. Jointly organized by the AU and ECA in collaboration with UNDP, the meeting highlighted the need for African countries to continue to place strong emphasis on macroeconomic fundamentals with an emphasis on poverty reduction, and stressed the importance of African ownership of the regional development agenda in order to improve progress towards the MDG targets.

eLearning Africa 2006 - The First Pan-Africa Conference on ICT for Development, Education and Training 

eLearning Africa, the first Pan-Africa conference on ICT for Development, Education and Training, was held from 25 to 26 May 2006, with a welcome by H.E. Mr. Ato Tefera Waluwa, Ethiopian Minister for Capacity Building and patron of eLearning Africa 2006. Chaired by H.E. Dr. Sintayehu Woldemichael, Ethiopian Minister of Education, the opening plenary featured keynote addresses by Josephine Ouedraogo, Deputy Executive Secretary of ECA, Dr. Cheick Diarra, Microsoft Chairman for Africa, and the Hon. Dr. Noah M. Wekesa, Kenyan Minister of Education, Science and Technology. There were over 700 participants from 74 countries, with 70 percent from Africa and 20 percent from Europe, and experts from Latin America, the Middle East, and the Asia Pacific region constituting the balance.

Access of Africa’s Poor to Energy Must Remain a Priority

An interagency collaboration of UN agencies with energy programmes, UN-Energy/Africa held a two-day meeting from 24 to 25 May 2006 at ECA headquarters in Addis Ababa to deliberate on its work programme for the next two years, addressing the challenge of improved energy access in Africa as part of the efforts to achieve key MDGs. Both the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation and the CSD have concluded that access to energy is crucial to the goal of halving the proportion of people in poverty by 2015.

Earlier, ECA, UNEP and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) had collaborated in conducting a study and stakeholders’ forum on how to make Africa’s power sector sustainable through well-designed power sector reforms. The conclusions and policy statement which emerged from these activities were later presented to the First Africa Union Conference of Ministers responsible for electrical energy in March 2006, and also were made available to the international community at the 14th session of the CSD held in New York in May 2006.

Governance Forum Ends with Call for Speedier Implementation of APRM:Presidents of Rwanda and Burkina Faso address the closing session

The Sixth African Governance Forum (AGF-VI) was held in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, from 9 to 11 May, focusing on the challenges of implementing the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). AGF-VI was attended by over 400 delegates from the 25 countries that have signed on to the APRM process, as well as by representatives of the donors and the media. The event was organized by ECA, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the AfDB and the APR Secretariat.

The closing session was attended by President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and his counterpart from Burkina Faso, President Blaise Compaore. Both presidents felt that APRM had a critical role to play in this development process.

ECA selected meetings 2006

September

 4-6

Seminar to Launch National Advisory Panel for African Gender and Development Index (AGDI) (Kigali, Rwanda)

6-28

All Africa Regional Forum (Johannesburg, South Africa)

October

Regional Seminar on UN System-wide Support to NEPAD at subregional and regional levels

November

ECA e-Gov Stakeholders Workshop (Kampala, Uganda)

12-14 December

Subregional Training Workshop in Gender Mainstreaming for Policymakers in follow-up of Beijing+10 (Kigali, Rwanda)

 ECA selected publications

Economic and Social Conditions in North Africa, Part II - Preliminary Analysis of Economic Structural Trends 2000-2004 (ECA-NA/TNG/ ICE/XX/3/II/REV.1, 20th Meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts)

Unleashing the Power of Knowledge for Meeting MDGs and Sustainable Development in Africa: Fundamental Issues for Governance (ECA/SDD/05, June 2005)

A Participatory Approach to National Budgeting: Some Key Principles and Lessons (E/ECA/CHDCS.3/3, 2005)

Economic and Welfare Impacts of the EU-Africa Economic Partnership Agreements (ECA/TRID/06/05, March 2005)

Trade and Regional Integration Division News, "Infrastructure Development and Regional Integration" (Vol. 4, No. 5, May 2006)