Activities of the Commissions

The ECA African Development Forum (ADF) Consensus and Plan of Action agreed in Addis Ababa in December 2000 was endorsed by Africa's leaders on 26-27 April 2001, when they convened in Abuja, Nigeria for the African Summit on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and other related infectious diseases.

ECA worked closely with the OAU, UNAIDS and other members of the Technical and Steering committees to ensure that the Summit would mainstream the outcomes of ADF 2000. The ADF 2000 was organized by ECA around the theme “AIDS: The Greatest Leadership Challenge”, in conjunction with UNAIDS, UNDP, UNICEF, the World Bank and other partners and which served as a launching pad for a renewed commitment to more concerted action against HIV/AIDS in Africa. Its Consensus and Plan of Action stresses that every individual must personally break the silence around the norms and practices that fuel the HIV/AIDS pandemic. People living with HIV/AIDS stand at the centre of any community efforts to overcome the pandemic and their rights must be respected in full and their leadership potential recognised. National leaders have a responsibility to create the conditions for community mobilisation. A continental strategy for the essential and comprehensive care and treatment of people living with HIV/AIDS is needed, including a determined pan-African approach to the affordability of drugs. The international community should mobilise the necessary resources to enable Africa to overcome the pandemic, and wherever possible, assistance should be in the form of grants, not loans.

ECA is assisting sub-regional organizations with the implementation of a groundbreaking decision by African Heads of State to forge ahead with the liberalization of air transport in the continent. The leaders endorsed the Yamoussoukro Decision on air transport liberalization at a summit in July 2000 in Lome, Togo. The Yamoussoukro Decision—which was arrived at after a process brokered by ECA— aims to gradually liberalize scheduled and non-scheduled intra-African air transport services. The Decision takes precedence over any previous multilateral or bilateral agreements on air services, including some 11 or more policies/agreements found to be regulating the air transport operation in Africa in 1999.

A sub-regional workshop on the air transport liberalization was conducted in Bamako from 12-14 March 2001 to develop a plan of action and to sensitize member States and bilateral donors on the effective implementation of the decision as well as to seek donor support. ECA recently organized the first meeting of the Regional Monitoring Body established by the Heads of State to prepare guidelines, the action plan and complementary annexes for the implementation of the Yamoussoukro Declaration.

Panel Discussions

The High-level segment of the Economic and Social Council 2001 will focus on “the role of the UN system in supporting the efforts of African countries to achieve sustainable development”. In preparation for that segment, ECA held two panel discussions at Headquarters on 22-23 May 2001:

(1) The panel on “Bridging the Digital Divide in Africa” represented experts from UNDP, UNESCO, the World Bank, and two experts from the private sector in Africa. They addressed key issues for the region, such as, what are the key priority areas and challenges for ICT development; how can existing initiatives—DOT Force and the UN ICT Task Force—become effective; and, how can ICT partnerships and coordination be stengthened.

(2) The panel on “Coordination of the UN work in Africa: Meeting the International Development Goals” represented experts from UNFPA, UNICEF, UNDP, the World Bank, and WHO. They addressed the significant expansion in the operations of UN entities in Africa, and the need to improve coordination among the various specialized agencies as the key to increased coherence, impact and effectiveness of their activities in Africa. The panel was moderated by the Executive Secretary of ECA.

ECA has been working towards enhancing productivity and international competitiveness of African countries, through specialised sectoral studies and workshops and seminars. A study on “Dynamic Competivetiveness of the Textiles and Clothing Industry in Africa” was undertaken in 2000, using dynamic competitiveness analysis to determine the long run competitiveness of the industry in Botswana, Central African Republic, Egypt, Kenya, Mauritius, Senegal and Zimbabwe as compared to India, Indonesia, Malaysia, HongKong, and North and South America. The main conclusion of the study was that the future for African textile and clothing may not be as bleak as the present situation looks. The results of the study showed that some African countries such as Zimbabwe, Botswana, Kenya, and Senegal can be as competitive in the long run as any of their competitors, if trade barriers are removed and inappropriate domestic policies are effectively addressed.

Another study on “Competitiveness of Africa's Major Exports: Cross-country study of the Leather and Leather Goods Industry” is being undertaken. The same criterion will be used and four African leather and leather goods producing countries were selected according to geographical distribution: Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Africa and Tunisia. Taking into account China’s significant share in global trade in leather and leather goods, ECA has decided to study China's case and see if it could be an example to be emulated by African countries. However, the methodology used in this study will differ. Indeed, this study will not only provide evidence of competitiveness or lack of competitiveness of the leather and leather goods sector, but will also provide evidence of productivity convergence or gap, among the selected African countries leather sectors, and between African and other developing countries.

ECA’s 2000 Economic Report on Africa (ERA) was released in April 2001. The previous ERA (1999) developed a set of indices against which short-term performance and long-term sustainability could be evaluated.

A new report, entitled “Transforming Africa's Economies”, is based on the findings of ERA 2000. Its starting point is that despite nearly a decade of reforms in many African countries, economic growth remains fragile and little progress has been made in reducing absolute poverty. It stresses that at current trends the target of reducing poverty by half by 2015 will not be achieved.

With this in mind, ECA proposes a new development agenda for Africa that can kick-start growth and reduce poverty. In the report, ECA lays out the basis for such an agenda based on the need for structural diversification of African economies. Structural diversification requires renewed emphasis on modern agriculture as a basis for resource-based industrialisation. In order for this to occur, the neglect of agriculture, must be reversed. Rich industrial countries must reduce tariff escalation that makes Africa’s processed products uncompetitive in international markets. African countries must recapture their lost share of world trade through improvements in infrastructure and removal of the vestiges of dirigiste interventions in agricultural input and product markets that hinder agricultural production.