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The 2020 edition of the African Economic Conference, jointly organized by African Development Bank (AfDB), the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), is planned to be held virtually from 8 to 10 December 2020.​ Since its inception in 2006, the conference has fostered dialogue and the exchange of knowledge on a variety of issues and challenges that Africa has faced.​ ​ The theme of this year’s…

The Intergovernmental Committee of Senior Officials and Experts for North Africa (ICSOE) is a statutory, deliberative body responsible for the strategic direction of the activities of the ECA Office for North Africa.   The Committee meets annually to consider the Office’s activity report, achieved results, work programme and strategic orientations in accordance with the development priorities of the North African countries.   This annual…

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought chaos, uncertainty and supply chain disruptions to the global economy, impacted lives and livelihoods, and tested the resilience of governance systems, institutions and mechanisms in responding to the crisis. As the technical lead for the socio-economic response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the UN system, UNDP and its Country Offices worldwide are working to assess the socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19…

North African economies are characterized by slow economic diversification and persistent unemployment, especially among educated youth. Labour productivity has registered only a moderate increase compared with more dynamic emerging countries like India or Turkey. These patterns share a common origin, which lies in the existence of many distortions in the economy that prevent an efficient allocation of resources between firms and sectors. These…

Signed by 52 African countries, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is, by the number of participating countries, the largest trade agreement since the formation of the WTO. By 1 April 2019, only one year and ten days after the signature, the threshold of ratification by 22 countries required for the agreement’s entry into force had been reached. The speed of this ratification is unprecedented in African Union history.​ With so…

An understanding of the nature of economic growth is a central preoccupation of the present report. A pertinent analysis of economic growth is found in the work by Robert J. Gordon, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, in which Gordon points out an often forgotten fact: that economic growth is neither steady nor continuous (Gordon, 2016). When growth occurs (or declines), therefore, it is essential that policymakers, researchers and analysts…