United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
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North African solutions to the food crisis in Africa: the role of fertilizers and supportive policies
No full textGlobal market disruptions and the lingering effects of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, exacerbated by the war between the Russian Federation and Ukraine and amplified by the growing effects of climate change, are deepening food insecurity in Africa. International fertilizer prices increased rapidly over 2021 and 2022, reaching a peak in April 2022. Prices were already at a raised level at the end of 2021 because of trade disruptions driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the war in Ukraine exacerbated the fragile situation and pushed fertilizer prices to their highest levels in recent years. Although fertilizer prices have since eased slightly, they remain high compared with the average of recent years. Moreover, the global fertilizer market is affected by fertilizer price volatility, which generates uncertainty and impedes the access of farmers, especially smallholders, to the inputs that they require
Country-level Implications of Implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement on Inequality and Poverty
No full textThe Agreement establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) entered into force on 30 May 2019. Trading under the Agreement began on 1 January 2021. However, the first trade only took place after the launch by AfCFTA Secretariat in October 2022 of the Guided Trade Initiative (GTI), expected to test and then facilitate implementation of the Agreement by all State Parties. As of 15 April 2023, 54 of the 55 African Union (AU) member States had signed the Agreement; of which 46 had ratified it. It is against this backdrop that, in 2021, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the Centre for International Research and Economic Modelling (CIREM) undertook a new comprehensive assessment of the economic implications of the Agreement’s implementation. The analysis relies on CGE modelling. ECA went a step further to use findings from the CGE analysis, along with collected household surveys data, to feed into a microsimulation model for inequality and poverty analysis at country-level. Findings from the microsimulation indicate that full implementation of the AfCFTA could reduce both inequality and poverty in the 10 African countries covered by the analysis (Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya, Morocco, Namibia, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe). The magnitude of poverty reduction varied significantly across countries and across individuals within a country, depending on the socio-economic characteristics of households
Rapport de la troisième réunion du Comité du développement du secteur privé, de l intégration régionale, du commerce, de l infrastructure, de l industrie et de la technologie : note du secrétariat
No full textLa troisième réunion du Comité du développement du secteur privé, de l’intégration régionale, du commerce, de l’infrastructure, de l’industrie et de la technologie s’est tenue à Addis-Abeba les 14 et 15 novembre 2023, sur le thème : « Stimuler l’intégration régionale, l’infrastructure, le commerce et la technologie pour une industrialisation verte, prospère et inclusive en Afrique ». Elle a été précédée de deux réunions de groupes d’experts : un atelier technique sur l’utilisation de l’imagerie satellitaire et de l’intelligence artificielle pour analyser les liaisons routières vitales et une réunion de groupe d’experts sur les dimensions environnementales de l’Accord portant création de la Zone de libre-échange continentale africaine (ZLECAf) et l’écologisation de sa mise en œuvre dans le contexte des nouveaux scénarios de tarification et d’échange de droits d’émission de carbone
Impact of the coronavirus disease crisis on businesses in Morocco: constraints and opportunities
No full textThe present report contains the main findings of a survey conducted among 1,000 Moroccan businesses from 1 January to 16 June 2021. The analysis of the results highlights some of the main effects of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Morocco, such as financial constraints and shock asymmetry. The survey has highlighted the scale of certain constraints faced by companies, which were especially acute during the pandemic, such as access to finance. The present report sets out key lessons drawn from a survey conducted by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) on a broad sample of businesses. The survey was designed to analyze the effect of the pandemic on businesses. The survey was designed to analyze the effect of the pandemic on businesses. It also makes it possible to assess the impact of public subsidies in the form of wage subsidies received by businesses. One of the key findings consists in the positive impact of this assistance on turnover and the lack of any effect on employment
Résumé du rapport sur les progrès de l’Afrique vers la réalisation des objectifs du Programme de développement durable à l’horizon 2030 et de l’Agenda 2063: l’Afrique que nous voulons, de l’Union africaine
No full textLe présent rapport évalue les résultats obtenus par l’Afrique au regard des objectifs de développement durable 1, 2, 13, 16 et 17 - qui feront tous l’objet d’un examen approfondi lors du forum politique de haut niveau de 2024 - et des objectifs correspondants de l’Agenda 2063. Bien que le manque de données ne permette pas de fournir des informations sur l’ensemble des objectifs et des indicateurs, le présent rapport brosse un tableau des résultats des sous-régions africaines, comparées les unes aux autres, et du continent dans son ensemble, comparé à d’autres régions
Examen des performances des banques nationales de développement en Afrique
No full textLes banques nationales de développement jouent un rôle crucial pour la plupart des programmes de développement économique et social de l’Afrique, notamment ceux visant la croissance économique durable, l’inclusivité, l’emploi, la productivité et l’industrialisation. En s’acquittant de leur mandat, qui est de contribuer au développement économique par le biais de prêts à moyen et à long terme, les banques nationales de développement peuvent contribuer au développement financier de diverses manières. Pour peu qu’elles gèrent judicieusement leur bilan et qu’elles établissent des synergies avec d’autres institutions financières, les banques nationales de développement peuvent tirer parti de leur avantage comparatif dans le domaine des prêts à long terme afin de consolider les marchés obligataires nationaux et de stimuler le développement du secteur financier. Elles peuvent également renforcer l’inclusion financière, par exemple, en orientant (directement ou indirectement) les ressources vers les secteurs soumis à un rationnement du crédit, en particulier ceux où prédominent les petites et moyennes entreprises et les entreprises détenues par des jeunes ou des femmes. Les banques nationales de développement sont également appelées à jouer un rôle essentiel en complétant les activités des banques multilatérales de développement. À cet égard, des études de cas approfondies sur les banques et les pays permettraient de mettre en lumière le plein potentiel des banques nationales de développement en ce qui concerne leurs contributions éventuelles à la croissance économique, à l’industrialisation, à l’inclusion financière et au développement du secteur financier en Afrique. La mise en place de banques nationales de développement performantes nécessite un changement de paradigme. Cela signifie l’adoption d’une toute nouvelle approche, à même de garantir la viabilité financière des banques et de leurs programmes de prêts, tout en instaurant un environnement dans lequel l’intermédiation financière atteindra plus efficacement les secteurs traditionnellement marginalisés, avec l’apport d’une aide non financière à divers secteurs de l’économie
Leveraging renewable energy resources for a just energy transition in Southern Africa: exploring the opportunities and challenges: draft report
No full textThis study explores the opportunities and challenges of developing renewable energy for a just energy transition in Southern Africa. The study is motivated the realization that the Southern African Region is increasingly at risk of climate change-related disasters such as recurring and intensifying droughts, calamitous cyclones, and destructive floods – destroying crops and arable land, damaging infrastructure, loss of lives and the injuring of people, and the disruption of markets and trade. Notably, these disasters are compounding the region’s existing economic and social vulnerabilities such as long term low economic growth, high unemployment, high population growth, food insecurity, extreme poverty and inequality, endemic corruption, infrastructure challenges, and colonial political legacies. Southern Africa can leverage renewable energy for a just energy transition, the study focused on the energy policies, the socio-political economy of energy transition, examining case studies of 6 countries in
Southern Africa (Botswana, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zambia), policies for affordable renewable energy, technologies for accessing clean energy, and private sector investment in renewable energy
Socioeconomic impact of conflict in Africa
No full textConflict has been a major challenge in Africa in recent decades. Although Africa has experienced fewer conflicts in recent years than it did in the 1990s, they are still common in the region, with approximately 30 per cent of African countries affected by them in 2019. In addition, since the mid-2000s, there has been a resurgence of armed conflict on the continent. Conflict causes not only immense human suffering but also substantial economic losses. It places onerous burdens on the social development of countries, by decreasing revenues, increasing defense expenditure, and diverting funds away from social and development initiatives. The results of the present study, for which a dynamic panel estimation, the generalized method of moments, has been used, show that, in the period 1996–2022, countries affected by intensive conflict experienced, on average, a reduction of 20.0 per cent in annual economic growth and a decrease of 2.5 per cent in their scores for social outcomes
Report of the Committee of Experts on its forty second meeting
No full textReport of the forty-second meeting of the Committee of Experts of the Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development of the Economic Commission for Africa was held at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, in a hybrid format featuring both in-person and online participation, from 28 February to 1 March 2024. In the report, it was highlighted that Africa continued to experience relatively low growth rates, which were not commensurate with its growth potential or with the achievement of its socioeconomic transformation and the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Agenda 2063
Towards Africa's prosperity: Creating the Conditions for a Socially Inclusive, Environmentally Sustainable and Well-Governed Continent
No full textThe 2030 deadline is seven years away. What does Africa need to do to achieve the goals of Agenda 2030 and Agenda 2063 in light of the severe socioeconomic setbacks from the COVID-19 pandemic? What are the critical “game changers” that can enable this transformative change? Africa needs a much more ambitious strategy to achieve the goals by the end of 2030. Overcoming severe challenges—economic crisis, climate change, growing inequalities, peace and security—exacerbated by the pandemic, requires both fundamental reforms and unconventional methods. Building on the momentum generated by the declaration of the African Regional Forum on Sustainable Development on the UN Decade of Action and Delivery for Sustainable Development in Africa, as well as a summary report and key messages on Africa’s priorities, this study identifies the game changers needed to accelerate progress towards achieving prosperity within this decade. It envisages that by 2030, the region will have moved closer to Agenda 2063’s vision of “an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its citizens and representing a dynamic force in the global arena.” As a strategy document, it is intended as a roadmap for citizens, policymakers, and development partners to deliver prosperity by 2030 to the 1.07 billion inhabitants of the region. It offers a set of limited but crucial objectives achievable at the regional and the national levels of policy implementation. Most important, its realistic tone challenges governments to forge ahead to 2030 and beyond, confident in the regional support they will receive from the community of states that constitute the Africa Union and united in the common purpose of prosperity reimagined. This report is organized around four themes. Chapter 1 describes Africa’s economic and social conditions in 2022. Chapter 2 offers a comprehensive definition of the economic, political and social dimensions of a prosperity in which everyone on the continent can realize their full potential in an environment of peace and security