Dakar, Senegal – United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)‘s Director of Strategic Planning, Oversight and Results Division (SPORD), Said Adejumobi, cited the ECA’s key achievements between April 2021 and March 2022, at the ongoing 54th Session of the Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (CoM 2022) in Dakar, Senegal.
Speaking on behalf of ECA Executive Secretary, Vera Songwe, Mr. Adejumobi said the ECA was able to support “effective policymaking in Africa, formulate macroeconomic policies and economic diversification, develop innovative financing models, support regional and transboundary issues.”
Among the key areas that the ECA supported the African Union and the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) include financing the response to COVID-19, advocating the Debt Servicing and Suspension Initiative for African countries, pushing for the $650 billion Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) in additional liquidity for Africa and helping secure over 120 million COVID vaccines doses through the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT).
Mr. Adejumobi also highlighted that the ECA was able to follow up on all nine but one of the resolutions approved at CoM 2021. He said the resolution on additional funding for the African Institute for Development and Economic Planning (IDEP) was a “difficult task” due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), he said the ECA was able to “help countries develop national strategies, set up the African Business Index (ABI), produce the Assessing Regional Integration in Africa (ARIA) report on services, trade liberalization and integration, and studies on a Common Investment Area and the Governing the Interface within the AfCFTA and Free Trade Areas in regional economic communities.”
The chair of the Bureau of Experts, Bamba Diop, acknowledged and commended the “ECA’s partnership and support to African countries during a difficult COVID year.”
The annual Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (CoM) is the ECA’s largest annual event and provides an opportunity for participants to debate key issues on Africa’s development, and to discuss the think tank’s performance in delivering on its mandate.
