The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) will hold its fifty-third session from 17th to 23rd March 2021. The aim is to deliberate on sustainable industrialization amidst COVID-19 in Africa. The Executive Secretary, Vera Songwe, and some participants will attend from Addis Ababa while the majority will participate virtually.
The conference will assemble seasoned and high-level panellists both from within and outside Africa. The discussions promise to be exciting and engaging as the continent continues to respond to the COVID-19 crisis. Outcomes and decisions of the conference will have important implications for Africa’s future.
Speakers
Baroness Minouche Shafik, Director of the London School of Economics, who’s a former Deputy Managing Director at the IMF in one of the speakers. Baroness is also a former Permanent Secretary of England’s Department for International Development.
South Africa’s former Trade and Industry Minister, Robert Davies, will deliver the 2021 Adebayo Adedeji Lecture. This will be under the theme: “Towards a Developmental Approach to the AfCFTA” during the conference.
The annual lecture was set up to honour the late Professor Adebayo Adedeji, who was one of Africa’s foremost development thinkers. He was also the longest-serving ECA Executive Secretary. Rwanda’s Minister for Trade and Small and Medium Enterprises, Soraya Hakuziyaremye, will be the main respondent.
Panel discussions
High-level panel discussions during the Conference of Ministers will include ‘The Big Debate on Sustainable Growth in the Digital era post-COVID-19’. Nigeria’s Finance, Budget, and National Planning Minister, Zeinab Ahmed, will be the lead speaker.
Panel discussions will tackle managing debt and innovative finance for fiscal sustainability, and the role of the private sector. Another will look at whether Africa is ready to finance its vaccine. The Lead speaker in this panel would be WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom.
Other panelists include UNAIDS Executive Director, Winnie Biyanyima, Afreximbank President, Benedict Oramah, Pfizer Biopharmaceuticals Group Global Advisor, Susan Silbermann, and Amadou Sall, Director, L’ Institut Pasteur, Medical Research Institute, Senegal
The conference will take place under the theme “Africa’s sustainable industrialization and diversification in the digital era in the context of COVID−19”.
The main focus of the event
This year’s theme embraces the need for African countries to achieve rapid economic growth through environmentally conscious industrialization and diversification. While taking advantage of digitalization. Discussions under the theme will explore and consolidate strategies on the way forward to manage the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on African economies.
Specifically, the theme reflects calls for an alignment of development strategies with climate change mitigation measures. It will also recognize that industrialization as an effective engine of growth for many developed countries, has come at a severe cost to the global climate. This poses a growing threat to African nations.
African countries will need to implement development strategies that recognize that better, safer, and more inclusive growth must involve strong action against climate change. There is the need to also recognize the efficient use of natural resources. Consequently, Africa’s development path must minimize the aberrations of development in industrialized nations. It must embrace modernization through digitalization and less climate-costly industrialization.
The start of trading within the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) on January 1, 2021 signals a unique turning point in the continent’s pursuit of industrialization. Additionally, e-commerce, which is a key catalyst in digitalized economies, will be a cornerstone of AfCFTA infrastructure.
As in previous sessions, the Committee of Experts will meet from 17-19 March 2021 for technical deliberations on the theme. It will also look at statutory issues of the Commission. However, the Conference of Ministers will take place on 22nd and 23rd March 2021. Besides, several side events tackling various topics will be held virtually.
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