By Our Reporter
The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the African Union (AU) will once again hold their annual Conference of Ministers meeting between 31st of March and 5th of April 2016 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The meeting which convenes Ministers of Finance from across the continent has become an important platform to discuss the most critical African Developmental issues. This year’s theme is centered around Agenda 2063, the master plan for African Development and the newly agreed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
African leaders, along with other world leaders, recommitted themselves to implementing a more sustainable development pathway through Agenda 2030. AU Member States also demonstrated their commitment to the continental Agenda 2063. Critical issues to be discussed at the African Development Week will explore how best to formulate a more integrated and coherent approach to implementing, monitoring and evaluating these important development agendas which will chart the direction for Africa’s future.
23 side events will be taking place on the sidelines of the ministerial meetings, which will also see the launch of some of the ECA’s flagship reports. These include the ECA country profiles, providing a detailed analysis of a country’s macroeconomic and investment profile and the launch of the African Regional Integration Index.
The Index, a collaboration between ECA, the AU and the African Development Bank (AfDB), will rank countries in terms of how economically integrated they are within a region. Regional integration is a key development priority for Africa and the report is the first systematic, continent-wide instrument for measuring the progress made by the 54 African countries in implementing the continent’s regional integration frameworks.
Paul Mwesigwa’s First Year: UEDCL Hits UGX 1.71 Trillion in Revenue, Rolls Out $994m Grid Recovery Plan After Umeme’s Exit“Africa’s integration journey towards a more connected, competitive and business-friendly continent is underway and its roadmap is, in some areas, under construction. Africa’s Regional Integration Index is an action tool measuring the progress of an Africa on the move,” the Report reads in part.
Among the other thematic issues to be discussed will be the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and implementation of the SDGs. In addition, a number of sectoral issues will be covered, including industrialization, regional integration, migration, energy and banking, as well as better collection and use of data and statistics.
There will also be an interesting and important discussion around corruption and governance. The Africa Governance Report on Measuring Corruption in Africa to be presented during the ADW argues that current approaches for measuring corruption are predominantly perception-based and completely ignore the international dimension of corruption in Africa. The report urges African countries to engage in improving their own governance agenda, rather than undertaking the futile exercise of naming and shaming one another because of the given perception levels of corruption.
