Rabat (Morocco), 20 November 2024 (ECA) – The offices for North and West Africa of the UN Economic Commission for Africa launched Tuesday the 39th and 27th sessions of the Intergovernmental Committees of Senior Officials and Experts for North Africa and West Africa (ICSOE). This year’s joint meeting is taking place under the theme: “Accelerating the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in North and West Africa through digital transformation and economic diversification.”
Alongside the ICSOE meeting, the offices are holding a joint expert group meeting on the same topic.
Digital transformation can have a significant positive impact on economic growth and sustainable development by helping to accelerate AfCFTA implementation and enhancing trade across member countries, said UN Resident coordinator for Morocco Nathalie Fustier. Digital transformation has the potential to enable businesses to reach customers and business partners within and across borders in a faster and more cost-effective manner. This will contribute to the ongoing e-commerce revolution in countries such as Nigeria, Egypt, Ghana and Morocco, she added.
“Achieving economic integration in North Africa will require coordinated efforts to enhance mobility, align macroeconomic and sectoral policies, harmonize regulatory frameworks, and implement joint programs. These efforts will enhance North Africa's common actions and bargaining power, boost investment appeal, and strengthen the region’s economic performance, advancing sustainable growth and creating employment while increasing resilience to external shocks,” said Adam Elhiraika, Director of the ECA office for North Africa.
The AfCFTA is a structuring and ambitious project, and a real lever of development for our Continent. ECA, which also initiated discussions on this project, must keep playing a significant role in supporting our countries’ efforts to meet AfCFTA implementation challenges, said Abdellah Ben Mellouk, outgoing ICSOE president for North Africa. Implementing the agreement will require a strong political will, guided by a joint vision of integration, inclusive growth and sustainable development that would give priority to shared economic gains over short term economic gains, he added.
“The context in which the ECA Sub-Regional Office for West Africa deployed its work program was complex, marked by multiple challenges: the still perceptible repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, global geopolitical tensions, the climate crisis and the persistent security crisis in West Africa and the Sahel, which led to a deterioration in socio-economic indicators,” said outgoing President of the CIHFE for West Africa Ali Bamba.
“Despite these circumstances, the ECA's Sub-Regional Office for West Africa was able to achieve notable results in three key areas, namely the implementation of the AfCFTA, the promotion of the demographic dividend and the production of knowledge”, he explained.
In his speech, Amadou Diouf, head of the special sub-regional initiatives section at the ECA Sub-Regional Office for West Africa, explained that, assuming a successful implementation of the AfCFTA, ECOWAS exports of industrial products to Africa would increase by 24% by 2045, while those of services and agri-food products would rise by 40% and 23% respectively.
“Two major points deserve our full attention, namely giving new impetus to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and promoting science, technology and innovation and digital cooperation, while committing to implementing the global digital compact,” he added.
The Intergovernmental Committees of Senior Officials and Experts are annual, statutory meetings convened by the ECA subregional offices to discuss key socio-economic issues affecting member countries, review the offices' progress over the past year, and establish strategic priorities for the year ahead.
This year’s session will assess the progress made towards the implementation of the AfCFTA in North and West Africa and identify solutions to accelerate its implementation through economic diversification and digital transformation.
This meeting is taking place amid a period of stagnating or slowed growth, with North Africa’s growth at 3% in 2024 compared to 3.1% in 2023, and West Africa’s at 3.4% in 2024, down from 3.8% in 2023. Both subregions’ growth rates remain below their 2010–2019 averages of 3.6% for North Africa and 4.5% for West Africa.
This meeting will examine the progress made so far towards the implementation of the AfCFTA, the importance of digital transformation and intra-African trade and the role of trade in economic diversification and industrialization, and regional value chains.
Representatives from 22 countries—including Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Togo and Tunisia) are taking part in both the ICSOE and expert meetings. They include senior officials, policymakers, representatives of regional economic communities, experts, academics, development partners, civil society and the private sector.
Recommendations from the ICSOE and expert group meetings will inform the ECA Offices for North and West Africa’s upcoming programmes. The meeting reports will be submitted to the 57th Session of the Economic Commission for Africa in 2025 (COM2025).
Note to editors:
Click here to watch both meetings:
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ICSOE meeting on “Accelerating the implementation of the AfCFTA in North and West Africa through digital transformation and economic diversification”:
Opening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0iV9KNwC_I
Day 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_X3wDwsmzw
Day 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8VwBfBgCWg
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EGM meeting on “Harnessing the potential of the AfCFTA: the catalytic role of economic diversification and innovative digital technologies »:
Day 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huJFYCurpqg
Day 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h_5iSgS7Sg
The event documents can be accessed on the ECA website, here: https://www.uneca.org/eca-events/icsoe-na-wa-2024
High resolution photos of the event are available on the ECA Flickr account: https://www.flickr.com/photos/uneca/albums
For more information about this event and for your interview requests, please send an email to:
filali-ansary@un.org (North Africa) or
gouro2@un.org (West Africa)
Issued by:
Communications Section
Economic Commission for Africa
PO Box 3001
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
Tel: +251 11 551 5826
E-mail: eca-info@un.org