Nairobi, 24 November 2021 (ECA) – The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) jointly organized a multi-stakeholder workshop to deliberate on the contribution of the services sector to African value chains as the UNCTAD-UNECA project on Trade in Services draws to a close.
The two-day workshop aimed at sharing experiences and lessons learnt amongst the six partner countries supported by the joint UNCTAD-UNECA project, as well as emerging best practices, in quantifying the contribution of the tourism, transport, and financial services sectors to regional value chains and how their measurement can inform policy making in the project countries.
In his welcoming remarks, the Director of the Regional Integration and Trade Division at the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Mr. Stephen Karingi underlined that the UNCTAD-UNECA project contributes to the promotion of regional integration in all its forms, which is premised on the operationalization of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) that has services trade liberalization as one of its key pillars.
“The rationale for the work we have been conducting under this Development Account Project, is that Africa stands a lot to gain from sharpening its analytical capacities in understanding services value chains, starting with the three services sectors we identified and prioritized in the context of this project, specifically transport, financial and tourism services,” Mr. Karingi said.
In the same light, the Director for Africa, LDCs and Special Programmes at UNCTAD, Mr. Paul Akiwumi spoke on the project achievements, which have evolved in the project countries over the last three years, spanning from drafting technical reports and empirical studies on value chain analysis to undertaking sectoral Covid-19 impact and response studies in the respective countries and sectors.
“Now, we are supporting the preparation of Policy Action Plans focused on the promotion of regional and global value chains on the tourism, transport, and financial services sectors in Mali, The Gambia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Togo, and Nigeria,” Mr. Akiwumi stated.
On his part, Dr. Eng. Joseph Njoroge, Principal Secretary of the Kenyan Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure, Housing, Urban Development and Public Works, one of the project countries where rigorous value chain analysis of the transport sector is being conducted, spoke of the significance of the project to the country.
“We have to recognize the importance of collating the statistical facts on the contributions that can be made by transport systems especially our Economic Transport Corridors in order to attract more and more investments, inform right policy and requisite decision-making process given good leadership and partnership among the Nations and the investors,” the Principal stated.
Mr. Karingi encouraged representatives of other countries invited to this meeting to benefit from the experience of the six project countries and tap into the resources the wider UN family has to offer, in terms strengthening the analytical capacities around services value chains quantification.
“We are hopeful that the discussion that will ensue today and tomorrow, will gain policy traction for uptake of rigorous value chain analysis in the countries here present, and count on you all to push for greater mainstreaming of services trade into your national AfCFTA strategies and development plans,” Mr. Karingi stressed.
Mr. Akiwumi underscored that UNCTAD and UNECA plan to continue disseminating the lessons learned, recommendations, and policy actions from this project to other African countries to develop trade in sector services and their implication in the global values for sustainability development.
The two-day hybrid workshop brought together over 100 policymakers and experts from African Union member states, regional economic communities, the private sector, academia and development institutions with an interest in regional integration issues, and in particular the services sector. Over the next two days, participants from across the continent will hear experiences of services trade policymaking in six African countries, namely Ethiopia, Kenya, The Gambia, Mali, Nigeria and Togo.
For more information Contact
Communications Section
Economic Commission for Africa
PO Box 3001
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
Tel: +251 11 551 5826
E-mail: eca-info@un.org or afeworks@un.org