The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, (ECA) has called for the forging of strong partnerships and innovative strategies to tap new opportunities in African countries.
In a statement issued by the Communications Section of the ECA, the commission’s Acting Executive Secretary, Mr Antonio Pedro, said this at an ECA Expo in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Tuesday.
Pedro opened a three-day ECA Expo at the United Nations Conference Center in Addis Ababa.
He said with technological advancements and digitalisation of the economy, the crisis in Africa “was a low hanging fruit for regional integration and for harnessing the demographic dividend on the continent”.
“I am confident that the exhibitors will provide participants with the necessary details on their achievements, best practices, and challenges to enable them to identify areas requiring strengthened collaboration and further improvement so that no one on the continent is left behind.”
He also invited stakeholders to provide feedback on the ECA areas of work and those that required improvement.
The feedback was for the commission to deliver on ‘client-focused services that responded to the complexity and dynamism of the environment’.
“This is a must attend event for both internal and external partners, because the benefits of participating in the event are enumerable.”
Pedro, however, said innovation was needed to manage the new and complex challenges on the continent.
Furthermore, he said the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement was Africa’s Marshall Plan.
He said the AfCFTA would ensure seamless operation of new vehicles to make trade and investments within the continent and the global market.
“This calls for us to redefine what is our value proposition, what is ECA’s strategic role on the continent?”
He also said the role of the ECA needed to evolve and that it could offer solutions to help Africa and member states achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2063.
Moreover, he said the United Nations Conference on Climate Change, which ended in November, presented new investment opportunities on the continent to create carbon credit markets.
He said it also presented opportunities to deploy renewable energy and find solutions to the energy transition globally.
He further said the opportunities and challenges facing the continent was bothersome for decision makers tasked with formulating strategies and policies that effectively address problems.
“We need to acknowledge that the continent’s demands are increasingly becoming complex in nature and will require new sets of skills and forms of partnership.”
Furthermore, he said the value of future thinking and foresight programmes as long-term planning tools in strategic policy making had become critical, particularly in the development context of ECA member states.
“We need to be cognizant of the dynamism in the financial landscape brought about by financial liberalisation, technological changes, and market innovation, which require a new set of skills beyond the traditional macroeconomic modelling.
“We must embrace innovative and disruptive thinking to provide practical solutions to real life challenges affecting our member States now and, in the future.”
Pedro, however, said the ECA was aware of cross-cutting issues that required interdependency and collective responsibility, having discussed them in the on-going Accountability and Programme Performance Review Meetings (APPRM). The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) gathered that the 2022 ECA Expo is showcasing the work of the ECA, with a view to forging new partnerships and strengthening existing ones.
This is to enable the commission to serve its member countries effectively in a rapidly changing and complex environment.
In addition, the expo is celebrating ECA’s achievements in the past three years, while identifying potential areas of synergy where the commission can leverage.
This, also, is to improve efficiency and effectiveness in its strategic areas of focus.
The expo showcases diverse products from divisions and Sub-Regional Offices.
On display, among others, would be innovative financing mechanisms to bridge the climate finance gap and fiscal and monetary policy reforms to respond to the fiscal space and address debt vulnerability.
