The World Bank (WB), African Development Bank (AFDB), Africa Economic Research Consortium (AERC), the Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), and the New Economic Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) have agreed to jointly sponsor a series of annual workshops on strategic themes of relevance to Africa’s development.
Overall purpose.
The workshop series provide a forum for informed dialogue on strategies for supporting Africa’s development and on enhanced partnerships to support these strategies. The workshop participants including, policymakers, experts, private sector and civil society actors, and representatives of international and regional development institutions, will exchange views on selected themes of critical importance to Africa, recommend priority areas for action, and as appropriate, provide feedback on the World Bank’s own strategy.
Pilot Workshop in Dakar.
The first workshop on “Facing the Challenge of African Growth” took place in Dakar, Senegal in January, 2005 as a pilot for the series. Participants in the Dakar workshop concluded that raising growth rates could be achieved by, among other ways, diversifying towards manufactured exports (à la East Asian economies), natural-resource based processed exports (à la Chile) or in a few cases services exports (à la India etc). But the discussion identified important constraints related to behind-the-border trade policy, market access, late starter positioning, and capacity to export (including supply chains).
Click here for: Summary Report | List of Participants
Workshop in Tunis.
The second workshop in the series that took place in Tunis, Tunisia on October 20 and 21, 2005 focused on “Accelerating and Diversifying Export Growth in Africa”. Building on the conclusions of the first workshop in Dakar, participants at the Tunis workshop discussed concrete actions that needed to be taken to build a robust platform for export growth and diversification in Africa, with focus on the following main areas: (i) removing remaining disincentives to trade and investment policy; (ii) addressing supply–side constraints related to lack of infrastructure and institutions for trade; and (iii) addressing market access barriers in key trading partners. In particular, participants examined the role of government – whether the major task is to remove impediments and obstacles to private sector activity, or whether there is a role for pro-active government policy in providing the infrastructure or institutions needed to compete in increasingly complex international markets.
Click here for: Summary Report | List of Participants
Workshop in Nairobi.
AERC hosted the third policy workshop in the series in Nairobi, Kenya on January 31 and February 1, 2007, on the theme: “Meeting the Challenges of Regional Integration, Intra-African Trade and Economic Growth in Africa”. Participants discussed (i) obstacles that impede the integration process in Africa; (ii) how to prioritize approaches when addressing economic reforms in order to achieve optimum result while taking full advantage of the opportunities; (iii) experiences with other regions of the world; and (iv) strategies to effectively address these obstacles.
Click here for: Policy Brief | Summary Report | List of Participants
Contact:
Angie Taderera-Marimbe,
Tel: 1-202-473-4180
Fax: 1-202-473-8046
Email: atadereramarimbe@worldbank.org
Partnerships Group
Africa Region, World Bank
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