The 2022 African Economic Conference, jointly organised in Mauritius by the African Development Bank Group, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the UNDP, held a special session on 10 December to launch two landmark publications.
The first was their annual publication, the Economic Report for Africa (ERA), which, in its 2022 edition, focuses on recent economic and social development in Africa and explores two priorities in a post-COVID context: first, unlocking the potential of developing digital technologies to mitigate global supply-chain risks; and second, leveraging digital technologies and regional value chains as well as the digital gender divide in skills and development.
Coming to the second publication launched at the session, it took the form of a book titled Existential Priorities of the AfCFTA that aims to guide and assist implementation of the AfCFTA over the next 10–15 years. It identifies some of the critical actions needed to achieve the vision of an inclusive, transformative, digital, rules-based, results-based, modern, comprehensive, and fit-for-purpose trade area that progressively becomes the African Common Market and a key pillar of the Africa We Want and of the African Economic Community (OAU, 1991).
Panel discussion on Existential Priorities of the AfCFTA
The key findings of the book were elaborated vide a panel discussion. The panel was moderated by Ms. Eunice Kamwendo, Director, Sub-regional Officer for Southern Africa, UNECA with the panelists being the report’s co-author Dr. Joseph Atta-Mensah, Principal Economic Affairs Officer Macroeconomic and Governance Division, UNECA; Dr Stephen Karingi, Director, Regional Integration and Trade Division of the ECA; Prof Fantu Cheru, Emeritus Professor of International Political Economy, American University, Washington, DC and Associate Fellow, Ethiopian Academy of Sciences; Dr Mary Lucia Mbithi, Senior Lecturer of Economics at the School of Economics, University of Nairobi, and the Director of Research at the Women Economic Empowerment (WEE) Hub at University of Nairobi; and Dr. Joy Kategekwa, Strategy Advisor, Regional Bureau for Africa, UNDP.
“There is a lot of weight that has gone into the AfCFTA for making sure countries are prepared and are developing the right priorities. The last mile is more critical, which is implementation. We hope the book speaks to some of the priorities which will move the AfCFTA forward,” noted Eunice before handing over the floor to the book’s co-author, Dr Joseph Atta-Mensah.
Dr Joseph Atta-Mensah unfolded the reasons behind writing the book and stated that a group of UN members decided to channel their frustration with COVID and delayed implementation of the AfCFTA into a productive endeavor in the form of a book that explores what it would take for the agreement to be implemented effectively. He emphasised that there was a lot of enthusiasm when the AfCFTA was signed by 46 heads of state and ratified in record time. However, the way forward has proven to be challenging.
“What Africans want is trade. What can be done to ensure that we have different African products on different shelves so that coffee from Ethiopia will be here in the breakfast of a Mauritian in Mauritius. It is through trade that we can get out of poverty. It is through trade that we can solve our debt situation. AfCFTA has given a collective voice to the Africans yearning for trade. The AfCFTA is anchored around my dream that one day the borders that were erected in 1844 by colonialists in the scramble for Africa will collapse and we will return to what we were – as one Africa. An Africa that we are able to move through freely. I have tremendous faith in the youth as they see themselves as one Africa.”
He noted that the book was in three parts, as follows:
- Common voice: The AfCFTA represents an important development in the history of Africa, and while prospects are good, measures could be considered to quickly identify and address global and continental risks. In doing so, Africa could position itself as a universal Africa making its voice heard and ensuring that its priorities are represented in implementation roadmaps and outcomes and in periodic reviews meant to address emerging challenges.
- Regional integration offers the most credible strategy for tackling Africa’s development challenges, internal and external, because many of the challenges overwhelm the limited capacities and resources of individual countries. Collective efforts, with dynamic political commitments to integration, can help overcome many daunting challenges.
- Find a regional integration paradigm that fits the African context. As countries and regional institutions respond to changing realities and engage in the trial-and-error game of aligning interests, finding practical and context-related measures for addressing common problems is crucial.
Against this backdrop, he spoke about the importance of energy access, education, and empowerment of women as themes that were explored in detail by the report towards catalysing the effects of the implementation of the AfCFTA.
Barriers to the implementation of the AfCFTA
Next, Dr Stephen Karingi, Director, Regional Integration and Trade Division of the ECA commended Dr Joseph Atta-Mensah for giving rich context to the project and spoke to the issue of the common market, the issue of the common currency, and also the question of the council on global affairs for the continent.
“As we know the AfCFTA will bring down barriers and lead to a lot of reforms in our institutions as countries come up with national strategies on implementation. Unfortunately though, we will not get optimum results unless we take the agreement to its logical end which is the ability of factors of production, including people, being able to move across the continent. Simulation of the results we expect by 2025 from the increase in trade from the agreement are not possible if private sector resources cannot move from one country to another. The producers must be able to source the best talents from anywhere in the continent to the place of production. We are unlikely to optimise on the benefits of the AfCFTA unless you get all the four freedoms necessary for an integrated economy. Even as we do that, we must be cognisant of changing geo-politics that are actually working in favour of Africa if we get the AfCFTA in place efficiently – the shortening of the supply chains gives us an opportunity to build our competitiveness. To conclude, I would like to say that the AfCFTA is good but if you want to go to the full frontier we need to go to the customs union and all the way to the full movement of people and services.”
The moderator turned next to Prof Fantu Cheru, Emeritus Professor of International Political Economy, American University, Washington, DC and Associate Fellow, Ethiopian Academy of Sciences for his views on the three propositions that Dr Joseph ended on (common market, common currency, and African council for global affairs) and sought his perspective on the areas that merited further attention from a political perspective. For his part, Prof Fantu Cheru, spoke about the high impact areas outlined in the report (energy and textile) and others that should be prioritised further but were not sufficiently highlighted in the report – such as agriculture.
“In line with what the continent is currently experiencing with food shortages, escalating food prices, lack of critical infrastructure for food imports and devastating impact of climate change, I am surprised that agriculture has not been included as a high impact area. It must be developed in its own right as a sector with high impact potential,” he emphasised.
Coming to the special challenges touched upon in the report, Prof Fantu rued the underdeveloped state of education in Africa, including higher education institutions. “In this context, if we are speaking about the future of digitisation in Africa, it is important to focus on the fact that Africa spends only 0.59% of GDP in Research and Development compared to the global average of 2%. Our low level of investment in R&D translates into low science, technology and innovation indicators,” he soberingly remarked. In 2018, Africa accounted for 17,000 patent applications while Asia led globally with 2 million. In terms of research output, our share of scientific publications is 3.5% compared to Asia’s 48%. Finally, Africa’s higher education system saw only 60 universities included in the 2021 World University Rankings of 1,500 higher education institutions ranked globally.
For her part, Dr Mary Lucia Mbithi, Senior Lecturer of Economics at the School of Economics, University of Nairobi, and the Director of Research at the Women Economic Empowerment (WEE) Hub at University of Nairobi shed light on how gender equality was expected to be a key outcome of the AfCFTA implementation.
“One of the objectives of AfCFTA is inclusion and also gender equality. Gender equality is defined as equal access and ownership of factors of production. Globally, the World Economic Forum estimated that it would take 145 years for Africa to reach equality. So, it is important for the region to take advantage of opportunities that are coming up in the region to overcome gender inequality. Whether in the digital realm or in brick-and-mortar businesses, as soon as we can have women and men participate equally, it will mean improvements in GDP as gender gap also means lower per capita GDP.”
She also stressed the importance of looking at practical ways in which one can empower women, to better participate in regional trade. Here, she emphasised that a gender protocol can mean a lot, especially when it comes to women being able to access networks and leverage the power of associations. She gave the example of women collectives in Africa that are able to use social capital to empower women and also harked to the importance of building infrastructure such as health services which women can avail for their children.
Finally, Dr. Joy Kategekwa, Strategy Advisor, Regional Bureau for Africa, UNDP, lauded the achievement of the authors, including Dr Joseph Atta-Mensah, in bringing to life the wonderful publication that seeks to focus efforts on the implementation of the AfCFTA. “What a wonderful book – this is a book whose time has come! And what we have to think about is how to look at those threats and dismantle them. If we don’t have a clear focus on that, we will be theorising in perpetuity about the importance of trade-led growth for Africa’s development,” she cautioned.
She noted that Dr Mactar spoke about captive value chains and she stressed that we should focus on how we are captured and how we get out of it to get to the opportunities that Dr Joseph spoke about. “Africa is in a state of capture. Capture of non focus on utilisation. Capture of non manageability of what non-AfCFTA parties do. Capture of non movement of people and capacity building that has failed us in this point of time,” she rued.
“We will not reach implementation if we don’t think about it in terms of readiness. We have done Africa a disservice by not focusing on utilisation of opportunities and trade agreements. We have not looked hard enough into productive capacities, trade related infrastructure and how many of our institutions are finding women at that stage of standards and finance,” she noted, adding that instead of theorising across phases of the agreement, we must focus on implementation of Phase 1 itself.
She stressed that it is time to shift from trade into industry. The next big thing, to her mind, was to go big on capacity building and get off the pedal of the idea that trade capacity building is about policy or report – and instead reach a version of capacity building that meets women where they are, and does so practically. She gave the example of how the UNDP invested into women in North Ghana who produce shea butter, and the problem was that they couldn’t get Fair-trade certification. The focus on helping them with meeting the requirements for obtaining the certifications paid off, where simply reiterating trade policies or reading out relevant excerpts from a report would have again seen them going nowhere.
Economic Report for Africa: A post-COVID perspective on digital opportunities
In conclusion, a word on the Economic Report for Africa (ERA) 2022 which focussed on digital opportunities for Africa in a post-COVID context. Here, Dr. Mactar Seck, Chief, Technology Section, Technology, Climate Change and Natural Resource Division, UNECA, spoke about how the report analyses the impact of digital technology and innovation in the context of regional value chains for building a better Africa.
In terms of methodology, the report consisted of an in-depth analysis of varied policy papers, reviews, documents, ITU fact books and observations.
He finally unfolded the structure of the report, which he noted provides an introduction, background and overview of value chains in Africa, and rolls out an economic outlook against the backdrop of COVID and AfCFTA – essentially assessing African regional value chain development in the context of the AfCFTA as we build back better. The report also looks at the challenges of implementing digital technologies for regional value chains and concludes with a review on policy considerations to provide recommendations for the way forward.
“We need to provide a digital ID to 500 mn people and to develop e-payment infrastructure – of which one of the key elements is the Afreximbank payment gateway – and to build on e-commerce capacity as well, of which 90% is currently concentrated in 10 countries. We must build capacity, be it in digital technologies, regional value chains, or AfCFTA implementation, for the younger generation – keeping in mind that by 2050, 70% of Africans will be under 25 years of age. ECA has an important programme to build the new generation in digital skills and we are working closely with the tech arm officers to prepare for the Summit of the Future in 2024 which is focused on digital skills,” he concluded.
To hear the speakers for yourself and dive deeper into the reports, click here.
