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AID FOR TRADE

E c o n o m i c C o m m i s s i o n f o r A f r i c a. AID FOR TRADE. Moving the Agenda of the Initiative Forward for Benefit of African Countries. Mr. Abdoulie Janneh USG and Executive Secretary of ECA. Outline of Presentation. Importance of Africa’s global integration

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AID FOR TRADE

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  1. E c o n o m i c C o m m i s s i o n f o r A f r i c a AID FOR TRADE Moving the Agenda of the Initiative Forward for Benefit of African Countries Mr. Abdoulie Janneh USG and Executive Secretary of ECA

  2. Outline of Presentation • Importance of Africa’s global integration • Why AFT is important for Africa’s integration. • How AFT responds to Africa’s trade challenges • What are Africa’s AFT priorities • How can success of AFT in Africa be assured • ECA’s strategy for AFT in Africa • ECA’s clusters of activity • Action plan of ECA for 2008 • Conclusion: Making AFT real and tangible in Africa.

  3. Preface: African consensus • Integration to global economy a central objective for Africa. Why … • Will generate necessary resources for social priorities. • Small size of national and even sub-regional markets make international trade indispensable. • While indispensable, openness not sufficient. There is need for: • Stronger supply-side capacities; lower trade “costs”; and improved connectivity to markets. • “Internal barriers” such as poor infrastructure, inefficient customs, unreliable supply chains; high energy costs that impede competitiveness also need to be removed.

  4. Why AFT is important for Africa’s global integration • Africa lags behind despite recent growth rates. • Trade is of central importance to achievement of Africa's development goals. • Global integration remains an imperative for realisation of globalisation benefits. • Aid for Trade is an important catalyst for integration.

  5. How does AFT respond to Africa trade challenges? It addresses … • Constraints to trade policy & regulations. • Trade development through support to business services e.g. finance and investment. • Trade related infrastructure needs e.g. roads • Building productive capacity for diversification. • Meeting adjustment costs to trade reforms

  6. The AFT priorities for Africa • Access to modern “infrastructure” for transport; • Trade facilitation issues; • Studies suggest African exports could increase by as much as 17% from a 10% improvement in customs procedures. • Standards testing laboratories. • Example: Fish harvest worth more than US$400 million from L. Victoria would be assured of unfettered market access.

  7. Principles to underpin success of AFT in Africa • Political leadership and commitment; • Regional approaches critical for optimal results; • Appropriate delivery mechanism; and • Participation and involvement of the private sector.

  8. ECA’s strategy for AFT in Africa • Having clear “clusters of activities” in line with Africa’s broad priorities on AFT. • Establishing strong and deep partnership with other actors in Africa. • Putting emphasis on national and sub-regional ownership of action-plans and mapping out of priorities critical.

  9. Clusters of ECA Activities • Coordination • Working with WTO, AfDB and AUC the ECA to assist in creation of proposed “Aid for Trade Network”. • Capacity building for trade taking advantage of the extensive trade work through ATPC. • ECA to avail its expertise to countries and regional economic communities in mapping out their priorities and develop Aid-for-Trade action plans. • Monitoring and evaluation

  10. ECA’s Action Plan for 2008 • Regional AFT Network: Collaboration (ADB). • Audit existing RECs AFT plans to identify projects for implementation under AFT. • Support alignment of regional and national AFT programmes. • Assist preparations of AFT plans at national and regional level where they don’t exist. • Monitoring and evaluation: Together with AUC and AfDB, help in preparing the Progress Report in 2008 for Africa.

  11. Conclusion: Making AFT real and tangible in Africa • Development partners say they have not seen specific AFT projects. • African countries on the other hand waiting for an expeditious release of AFT resources. • How then can AFT be real and tangible in Africa? • African countries and RECs need to translate AFT Action Plans to prioritized projects. • Development partners need to clearly state which resources are available for AFT projects. • ECA through the ATPC together with its partners ready to help African countries prepare AFT plans.

  12. THANK YOU! Please visit: www.uneca.org

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