United Nations Economic Commission for Africa - Central Africa

Planners, others welcome ECA’s push for development corridors in Central Africa

sroca.editor — Wed, 09 Dec 2020 13:24:49 +0000

Yaounde, 9 December 2020 (ECA) – Transforming Central Africa’s transport corridors into all-encompassing development corridors is crucial for moving to the region’s next development and integration frontier, especially at the dawn of free trade in Africa but it is a more complex proposition which needs continuing engagement with State and non-state parties.

This is the take home message from an expert group meeting convened on 8 December 2020 by the Subregional Office for Central Africa of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) on reconfiguring the sub-region’s interconnected routes so that they engender linkages, cluster development, trade-induced industrial and value-added productive activity, away from the current enclave “excavate-carry-and-ship-abroad” formula inherited from the colonial past.

ECA experts used the opportunity to explain to government planners as well as representatives from Regional Economic Communities, intergovernmental organisations and other development institutions, how, building on the Central Africa Consensual Transport Masterplan (PDCT-AC), a new integrated investment and spatial planning approach based on a comprehensive mapping of Central Africa’s biophysical and socio-economic assets would unlock the full development potential of the sub-region, using transnational routes as vectors of prosperity.

PDCT-AC was formulated with the technical support of the Commission and endorsed by Central African Heads of State and Government in 2004, as the main framework guiding road and other infrastructure development initiatives in the sub-region.

In a first presentation, Lot Tcheeko, Knowledge Management Officer at ECA’s Central Africa Office, provided an historical account on the genesis of PDCT-AC and shared information on key performance indicators along Central Africa main transport corridors.

He argued that existing infrastructure development is still predicated on linking capitals and facilitating access to sea to landlocked countries in the sub-region. He maintained that ECA’s Central Africa Office’s effort to collect and analyze geo-referenced socio-economic and biophysical data along transport corridors would enable their transformation into development corridors, improving access to basic services for populations living along and near these itineraries and increasing and strengthening inter-state economic exchanges, to name just a few gains.

He adumbrated the point with the Maputo Development Corridor in Southern Africa, which he said is a classic example of what a development corridor should aim to be. Linking the Mozambican main port and capital Maputo with Gauteng, Limpopo, & Mpumalanga provinces of South Africa, the Maputo Corridor is the locus for agribusiness, mining beneficiation, petroleum refining, soap manufacturing, aluminum smelting and electricity transportation outfits in an integrated production, consumption, trade and development cluster. It is therefore a trajectory for high value-added production and economic activity which brings prosperity to the people along and around it.

“Piecing together geo-referenced socio-economic and biophysical data along development corridors in Central Africa will help our central and local governments to better understand the location, magnitude and the dynamic relationships of their resource base” argued Antonio Pedro, Head of ECA’s Central Africa Office, in support of the foregoing analysis.

“This understanding, which will clarify the cumulative positive or negative impact of elements in their resource base on development options, is a key input to improving development planning, prioritizing investments, and managing trade-offs between competing land use options,” he explicated.

He further mooted that using the spatial planning approach and tools being proposed by ECA would be fundamental to supporting the execution of national and local development plans as well as successfully managing the ongoing decentralization agenda in Central Africa.

He explained that the geospatial tools on development corridors, being developed by ECA, will provide granular information to better connect the dots, as the sophisticated superimposition of data such as solar irradiation, arable land, agro-ecological data, level of education, to name a few, to help Governments of Central Africa make critical decisions in terms of where to locate special economic zones and identify which investments should be prioritized and in which sequence.

“All of this is aimed at maximizing development impact and realizing economies of agglomeration, which is a vital decision making process in the context of the prevailing reduced fiscal space,” Pedro said, adding that the approach would further strengthen the bankability of the region’s development projects along the corridors.

These new approach and tools are expected to give development planners crisp information that can make all the difference in optimizing the productivity of certain geographically linked poles. An example on which ECA has already advanced its analytical work is the Douala-Edea-Kribi trajectory on the south-western coastlines of Cameroon. The analysis unequivocally shows that Cameroon would benefit enormously from threading this assemblage of settlements into a vibrant economic growth triangle.

Spatial development expert – Tidjani Chetima of the Urbanization Section of ECA in Addis Ababa echoed the need to pay keen attention to urban centers along corridors, given their characteristics as poles of economic agglomeration with a strong supply and demand pull boosting trade, concentration of trained manpower, relatively good infrastructure and other key inputs for productivity gain, value addition and the emergence of value chains, making urban settlements good candidates to anchor development corridors.

He called for a better link between urban, sub-urban and rural areas, as part of a seamlessly linked ecosystem. He further recommended that industrial, trade, spatial planning, urbanization and other sectoral policies should be integrated in the design of development corridors. He noted that the corridors should be selected taking into consideration their economic growth potential.

Various participants invited to the discussion expressed satisfaction with the proposed paradigm shift from mere transport corridors to development corridors in Central Africa and made recommendations for moving the process forward.

Solomane Kone of the African Development Bank (AfDB) welcomed the new approach proposed by ECA, arguing that would represent a step change on how to link infrastructure development to the imperatives of industrialization, market integration, deepening of regional value chains as well as economic and political decentralization. He called on the core team working on the new tools to invest more into articulating how the reconfiguration of the corridors in Central Africa would be implemented, including support measures.

Jean de Dieu Mouangoli Amenghas, Technical Director of the Congolese Shippers' Council said there were already pockets of value addition along certain corridors such as cement and mineral development factories along the Pointe Noire-Brazzaville trajectory but that dilapidating features of transport infrastructure were stifling such developments. These issues, he argued, must be spotlighted in the new proposition for the subregion’s corridors.

Jean Paterne Megne Ekoga, Director of Operations at the Development Bank of Central Africa (BDEAC) argued that all road construction policies must only be implemented when placed side-by-side industrial policies. He also advocated bringing into the picture the need for reversing the urbanization megatrend of the subregion to allow space for development and innovation in rural areas along some of the corridors.

In the same vein, researcher Zachary Roger Mbarga called for mainstreaming the opening-up of rural production basins as enablers of development corridors.

Meanwhile Mahamat Nour Bakary, Public Works Engineer working for the ECCAS Commission, while welcoming the new approach, reminded the audience that the PDCT-AC is still the main framework for transport development in the sub-region and called for a deepening of the conversation on the reconfiguration of development corridors with the leaders of subregional bodies and high-level government representatives.

“We are now comforted that the case for reconfiguration of the transport corridors in Central Africa has been made and the added value of the GIS-enabled tools, to go with it, has been demonstrated,” said ECA’s Antonio Pedro, while indicating that the study on the reconfiguration of corridors in Central Africa will be finalized by the first quarter of 2021, taking into consideration the inputs received during the 8 December consultation.

He added, that the study will be a key input to the formulation of the Central Africa Regional Industrial Development and Economic Diversification Master Plan (PDIDE-AC) as well as to the review of the PDCT-AC.

-ENDS-

Media Contact

Abel Akara Ticha - Communication Officer

United Nations Economic Commission for Africa

637, rue 3.069, Quartier du Lac, Yaounde, Cameroon

Tel: +237 222504348

E-mail: akara@un.org

Webinar on Intra-African Trade in the context of AfCFTA

sroca.editor — Wed, 09 Dec 2020 08:08:45 +0000

Maximizing intra-African trade in the context of AfCFTA: the role of e-Commerce and the private sector

11 December 2020

Online

Active participants’ link to the event: https://live.kudoway.eu/ad/220217265548

Visitor/audience link to the event: https://live.kudoway.eu/br/110217058925

This webinar's overall objective is to provide a platform for private sectors to examine how e-Commerce and private sectors in the ECCAS Member States can play a pivotal role in enhancing the intra-Africa trade in the context of AfCFTA.

The specific objectives are to:
• Share current status of the AfCFTA as well as the implications for the continent digital trade Agenda, and implications for ECCAS member states
• Discuss how the e-Commerce market is growing, in the ECCAS Member countries in terms of market development, competition, growth potential, and the challenges
• Explore the role of the private sector in the development of e-Commerce and in advancing the intra-Africa trade in the context of AfCFTA.

NEWS RELEASES

8 December 2020

Central African countries to review stakes of e-commerce in Free Trade era

DOCUMENTS

Concept Note

Work Programme

Central African countries to review stakes of e-commerce in Free Trade era

sroca.editor — Tue, 08 Dec 2020 18:21:46 +0000

Yaounde/Addis Ababa, 8 December 2020, ECA – The UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) are organizing a webinar with the financial support of the European Union to discuss the role e-commerce can play in the era of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

The theme of the webinar scheduled for Friday 11 December 2020 is “Maximizing intra-African trade in the context of AfCFTA: the role of e-commerce and the private sector.”

Its goal is to give private sector operators in the sub region an avenue to examine what part e-commerce can play in enhancing trade between countries in the area.

Other objectives are to:

Share current status of the AfCFTA as well as the implications for the continent’s digital trade agenda and implications for ECCAS member states
Discuss how e-commerce is growing in ECCAS member countries in terms of market development, competition, growth potentials, and
Explore the role of the private sector in the development of e-commerce and in advancing intra-African trade in the context of AfCFTA.

It is expected that at the end of the session, private sector operators in Central Africa will be better informed on how the AfCFTA through e-commerce can offer a unique opportunity for each country to produce and sell on a very large scale.

Mr. Antonio Pedro, Director of the ECA sub regional office in Central Africa, will give the opening remarks, while Ms. Aissatou Diallo, the AfCFTA of the International Trade Center (ITC) will moderate. The main speakers include Mr. Malick Mamadou Bal and Mr. Guiseppe D’Aronco, both of the ECA sub regional office.

Others are Ms. Angela Ndambuki, the Regional Director for sub-Sahara Africa of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), and Mr. David Mudilo, an information technology development expert.

Through its African Trade Policy Centre, the ECA together with its sub regional offices, has been working with the AUC and member states to deepen Africa's trade integration and effectively implement the agreement through policy advocacy and national strategy development.

The ECA also works closely with the International Trade Centre (ITC), the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and a selection of independent trade experts with the financial support of the European Union (EU) to support the implementation of the AfCFTA across the continent.

-END-

LINKS

Here’s the active participants’ link to the event: https://live.kudoway.eu/ad/220217265548

Here’s the visitor/audience link to the event: https://live.kudoway.eu/br/110217058925

Issued by:

Communication Section

Economic Commission for Africa

PO Box 3001

Addis Ababa

Ethiopia

Tel. +251 11551 5826

E-mail: eca-info@un.org

A rendezvous to transform Central Africa’s routes into development trajectories

sroca.editor — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 13:19:06 +0000

Yaounde, 4 December 2020 (ECA) – How can Central African countries reconfigure existing transport highways which interconnect them, while building and linking new ones in a way that engines and supports structurally transformative economic activities along and near these routes? This is a fundamental question the Subregional Office for Central Africa of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and, governments and development partners within the sub-region seek to shed light on, in a forthcoming expert group meeting on the theme: “Reconfiguring development corridors in Central Africa: towards a new decision making approach.”

The exchange will be held virtually on 8 December 2020, bringing together high-level transport infrastructure development, policy and planning officials; representatives of intergovernmental bodies such as the African Union Commission, CEMAC and ECCAS; private sector leaders; development organizations; partner UN bodies; civil society members; and academics.

“At this point in time when everyone agrees with us on the need for the structural transformation of our economies with particular focus on the productivity gains that stem from vertical and horizontal economic diversification, we see development corridors as a game-changer for countries across the subregion,” said Lot Tcheeko, an ECA official coordinating efforts towards the brainstorming exercise.

“For decades, the notion of corridors in Africa in general, and in Central Africa in particular, have been solely about transport networks consisting of major roads essentially linking areas of raw material production to ports of export and linking these same ports to areas of consumption of imported finished products,” he said.

He noted that as a result of this development philosophy, the criteria that prevailed in the selection of corridors did not always include the dimension of profitability and economic potential.

Now that echoes on the need to break from the vicious circle of seeking rents for raw materials while depending almost entirely on imports for the consumption of finished products has been well understood and appropriated by both governments and peoples of the subregion, it is most relevant to make transport infrastructure count as an important factor for transformation.

The approach of transforming passage ways into development corridors means regional routes are no longer to be used solely for the transportation of goods and services, but also as a means of stimulating the social and economic development of surrounding areas. This model of development (or economic) corridors calls for more encompassing work on the deliberate creation of industrial and social infrastructure to be done whenever important routes are being configured and built.

Economists at ECA’s Office for Central Africa argue that the intelligent mapping-out of transport corridors will presuppose good spatial reviews and planning so that zones with a high potential for productivity due to their human and natural resources as well as their proximity to such routes are readied for an explosion of economic activity in areas such as mining, agribusiness, manufacturing, trade and tourism. Resource allocation and investments can be easily made once these premises are established, alongside the construction of transport pathways. This would also encourage the creation of special economic zones, which in turn, can help make up for the absence or inadequacy of essential development infrastructure.

ECA therefore thinks the time is ripe for shifting the paradigm on 'transport' corridors, particularly those identified in the Central Africa Consensual Transport Master Plan (PDCT-AC) adopted by the 11th Ordinary Conference of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), held in Brazzaville, Congo, on 27 January 2004, and formulated with the technical support of ECA. Meanwhile the 18th ordinary session of the Conference of ECCAS Heads of State and Government held on 27 November 27 2020 called for an overhaul of the PDCT-AC programme to reflect current development needs. Priority Action Plan of the ECCAS Commission adopted recently by the 18th Conference of Heads of State and Government of ECCAS provides for the updating of the PDCT-AC

This meeting of experts will therefore generate discussions on the impact of the creation of development corridors in Central Africa, and to piece together recommendations and orientations for a reconfiguration and acceleration of the implementation of the PDCT-AC.

-ENDS-

Media Contact

Abel Akara Ticha - Communication Officer

United Nations Economic Commission for Africa

637, rue 3.069, Quartier du Lac, Yaounde, Cameroon

Tel: +237 222504348

E-mail: akara@un.org

Expert Group Meeting on Development Corridors

sroca.editor — Wed, 02 Dec 2020 17:11:53 +0000

Reconfiguration of development corridors in Central Africa: towards a new decision making approach

8 December 2020

Online

Meeting link: https://bit.ly/dev-corr

For decades, the notion of corridors in Africa in general, and in Central Africa in particular, has been solely about transport networks consisting of major roads essentially linking areas of raw material production to ports of export and linking these same ports to areas of consumption of imported finished products. As a result, the criteria that prevailed in the selection of corridors did not always include the dimension of profitability and economic potential.

However, States and development actors must use transport corridors as a means of developing the surrounding regions. This is where the concept of development corridors comes in. Within this approach, regional transport routes are no longer considered to be used solely for the transport of goods and services, but also as a means of stimulating the social and economic development of the surrounding areas. This model of development (or economic) corridors makes it possible to create industrial and social infrastructure alongside transport infrastructure.
This outlook gives rise to investment in areas such as mining resources, agribusiness, manufacturing, trade and tourism. It also provides new opportunities for the main sectors of activity, encourages the creation of special economic zones and makes up for the absence or inadequacy of essential infrastructures.

ECA's Subregional Office for Central Africa has therefore embarked on a process of shifting the paradigm on 'transport' corridors, particularly those identified in the Central Africa Consensual Transport Master Plan (PDCT-AC) adopted by the 11th Ordinary Conference of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), held in Brazzaville, Congo, on 27 January 2004, and formulated with the support of ECA.

This ad hoc meeting of experts aims to generate discussion on the impact of the implementation of development corridors in Central Africa, and to piece together recommendations and orientations for a reconfiguration and acceleration of the implementation of the PDCT-AC.

NEWS RELEASES

4 December 2020

A rendezvous to transform Central Africa’s routes into development trajectories

DOCUMENTS

Concept Note (FR)

Work Programme (FR)

Expert Group Meeting on E-commerce in Central Africa

sroca.editor — Wed, 02 Dec 2020 06:25:07 +0000

The Role of mobile services in Enabling E-commerce in Central Africa and policy implications

14 December 2020

Online

This expert group meeting (EGM) will review the ECA-GSMA joint study on “The Role of mobile services in enabling e-commerce in Central Africa and policy implications” and provide comments towards its finalization. The group of experts will, specifically:

contribute to a better profiling of the state of development of e-commerce in Central Africa including the characterization (through case studies) of the key challenges in the business environment (logistics, trade barriers, fiscal policies and red tape …) which can have a direct impact on the ability of e-commerce businesses to scale, fulfil transactions and realize the expected socioeconomic benefits,
discuss approaches to addressing the challenges confronting the development of e-commerce in the sub-region,
discuss on how to enhance digital and financial inclusion and strengthen mobile infrastructure and affordability of mobile services, promote market-led competition and improve local and global payment system interoperability for robust mobile services and inclusive e-commerce development in Central Africa,
highlight policy and regulations stand towards taking the right approach to data regulations and strengthening customers’ trust and boost overall confidence in e-commerce and other digital services,

promote stakeholder collaboration and peer-learning through a policy dialogue between governments, regional economic communities, mobile operators, the development community and civil society to address the key challenges to e-commerce adoption in the sub-region.

Concept Note (ENG)

Draft report on: The Role of mobile services in Enabling E-commerce in Central Africa and policy implications (ENG)

2021-2030 declared decade for Economic Diversification in Central Africa

sroca.editor — Sun, 15 Nov 2020 11:06:14 +0000

Language English

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Linked Content:

2021-2030 declared decade for Economic Diversification in Central Africa

Sub Regional Office:

Central Africa

2021-2030 declared decade for Economic Diversification in Central Africa

sroca.editor — Sun, 15 Nov 2020 10:56:11 +0000

Yaounde, 15 November 2020, (ECA) – A timely call to observe the years 2021 to 2030 as The Decade for Economic Diversification in Central Africa has been squarely heeded to by senior state officials across the sub-region led by the Minister of Planning, Statistics and Regional Integration of the Republic of Congo – Ingrid Olga Ghislaine Ebouka-Babackas.

The declaration, issued in an address by the Minister and presented by her Chief of Staff Mr. Ferdinand Sosthène Likouka, Thursday, wrapped up the 36th session of the Intergovernmental Committee of Senior Officials and Experts of Central Africa (ICE) which ran from 11 to 12 November 2020. It was held under the theme: “Building skills and competences for economic diversification in Central Africa.”

A motion for the Decade for Economic Diversification had been made at the opening of the ICE session by United Nations Under-Secretary General and Executive Secretary of ECA, Vera Songwe.

She had posited that any effective and inclusive skills development framework can only be conceived in a partnership between the State, professional associations, trade unions, companies, and development partners.

Such a system “should be supported by a demand-based approach thus allowing the private sector to participate in the definition and provision of training as well as in the accreditation, financing and evaluation of related programs.”

Establishing this decade alongside the UN Decade of Action to deliver the SDGs, Ms. Songwe had argued, would provide the umbrella under which actors would operate with a common vision for achieving economic diversification in Central Africa pivoted on a skills overhaul.

“The call for this Decade challenges us on the need to accelerate the implementation of sustainable solutions to the major challenges facing Central Africa and the world, from poverty to climate change, from inequality to bridging the financial gap,” noted Minister Ebouka-Babackas of the Republic of Congo.

The Minister intimated that “the COVID-19 pandemic, which has slowed down economic activity worldwide, provides us with an opportunity to reassess our priorities and better rebuild and diversify our economies by adopting sustainable and inclusive consumption and production patterns that are resource-efficient and climate-resilient in all sectors of the economy.”

High-level panellists and debaters during the ICE meeting, all subscribed to the ideals for building back and forward better.

Cameroon’s Mines, Industry and Technological Development Minister, Gabriel Dodo Ndoke said “there should be a shift from the education for an extractive, rent-seeking system to one that prepares learners for a transformative productive system; second, we should design training curricula for job creation and entrepreneurship rather than for creating bureaucrats and job-chasers.”

Antonio Pedro, Director of ECA’s Subregional Office for Central Africa (SRO-CA), organizer of the ICE, submitted that “Building back better and the clean energy transition will be resource-intensive, providing unique opportunities for Central African countries to use their massive endowments of the key resources (e.g. cobalt, manganese, solar irradiation”) that can enable the transitions as a bargaining chip to foster technology transfer and acquisition, drive resource-driven industrialisation, and, ultimately, rise-up in relevant global chains, thus contributing to a greater retention of wealth in the sub-region”.

“This requires strengthening negotiation capacity of our member States and fostering a linkages development programme anchored on the implementation of smart local content policies, including using foreign direct investment and national suppliers’ development programmes as tools to industrialise the region and create a strong and competitive SME sector”, Pedro noted.

He called on local captains of industry to seize the opportunities offered by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to usher an inward-looking development agenda, a case that COVID-19 made abundantly stronger.

ILO’s Senior Economist, Irmgard Nübler, mooted for a change in mind-sets and subscription to strong work ethics and the certification of apprenticeship in order to build skills and innovate for economic diversification.

ECA Economist Jean Luc Mastaki harped on promoting innovation and facilitating access to technology especially for SMEs and the informal sector, the harmonising training policies, standardising certificates and easing the mobility of skills across countries of the subregion.

Germany-based computer science engineer from Cameroon, Augustine Mofor, spoke of the paramount importance of governance for harnessing the savoir-faire of experts of the subregion in the diaspora for economic diversification in Central Africa.

Other high-level speakers who contributed to the ICE debates included: University of N’Djamena professor of electronic engineering, Amir Moungache; Congo’s DG of Economy, Franck Corneille Mampouya M’Mbama – who officiated in lieu of Minister Ebouka-Babackas as the new ICE Chair, Advisor to Equatorial Guinea’s Minister of Economy and Finance, María del Mar Bonkanka Tabares; ITU’s Central Africa and Madagascar Area Representative, Jean-Jaques Massima-Landji; Cameroon’s Director of Professional Training, Ibrahim Abba; Equatorial Guinea’s Development Agency CEO, Bindang Ndong Okiri and iCUBEFARM HR gateway’s CEO, Yolanda Asumu; amongst others from all ECCAS member States.

Delegates adopted “Fostering leadership and transformational change for economic diversification in Central Africa” as the theme for the 2021 ICE meeting. The choice of this theme is informed by the theory of change for economic diversification in Central Africa developed by SRO-CA to provide a coherent conceptual framework for the operationalisation of the Douala Consensus of 2017.

-ENDS-

Media Contact

Abel Akara Ticha - Communication Officer

United Nations Economic Commission for Africa

637, rue 3.069, Quartier du Lac, Yaounde, Cameroon

Tel: +237 222504348

E-mail: akara@un.org

Paradigm shift needed in Central Africa’s quest to build skills for economic diversification

sroca.editor — Fri, 13 Nov 2020 20:51:55 +0000

Yaounde, 13 November 2020 (ECA) – A major paradigm shift in formal and hands-on training is required in Central Africa if the region is to successfully diversify its economies, ministers, dons, development experts and senior UN officials have agreed.

This was during a virtual high-level policy dialogue on “Revolutionizing skills for economic diversification in Central Africa” organized by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) to pace-set deliberations of the 36^th session of the Intergovernmental Committee of Senior Officials and Experts of Central Africa (ICE) held from 11 to 12 November 2020. The session had as overarching theme: “Building skills and competences for economic diversification in Central Africa.”

An intersecting point from both panellists and other experts who joined from all over the world was that education in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) as well as reskilling and upskilling in soft competencies such as critical thinking, leadership, problem solving, communication and teamwork were critical to accelerate economic diversification in the region. And there couldn’t be a better time for this revolution to happen than now with the structural weaknesses of the sub-region’s economies laid bare by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cameroon’s Mines, Industry and Technological Development Minister, Gabriel Dodo Ndoke, said like most countries in the region, his country’s education system was antiquated with priority still being placed on social sciences and the humanities while STEM subjects which are critical to enhancing productive capabilities continued to receive less attention resulting in a huge mismatch between supply of skills, market needs and job availability.

“We must now pursue a double-layered paradigm shift to foster economic diversification,” he posited.

“First, there should be a shift from the education for an extractive, rent-seeking productive system to one that prepares learners for a transformative productive system; second, we should design training curricula for job creation and entrepreneurship development rather than for creating bureaucrats and job-chasers.”

Minister Ndoke said such a paradigm shift would produce the graduates who can pursue the crucial trades necessary for diversifying our economies, adding that Central African economies could learn from countries such as Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria who are now laying emphasis on STEMs. Training curricula should therefore be revamped and revised to meet the demands of the job market, he concluded.

The panellists agreed that it is crucial for Central African countries to undertake a skills gap assessment to identify which skills are lacking in their economies so they can enact adequate policies to build the human capacity needed to foster industrialisation.

“Tacit knowledge or lack of it is one of the major binding constraints for diversifying the economies in Central Africa. We will only be successful if we improve the level of sophistication and complexity of our production systems”, advanced Antonio Pedro who heads ECA’s Subregional Office for Central Africa which organized the event. “This requires placing innovation and technology at the centre of our development processes. Moreover, our education system must be responsive to local, regional and global changes, facilitating a dynamic and flexible training and deployment of new skills, and anchored on a continuous adaptation of course contents and teaching methods to respond better to the new and emerging imperatives”, he added.

“Central African countries can benefit from the example of developing country such as Ethiopia which has successfully aligned its educational and skills development strategies with the national vision. To this effort and to support its import-substitution strategy, the government incentivized training in STEMs leading to a 70 percent intake of student who pursue STEMs in higher learning institutions against 30 percent that enrolled in arts and humanities.

Pedro noted that COVID-19 trade disruptions have made the case for an inward-looking development agenda and resource-driven and trade-induced industrialisation much stronger. Equally so, for local content, a potent industrial policy instrument, as it makes now business sense to domesticate and localize the procurement value chain to reduce supply side risks.

To overcome binding constraints, catalyse productivity gains, facilitate technological catch up, and boost innovation capabilities it is paramount for late comers, such as the majority of African countries, to take deliberate actions to create industrial hubs, clusters and hives of open collaboration between industry, universities and research centres, especially with the opportunities offered by special economic zones (SEZs). Evidence-based analysis and sophisticated decision support tools can improve the identification of growth poles and facilitate optimal spatial planning and zoning. “We are doing this as part of the formulation of the Central Africa Industrial Development and Economic Diversification Master Plan (PDIDE-AC), Pedro went on.

ILO’s Senior Economist, Irmgard Nübler, said changing mind-sets and subscribing to strong work ethics are crucial for innovation and skills development if the region is to successfully change course towards diversified economies through new education curricula.

“Central Africa must build its social capabilities for innovation by establishing society-wide training towards acquiring the competencies for diversification,” she posited adding that “to realize meaningful changes there must be a departure from focusing on individuals to focusing on the collective, thus building a society compact for a skills revolution”.

She maintained that“a coordinated and comprehensive learning process and strategy, which includes the promotion of apprenticeship, is essential for such broad-based and hands-on learning agenda to take place in different stages and places, because how and what we learn determines our abilities to adopt and adapt to big data, artificial intelligence and connectivity.” This will help address labour market imperfections such as the focus on academic credentials rather than skills and competencies, she concluded.

For Jean Luc Mastaki, an Economist with the ECA regional office for Central Africa, promoting innovation and facilitating access to technology is pivotal especially for the effective development of SMEs or the region’s informal sector. He noted that the sub-region can look outward to the examples of Scandinavian countries such as Norway where SMEs and university and training institutions have developed successful partnerships for embedding students in industry to gain hands on experience while trainers observe the real needs of the marketplace to adjust training modules.

He said Central African countries must harmonise and modernise training and policies and regionalise certification to facilitate the mobility of labour which is crucial for economic diversification and industrialisation in the subregion. He further argued that the certification and accreditation of apprenticeship would raise its profile and societal acceptance and value thus contributing for more intakes filling a major supply gap in existing training schemes.

The role of the diaspora in filling skills gap and accelerating technology transfer for Central Africa’s economic diversification was amply recognized during the high-level debate.

Dr Augustine Mofor, a Germany-based computer science engineer from Cameroon spoke of the paramount importance of governance for harnessing the savoir-faire of experts from the subregion in the diaspora. Minister Dodo Ndoke concurred and encouraged engineers and other highly skilled members of diaspora not to relent in their efforts in supporting their countries of origin, noting that in Cameroon, for instance, the architecture for exchange with the diaspora already exists but it must be systematized and better operationalised.

The salient points from the high-level debate are reflected in the outcome statement of the 36^th ICE for Central Africa. The latter will be channelled to governments, regional economic communities, universities, think tanks, the private sector and other development partners in the sub-region offering pathways to implement the 2021-2030 Decade for Economic Diversification in Central Africa declared during the ICE.

Media Contact

Abel Akara Ticha - Communication Officer

United Nations Economic Commission for Africa

637, rue 3.069, Quartier du Lac, Yaounde, Cameroon

Tel: +237 222504348

E-mail: akara@un.org

A rallying call for upskilling towards sustainable growth in Central Africa

eskinder.tsegaye — Thu, 12 Nov 2020 17:05:22 +0000

Language English

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A rallying call for upskilling towards sustainable growth in Central Africa

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Central Africa