North Africa: Greening the Economy to Speed up Industrialization

Rabat, 14 January 2016 (Economic Commission for Africa): The ECA office in North Africa is organizing on 1- 4 March 2016 in Rabat (Morocco), its 31^st Intergovernmental Committee of Experts (ICE) under the theme: Green economy to speed up industrialization in North Africa.

High-level officials, academics, private sector and civil society representatives from Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia will take part in this international meeting. They will examine economic and social conditions in North Africa and make recommendations to achieve stronger economic development and integration in this sub-region as well as the African continent.

This meeting will build on a number of ECA studies on topics such as achieving sustained industrialization in Africa (2012 ICE meeting), optimizing the use of basic commodities and other natural resources (2013 ICE meeting), selecting policy and institutional frameworks (2014 ICE meeting) and speeding up industrialization processes through trade (2015 ICE meeting). In preparation for COP 22, scheduled to take place in Marrakech (Morocco) in November 2016, participants will also discuss the sub-region’s essential need to preserve its environment while industrializing.

One of the five regional commissions of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the Economic Commission for Africa was set up in 1958. In North Africa, ECA’s sub-regional office aims to increase member states’ capacity to achieve socio-economic development, especially in areas such as integration - a regional priority. The Intergovernmental Committee of Experts (ICE) supervises the activities, action plans, program and strategic orientations of the ECA’s office in North Africa.

In addition to the ICE meeting, the ECA office in North Africa will hold a round table under the theme: “Industrialization through trade in North Africa in a multi-agreement context”, to identify the necessary conditions to industrialize Africa, facilitate the emergence of growth centers in strategic industrial sectors and build regional value chains including through intra-African trade.