About the Forum

In 2015, Africa made a significant leap towards integration following the launch of the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) negotiations at the 25th African Union Summit (Johannesburg, June 2015). The CFTA is seen as an important step towards the set up of a 1 billion consumer African common market, an African Economic Community, and a strategic foundation for Africa’s effective integration into the global economy. Several studies show how the CFTA can have a positive impact on growth and exchange between African countries by stimulating industrialization, production, competitiveness and infrastructure connectivity.

The Economic Commission for Africa is organizing, on 27-31 October in Rabat (Morocco), the Sixth Edition of the North Africa Development Forum. This event aims to promote better and increased trade between North Africa and other African countries, facilitate the exchange of views and experiences on trade integration challenges and implications in North Africa. This year’s edition of the Forum will include workshops for the North African economic media and private sectors, and an international colloquium on the “WTO 20 years later, African integration and mega-regional trade agreements”.

The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) office for North Africa and the WTO Chair of the Mohammed V University are organizing the North Africa Development Forum in partnership with Laboratoire d’Economie Appliquée au Développement (LEAD, Université de Toulon). In collaboration with the Arab Maghreb Union, the Maghreb Union of Employers and the African Center for Trade Policies, they will gather decision makers, private sector representatives, academics, journalists and PHD students from across Africa and the Mediterranean Basin.

The planned activities aim to:

-          Sensitize North African business communities on the Continental Free-Trade Area and their potential role during negotiations

-          Raise the awareness of policy makers and regional media of the needs and expectations of populations and businesses, and their potential roles in their own fields ;

-          Raise the media’s awareness of the CFTA, the negotiation process, and the support they can provide to support the process and raise public awareness ;

-          Contribute to the speeding up of negotiations to finalize the UMA Free Trade Agreement and the preparation of negotiations with the rest of Africa ;

-          Provide the various players with resources produced by universities, to support their decisions and actions in relation to multilateral, regional and African trade agreements.