How sustainable industrial development can support AfCFTA?

The event was organized by UNIDO, AUC, AfDB, UNECA, FAO.

Heads of States, high-level representatives of governments, development financing institutions, and UN agencies together with representatives of the private sector, non-governmental organizations and academia met today at the United Nations Headquarters to discuss how inclusive and sustainable industrial development can support the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement.

The event was organized by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the African Union Commission (AUC), the African Development Bank (AfDB), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

In the next decades, Africa is set to become the youngest and most populous continent in the world, with a working-age population expected to grow by around 70 percent to number 450 million people by 2035. Job creation in Africa is not keeping pace with the growing workforce and large parts of the rural population, the urban poor, women, and youth have not benefited from recent economic growth. Unemployment and inequality still remain unacceptably high.

Policymakers now acknowledge that the continent's economies need to undertake a systematic structural transformation from resource-based economies to more diversified economies, specifically by increasing the shares of manufacturing and agro-related industry in national investment, output, and trade.

The AfCFTA, launched by the AUC in March 2018 in Kigali, Rwanda, has enormous potential for catalyzing this structural transformation, as it will spur industrialization, economic diversification, and employment in Africa. It will create a continental market of 1.2 billion consumers and an African GDP of US$2.5 trillion and is expected to provide great business opportunities for trading enterprises, businesses, and consumers.

All speakers agreed that for the implementation of the AfCTFA to be sustainably successful it will necessarily require further enhanced and concerted efforts by all international and national stakeholders – especially through innovative global partnerships on a multilateral level.

During the event, it was announced that the following heads of state had agreed to become IDDAIII Champions to actively promote the role of inclusive and sustainable industrial development within the IDDA III framework and to increase awareness of this important initiative at the national, regional and global level: His Excellency Alassane Ouattara, President of the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire; His Excellency Uhuru Kenyatta, President of the Republic of Kenya; Her Excellency Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, President of the Republic of Malta; His Excellency Mahamadou Issoufou, President of the Republic of Niger; His Excellency Macky Sall, President of the Republic of Senegal; His Excellency Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa, President of the Republic of South Africa; and His Excellency Edgar Chagwa Lungu, President of the Republic of Zambia.

The meeting concluded with the recognition that the successful implementation of the AfCTFA will require enhanced and concerted efforts to address several critical areas related to industrial development, and issued a call for strategic partnerships with financial institutions and the business sector in order to leverage additional resources for infrastructure, industry and innovation, as well as knowledge, expertise and technology.