Twenty African Officials Benefit From Trade Policy Analysis Course

24 January 2017
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United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (Addis Ababa)

In its quest to help Africa deal with challenges it is facing regarding trade policy issues, the African Centre for Trade Policy (ATCP) of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA, recently trained officials from African Member States on how to formulate suitable evidence-based trade policies as countries seek to structurally transform their economies.

Representatives from Regional Economic Communities and the WTO also attended the training on Trade Policy analysis with a focus on CGE and Gravity Modeling that was conducted in partnershipwith the African Institute for Economic Development and Planning (IDEP), and the World Trade Organization (WTO).

This course took place at IDEP premises in Dakar from 21 to 25 November 2016 with 20 people participating.

Africa is facing various challenges towards its development and experts say to address these issues, evidence-based policies should be designed and implemented. Regarding, trade in particular, decision-makers should formulate policies from deep trade data analysis, says ATPC expert, Simon Mevel.

Mr. Mevel and another expert from the WTO, Ms. Michela Esposito, led the training programme, delving into trade policy analysis using gravity models, CGE models and related topics.

The workshop was meant to strengthen the understanding of the participants about capabilities and limitations of tools currently being used for trade policy analysis, enhance the capacity of trainees to use key data inputs for trade policy analysis and expose them to gravity and CGE modeling techniques.

Mr. Mevel said he was satisfied by the interest the trainees had in the programme and their commitment.

He thanked WTO and IDEP for their partnership in trying to equip policy-makers on the continent with the right tools and skills to formulate evidence-based policies and encouraged participants to use their newly-acquired knowledge and skills as they go about their work.

IDEP Director, Ms. Karima Bounemra Ben Soltane stressed the importance of building an effective network amongst the trainees so they could continue to communicate and share.

"We count on you to build an effective community of practice", she told the participants who earlier had, through a representative, expressed their satisfaction with the content and organization of the training.

In 2017 the organizers will offer the same training to participants from French speaking countries on the continent.

Read the original article on UNECA.

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