IDEP Builds Capacity of 25 African Policymakers in the Design of International Trade Policies

4 May 2017

Dakar — The African Institute for Economic Development and Planning (IDEP) recently trained 25 officials from different African countries on how to design and manage dynamic trade policies for the development of their nations, sub-regions and the continent at large.

The 25 officials from 12 Anglophone and 13 Francophone African countries took part in IDEP's third short course so far this year on International Trade Policy for National and Regional Development.

The main objective of the course is to contribute to the development of a critical mass of highly skilled middle and senior policy officials and decision makers who will be suitably or better equipped to design and manage dynamic trade policies for the development in Africa.

More specifically, the course provided training on trade policy design, doing so primarily on the basis of interest expressed by African governments to ensure that their international trade relations are fundamentally developmental.

IDEP Director, Karima Bounemra Ben Soltane, speaking at the beginning of the course, underlined the key role trade plays in supporting the structural transformation of African economies.

"It is very important for African countries to enact policies that develop and promote intra-regional trade and regional integration as this will go a long way in the development of competitive industries on the continent," she said.

Ms. Ben Soltane said this is important given the extremely low levels of trade between African countries, adding the development of the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) is a step in the right direction to address this problem.

She emphasized the need for African countries to ensure that trade agreements they sign do not compromise their industrialization processes. Ms. Ben Soltane said it was therefore crucial to strengthen the capacity of African officials in such areas so they are better equipped to design and manage dynamic trade policies for the development of their nations.

Some of the countries represented in the course were Cameroon, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Madagascar, Namibia, Nigeria and Zimbabwe.

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