Yaounde — At the invitation of the Government of the Republic of Chad, the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) will organise the 30th session of the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts (ICE) of Central Africa from 5 to 7 March 2014 in N'Djamena, the Chadian capital.
The session will be held under the theme "Industrialisation and the retooling of firms for a transition towards a green economy in Central Africa," in conformity with recommendations of the previous ICE held in Libreville, Gabon, last year.
On the basis of working documents prepared by ECA, the experts attending the session will review the challenges of and current emergent opportunities for the sub-region's development in a bid to strengthen their capacities to furnish their governments and institutions with pertinent technical advice for the harmonisation of socioeconomic policy choices in the sub-region.
The session will come on the heels of an Ad Hoc Expert Group Meeting (AEGM) to be held from 3 to 4 March wherein experts will review an ECA-prepared document on "Leveraging the Extractive Industry for Central Africa's Development."
The revised version of the document will be widely distributed to the sub-region's decision makers as reference material for national policy fine-tuning in the extractive industry sector, in line with Africa's transformation agenda supported by ECA.
Meanwhile, in connection with the theme of the ICE session, there will be a special event organised in association with UNIDO to size up the experts' varied experiences on the state of industrialisation and on the progress made by enterprises for a transition toward a green economy in Central Africa.
They will propose ways and means for leveraging the green economy to bolster the sub-region's industrialisation and transformation. They will also be brought up to speed with the state of execution of priority programmes of sub-regional institutions as well as on ECA's recent initiatives.
About the ICE
The Intergovernmental Committee of Experts (ICE) is the policy organ of each sub-regional office of ECA. It was established by the UN General Assembly as a subsidiary body of the African Conference of Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, which deliberates on current and emerging development issues at sub regional level and recommends actions for socio-economic development policy coordination and harmonization among member states.
Green economy and industrialisation - note for editors ECA and the African Union Commission define a green economy as one that aims to improve human welfare and social equity, and concurrently reduce environmental risk and ecological scarcities.
According to the two organizations, to put it simply, a green economy is one that is characterized by low carbon use, resource efficiency and social inclusion.
It is driven by public and private investments that contribute to reducing carbon emissions and pollution, enhancing energy and resource efficiency, and preventing the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Such investments are driven or supported by national policy reforms and international policy and market (Economic Report on Africa 2011).
In relation, ECA believes massive industrialisation based on commodities in Africa is imperative, possible, and beneficial.
Such resource-based industrialization through value addition and linkage development will yield employment, income, price, and non-price benefits, as well as dynamic benefits of diversified technological capabilities and deeper industrial structure (Economic Report on Africa 2013).
