Addis Ababa — The Economic Commission for Africa and the African Union will host the Africa Development Week from 31 March to 5th April which will hold close to thirty side events on topical issues including migration, industrialization, regional integration, and recent global agreements such as the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals. The annual high-level joint ECA-AU ministerial Conference will also take place and will be preceded by a meeting of technical experts.
The ministerial Conference will bring together the AU Ministers of the Economy and Finance and the ECA Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development to tackle the theme Towards an Integrated and Coherent Approach to Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation of Agenda 2063 and the SDGs.
The inaugural Africa Development Week will host about thirty separate events organized by ECA, AU and other partners. Over 3000 high level delegates including heads of state, former heads of state, member States, civil society, media and experts in various sectors of industrialization, energy, statistics, banking, and climate change are expected.
Highlights of the development week include the Annual Adedeji Lecture 2016 to be delivered by renowned Development Economist Ha-Joon Chang and author of widely discussed policy books, most notably Kicking Away the Ladder and 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism, and Economics. Chang teaches Economics at the University of Cambridge.
Other major events include the launch of ECA's flagship - the 2016 Economic Report on Africa looking at Greening Africa's Industrialization. Further, ECA will launch 20 Country Profiles envisioned to be valuable and unique sources of comparative data to aid strategic planning for member States. Other publications to be launched are the Africa Governance Report IV on Measuring corruption in Africa; a report on Investment Policies & Bilateral Investment Treaties in Africa and a report on Global Governance and the Tragedy of Refugees, among others.
The Regional Coordination Mechanism for Africa (RCM-Africa) will also hold its 17 th session to discuss UN support for implementing Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals. While the Caucus of Governors of African Central Banks will hold their annual meeting to address their role in Africa's transformation amidst turbulent times.
