ECA to Host High-Level Memorial Symposium in Honor of Adebayo Adedeji

4 June 2018
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United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (Addis Ababa)

Addis Ababa — The Economic Commission for Africa will be hosting a high-level memorial symposium in Lagos, Nigeria on 7th July in honour of Prof. Adebayo Adedeji, former Executive Secretary of ECA. The late Adedeji is acknowledged by many as one of the most towering intellectual figures and development practitioners in Africa in the late 20th Century. He served as Executive Secretary of ECA for sixteen years (1975- 1991); the longest tenure in that position by any executive secretary.

The symposium will reflect on his ideas and notions of development, their relevance in contemporary era, the trajectory and current context of Africa's development, and the challenges, opportunities and prospects for the structural transformation of African economies and the Continent.

Under his leadership, ECA assumed not only regional but global prominence initiating and leading several Pan-African projects and working closely with the then Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in promoting regional integration, and the social and economic development of the Continent. Some of the historic economic initiatives that took place with ECA's intervention under him include the famous Lagos Plan of Action and the Final Act of Lagos of 1980, the Abuja Treaty establishing the African Economic Community (AEC) of 1991, the African Charter on Popular Participation in Development and Transformation popularly known as the Arusha Declaration of 1990 and the African Alternative Framework to the Structural Adjustment Programme for socio-economic recovery and transformation (AAF-SAP).

In retirement, Adedeji continued to serve the Continent in various capacities. He was the Chairperson of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) Panel of Eminent Persons. He also served on the Committee that reviewed the ECOWAS Treaty in 1992 and chaired the Committee established by the Heads of State and Government of the African Union to audit the integration efforts of the AU in 2007.

A media advisory will be issued with more details on the venue and the programme.

Bio of Professor Adebayo Adedeji: https://www.uneca.org/pages/former-executive-secretaries

Read the original article on UNECA.

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