Eca Office for North Africa Pursues Programme Implementation Despite Covid-19

22 July 2020
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United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (Addis Ababa)

Rabat — Despite the impact of COVID19 on event organization and technical support missions to member countries, ECA's Office for North Africa has met half of its targeted results for 2020 so far. This achievement was acknowledged at ECA's Second Quarter Accountability and Programme Performance Review Meeting (APPR), a virtual meeting held on 20, 21 and 23 July 2020.

Participants however acknowledged that the pandemic's negative impact on stability across North Africa may generate obstacles to the office's upcoming work, forcing it to postpone activities requiring the physical presence of stakeholders until the situation improves and to focus instead on the organization of virtual meetings and webinars whenever possible.

Since January 2020, ECA's Office for North Africa has cooperated with and supported member countries in several areas including:

  • the assessment of the COVID19 impact on national economies (Algeria and Morocco)
  • the use of the Integrated Planning and Reporting Toolkit (IPRT) for a better monitoring of SDG implementation in Egypt, Morocco and soon Mauritania and Tunisia
  • technical assistance for the achievement of migration targets in accordance with the SDGs and the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM)
  • technical assistance for the revision of the mining law (Libya)
  • support to the AfCFTA implementation, and the design of policies to enhance trade, promote manufacturing and create new jobs (Algérie et Mauritanie)
  • design of a new national macroeconomic model (Algeria, Egypt and Mauritania)
  • the study of economic distortions and their negative effects on productivity growth with the aim of improving economic policies, enhancing productivity and generate additional employment (Morocco)
  • preparations for the second Voluntary National Review (VNR) (Morocco)
  • foreign currency mobilization (Sudan)

This work has been carried out in partnership with national institutions (governments, Central Bank of Egypt, Central Bank of Mauritania, High Commission for Planning and the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE) of Morocco, etc.) as well as a wide range of development partners including UN country teams, the World Bank, UNDP, UNITAMS, ILO, IOM, UNDESA and the Policy center for the New South.

The office has also been working in partnership with other ECA divisions in areas such as employment, the AfCFTA, gender issues, the IPRT, macroeconomic model building and migration.

"We very much appreciate the quality of our relationship with our colleagues in Addis Ababa and our partners across North Africa and look forward to their extended support to achieve our goals in the coming months", said Khaled Hussein, interim director of the ECA Office for North Africa.

Note to Editors:

The accountability and programme performance review (APPR) is a quarterly meeting held by ECA to take stock of the progress achieved against its programmes, identify obstacles and lessons learned.

ECA is one of the five regional commissions of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). Its Office for North Africa aims to support the development of Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, Tunisia and Sudan by helping them formulate and implement policies and programs that support their economic and social transformation, with a focus on sustainable employment and regional integration.

Read the original article on UNECA.

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