The 2021 African Economic Conference (AEC), jointly organized by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the African Development Bank (AfDB), and the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) will be held in Cabo Verde, as well as virtually, from 2 to 4 December 2021.

Since its inception in 2006, the AEC series has fostered dialogue and the exchange of knowledge on a variety of issues and challenges facing Africa.

The theme of this year's conference is: Financing Africa's post Covid-19 Development.

Three sub-themes are particularly considered:

1. Domestic public and private resource mobilization in the age of the digital revolution - considering the taxation system in Africa in different dimensions (tax base, fiscal space, efficiency, natural resource management, the informal sector, digitalization, the African Continental Free Trade Area), the national financial sector (regulation, efficiency, innovative financial tools, capital market, PPP), monetary policy, and the mobilization of natural resource revenue;

2. Leveraging international private and public financial system for Africa's development - considering debt distress, the international financial architecture and tools (FDI, Special Drawing Rights, ODA, remittances, green financing, sovereign risk, etc.) and the extension of international capital markets to financing Africa's development;

3. Towards resilient recovery and sustainable development with a renewed financing model - considering the possibilities to build a more resilient development through social protection, inclusion of the informal sector in the financing framework of Africa's development.

Policy-oriented papers that are linked to the overall theme of the conference are of particular interest.

Submission Guidelines:

Interested authors should submit their papers to rba.aec@undp.org before 15 July 2021.

Only full papers addressing the theme of the conference will be considered for presentation. We also encourage the submission of policy- and-solution oriented papers with strong empirical work. The conference will give priority to solution-oriented papers.

Authors are kindly invited to submit their papers as per the schedule below:

Annotation

Deadline Date

Deadline for paper submissions

15 July 2021

Notification of final acceptance

15 September 2021

Last day for registration for presenters

31 October 2021

Young African researchers are especially encouraged to submit their articles. One of the objectives of the AEC series is to provide young African researchers with the opportunity not only to share their work with a broader audience, but also to expand their networks.

Review Process:

All the papers will be professionally peer reviewed through a blind review process by the co-organizing institutions. Only original, quality work will be accepted for presentation.

A distinguished panel will assess the papers presented and award a prize to a young author whose work is deemed the best conference paper. The winner will be announced at the closing ceremony.

Sponsorship:

Authors will be requested to indicate whether they require support to cover expenses (travel, accommodation and daily subsistence allowance) associated with their participation at the conference. Only one author per paper accepted for presentation will be eligible for sponsorship. Support is reserved mainly for presenters and young researchers from Africa.

For further information, please read the 2021 African Economic Conference concept note