ANNUAL REPORT 2010

E c o n o mi c

C o mmi s s i o n

fo r

Af ri c a

Distr.: GENERAL E/ECA/COE/29/7 10 March 2010 Original: ENGLISH

UNITED NATIONS ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL Twenty-ninth meeting of the Committee of Experts ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR AFRICA

Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development/Forty-third session of the Commission Lilongwe, Malawi 25 28 March 2010

ANNUAL REPORT 2010

For this and other publications, please visit the ECA website at the following address: www.uneca.org or contact Publications and Conference Management Section Economic Commission for Africa P.O. Box 3001 Addis Ababa Ethiopia Tel: +251-11-544-9900 Fax: +251-11-551-4416 Email: ecainfo@uneca.org Cover photos (from left): Mateusz Atroszko and Tony Clough

Table of Contents

Introduction by the Executive Secretary ................................................................................ v Chapter I: Overview of Economic and Social Conditions in Africa in 2009 .......................... 1 Chapter II: Major Programme Activities and Achievements During the Past Year .................. 5 Chapter III: Issues Arising from the Meetings of the Subsidiary Bodies of the Commission, Including the Inter-governmental Committees of Experts of the Subregional Offices .......... 27 Chapter IV: Resource mobilization and management .......................................................... 35

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Introduction by the Executive Secretary

Abdoulie Janneh United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa

The present report, which is being submitted to the forty-third session of the Commission, covers the period between June 2009 and March 2010 and highlights the main achievements of the secretariat of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) during the past year. It provides a synoptic overview of the major trends, events and activities undertaken by the ECA secretariat in the context of its broad mandate of fostering the economic and social development of Africa. The report is intended to provide information on the work of ECA to a wide audience, ranging from policy makers to universities, research and academic institutions, civil society organizations and the general public. The period covered by the report was one in which ECA made significant progress on several broad fronts against a backdrop of tumultuous events and developments in the global economy, with far- reaching implications for Africas development. As we look back on a period of multiple crises food, fuel, financial and economic crises it is striking to note how vulnerable and adversely affected Africa has been, despite the fact that so much of the crises was not of its own making. Accordingly, ECA focused its work in the past year on providing support to member States in addressing the impacts of the global financial and economic crisis and other emerging challenges, notably unemployment and climate change. For example, the 2009 Joint Meetings of the African Union (AU) and ECA Conference of Ministers last June discussed the impact of the global financial and economic crises on African economies and possible mitigation measures. In addition, ECA, together with the AU Commission (AUC) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) have continued to provide technical and policy support to the Committee of 10 African Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors to agree on a common African strategy for economic recovery, including advocating for increased concessional finance for the continent. This has been instrumental in ensuring Africas effective participation in and contribution to global proc-

esses, including the G20 leaders summit in Pittsburgh in September 2009. It is particularly gratifying to note that Africa is recovering from the global crisis faster than expected. According to ECAs most recent growth prospects, African economies will rebound in 2010 and grow overall by 4.3 per cent, up from 1.6 per cent in 2009. Chapter I of the report provides an overview of recent economic and social developments in Africa during the past year against the backdrop of the global recession, including its impact on Africas medium to longterm growth and efforts to reduce poverty. This report also reviews ECAs performance over the past year in support of the efforts of member States in achieving the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the priorities of the (New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD). Among the most important achievements in this regard were several flagship publications and knowledge products which were published and launched during the past year. These included the Economic Report on Africa; the report on Assessing Regional Integration in Africa; the African Governance Report; African Womens Report; the MDGs Progress Report; the African Youth Report (all of which were jointly published with the AUC); and the African Economic Outlook, jointly published with AfDB. These flagship reports have attained new heights in the quality of their analyses and continue to inform policymaking at the country, subregional and regional levels. The reports also underpin our ongoing work in monitoring and tracking Africas performance in meeting various regional and global commitments. I would also like to draw attention to the consensusbuilding activities of the secretariat during the year, including meetings and conferences such as the annual African Economic Conference, which we jointly organized with the AfDB to address the challenge of fostering development in an era of financial and

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economic crisis. ECAs support for the regional review and implementation of the outcomes of major global conferences, including the Beijing Platform for Action and the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action , both of which had their 15-year review in 2009 were some of the key activities undertaken under this service line. In addition, ECA and the United Nations Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (OHRLLS) jointly facilitated the 10-year review of the implementation of the Brussels Programme of Action for Africa held in Addis Ababa from 9 to 10 March 2010. These regional review meetings have resulted in the adoption of a common African position on key issues of concern, which will serve as the continents input to upcoming global reviews. Significant strides have also been made in support of the AU and its NEPAD programme in the context of the annual Regional Consultations Mechanism (RCM) of United Nations agencies working in Africa, together with its nine thematic clusters. The tenth meeting of the RCM was held in November 2009, chaired by the Deputy Secretary-General. A key outcome of the meeting was the decision to organize future meetings of the RCM jointly with the AU Commission as a way of strengthening ownership of the process. The RCM has now been transformed and strengthened as an instrument for strategic coordination focusing on substantive priorities and results in support of the Delivering as one initiative in Africa. Also in the context of NEPAD, ECA continued to lend its support and expertise in strengthening the implementation of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), by providing technical assistance to participating countries and the APRM secretariat on various aspects of this landmark process. In addition, ECA continued to provide support to the Coalition for Dialogue on Africa (CODA), a joint initiative of AfDB, the AUC and ECA established in May 2009 to strengthen ownership of the African development agenda. The advisory board of CODA held several meetings during the period under review to consider and adopt the work programme of the Coalition for 2010 and also address key issues on Africas development agenda such as climate change, financing for development, regional integration and the impact of the global financial and economic crisis. ECA is working to integrate the work of CODA into the activities of the Commission. Other significant activities were also undertaken during the year by ECAs five subregional offices to advance vi

development at the subregional level, with particular emphasis on accelerating regional integration at that level. In this regard, efforts continued throughout the year to scale up support to the major regional economic communities (RECs) in the context of the implementation of the multi-year programme of work agreed with the RECs. Some subregional offices also made progress towards the establishment of the Subregional Coordination Mechanism in their respective subregions as mandated by the RCM. These and a wide range of other achievements are highlighted in more detail in Chapter II. Chapter III of the report highlights the main outcomes and recommendations of the meetings of the subsidiary bodies of the Commission held since June 2009, including the annual meetings of the Intergovernmental Committees of Experts (ICEs) of the subregional offices, which require attention or action by the forty-third session of the Commission. Efforts also continued in the past year to deepen and mainstream the principles of the ECA repositioning into our work through the introduction of resultsbased management practices as well as strengthening internal business processes to ensure greater effectiveness and efficiency in our work. The ECA Business Plan 2010-2012 and the Strategic Framework/Biennial Programme Plan for the 2012-2013 biennium reflect the success of these efforts. The streamlining of the functions of programme planning, monitoring and evaluation, as well as the establishment of a new section on quality assurance will also ensure that we continue to focus on achieving results in our work. Greater confidence in our work was gained through the implementation of the Business Plan 20072009, and the clear emphasis on fully implementing results-based programmes led to significant additional resources being made available to ECA by several donors. The financial situation was also strengthened in 2009 through the establishment of the AUC and ECA Partnership Forum, and the creation of a new Partnership and Technical Cooperation Section as part of my office to drive a more coordinated approach to mobilizing financial resources from an expanded donor base. Other measures were also taken to enhance human resource management and other administrative processes, including the introduction of efficiency-enhancing measures to ensure effectiveness in programme delivery. Chapter IV of this report provides an overview of the recent efforts and initiatives to enhance programme delivery and the impact of ECAs work within the results-based framework.

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These are only some of the many activities undertaken by the ECA secretariat in the past one year to support the efforts of member States in addressing some of the challenges that they face. A more detailed account of the activities undertaken, together with the relevant outputs, can be obtained from the ECA website at http://www.uneca.org. It is my hope that this annual report will help readers to be better informed of ECAs work in the service of Africa and illustrate the value, relevance and effectiveness of the Commission to member States.

Abdoulie Janneh United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa March 2010

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CHAPTER I Overview of Economic and Social Conditions in Africa in 2009

Introduction
1. The global recession negatively affected economic growth in Africa in 2009. Growth in the continents gross domestic product (GDP) decelerated from 4.9 per cent in 2008 to 1.6 per cent in 2009, as demand and prices for African exports, financial flows and remittances to Africa declined. This was a major turnaround from the relatively high GDP growth sustained over the past six years. As economic activity slowed down, inflation rates receded, helped also by lower international oil and food prices and by good agricultural harvests in some parts of the continent. Lacklustre economic growth and a benign inflation outlook provided scope for central banks to ease monetary conditions. Fiscal policies were also expansionary in an attempt to cushion the impact of the crisis on poverty and to support domestic demand. Yet not all countries had the needed fiscal space for social sector and infrastructure spending, which is required to mitigate the impact of the crisis and support economic diversification. 2. As economic activity tapered off, the employment situation deteriorated, particularly among youth and other vulnerable groups. Poverty may therefore have increased or persisted at high levels. The overall negative impact of the economic crisis on social welfare is likely to compromise progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), especially those aiming at reducing poverty, and also to increase vulnerability to the effects of climate change. 3. The prospects of achieving the MDGs and broader social development as well as the overall objectives of the New Partnership for Africas Development (NEPAD) will be compromised unless urgent action is taken to ensure that African countries achieve high, sustainable and employment-oriented growth and put social development at the forefront of their development agenda. Robust and sustainable economic growth along with rising economy-wide productivity could be delivered by means of the diversification of

production and export bases. In this regard, particular emphasis must be placed on putting job creation at the core of macroeconomic policies.

B. Global economic situation in 2009 and its implications for Africa

4. The world economy shrank by 2.2 per cent in 2009, a fall from the positive, albeit modest, 1.9 per cent recorded in 2008, with activity slowing in both developed and developing economies. Despite significant declines in global trade and capital flows, the world economy has begun to stabilize since the fourth quarter of 2009, supported in large measure by swift intervention on the part of governments, central banks and international financial institutions. In general, developing countries fared better than developed countries. The first group, as a whole, expanded by 1.9 per cent in 2009, while the second contracted by 3.5 per cent. The aggregate figure for developing countries hides disparities within this group. East and South Asian countries were less affected by the global recession. They posted GDP growth of 4.3 per cent in 2009, while Latin America and the Caribbean countries experienced the highest contraction in the developing world (-2.2 per cent in 2009, compared with 4 per cent growth in 2008). 5. As global demand fell, the prices of major African export commodities, such as crude petroleum, coffee, cotton and tropical logs, dropped significantly in the first quarter of 2009, particularly when set against their record high levels of mid-2008. However, prices recovered strongly in the following two quarters and are expected to stabilize in 2010. Crude petroleum prices rose on average by 36 per cent above the commodity prices index. By August 2009, the aggregate food price index had dropped by 77 per cent from its peak level. Besides prices, the volumes of world trade plummeted as well. World exports dropped by 12.4 per cent in volume. Foreign direct investment (FDI) 1

Annual Report, 2010

and remittance inflows to developing countries dried up rapidly. 6. Looking ahead, emerging economies, especially China and India, are expected to lead the economic recovery and to stimulate growth in Africa, directly through increased aggregate demand for Africas commodity exports and capital inflows into Africa as well as indirectly through its positive impact on global commodity prices.

considerable resilience, posting GDP growth of more than 5 per cent due to a variety of country-specific factors. In 2009 the fastest-growing region continued to be East Africa (3.9 per cent), followed by North Africa (3.5 per cent), West Africa (2.4 per cent), Central Africa (0.9 per cent) and Southern Africa (-1.6 per cent (figure I). 9. In 2009, inflation rates receded in the majority of African countries, owing to a number of factors. These factors include weak economic activity, which implies limited demand pressures, reductions in the international prices of food and oil as well as good agricultural harvests in some parts of the continent, and the extension of government subsidies to basic food products. However, the rate of inflation varied, with oil-exporting countries recording relatively lower inflation rates (at 7.3 per cent) than oil-importing countries (9.1 per cent), in part because of the limited nominal exchange rate depreciations this group of countries experienced. 10. While public spending was resilient, government revenues declined, driven by shortfalls in customs collection due to weakened imports and lower tax revenue caused by weak economic activity. This resulted in rising fiscal deficits. Against the background of diminishing external finance, rising fiscal deficits were increasingly funded from domestic sources, either through withdrawals of government deposits from central banks or by means of direct advances from central banks.

B. State of African economies in 2009

7.

Overall, Africas GDP growth

slowed down markedly in 2009, although it showed some resilience compared with previous
economic recessions. Recent commodity price booms were better-managed than previous episodes, with a number of countries accumulating significant external reserves and fiscal savings and recording lower debt. This prudent approach provided countries, particularly the oil-producing countries, with ample room for policy actions in the wake of the global economic downturn. 8. Growth performance varied across and within regions. On average, oil-exporting countries expanded more vigorously than oil-importing countries, owing in large part to the more favourable initial conditions in which they entered the global recession, including large fiscal and current account surpluses, strong external positions and low debt profiles. A few oilimporting countries, including Djibouti, Ethiopia, Malawi, Morocco, Rwanda and Uganda, also showed

D. Human development situation in Africa

11. Africa made limited headway on poverty reduction, eradicating hunger, employment creation, mater-

Figure I. Regional growth performance, 2007-2009 (per cent)

Source: ECA calculations based on data from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA), November 2009.

E/ECA/COE/29/7 nal mortality and addressing disparities due to gender, income and disability. Progress in most social development areas was hampered by the global financial and economic crises, with marginalized and vulnerable groups being the most severely affected. Vulnerable groups include older persons; orphans; young people; persons with disabilities; people living with HIV and AIDS; refugees; the internally displaced; and migrants and the poor. Women in these groups suffered disproportionately from shocks associated with the economic slowdown, natural disasters and conflicts. In the reporting period, several factors influenced the access of these vulnerable groups to food, education, employment and health care. 12. Africas vulnerable groups continued to face challenges in finding decent work. Most were in vulnerable employment, as unpaid contributing family workers, own-account workers or seasonal workers. Others were informal workers in poorly paid petty businesses. As a result of the economic slowdown, governments were constrained to reduce public expenditure on programmes that improved employment opportunities for vulnerable groups. Migrant workers were hit the hardest by the economic downturn, owing to the nature of the sectors that they are employed in. They include construction, manufacturing and hospitality services, which are highly vulnerable to job cuts. 13. Partly as a result of the limited availability of decent jobs, vulnerable groups faced serious difficulties in accessing food and ensuring food security. This was exacerbated by the continued lack of mechanisms for explicit income transfers, food subsidies and price controls in many countries. Overall, older persons, persons with disabilities, refugees and the poor suffered most from higher food prices because of their low incomes. 14. While Africa continued to make progress towards achieving universal primary enrolment, there were still about 46 million primary-school-age children out of school in East, Southern, Central and West Africa, according to the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF). Also, the significant progress towards enrolment was not accompanied by commensurate gains in completion rates, as in the past. Similarly, the number of children and young people out of secondary education remained alarmingly high in Africa. overall participation in tertiary education also continued to be very low on the continent, compromising the opportunities for African young people to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to be competitive. 15. Similarly, access to healthcare services by vulnerable groups was limited. In many countries, the health and physical infrastructure remained inadequate in rural and remote areas. In conflict situations, destruction of the physical infrastructure, including roads, health and education facilities, increased personal insecurity and reduced personnel and supplies for social services exacerbated difficulties encountered by vulnerable groups in gaining access to health services. 16. The number of refugees in Africa (excluding North Africa) continued to decline for the eighth consecutive year from a high of 3.4 million in 2000 (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 2009). This could be attributed partly to the successful repatriation operations to Angola, Burundi and South Sudan. However, according to UNHCR, renewed armed conflicts and human rights violations led to refugee outflows from some countries, particularly Somalia. 17. Overall, the population of vulnerable groups in Africa continued to rise as a result of natural population growth. Civil strife and continued wars, high levels of illiteracy, poor health services, low levels of social services, accidents and domestic violence in some African countries also contributed to the increase in the number of people with disabilities. The population of people living with HIV and AIDS, in particular, also rose because of factors such as stigma, poverty, drug and alcohol abuse and mobility.

E. Outlook for 2010

18. Africas GDP growth is projected to recover in 2010 and grow at 4.3 per cent. However, the considerable uncertainties mean that Africas growth in 2010 could vary in the range of 3.6 per cent to 5 per cent. East Africa is projected to continue to be the fastest-growing region (5.3 per cent), followed by West Africa (4.7 per cent), North Africa (4.1 per cent), Southern Africa (4.1) and Central Africa (3.8 per cent). However, the strongest recovery will be recorded in Southern Africa, with South Africa leading the growth momentum, thanks to rising mining output combined with renewed dynamism in the services sector, in particular tourism, supported by the World Cup football tournament. 19. The expected recovery of the global economy is set to increase the demand for and prices of African exports, in particular minerals, hydrocarbons and services. Private flows, in particular FDI and portfolio investment, will pick up as well. Fiscal and monetary packages adopted by many governments on the continent are expected to sustain domestic demand, which will also benefit from relatively low interest rates. Average inflation in Africa is projected to decline further in 2010. 3

Annual Report, 2010

F. Recommendations
20. In order to achieve higher and sustainable growth, generate decent jobs and achieve broader social development objectives, African countries need to diversify their economies. Raising spending on infrastructure, human capital and other productivityenhancing activities will also be an effective way to increase economy-wide productivity and competitiveness. 21. African countries also need to ensure that monetary policies address developments in the real sector, including economic activity and employment, and not only price stability. The effectiveness of fiscal policies should be improved through the introduction of social protection schemes, particularly well-targeted social safety net measures. However, long-term fiscal sustainability requires that public spending should go

hand in hand with domestic resource mobilization. Sound macroeconomic policies should also be complemented by efforts to strengthen capacity for effective budget implementation and reporting, as well as reforms aimed at improving the business environment. Supervisory efforts in monitoring liquidity and credit risks should also be stepped up. This is particularly important given the rapid expansion in privatesector credit in some countries. 22. The global economic crisis has heightened the need to develop and strengthen measures that ensure the inclusion of vulnerable groups into mainstream development. Addressing the impact of shocks on vulnerable groups is essential to improving the basic human right of access for all to food, health, education and employment. This will promote social development and help to accelerate progress towards the MDGs.

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CHAPTER II Major Programme Activities and Achievements During the Past Year

23. This chapter highlights the major achievements of ECA under the 10 subprogrammes around which the work of the Commission was organized, including the main challenges and lessons learned during the past year. It also highlights the major achievements under the other programmes implemented by ECA, in particular, the regular programme of technical cooperation; the United Nations Development Account; and the progress made by the United Nations system in support of the African Union (AU) and its NEPAD programme at the regional level.

ence of Ministers in Lilongwe, Malawi, in March 2010. 26. The first part of the report provides an overview of recent developments in the world economy and examines recent growth performance in African economies as well as prospects for the medium term. It also explores trends and patterns in regional disparities and discusses the factors behind the observed disparities. 27. The second part of the report addresses the challenges of reorienting growth strategies for the continent to promote high and sustained long-term growth rates to reduce unemployment, with special attention to vulnerable groups. It examines the factors that underpinned the largely jobless growth experienced by many African countries prior to the recent global financial and economic crisis, the challenges and opportunities associated with the crisis, and proposes a reformulation of the development policy framework. It is envisaged that ERA 2010 will contribute not only to the dialogue on growth and employment policy design but also on how policies could be implemented and the roles of various state and non-state stakeholders in the process. ECA also prepared an issues paper on Promoting high-level sustainable growth to reduce unemployment with the view to stimulating discussion among experts and participants on the theme of the joint 2010 annual meetings of the AU-ECA Conference of Ministers. 28. In addition, ECA prepared a policy report on macroeconomic policies, productive capacity and economic growth in Africa. The report assesses the role of macroeconomic policies and productive capacity in promoting medium to long-term economic growth on the continent and highlights the crucial link between macroeconomic policies and economic growth. It also analyses the impact of macroeconomic frameworks on medium to long-term economic growth in Africa. The report concludes that given the diversity observed in terms of resource endowments, political systems, exchange rate policy regimes, capital account policies, 5

A. Regular programme of work

1. Trade, finance and economic development
24. The objective of ECA under this subprogramme is to contribute to the achievement of higher and sustained economic growth through enhanced capacity for macroeconomic and sectoral policy analysis, international trade and finance. Accordingly, the Commissions work during the reporting period was articulated around macroeconomic policy analysis, financing for development, and trade. 25. The preparation of the 2010 edition of the Economic Report on Africa was one of the major activities of ECA in the area of macroeconomic policy analysis. The report, on the theme Promoting high-level sustainable growth to reduce unemployment in Africa, was Economic Report on jointly prepared with Africa 2010 the AU Commission (AUC) and will be launched at the joint annual meetings of the AU-ECA ConferEconomic Report on Africa 2010 Promoting high-level sustainable growth to reduce unemployment in Africa
African Union

Economic Commission for Africa

Due to the global financial crisis, the world economy contracted by 2.2 per cent in 2009, but there are signs that it has begun to stabilize. GDP growth in Africa declined from 4.5 per cent in 2008 to 1.6 per cent in 2009 and is expected to rise to 4.3 per cent in 2010. Despite the decrease in world commodity prices, primary commodity exports remain the major driver of growth in Africa. The global economic downturn exacerbated the already high unemployment rates and vulnerable employment in Africa. Unemployment rates remained high and increasing especially among vulnerable groups in Africa even during the last decade of relatively high growth, making it difficult for the continent to reduce poverty. Africas high and growing unemployment rates stem from both supply and demand sources, including rapidly growing labour supply owing to high population growth rates, increased labour participation and slow growth in labour demand as economic growth has been both insufficient and dependent on capital-intensive enclave sectors with low employment elasticity

In the aftermath of the crisis, African countries should pursue policies that counter the effects of the recession and at the same time lay the foundation for long-term, high-level, sustainable and employment-focused growth. Besides a comprehensive development planning framework that embodies well-designed and implemented macroeconomic and sectoral strategies, this requires appropriate investment in infrastructure, human capital, improved domestic resource mobilization, factor market reforms, incentives to support private sector employment, and efforts to increase productivity.

Promoting high-level sustainable growth to reduce unemployment in Africa

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Economic Commission for Africa

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Annual Report, 2010

vulnerability to droughts, and access to sea, among other factors, policies to promote economic growth must be based on individual country assessments. 29. In November 2009, ECA and the African Development Bank (AfDB) jointly organized the African Economic Conference in Addis Ababa on the theme: Fostering development in an era of financial and economic crises. The conference provided a forum for cross-fertilization and dialogue among researchers, economists and policymakers on the theme. The conference made recommendations on ways of addressing the challenges facing Africa as a result of the global economic crisis. The African Economic Outlook was also launched at the Conference. The report, jointly published by ECA, AfDB and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), reviewed the recent economic situation and made predictions on the short-term prospects of the African economy in the context of recent developments in 47 African countries. The 2009 edition of African Economic Outlook focused on innovation and information and communication technology (ICT) in Africa, presenting a comprehensive review of their proliferation and use. 30. In the area of financing for development, the work of ECA focused mainly on the global financial and economic crisis which threatened to reverse recent economic growth in Africa. In this context, ECA actively supported member States to cope with the impacts of the crisis. It undertook a regional assessment of the impact of the crisis, which served as an input to the consolidated United Nations report, The Global Economic and Financial Crises: Regional Impacts, Responses and Solutions. The report, which was jointly produced by the five United Nations Regional Commissions, contributed to discussions at the General Assembly High-Level United Nations Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development which took place in New York in June 2009. ECA also presented a paper on The impact of the global economic crisis on trade and investment in Africa at the meeting of the Committee of Ten African Finance Ministers and Bank Governors held on 14 July 2009, in Abuja, Nigeria. The meeting provided an opportunity to review the impact of the global financial and economic crisis on trade and made policy recommendations for an appropriate response. 31. At the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations, ECA in partnership with AUC and the African Trade Policy Centre (ATPC) prepared an EPA negotiations template. The template responded to calls by the various statutory bodies of the AU as 6

well as the ECA Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development for harmonization and coordination by African countries in the EPA negotiations. The EPA template has been endorsed by the African ministers of trade, as the guidelines used by the African EPA negotiators and regional economic communities (RECs) in negotiations with the European Union towards comprehensive EPA agreements. AUC has since convened two important meetings, the last of which was held in Gaborone, Botswana, in July 2009, where the template was used as its benchmark to coordinate EPA negotiation positions among the RECs. 32. ECA also undertook a number of trade-related activities through ATPC. In the area of Aid for Trade, ECA worked with the RECs and the African Group in Geneva to ensure that African countries expectations of Aid for Trade are included in regional and global mechanisms. One good example is the NorthSouth Corridor Aid for Trade Pilot Project that was spearheaded by the COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Summit. ECA also contributed to the second global review on Aid for Trade in July 2009, which has resulted in a Global Work Programme on Aid for Trade for the period 2009-2011. Another contribution by ECA to the Aid for Trade agenda was the assistance provided in conducting a feasibility study for the establishment of dry ports in Ethiopia. The report of the study is already being used as a tool for resource mobilization. As part of the process of validating the feasibility study, the draft report was reviewed by key stakeholders of international trade in Ethiopia at a workshop organized by ECA in Addis Ababa in November 2009. 33. As part of its support to SADC, ATPC also assisted in organizing two workshops on the SADC Free Trade Area and Non-Tariff Barriers in Johannesburg and Durban, South Africa, in November 2009. Similar workshops were organized for government officials and the private sector in Malawi and Lesotho in December 2009. The workshops featured presentations on the SADC Rules of Origin, Customs Documentation and Procedures and the COMESAEAC-SADC non-tariff barriers online reporting mechanism. Participants were trained how to use the basic elements of the mechanism, including raising complaints, complaints reporting forms and browsing reports.

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2. Food security and sustainable development

34. Under this subprogramme, ECA continued to pursue its objective of strengthening the capacity of member States to formulate and implement policies, strategies and programmes that take into account the synergies between agriculture and the environment with a view to fostering sustainable development in Africa. Accordingly, the main activities carried out under this subprogramme were focused on providing policy support in the implementation of Africas climate change agenda, promoting food security and agricultural development; and enhancing capacity for land management in Africa. 35. In the run-up to the United Nations Climate Change Summit held in Copenhagen in December 2009, ECA organized a series of preparatory activities throughout 2009 to help inform Africas common negotiating position and build a coalition around Africas main concerns and expectations from the Summit and beyond. ECA support was guided by relevant decisions and resolutions of the AU Union Summit and other relevant African ministerial bodies, most notably, the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment and the Joint AUC-ECA Conference of African Ministers of Finance. At the Copenhagen Summit, the ECA secretariat interacted regularly with Africas climate change negotiators and policy makers and provided substantive inputs to a number of other related meetings and side events. 36. The outcomes of the Copenhagen Summit of relevance to Africa include: (a) agreement on the continuation of the Kyoto Protocol; (b) the urgent need to enhance action and international cooperation on adaptation to reduce the vulnerability of developing countries, especially the least developed countries, small island developing states and Africa; and (c) the recognition that new and additional, predictable and adequate funding as well as improved access shall be provided to developing countries to enable and support enhanced action. ECA will continue to be active in the follow-up to the Copenhagen commitments, in particular in supporting the negotiation of a comprehensive international climate change regime beyond the Kyoto Protocol and the development of a comprehensive framework for African climate change programmes. In this regard, a programme of work is being developed for the new African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC), to carry forward post-Copenhagen work and provide African countries with appropriate technical assistance to address the challenge of climate change.

37. In the area of food security and agricultural development, ECA in close partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) carried out several activities to follow up on the Declaration on investing in agriculture adopted by AU heads of State and Government at their meeting in Sirte, Libya, in July 2009, aimed at accelerating the development of strategic agricultural commodity value chains within the framework of the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme. Special emphasis in this regard was given to supporting agribusiness and agro-industry development. For example, ECA and FAO completed a joint study on Oilseeds value chains development in East Africa, the findings and recommendations of which will be used to elaborate a subregional agricultural development plan. Furthermore, ECA is collaborating with AUC, UNIDO, FAO, AfDB and the International Fund for Agricultural Development in the publication of a compendium of best practices in publicprivate partnership in agro-industry and agribusiness in Africa, and in the launching of the African Agribusiness and Agro-industries Development Initiative in 2010. 38. In the area of land policy management, several activities were carried out during the past year to follow up on the successful launch of a pan-African Land Policy Framework and Guidelines, a joint initiative of the AUC, ECA and AfDB. Five subregional multi-stakeholder workshops were held during the year to review the draft framework before it was adopted by the AU Summit in July 2009. The Land Policy Initiative has raised the profile of African land issues at the subregional, regional and global levels. Improved land management is also a key strategy for climate change adaptation and mitigation, improved ecosystem management and poverty reduction in most African countries. The initiative has contributed to the drafting of a new land bill in Kenya. At the request of other member States, a second phase of the initiative is also being worked on, which will include: (a) the further development and maintenance of the Virtual African Land Policy Administration Facility; (b) the development of benchmarks and indicators for monitoring progress on land reforms; and (c) capacity building, advisory services and technical assistance in land administration and policy formulation and implementation.

3. Governance and public administration

39. The objective of ECA under this subprogramme is to improve and sustain progress towards good gov7

Annual Report, 2010

ernance in Africa and ensure popular participation in the governance and development process to strengthen the foundations of sustainable development. 40. In support of this objective, ECA undertook a wide variety of activities for advancing good governance in Africa, with particular focus on strengthening public administration and public sector management for effective service delivery; promoting private sector development; enhancing the role and capacity of civil society; and providing support to the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) process to strengthen governance practices in Africa. The activities undertaken included research, meetings, seminars and workshops to facilitate the exchange of experiences and improve stakeholder capacity in the area of governance. 41. The ECA secretariat published and launched the second edition of the African Governance Report in 2009. The report, which assesses and monitors the progress of governance in Africa, is the most comprehensive periodic report of its kind on the continent. It focuses on political and economic governance, development of African Governance Report II the private sector and 2009 corporate governance, checks and balances in political power, institutional effectiveness and accountability of the executive, human rights and the rule of law, corruption and institutional capacity building. The second edition of the report covers 35 African countries. The main finding of the report is that within the last five years Africa recorded marginal progress on governance. The gains on political governance have been mixed. While the scope for political representation and competitive electoral politics, human rights and the observance of the rule of law have improved, party and electoral systems remain weak and poorly institutionalized, with elections emerging as a conflict trigger, rather than a conflict resolution mechanism. The accountability of the executive is on a slight increase, with countervailing checks from the other governance actors and institutions - State and non-State.
Economic Commission for Africa

of many African countries. However, major challenges abound. The management of the tax system is poor, service delivery to most segments of the population remains unsatisfactory, and corruption is a major challenge to sustainable economic progress and development in Africa. Corruption undermines Africas capacity to realize its full development potentials. Sustaining the modest progress on governance in Africa requires continuous capacity enhancement in key areas. Such capacity development should be inward looking, regionally and nationally based, and tap into Africas rich human capital in the diaspora. 43. The African Governance Report launched in the 35 countries surveyed is a major flagship product of ECA resulting from its field project, Monitoring and measuring progress towards good governance in Africa, which was launched in 2000. The overarching rationale of the project is the emerging consensus that in order for Africa to meet the internationally agreed development goals and sustain recent progress in economic growth, African countries will have to create an enabling environment of good governance practices. Although it is too early to record policy impacts, some interesting uses of the report have been noted. For example, findings and recommendations of the first edition of the report underpinned the APRM process in many African countries. The project also provides a valuable framework on which to implement the governance agenda that has been adopted by the Heads of State Implementation Committee of NEPAD. 44. In the area of public sector management, several reports and analytical studies were prepared and disseminated during the period under review, which served as technical background papers for some of the meetings organized by the secretariat. These included a technical publication on innovations and best practices in public sector reforms-based country case studies from Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. Building on its ongoing research work in the area of anti-corruption, ECA also continued to provide support to advancing Africas anti-corruption agenda through preparation of a Regional Anti-Corruption Programme, to be jointly implemented with the AUC and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), including providing technical support to the newly established AU Board on Anti-Corruption. 45. With respect to the APRM, ECA continued to play a role as a strategic partner institution by providing technical support to the Mechanisms panel of eminent persons, the APRM secretariat and the participating countries at each of the five stages of the review process ranging from country support missions to drafting of background documents, country review

Economic Commission for Africa

most comprehensive report on the progress African countries gaps in governance institutions ions aimed at promoting good

governance, development of the s and balances in political power, the executive, human rights and city building. It employs a unique instrumentsa national expert d desk research.

African Governance Report II

rt is that Africa has made some modest, this progress has had evels of violent conicts and civil onomic growth averaging 5% in standards of the African people o continues to post remarkable nancial management. African ements in the tax system and gement and a more conducive sector growth.

2009

42. In the economic sphere progressive strides have been witnessed. Economic governance, public sector management, private sector development and corporate governance have been marked by progressive policies leading to a steady growth in the economies 8

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visits, and drafting and publishing country reports and national programmes of action. The continued engagement of ECA is crucial to ensure the independence, credibility and integrity of APRM. In this regard, advisory services were rendered to four APRM participating countries during the past year United Republic of Tanzania, Mali, Mozambique, Lesotho and Mauritius on various aspects of the APRM process. 46. Other forms of support provided to the APRM process included assistance to member States to build and maintain a database of information, including providing access to data sources; sharing of information and experiences; and advocacy and sensitization workshops to deepen the understanding of different stakeholders of their respective roles in the process. In particular, ECA assisted African civil society organizations and networks of non-governmental organizations in strengthening their participation in the APRM process, considering that their involvement is essential in enhancing democratic governance and socio-economic development in Africa. 47. For the achievement of the MDGs by 2015, one of the greatest untapped resources is the private sector. The work of ECA in the area of private sector development is designed to make a substantial contribution to strengthening public-private partnerships and supporting the development of small and medium enterprises. In recognition of the complementary roles of the public and private sectors in sustainable development, the ECA secretariat organized a series of activities aimed at scaling up private sector participation in key strategic sectors such as infrastructure, energy, agriculture and agro-industry, and public service delivery. 48. Specifically, ECA undertook several activities during the past year, including research, technical studies and meetings to share best practices on strategies and approaches for promoting private sector development in Africa. These activities were mainly aimed at enhancing the competitiveness of small and medium enterprises through the promotion of policies and programmes that allow them wider access to finance, technology and manpower. For example, ECA and the Government of the Republic of Korea organized the Korea-Africa Investment Conference in December 2009 on promoting investment opportunities in infrastructure and the energy sector. The conference was attended by 120 companies from the Republic of Korea and several high-level representatives from the African public and private sectors. The immediate benefits of the forum to African countries included identification of viable projects and busi-

nesses for investment and financing by companies of the Republic of Korea and institutionalization of networking among Republic of Korea and African businesses. To help small and medium enterprises to address some of the constraints they face, such as access to finance and technology, ECA is also supporting the development of networks and business linkages at the regional and subregional levels. 49. The exponential growth of African civil society organizations in recent years, the emergence of new trends, such as proliferation of specialized civil society networks, and the establishment of sub-regional non-governmental organization networks, calls for a renewed framework to guide the work of ECA in support of civil society organizations and other non-state actors to enable them to play a meaningful role in the development process. As part of efforts to define a structured process of engagement between ECA and civil society organizations, the African Centre for Civil Society was resuscitated in 2009 to promote popular participation and strengthen the capacity of civil society organizations in Africa. The Centre also serves as a repository of relevant and timely information on issues related to civil society in development and governance, and facilitates effective and programmebased linkages between African civil society organizations and the international development community. 50. During the period under review, ECA organized several meetings and workshops on issues relevant to the development of civil society and its mainstreaming in the policy process in Africa. These included a brainstorming workshop on reviving the African Centre for Civil Society in December 2009; consultations to examine the role of African civil society organizations in peace and State building held in Juba, the Sudan, in December 2009; a workshop on climate equity, organized in collaboration with the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance to prepare African civil society organizations for their participation in the meeting of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment in October 2009; and a workshop to share best practices on strengthening citizens demands for good governance and enhancing participatory governance and social accountability, organized jointly with the Overseas Development Institute. The ECA secretariat also undertook a study to assess the impact and effectiveness of African civil society organizations on the development and governance process in six African countries (Ethiopia, Ghana, Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda), which resulted in the distillation of best practices for enhancing the contribution of civil society organization networks.

Annual Report, 2010

4. Information and science and technology for development

51. ECAs work under this subprogramme aims at strengthening and sustaining an African information society, as well as developing capacity for the formulation, adaptation and implementation of appropriate science and technology policies and programmes. 52. During the period under review, ECA continued to strengthen the capacity of member States to formulate, implement and evaluate strategies and plans in the area of information for development. With critical support and assistance from ECA, seven countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, the Gambia, Niger, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Rwanda) made progress in the implementation of their national information and communication infrastructure plans and policies during the past year by adopting strategies for the application of ICT in various sectors, including health, government, commerce, education and agriculture. At the subregional level, the e-SADC initiative, aimed at defining a framework for the implementation of the information society in the subregion, was launched in collaboration with the SADC secretariat. The objectives of the initiative include promoting regional harmonization of ICT policies, strengthening capacity in the area of e-applications and promoting public-private partnerships. Botswana, Lesotho, Mauritius, Mozambique, South Africa, United Republic of Tanzania and Zambia have adopted the framework and will begin implementation in 2010. 53. An important component of ECA work in the area of ICT policy formulation and implementation is the development of national geoinformation policies, including their integration into national information and communication infrastructure plans and policies. ECA provided technical assistance to several member States in the development of spatial databases of fundamental and thematic datasets, including: the Transport Infrastructure Database; the Second Level Administrative Boundaries Database; the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa database, used to develop and implement infrastructure master plans for member States; the MDG Mapper; the agricultural commodity value chain database, which helps countries to identify potential areas for the cultivation of specific crops; and a GIS health database developed for Ethiopia and being used in all health centres in the country, enabling speedy and accurate access to medical personnel and facilities in case of emergency. 54. In February 2010, ECA launched the African Innovation Framework to guide the development of 10

science, technology and innovation in Africa. The Framework document titled Unlocking Africas future: towards an African innovation framework, grew out of the work of ECA in carrying forward the outcomes of the Science with Africa Conference held in March 2008. The Framework identifies several priority areas for action in the development of science, technology and innovation in Africa, including strategic vision, planning and governance; education primary, secondary, tertiary, technical and vocational; specific policies and enablers; and media and public awareness. The Framework will form the basis for the continued advice and support of ECA to member States in developing national science, technology and innovation strategies. 55. On the basis of the African Innovation Framework, 10 countries (the Congo, Ethiopia, the Gambia, Ghana, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, Swaziland, and Zambia) have embarked on a process to adapt the Framework to their national science, technology and innovation systems). In addition, the Government of Mozambique received assistance in operationalizing its science, technology and innovation strategy. Other accomplishments in this area included the establishment of an African innovation endowment fund; the launch of the African Science to Business Challenge project, which aims to enhance the linkages between the scientific and business communities; the Access to Scientific Knowledge in Africa web portal to enable access to scientific knowledge; and the development of guidelines for health research in Africa. 56. ECA also provided technical and financial support to member States in the preparation of the 2010 AU Heads of State Summit on the theme Information and communications technologies in Africa: challenges and prospects for development. As an example, ECA and AUC jointly organized the extraordinary Conference of African Union Ministers in charge of Communications and Information Technologies, held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in November 2009. The meeting adopted the Oliver Tambo Declaration, which commits African countries to the development of ICT within the framework of the African Information Society Initiative and the Global e-Policy Resource Network. The Declaration also calls on ECA and AUC to work jointly in the preparation of a draft regional convention and regulatory framework for cyber activities, including electronic transactions, cyber security and personal data protection, to be adopted before the end of 2012. In addition, ECA supported the participation of over 20 African journalists and winners of the Technology in Government in Africa awards at the AU Summit.

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5. Economic cooperation and regional integration

57. The objective of ECA work under this subprogramme is to promote effective economic cooperation among member States and to strengthen the process of regional integration in Africa through enhanced intraAfrican trade and physical integration, with particular emphasis on infrastructure and natural resources development in line with the AU vision. 58. During the period under review, ECA continued to support the process of African integration through the biennial flagship publication Assessment of Regional Integration in Africa, which is jointly produced with AUC. Together with AfDB, ECA and AUC embarked on the preparation of the fourth edition in 2009. Building on the success of the previous three editions of the report which addressed critical thematic challenges related to regional integration, the fourth edition will address the theme of intra-African trade and provide policy options for overcoming the challenges and constraints that face it. 59. The report will examine a diverse range of topics and issues, including supply constraints; intra-African trade potential; trade facilitation with a focus on the peculiar problems of landlocked countries and the operations of corridor management institutions; infrastructure and bottlenecks and the attendant costs of doing business; and payment systems. Through selected case studies, the fourth report will also examine the nature and scope of trade in the informal economy and the gender dimensions of intra-African trade. The report is expected to make a substantial contribution to policymaking in support of intraAfrican trade and regional integration at the national, subregional and regional levels. 60. ECA also continued to encourage member States to mainstream and implement the protocols and agreements of the RECs and AU on regional integration at the national level. In that context, the ECA secretariat through its subregional office in Lusaka, organized a forum on mainstreaming regional integration and SADC law in national development plans, held in Maputo, Mozambique, in May 2009. The forum, which was attended by representatives of the Governments of Lesotho, Mauritius, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Mozambique, and of AUC and SADC, led to the adoption of a framework for mainstreaming regional integration and SADC law into the national policies and plans of SADC member countries. ECA also developed a knowledge network for SADC, which will serve as a hub for discussion

between member States and their partners on regional integration issues. 61. To facilitate the monitoring and tracking of progress in regional integration in Africa, ECA developed a web-based Observatory on Regional Integration. The Observatory forms part of the Commissions knowledge management platform and has become a primary source of information for policy makers in RECs and member States, as well as other stakeholders. It provides timely and relevant information on progress, challenges and other issues concerning regional integration in Africa. It also provides a platform for interactive dialogue and exchange of ideas on Africas regional integration process. 62. In the context of the implementation of its multi-year programme of support with COMESA, ECA facilitated two technical meetings of national task teams on regional trade policy and sensitive products during the past year. Through these technical meetings, the 19 member States of COMESA reached consensus on a harmonized regional trade policy and sensitive products lists, which eventually led to the successful launching of the COMESA Customs Union in 2009. Under the Customs Union, COMESA countries agreed to implement the harmonized regional trade policy, which includes the adoption of one common external tariff and harmonized trade nomenclature and customs documentation, all geared towards enhancing intra-COMESA trade in particular and intra-African trade in general. 63. In the area of transport development, ECA, in collaboration with AUC and Federation Internationale de LAutomobile, organized a conference on road safety in Dar es Salaam, United Republic of Tanzania, in July 2009. Over 100 policy makers and experts from African ministries in charge of transport, infrastructure, health, education, safety and traffic law enforcement, as well as representatives from the private sector and civil society organizations attended the events. Participants exchanged experiences and best practices on road safety drawing on country case studies from Cameroon, Ethiopia, Morocco, Niger, United Republic of Tanzania and Zambia. A number of recommendations to improve road safety in Africa were also adopted for implementation by member States. 64. In the area of energy development, ECA organized a study tour in June 2009 for 15 policy makers and experts from Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi. The objective of the study tour was to enhance the participants understanding of the operations and management of regional electricity markets and to 11

Annual Report, 2010

share best practices in energy management and usage. ECA also launched a study on a self-financing mechanism for the Central African Power Pool as a means of addressing the difficulties of mobilizing contributions from member utility services to its operating budget. The proposed mechanism involves a levy on electricity sales to help create a sustainable source of funding for the operating budget of the Central African Power Pool. 65. In November 2009, ECA also organized a capacity-building workshop on the preparation of power purchase agreements for participants from members of the East African Power Pool. The main objective of the workshop is to empower members of the East African Power Pool in contract negotiations relating to power purchase agreements. The event was organized in partnership with the Division for Sustainable Development of UNDESA as part of its development account project on capacity-building for interregional electricity access and supply in Africa.

and propose key actions that Africa needs to focus on in the next five years. 68. The ministerial declaration adopted at the end of the conference focused on seven key areas, identified as critical for African women: (a) economic empowerment of women through poverty reduction, employment creation, social protection and ICT; (b) peace, security and development; (c) violence against women; (d) representation and participation of women in all areas of decision making; (e) sexual and reproductive health and HIV and AIDS; (f ) climate change and food insecurity; and (g) financing for gender equality. The Banjul Declaration will form the basis for the plan of action to be implemented by member States at country, subregional and regional levels, and served as Africas input into the global review of the Beijing Platform for Action which took place at the Commission on the Status of Women in New York from 1 to 12 March 2010. 69. During the period under review, ECA also completed work on the 2009 edition of the African Womens Report, which was launched in Banjul at the Beijing+15 Conference. The report reviews the state of gender equality in Africa and highlights the difficulties countries are facing with respect to the full realization of womens rights due to the persistence of negative cultural and religious beliefs and attitudes toward women. Based on the African Gender and Development Index, the report uses both qualitative and quantitative means of data collection and analysis as a framework for measuring gender inequality. The African Gender and Development Index is divided into three blocks which reflect all aspects of human development: the social block (capabilities) which includes education and health issues; the economic block (opportunities) which assesses access to production resources; and the political block (agency) which deals with womens representation in decision making in public and civil society arenas. The index was piloted in 12 countries and the findings make up the bulk of the report. The pilot will be extended to an additional 23 countries in 2010. 70. During 2009, ECA launched the Guidebook for mainstreaming gender in macroeconomic policies developed during the previous biennium. The Guidebook is a compendium of methodologies and tools, which utilize time-use data, gender aware modelling and gender budgeting to measure and integrate womens unpaid work in national planning instruments and macroeconomic policies. The time-use data collection manual is being tested in Djibouti and Ghana to improve the skills of statisticians, national accountants and policy analysis experts in collecting,

6. Gender and women in development

66. Supporting member States to achieve gender equality through gender mainstreaming and empowerment of women continued to be a defining aspect of the work of ECA under this subprogramme, in addition to strengthening the capacity of member States for monitoring and reporting on progress in the implementation of globally and regionally agreed plans and strategies for the advancement of women. In support of these objectives, ECA undertook several activities during the reporting period, including organizing the African regional review of the Beijing Platform for Action; launching the 2009 edition of the African Womens Report; preparation and operationalization of a guidebook for mainstreaming gender in macroeconomic policies; capacity building on gender statistics; and operationalization of the African Womens Rights Observatory. 67. In the context of its work on the follow-up to major global conferences and summits, ECA organized the Eighth Africa Regional Conference on Women (Beijing+15) in November 2009. Hosted by the Government of the Gambia in Banjul, the conference brought together nearly 1,000 delegates, including ministers in charge of gender and womens affairs, gender experts, civil society groups and other stakeholders, to take stock of progress achieved in Africa since the Beijing Conference on Women 15 years ago, identify pending challenges in the implementation of the 12 critical areas of the Beijing Platform for Action, 12

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analyzing and integrating gender-disaggregated micro and macroeconomic statistics into national planning policies and instruments. In addition, three subregional workshops were organized in 2009 (in Ghana, Cameroon and Zambia) to enhance the capacity of African national statistical offices and gender machineries in the collection, processing, analyzing and dissemination of gender-disaggregated data. More than 82 national experts from 32 countries benefited from the workshops and six countries have already submitted their plans of action for preparing national household surveys. This will be followed up with technical advisory support in 2010. 71. The African Womens Rights Observatory, which was launched in African Womens Report 2009 August 2008 to facilitate outreach and information sharing among member States, became fully operational in 2009. Through its website (http://awro.uneca. org), newsletter and other publications, the Observatory serves as a comprehensive source of data and information on research findings, best practices and events on womens rights in Africa. It also tracks the progress of African countries in the area of womens human rights.
Economic Commission for Africa Economic Commission for Africa

States and RECs in strengthening their capacity to formulate and implement harmonized national policies in the areas of trade, infrastructure, human capacity development, gender mainstreaming, agriculture and food security. To this end, the subregional offices organized and serviced various meetings and workshops, including the annual session of the Intergovernmental Committees of Experts (ICEs); they participated in meetings of the policy organs of the major RECs; and provided technical assistance, on request, to member States, RECs and other intergovernmental organizations on institutional and sectoral issues in support of integration efforts. 74. The subregional offices also compiled and disseminated reports and studies on various economic and social issues, which were submitted to the ICEs. In addition, the subregional offices continued to enhance their collaboration with other United Nations agencies and increase their participation in the activities of the United Nations country teams in support of the achievement of internationally agreed development goals, including the MDGs. Furthermore, the subregional offices have taken steps to enhance coordination of United Nations activities at the subregional level by convening subregional coordination meetings of United Nations agencies as mandated by the Regional Coordination Mechanism (RCM), and implementing joint activities agreed by the thematic clusters of the RCM at subregional level. 75. Across the board, a major priority of the subregional offices during the past year was the operationalization of the multi-year programme of cooperation agreed between the subregional offices and their respective RECs. The following section highlights some of the concrete results achieved by each subregional office in the context of the implementation of the multi-year programmes. i. Subregional Office for North Africa

The African Womens Report (2009) is based on the results of piloting the African Gender and Development Index in 12 African countries across the five subregions of the continent. Making a case for countries to invest in sex disaggregated data collection, the outcomes provide an indication of the general situation of women across the continent.

The results of the AGDI trials demonstrate that countries have shown commitment to international, regional and subregional treaties affecting women through overwhelming ratification. Many instruments have been reflected in constitutions and other legal frameworks of countries. Nevertheless, implementation of these has been at snails pace, resulting in the persistence of violence against women and discrimination, especially in relation to equal rights in marriage and property rights. The report confirms existing MDG status reports which indicate remarkable progress being made with respect to MDG2 on Universal Access to Basic Education. Regrettably, however, this momentum is not carried forward into secondary and tertiary education, where both sexes, most especially males fall through the cracks. Similar gender dimensions are found with respect to child health, where boys seem to be the worst victims of stunting, underweight and under-five mortality. Substantial gaps and things to do remain in the area of Sexual and Reproductive Health, which is witnessing excessive rates of maternal mortality and disproportionate impacts of HIV/ AIDS on women.

In the area of economic participation, the report expresses concern at the lack of statistical and financial recognition given to the time and effort that women expend in domestic and reproductive work. Women remain a dominant force in the informal sector, particularly as unpaid family workers. In formal sector employment they are segregated into the lowest echelons of employment, so that when taken together, women tend to have lower earnings than men. In the political field, countries of the Southern African region (Mozambique and South Africa) in addition to Uganda of East Africa have achieved 30 per cent representation in Parliament. This has largely been influenced by the implementation of affirmative action policies by ruling parties. Nevertheless, for these countries and for the vast majority of countries, womens political representation remains abysmal on the whole, as their presence dissipates at the levels of the judiciary, executive, and even at community level.

African Womens Report 2009

With the aid of a systematic collection of sex disaggregated data, the report calls for enhanced commitment towards accelerated implementation of gender equality as outlined in frameworks such as the ICPD+15, Beijing+15, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the African Womens Protocol.

List Price: USD $ 40.00 ISBN: 978-92-1-125112-8

Measuring Gender Inequality in Africa: Experiences and Lessons from the African Gender and Development Index

United Nations Publication Printed in Denmark

2009/09/01857 - October 2009 - 3,000

7. Supporting subregional activities for development

72. Tackling the particular development challenges facing different parts of Africa often calls for a subregional focus, which in ECA is provided by the five subregional offices located in each of the five subregions of the continent, namely Rabat for North Africa, Niamey for West Africa, Yaounde for Central Africa, Kigali for East Africa and Lusaka for Southern Africa. The work of each of the five subregional offices is defined by the specific needs and priorities of each subregion. However, a major priority for all five offices is to promote and accelerate the process of regional integration at the subregional level, by spearheading the delivery of operational activities targeted at the specific priorities of each of the five subregions, within the overall framework of the implementation of NEPAD and achievement of the MDGs. 73. During the period under review, the subregional offices continued to enhance their support to member

76. In implementing the 2009 work programme the Subregional Office for North Africa focused mainly on: enhancing the capacity of member States in developing various social and economic development policies and programmes, with special attention to gender equity; strengthening the work of the Arab Maghreb Union and partnerships at the subregional level to support policy advocacy, policy-making and implementation; and enhancing knowledge networks. 77. A workshop held in December 2009 took a hard and critical look at the achievements of the multi-year programme for 2008-2009 with the Union and drew lessons for defining and implementing the 201013

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2012 multi-year programme activities jointly agreed around selected priority areas of agriculture, trade and investment. The implementation of the programme has helped to strengthen the Unions general secretariat and the capacity of member States to collaborate in the joint formulation of subregional policies, particularly in the areas of food security and promoting dialogue between policy makers and professional associations. The Subregional Office also undertook several activities during the year focusing on promoting education and job creation, a major priority identified by member States in 2009. The activities included an expert group meeting on education and capacity building for job creation in North Africa; the North Africa Development Forum; two sessions on the economic and financial crisis in North Africa; a meeting on gender mainstreaming in development policies and processes in the subregion; and a training course on the development of statistics on the information economy. 78. The 2009 North Africa Development Forum (http://www.northafricaforum.org) was organized in collaboration with the World Trade Organization (WTO) and universities from the Maghreb and France with the theme Emerging economies and human capital. The round table organized on the sidelines of the forum also gave the participants an opportunity to reflect on ways and means of accelerating economic growth and social development through investment policies based on human capital development, including relevant training and increased research activities. The discussions focused on strategies aimed at promoting full employment and strengthening the competitiveness of the economies in the subregion and addressing existing gaps between training curricula and labour market requirements. 79. As the subregional node for knowledge management in North Africa, the subregional office continued to enhance the effectiveness of the Observatory for Regional Integration in North Africa as a tool for monitoring and assessing progress in achieving regional integration in the subregion. The Subregional Office was also instrumental in the establishment of Le Centre de Jeunes Dirigeants in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, which will soon be expanded to other countries of the subregion. ii. Subregional Office for West Africa

Community of West African States (ECOWAS), providing technical assistance to member States, major intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations, including strengthening their capacity in policy formulation and harmonization and programme implementation. 81. In the context of the implementation of the multi-year programme, the Subregional Office collaborated with the ECOWAS Commission on a number of joint undertakings, including meetings, group training activities and advisory services to member States. Key among these were the second West African business forum in February 2009 and preparatory activities for the third forum; preparations for the sixth ECOWAS trade fair to be held in September 2010; organization of an expert group meeting to review the implementation of the multiyear programme; and organization of a workshop to review the draft framework report on mining regimes in Africa in November 2009. 82. In November 2009, the Subregional Office organized an experts group meeting in collaboration with the ECOWAS Commission to review progress in the implementation of the multi-year programme. The meeting took note of the accomplishments of the Subregional Office in the implementation of the programme and identified a number of challenges to be addressed to ensure effective implementation of the collaboration framework, including: limited awareness of the multi-year programme within some ECOWAS directorates; ad hoc internal collaboration and coordination mechanisms in both institutions; competing activities of other development partners; and inadequate funding for programmed activities. A key recommendation was the need to establish a committee to develop a multi-year programme implementation framework to identify priority areas for future programmes, develop resource mobilization strategies and develop a monitoring and evaluation framework for the programme. A further experts group meeting organized in collaboration with the ECOWAS Commission focused on energy-related insecurity in West Africa. The meeting highlighted the causes of low energy supply and underscored the need for greater private sector involvement in the energy sector to increase energy supply in the subregion. The meeting also underscored the need to exploit alternative sources of clean energy hydroelectricity, solar and nuclear to address the energy crisis in the subregion. 83. Technical assistance was provided to member States and the ECOWAS Commission in addressing various technical and development challenges. For

80. The Subregional Office for West Africa devoted significant efforts during the past year to the operationalization of the multi-year programme of collaboration with the Commission of the Economic 14

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example, the advisory services provided by the ECA advisor on secondment to the Commission have helped to coordinate the process towards the establishment of the ECOWAS Project Preparation and Development Unit by filling an important capacity gap in the Commissions structure and interventions in the area of infrastructure. iii. Subregional Office for Central Africa 84. In the period under review, the Subregional Office for Central Africa continued to build the capacities of its member States and RECs, intergovernmental organizations, the private sector, non-governmental organizations, universities and research institutes, and to strengthen its partnerships at subregional and country levels to support policy advocacy, policy-making and implementation of subregional integration programmes with particular focus on infrastructure development, air transport, trade policies, free movement of people, financing for development, ICT for development, private sector development, and post-conflict reconstruction. 85. The Subregional Office prepared several technical reports and publications during the year, including its flagship publication Les Economies de lAfrique Centrale; progress reports on regional integration in Central Africa and on the implementation of NEPAD and the MDGs in the subregion; and the report on the financing gaps of the Central Africa transport master plan. The Subregional Office also produced several outreach materials including its quarterly magazines and weekly newsletters. The Subregional Office organized a number of meetings and events during the period under review, including, among others, the 2009 session of its ICE with the theme Economic recovery in post-conflict countries; a round table on fiscal policy and mobilization of domestic resources; an experts group meeting on the financing gaps for the implementation of the Central Africa transport master plan; a forum on post-conflict recovery, rehabilitation and economic development in Central Africa; and an experts group meeting to assess the multi-year programme of ECA, the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) and the Economic and Monetary Union of Central Africa (CEMAC). The meetings resulted in the following achievements: The multi-year programme, bringing the Subregional Office, ECCAS and CEMAC together under a single umbrella, contributed to the rationalization of regional integration programmes in the subregion. The programme

framework resulted in the adoption of 55 priority projects and is also gaining wide donor support, with the mobilization of over $US 1 million; The forum on post-conflict recovery, which was organized in partnership with ECCAS and AfDB, brought together high-level officials, parliamentarians, experts and civil society leaders, and provided a first subregional discussion platform on how to better prevent crisis in Central Africa and on the priorities of an ECCAS post-conflict programme; The two consultative meetings with United Nations agencies led to the adoption of a common indicative programme and the establishment of a subregional coordination mechanism, which brings together all United Nations agencies in the subregion, including AfDB, to support the implementation of the AU-NEPAD programme in Central Africa.

86. Other notable achievements in the context of implementing the multi-year programme with ECCAS and CEMAC included the following: Four new activities were initiated in 2009 covering priority areas such as trade, development of transit corridors and harmonization of customs codes. Several advisory missions, seminars and workshops on regional integration were carried out in order to provide more institutional support to RECs; At the request of CEMAC, ECA developed a macroeconomic framing model which allows economic forecasting and macroeconomic framing as well as a quantitative evaluation of the impact of the CEMAC Regional Economic Programme; In support of the development and harmonization of the norms and instruments of the two free trade areas CEMAC and ECCAS, ECA undertook a study for CEMAC on trans-border informal trade to enhance the understanding of RECs and member States of intra-regional trade within the Central Africa subregion; In the area of infrastructure and transport services development, a study on harmonization of standard norms in road construction was completed at the request of ECCAS, and a study tour was organized on facilitation along transit corridors in Central Africa;

87. The Subregional Office launched the Integration Days in Central Africa (Journes dIntegration dAfrique Centrale) an annual event to publicize the key achievements and challenges and the pros15

Annual Report, 2010

pects for the regional integration process in the subregion. In addition, the office produced a quarterly magazine, Les Echos dAfrique Centrale, and a weekly newsletter, Highlights, which showcase the various reports and studies carried out by the subregional office. 88. The Subregional Office actively participated with the United Nations Country Team in the followup review of the Common Country Assessment and United Nations Development Assistance Framework for Cameroon, and contributed in the design of the assessment and framework for Equatorial Guinea. In addition, the two consultative meetings organized by the Subregional Office with ten other United Nations agencies enlarged the partnership and opportunities for supporting ECCAS, CEMAC and their specialized institutions in implementing their subregional integration programmes in line with the AU agenda. iv. Subregional office for east Africa 89. In the period under review, the ECA Subregional Office for East Africa continued to focus much of its policy support and operational activities on fostering the regional integration process in East Africa by strengthening the capacity of member States and RECs in the formulation and implementation of harmonized macroeconomic and sectoral policies. The Subregional Office also continued to deepen partnerships with member States, major RECs and other intergovernmental organizations in addressing their development priorities and the challenges of the subregion, with particular emphasis on macroeconomic convergence, food security and sustainable development, and ICT for development, trade and transport facilitation. 90. ECA played a key role in the relaunching and repositioning of the Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries and contributed to defining its policy and programme priorities. In this context, ECA provided support in the formulation of the Communitys strategic plan for the period 20102014. The Subregional Office also provided technical assistance in the formulation of the national information and communication infrastructure plan for the Democratic Republic of Congo; the design of Rwandas mining strategic plan; the identification of investment opportunities in the port and railways sector for the Port Management Association of Eastern and Southern Africa; the development of transport strategies for the Northern Corridor Transit Transport Coordinating Authority; the formulation of strategies for business start-ups in Rwanda;

and the launch of the Academy of ICT Essentials for Government Leaders in Africa in Rwanda. 91. In support of knowledge management and sharing, the Observatory on Regional Integration established and hosted by the Subregional Office contributed to the process of monitoring and tracking progress on regional integration in the subregion. Relevant instruments of regional integration (treaties, protocols, and conventions) are periodically posted on the Observatory. The platform helps to monitor how these instruments are being implemented, adapted and mainstreamed into national legal and regulatory frameworks. It also helps to assess the progress made towards achieving agreed regional targets and convergence criteria. 92. With regard to partnerships, joint undertakings and multi-year programmes, the Subregioinal Office has to date agreed and concluded four multi-year programmes with the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, the Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries and the Indian Ocean Commission. Discussion with the East African Community (EAC) is under way and should lead to the signing of a multi-year programme. These joint undertakings have helped the Subregional Office and its partners to realize economies of scale and enhance focus and impact in programme delivery. The Subregional Office also helped partners to fashion common positions on key development issues affecting the region, such as peace and security, trade and macroeconomic policies, natural resources management, social development policies, transport and infrastructure development, industrial development and ICT. 93. During the period under review, the Subregional Office continued to enhance its participation in the work of the United Nations Country Team in Rwanda. The Subregional Office contributed to various activities leading to the rollout of the One United Nations programme in Rwanda, and to the work of two thematic groups, the environment theme group and the sustainable growth theme group. This has led to increased visibility of ECA in Rwanda and strengthened its partnerships with other United Nations agencies, particularly UNDP and UNEP; and also resulted in the adoption of a new agenda on regional integration under the One United Nations programme. As part of efforts to strengthen coordination among United Nations agencies working in the subregion, the Subregional Office is currently leading discussions towards the establishment and operationalization of a subre-

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gional coordination mechanism in support of the implementation of NEPAD in the East and Southern Africa subregions. v. Subregional Office for Southern Africa

94. The work of the Subregional Office for Southern Africa during the past year was geared towards strengthening the capacities of member States and the SADC secretariat to formulate and implement harmonized macroeconomic and sectoral policies in several target areas in order to enhance regional integration, with particular emphasis on achieving social development objectives and integration in the subregion. 95. The main strategy for programme delivery has revolved around a multi-year programme of activities agreed with the SADC secretariat in 2008 as the main vehicle of support to speed up regional integration in the subregion. Other modalities included advocacy, research, workshops and seminars, advisory services and capacity building for policy harmonization and regional integration. 96. While the economic aspects of regional integration have always been a developed area of work for the subregional office, this has not always been the case with regard to social development. The period under review saw a renewed focus on the social perspectives of regional integration. The Subregional Office undertook several activities geared towards raising awareness of the importance of human and social development, including strengthening capacities to mainstream social development issues into national planning processes. A major outcome of these efforts was the subregional Human Development Report for the SADC region, jointly prepared by the Subregional Office and the SADC secretariat. 97. The report reviews the state of human and social development in the subregion and highlights the challenges as well as actions that need to be taken to meet social development objectives in SADC countries. The report is intended to serve as a repository of timely information and best practices on policies and strategies for promoting human and social development in the subregion. ECA also provided assistance to the SADC secretariat in the development of a regional gender monitoring tool an instrument designed and adapted to monitor the implementation of the SADC Gender and Development Protocol. The tool was adopted for use by SADC ministers responsible for gender and womens affairs in October 2009.

98. Within the context of the multi-year programme with SADC, the e-SADC initiative was finalized and launched during the period under review. The initiative, jointly developed by ECA, SADC and the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa, aims to address convergence issues and harmonization of ICT policy, infrastructure, services and indicators, and to promote ICT usage for regional economic integration. Regional harmonization, capacity building and the implementation of e-strategies will be at the core of the programme. The programme also addresses major aspects of e-applications including e-government, such as e-policing in SADC member countries; e-parliaments, including strengthening the role of the SADC parliament; e-commerce, e-education, e-health, and e-agriculture, while also encouraging public-private partnerships. Other significant achievements in the context of the multiyear programme included assistance to SADC in implementing its programmes on macroeconomic and institutional convergence; assistance in the development of a framework for regional financial integration towards the establishment of a monetary union in the SADC region; and the development of an action plan for the harmonization of mining policies, standards and regulatory frameworks in Southern Africa.

8. Statistics
99. The objective of ECAs work under this subprogramme is to improve the production, dissemination and use of key demographic, social, economic and environmental statistics, including the MDG indicators, in accordance with internationally agreed standards and good practices. Accordingly, the Commissions work during the reporting period was articulated around the following priorities: promoting, coordinating, and advocating for statistical activities in Africa; building a data hub at ECA for the provision of development data on Africa; implementing the 1993 System of National Accounts in Africa; supporting statistical training programmes; establishing a regional programme for population and housing censuses; and technical assistance in various areas of statistics. 100. In the area of promoting, coordinating and advocating for statistical activities in Africa, ECA organized the fifth Africa Symposium on Statistical Development, held in Dakar, Senegal, in November 2009,, with the theme Information and communication technology in data dissemination: bringing suppliers and users closer in the 2010 round of population and housing censuses. The Symposium 17

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adopted the Gore Island Declaration which commits African countries to undertake a census in the 2010 round within five years, using the most effective ICT tools to collect and process census data. On the margins of the Symposium, the African Statistical Coordination Committee met and took stock of progress made in the work of various working groups, including the African Group on National Accounts which presented a draft strategy for the adoption and implementation of the 2008 System of National Accounts. 101. The 2009 African Statistics Day was celebrated on 18 November under the theme Strengthening civil registration and vital statistics systems in support of national development and the MDGs in Africa. To ensure that all African countries participated in the celebration, advocacy materials for the event were prepared and disseminated in four languages. English, French, Arabic and Portuguese. ECA also disseminated a special memorandum encouraging national statistical offices to organize the celebrations jointly with line ministries responsible for civil registration, resulting in African stakeholders taking necessary measures to improve civil registration and vital statistics systems in the continent. The publication of the African Statistical Journal was another major initiative aimed at facilitating the exchange of technical information and best practices amongst African statistical practitioners and other stakeholders. ECA is co-editor of the journal, the publication and distribution of which is funded by AfDB. Similarly, ECA continued to disseminate statistics-related news through its African Statistical Newsletter on a quarterly basis. 102. In order to facilitate the provision of harmonized data series, a repository of data from African countries was established under the aegis of the African Statistical Coordination Committee. The repository has data aggregated at the continental, subregional and national levels. Similarly, in collaboration with AfDB and AUC through a data collection mechanism, a first ever joint African Statistical Yearbook was produced in 2009. This collaborative effort also resulted in a significant reduction in the data reporting burden on countries and contributed to avoiding the publication of conflicting information on African countries. 103. In connection with the System of National Accounts, and in order to assist African countries to move to the 2008 System, a strategy for its adoption and implementation was developed through the African Working Group on National Accounts. This strategy was finalized, submitted and approved 18

by the second session of the Statistical Commission for Africa, held in Addis Ababa in January 2010. Partners were called upon to contribute to its implementation and ensure that all African countries adopt and implement the 2008 System of National Accounts. As part of technical capacity-building in this area, a workshop on industrial classification was held in collaboration with the United Nations Statistics Division. 104. In view of the importance of training for the production and use of quality statistics, several related activities were undertaken during the reporting period. ECA prepared a comprehensive strategic programme on human resources development and training in statistics. The proposal on the re-establishment of the Statistical Programme for Africa is being shared with partners for funding purposes. ECA also supported capacity building in member States by developing statistical training modules in some universities. The Commission was also involved in organizing the Forum on Statistical Training and Human Resources in Africa in Bujumbura, Burundi, in June 2009. The Forum brought together representatives from African statistical training centres, statistics departments of selected universities, national statistical offices, and subregional, regional and international organizations with special interest in statistical training and human resources development in Africa. The Forum assessed problems facing statistical training centres and made recommendations regarding the revitalization of the Statistical Programme for Africa. Also, importantly, the establishment of the African Group on Statistical Training and Human Resources was endorsed by the second session of the Statistical Commission for Africa. 105. Another area where ECA made a notable contribution is that of population and housing censuses, where it continued to advocate for the comprehensive 2010 round of population and housing censuses; support countries at different stages of the process; prepare and disseminate manuals and handbooks to stakeholders; and facilitate exchange of best practices among member States. So far, 19 African countries have undertaken their censuses. Based on the current trend, it is envisaged that the participation of African countries in the 2010 round will exceed that of 2000, when only 37 countries undertook a census. This is a result of strong advocacy through the Africa Symposium on Statistical Development, and could also be partly attributed to a number of activities in which ECA was involved, including the organization of an expert group meeting on census data processing, held in Dakar, Senegal, in November 2009. The meeting was aimed at reviewing and endorsing the

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Handbook on Census Data Processing, a non-recurrent publication developed by ECA with contributions from other experts. 106. During the period under review, ECA also provided technical assistance in various areas of statistics, including prices, trade, education, health, agriculture, gender, civil registration and vital statistics, and in database management. ECA, together with AfDB, Partnerships in Statistics for the 21st Century and the World Bank, jointly undertook missions to assist countries in the design and implementation of national strategies for the development of statistics. Angola, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Djibouti, among others, benefited from these missions. As a result of the missions, Angola has committed to undertake its census, using national resources to meet 95 per cent of the total funds required for the process. The Democratic Republic of Congo has also committed to undertake its census and the Government has adopted a census decree to that end, following an ECA mission. The Government of Djibouti also approved a national strategy for the development of statistics after a series of technical advisory missions aimed at mainstreaming statistics into the National Development Plan of the country.

regional organizations, civil society and youth to review the progress made in implementing the programme of action, share experiences and identify actions to accelerate progress. The review highlighted the achievements made at the national, subregional and regional levels so far, as well as the slow progress in the areas of poverty reduction, maternal and child health, gender equity and equality, HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and youth employment. Among other things, the review also brought to the fore the linkages between population, sustainable development and the MDGs. The meeting resulted in a renewed commitment by member States to the further implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action, originally agreed in Cairo 15 years earlier, including intensifying efforts to mobilize necessary resources, improve national-level strategies and enhance institutional and human resources to accelerate the achievement of the goals of the ICPD Programme of Action and the MDGs within the next five years. 109. Also in October 2009, ECA organized the first meeting of the Committee on Human and Social Development. The meeting drew over 130 participants from 49 African countries including representatives of international, regional and subregional organizations and civil society to review recent trends and progress in human and social development in Africa. The meeting emphasized the need to scale up efforts to achieve the MDGs and the ICPD Programme of Action, and in this regard, requested ECA to continue to provide assistance to member States in the design and implementation of MDGconsistent poverty reduction strategies. The Committee also endorsed ECAs work programme in the area of human and social development over the next two years with particular focus on: undertaking analytical work in under-researched social development areas such as the linkages between gender, population and climate change; enhancing data collection; strengthening and expanding existing information sharing and peer learning between and among member States; developing an effective communication strategy to ensure wider dissemination of ECAs work; and improving the capacity of member States to formulate and implement effective redistributive policies. 110. ECA produced two significant reports in 2009, aimed at informing and stimulating discussion on social development issues. The first, titled The African Youth Report 2009: Expanding Opportunities for and with Young People in Africa, drew attention to the many challenges that African youth continue to face despite recent progress. The report notes that young 19

9. Social and human development

107. The objective of ECAs work under this subprogramme is to strengthen the capacity of member States to formulate policies and programmes for poverty reduction and promote social inclusion and integration to ensure equity and improved quality of life for all segments of society in line with internationally agreed development goals, including the MDGs. The activities carried out under the subprogramme were also aimed at assisting member States in monitoring and tracking progress in the implementation of international and regional commitments made on social development, including the MDGs, the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and the World Summit on Social Development, held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1995. 108. A good example of ECAs monitoring and reporting efforts in 2009 was the 15-year review of the implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action, which was jointly organized with AUC and the United Nations Population Fund in Addis Ababa, in October 2009. The Conference brought together about 300 participants, representing African governments, international, regional and sub-

Annual Report, 2010

Africans continue to face formidable hurdles such as access to quality education, finding decent jobs and maintaining good health, particularly given their vulnerability to HIV and AIDS. In all these areas, young women, in particular, face heightened barriers and vulnerabilities across the continent. The findings of the report contributed to the development of the draft AU Plan of Action for Youth Development, 20092018. Another important publication in the past year was the report, International Migration and Development in Africa: Human Rights, Regional Integration and Impacts of the Financial Crisis, which took a hard and critical look at the varied migration dynamics on the continent and proposed measures for enhancing the integration of international migration issues into regional and subregional development policies and frameworks. 111. 2009 also saw the launch of the ECA HIV and AIDS Learning and Resource Service, to provide upto-date information on HIV and AIDS prevention and care, based on lessons learned from the Treatment Acceleration Programme, a multi-year pilot project funded by the World Bank with ECA and the World Health Organization (WHO) as technical partners. The Treatment Acceleration Programme was piloted in three African countries - Burkina Faso, Ghana and Mozambique. It generated crucial lessons in voluntary testing and counselling, drug resistance, prevention of mother-to-child transmission, public-private partnerships and socioeconomic determinants of adherence to HIV treatment. The programme also contributed to the evidence base that informed the revision of HIV and AIDS treatment policies, guidelines and protocols in pilot countries, including risk mitigation and management modalities for antiretroviral scale-up in the area of prevention. The new platform will be used as an electronic discussion forum by development practitioners, policy makers and the general public, including people living with HIV and AIDS, to share information and ideas on a wide range of issues related to HIV and AIDS prevention, mitigation and treatment. 112. As part of efforts to help build regional consensus in the area of public health, a consultative meeting with African Parliamentary Committees on Health and Development Financing was organized in September 2009. The meeting was a joint initiative of ECA, AUC, WHO and the regional non-governmental organization, Africa Public Health Financing-15% Campaign. Among the results of the meeting was a commitment by parliamentarians to support the scaling-up of resources and increase in national health budgets to 15 per cent of total national budgets in line with the Abuja Plan of Implementation. 20

B. Other programmes
ii. United Nations support to the AU and its NEPAD programme (RCM), including ECAs support to the APRM process
113. ECA continued to leverage partnerships based on comparative advantage and pooling of resources to maximize its impact on Africas development. The Commission enhanced its collaboration with a broad range of partners within and outside Africa. ECAs core partners during the period under review included the two main pan-African institutions AUC and AfDB, the RECs, United Nations agencies, bilateral and multilateral partners, and other continental development institutions. 114. During the period under review, ECA continued to work closely with other United Nations agencies working in Africa to enhance and optimize the United Nations system support to the AU and its NEPAD programme in the context of the RCM. In this regard, ECA convened the tenth meeting of the RCM-Africa in Addis Ababa from 5 to 6 November 2009. The Deputy Secretary-General opened the meeting, which was also addressed by the ECA Executive Secretary, Deputy Chairperson of AUC, and Chief Executive Officer of the NEPAD secretariat. The participants deliberated on several issues, achievements and challenges: United Nations support to climate-related actions at the regional level; linkages between RCM and the Regional Directors Team; emerging institutional and structural changes in AU and NEPAD; and the review of the 10-Year CapacityBuilding Programme of the AU. More than 190 participants attended the meeting. 115. Overall, RCM has come a long way since its establishment as an inter-agency consultative meeting to a mechanism for providing coherent and coordinated support to the African development agenda. Over the years, the mechanism has been strengthened through its cluster system. The AU, NEPAD secretariat and RECsthe beneficiarieshave now taken centre stage and become part of the RCM for Africa. Numerous reviews have resulted in transforming RCM as a process-oriented coordination mechanism to one focused on substantive actions and results. 116. The Delivering as one concept has gained increased acceptance with agencies rethinking their way of working and moving to a collective approach in programme delivery in support of Africas devel-

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opment. The RCM clusters, in varying degrees, have aligned their activities with the priorities of the AU and its NEPAD programme. Likewise, clusters have intensified their efforts to interact more regularly and establish business plans to embark on inter-agency joint programming and joint implementation of specific projects. In this regard, the support of the United Nations to the AU and its NEPAD programme has increased significantly. This includes providing technical and capacity-building support, undertaking advocacy, policy analysis, consensus building, and normative and analytical studies to assist with vision and policy setting these being the areas of focus of the AU and its NEPAD programme. 117. Through the RCM secretariat established for the coordination of United Nations support to the AU and its NEPAD programme, ECA is providing more strategic coordination and support to RCM. The coordination of clusters has been strengthened with an increasing number of jointly implemented programmes leading to tangible results. In addition, steps are being taken to establish subregional coordination mechanisms in order to provide more coherent support to RECs and to complete the missing link between the regional and country levels. Such a mechanism is already operational in Central Africa through the efforts of ECAs Subregional Office. Similar efforts are under way in East and Southern Africa to establish a subregional coordination mechanism to adequately support the RECs and improve synergy between RCM and the Regional Directors Team. 118. In addition to the collective activities undertaken by United Nations entities in support of NEPAD, specific assistance was offered by individual entities to advance the work in the various thematic clusters. ECA supports the implementation of NEPAD priorities, most of which are at the core of its mandate, through its analytical work and technical assistance in different areas of socioeconomic development. 119. During the past year, ECA, consistent with its mandate, embarked on efforts to scale up its technical support to AUC in support of the AU vision and mission. The recent formulation of the AUC Medium-Term Strategy boosted the strong partnership between ECA and AUC in support of Africas development agenda. In that regard, ECAs Business Plan 2010-2012, prepared in 2009, is substantially aligned with AUC strategy. Ongoing collaboration with AUC, particularly in the areas of trade, gender, ICT, science and technology, governance and public administration, land policy and climate change, was streamlined and strengthened. Various joint initiatives in support of knowledge generation and dissemina-

tion such as the publication of the Economic Report on Africa, Assessing Regional Integration in Africa, and the Millennium Development Goals Report, as well as the joint implementation of activities such as the Conference of Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development were continued in 2009. 120. ECA also continued to provide support for the implementation of APRM. Missions were undertaken to eight countries: Mozambique, United Republic of Tanzania, Lesotho, Cameroon, Togo, Guinea, Mauritius and Sierra Leone. Some of these were follow-ups to previous missions while others were used to organize peer learning and sensitization workshops for civil society organizations. ECAs continued support to the APRM process has contributed to the increasing capacity of member States to conduct the APRM, of the continental secretariat of APRM based in Midrand, South Africa, to manage the process better, and of various stakeholders to engage in the process. A practical demonstration of these joint efforts is that more countries have acceded to the APRM process while others are completing it.

ii. Coalition for Dialogue in Africa

121. The Coalition for Dialogue on Africa is a joint initiative of the AUC, AfDB, and ECA aimed at forging strong partnerships for dialogue and building consensus around key issues and challenges of concern to Africa. It was established as an institutionally independent forum for free discussion among state and non-state actors. It aims to leverage the convening power of the three pan-African institutions and their access to African leaders and policy makers. Based on the recommendations of the inaugural meeting held in Addis Ababa on 6 to 7 March 2009, the Coalition will initially focus on (a) Africas response to the global financial crisis; (b) addressing the impact of climate change; (c) advancing regional economic integration; and (d) scaling up democratic governance. 122. The Coalition convened a two-day seminar in Abuja, Nigeria, in October 2009, in partnership with the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime and the ECOWAS Commission to discuss the threat of transnational crime and options for effectively scaling up the national, regional and international fight against it. The seminar, attended by 25 participants, provided a unique opportunity to discuss the threat posed by transnational trafficking networks and operations to political stability and the rule of law in Africa, and to consider proposed measures for a more coherent and inclusive response by African governments and institutions as well as the international community to this 21

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threat. The participants in the meeting agreed that transnational crime is a global phenomenon which cannot be addressed in isolation within national boundaries but should be tackled globally. It was also agreed that national and regional ownership, as well as leadership by state actors, was fundamental in the fight against transnational organized crime. Furthermore, it was recognized that transnational crime was a direct threat to the development and political stability of African states and that the problems of drugs and crime would not be dealt with effectively without improvements in governance and development. 123. The Coalition also convened a multi-stakeholder dialogue on Africas Response to the Global Financial Crisis held in Tunis, Tunisia, in November 2009, to discuss the impact of the global financial crisis on Africa and agree on innovative solutions for a coherent regional response to the crisis. The meeting was attended by representatives from academia, governments, legislatures, think tanks, trade unions, civil society, the private sector and the media. A key outcome of the meeting was a recommendation for a general capital increase and replenishment of the African Development Bank Group resources to enable the institution to respond effectively to the impact of the crisis on African countries. 124. The second Coalition for Dialogue on Africa advisory board meeting took place in November 2009 under the chairmanship of Mr. Festus Mogae, former President of the Republic of Botswana, at which activities undertaken in 2009 and plans for 2010 were discussed. A special session to discuss a Coalition commissioned report on the status of economic integration in Africa was also held. The report included a mapping of ongoing initiatives and activities in regional economic integration, identified the main players in the domain and defined priorities for Coalition advocacy work. Board members agreed to play a role in advocating for and promoting the regional integration agenda both at local and international levels.

Specifically, RPTC funding was used to meet the needs of member States for specialized advice and training in such areas as the design and implementation of MDG-based poverty reduction strategies and programmes; trade capacity building and trade negotiations; integrated water resources management; statistics; gender mainstreaming, including enhancing womens legal and human rights; harnessing ICTs for development; infrastructure development; governance and public administration; support to post-conflict reconstruction and support in the implementation of NEPAD. The programme also provided ECA with the means and operational flexibility to respond to new and emerging development challenges in such areas as climate change mitigation and adaptation. 126. In the area of trade, ECA contributed to enhancing the knowledge and analytical capacity of African trade officials and trade negotiators on trade-related issues, including the WTO processes and systemic issues. This is evidenced by African countries enhanced participation in bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations. ECA also contributed to the meetings of the African Group in Geneva to discuss developments in the WTO negotiations. Assistance was provided in mapping out and formulating negotiation strategies for the African Group in the different areas including agriculture, and non-agriculture market access (NAMA). ECA organised an Experts Group meeting on enhancing Africas participation in the WTO process in Nairobi in September 2009. The outcome of the meeting, which was attended by focal points of the African Group in the WTO and other negotiators, was a working document that informed the preparations for the informal meeting of the African Ministers of Trade in October 2009 in Cairo. The Cairo meeting, in turn, resulted in a communiqu which adopted Africas common position for the 7th WTO Ministerial Conference held in December 2009 in Geneva. 127. In the area of integrated water resources management, ECA technical assistance contributed to strengthening the capacities of the Nile Basin (9 countries) to formulate strategies for implementing integrated water resources management strategies; Volta Basin (6 countries) in the establishment of an observatory on water resources and associated ecosystems; SADC (15 countries) on trans-boundary water-management; and Zambezi Basin (8 countries) in flood forecasting and early warning. ECA also provided technical assistance in the establishment of the Observatory of Volta- Hydrological Cycle Observing System.

iii. Regular Programme of Technical Cooperation

125. During the period under review, the Regular Programme of Technical Cooperation (RPTC) continued to serve as an important instrument for building and strengthening the capacities of member States in addressing clearly defined policy and technical challenges in various development sectors with particular focus on meeting the MDGs and other regional development priorities within the context of NEPAD. 22

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128. In the area of governance and public sector reforms, ECA provided technical assistance to the AU Commission in the design and validation of: (a) its human resource management reform and development framework; (b) its integrated Performance Management and Accountability Framework and (c) up-grading of the Staff Performance Appraisal System (SPAS). ECA is also in the process of finalizing a comprehensive results-based management and accountability framework of the Commission and a capacity development programme for transforming the AU Commission. In addition, ECA is also providing on-going technical assistance to the Somalia Transition Federal Government (TFG), through the IGAD Office of the Facilitator for Somalia Peace and Reconciliation, in the re-establishment of public sector institutions in Somalia for the transitional period and beyond. Similarly, ECA is currently providing technical assistance to the Government of Sierra Leone in the elaboration of its public sector development programme. 129. Advisory services and workshops have contributed to strengthening the capacity of member States to harness and utilize ICT for development during the year under review. In this regard, advisory services were provided, upon request, to Benin, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Mali, Niger and Nigeria to support development of NICI plans and sectoral application strategies. As a result of the assistance, six countries - Benin, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Mali, Nigeria and Niger - are now engaged in the process of developing sectoral e-strategies as part of their NICI implementation plans. Nigeria has also completed the development of a comprehensive implementation plan for its ICT policy as part of the countrys Vision 20-20-20; and the Government of Mali has created a National Agency on Telemedicine. With technical assistance from ECA, the African Union Ministerial Conference on ICTs development adopted a harmonized framework and 11 flagship projects to be implemented under the African Regional Action Plan on the Knowledge Economy (ARAPKE). As part of the ARAPKE flagship projects, youth knowledge networks have produced a pan-African youth development project that has been adopted by African Union Ministerial Conference on ICTs. 130. With funding from RPTC, four reports on information society trends were produced during the year aimed at improving policy processes in specific areas: (a)ICT Standards for African Teachers Training Institutions: Needs Assessment, which will guide member States and regional educational organizations on how to integrate ICTs into teaching and learning processes; (b) The Development of Business Model for

S&T Institutions, which includes best practices, policies and strategies for aligning the goals of S&T institutions with the socioeconomic goals of countries, and represents an innovative tool for promoting private sector investment in R&D, science start-ups and youth employment; (c) Status of Private Sector Support Investments for ICT Research and Development in Africa, which recommends a vision, goals and activities that ECA should use to harness such investments; and (d) Harnessing ICT for Youth Development in Africa, which recommends policies and strategies for empowering youth through ICT. 131. During the year, ECA also responded to a number of requests for advisory services and technical assistance from regional institutions and member States on a broad range of NEPAD-related issues. In this regard, notable contributions have been made in the development of a framework for the African Union Peace Support Operations Division (PSOD) Business Plan; the development of policies for addressing peace and security issues in the continent, particularly in the Greater Horn of Africa and on harmonizing the sub-regional peace and security structures; the development of policy recommendations for post conflict reconstruction and development in areas and countries emerging from conflict, with particular emphasis on Darfur; and development of a common position by Darfur armed groups. 132. During the period under consideration, the technical assistance provided to the ECOWAS Commission facilitated the joint Meetings of the Ministers for Transport, Infrastructures, Civil Aviation, Finances and the chairmen of the Airline companies in Yamoussoukro in June 2009. The meeting considered the setting up of a regional fund for infrastructure development, the construction of the juxtaposed border checkpoints for transport facility, among other things. Subsequently, ECA assisted in drafting the Terms of Reference for the Feasibility study of the Fund and a road map document to be considered by all stakeholders. As a result, the ECOWAS Commission has established a $10 million infrastructure fund, and the Spanish Government pledged some 15 million Euros to support the work of the PPDU over a five year period. ECA also provided technical assistance to the ECOWAS Commission in the development and adoption of a harmonized ICT legal framework for the subregion, which has become a model for other RECs and provides a basis for a future continental convention. 133. In the area of statistics and statistical development, ECAs capacity building workshops continued 23

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to target officials of the national statistical systems (NSSs) of member states, representatives of African sub-regional organizations and Statistical Training Centres (STCs). These workshops provided member States with the tools and skills needed to formulate and implement strategies to develop their national statistical systems. In this regard, ECA, together with AfDB, PARIS21 Secretariat and the World Bank, is assisting the Democratic Republic of Congo to relaunch its NSDS elaboration process and advocate for the implementation of Population and Housing Census. Advisory services were also provided to Botswana and Djibouti in the development of their national Strategy for the Development of Statistics (NSDS). Development Account 134. The UN Development Account constitutes a second funding window for the Commissions technical cooperation activities. Within the framework of the Development Account, ECA organized five subregional workshops to disseminate methodologies and tools for the production and use of gender responsive data developed by the Commission. These workshops not only helped in understanding these methodologies but also encouraged adoption and implementation of the related tools; consequently improving the availability of gender sensitive information, as evidenced by production and utilization of the African Gender and Development Index (AGDI) in increasing number of countries, and availability of relevant data for the publication of the African Womens Report 2009. Other accomplishments include: establishment of a working group on gender statistics; creation of a forum for dialogue through the African Gender Statistics Network (GESNET) portal; increased awareness and interest through advocacy in gender statistics by National Statistical Offices resulting in appropriate surveys by the Djiboutian, Ghanaian and South African governments; production of a manual on engendering population and housing censuses; and development of partnerships on Gender statistics with AfDB, IWENT and others. 135. ECA organized a regional workshop on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems in Africa in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania from 29 June to 3 July 2009, with the long-term objective of promoting and strengthening the capacities of national civil registration offices, and NSOs in producing accurate, reliable and timely registration based statistics and indicators for measuring development progress and social changes in countries. The workshop was attended by representatives of African countries, regional STCs, sub-regional, regional and international organiza24

tions. ECA, AfDB, and UNSD, in close collaboration with AUC and the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS), also jointly organized a Regional Data Management Workshop in Kampala, Uganda from 26 to 28 October 2009. The workshop was attended by representatives from countries, sub-regional, regional and international organizations. The main objective of the workshop was to promote and strengthen the statistical data management practices in Africa and to provide a forum for exchange of information on statistical data management practices. 136. Another DA project entitled Interregional cooperation to strengthen social inclusion, gender equity and health promotion in the Millennium Development Gaols (involving all five regional commissions), helped in identifying supplementary MDG indicators to improve the inclusion of gender equality; youth; older persons; persons with disabilities; people living with HIV/AIDS; health equity; and sexual and reproductive health. The main outcome of this project on the ECA side is the analytical report, which lays out additional targets/indicators that need to be included in the current MDG framework to ensure that it is inclusive of all the vulnerable people. It is expected that these new indicators and targets will help identify emerging social issues, especially those affecting the socially excluded groups and in developing policies and interventions to address social exclusion. The activities scheduled under this project were successfully completed December 2009. 137. In order to enhance the knowledge and the capacity of African member countries to formulate and implement appropriate programmes, strategies and policies towards Sustainable Modernization of Agriculture and Rural Transformation (SMART), ECA has been implementing a Development Account project on SMART. Within the framework of this project, ECA, in collaboration with UNDESA/ UNPOG, convened a validation and synthesis expert group meeting on indicators for assessment of SMART readiness and potential. Using value chain approach, SMART best practices were assessed for selected African strategic commodities which are cassava and rice in West Africa, palm oil in Central Africa and milk and maize in southern Africa. A report on each selected commodity was produced; including videos capturing the success and lessons learned from the assessment. The videos constitute advocacy and awareness building materials that will be used widely to guide the advancement of Green Revolution in Africa. Further, using the findings from the assessment including lessons learned, three SMART training workshops were carried out respectively in Ibadan for West Africa, Pretoria for Southern Africa and

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Yaound for Central Africa on the appropriate formulation and application of SMART related programmes, strategies and policies. These activities are expected to facilitate and guide the replication and/or up-scaling of the documented best practices/SMART. This project successfully concluded December 2009. 138. Also, within the DA framework three new projects started during the second half of 2009, which are still in early stage of implementation, include: (i) component of the inter-regional project, on Enhancing capacities to eradicate violence against women through networking of local knowledge communities in Africa; strengthening African capacity to prepare MDG-consistent poverty reduction strategies (PRS); and Capacity-building in support of land policy

reforms in African countries for achieving sustainable development. 139. The major lesson learned through implementation of these projects is that the DA projects must be appropriately linked to if not derived from the aims/ outcomes hierarchy of the Commissions approved programme of work; it should address an identified priority area and must be relevant to the ECA member States. Activities implemented under these projects fully complement other regular budget activities and contribute to increasing the visibility of work of the Commission in the respective areas. This has also resulted in the requests for capacity-building technical assistance and joint work in the region.

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CHAPTER III Issues Arising from the Meetings of the Subsidiary Bodies of the Commission, Including the Intergovernmental Committees of Experts of the Subregional Offices
140. This chapter provides an overview of the main outcomes of the meetings of the subsidiary bodies, including the meetings of Intergovernmental Committee of Experts of the subregional offices which have been held since June 2009. In particular, the chapter highlights key issues and developments requiring attention or action by the Commission at its fortythird session. 143. Several recommendations were made by the Committee on the main focus areas of the meeting. On regional integration, member States were encouraged to take action to integrate the Minimum Integration Programme in their national planning, as recommended by the Fourth Conference of African Ministers of Integration, held in Yaound in May 2009. Member States which have yet to establish structures to coordinate regional integration programmes were also urged to do so, in accordance with the decision of the AU Executive Council. In addition, they were urged to popularize the continental integration agenda at the grassroots level within their countries. In that regard, AU, ECA, the RECs, AfDB and other institutions were urged to assist member States in the organization of sensitization seminars, workshops and conferences on regional integration. 144. With regard to the Observatory on Regional Integration developed by ECA, member States and RECs were urged to designate focal points responsible for constantly providing information for updating its content. 145. In terms of trade facilitation and international trade negotiations, member States and RECs were encouraged to implement measures to reduce high transaction costs, for example by improving transport infrastructure, removing non-tariff barriers and reducing delays along transit corridors and at border posts. They were also encouraged to make effective use of the EPA template prepared by AU in collaboration with ECA; and to develop appropriate mechanisms to ensure effective use of resources under the Aid for Trade programme. ECA and its African Trade Policy Centre were requested to undertake, resources permitting, studies on the impact of Aid for Trade in recipient countries. ECA was also urged to continue its technical collaboration with the AUC, RECs and member States on international trade negotiations. In that regard, ECA was requested to provide technical support to AUC in its mandate to coordinate the WTO and EPA negotiations, in order to ensure a common African voice, and to ensure that the out27

A. Meetings held during the period under review

Sixth session of the Committee on Trade, Regional Cooperation and Integration
141. The sixth session of the Committee on Trade, Regional Cooperation and Integration was held from 13 to 15 October 2009 at ECAs headquarters in Addis Ababa. The main focus of the meeting was to consider matters pertaining to ECA activities in advancing the AUs continental agenda on economic cooperation and integration, as well as the promotion of trade within and outside Africa. The meeting examined progress made with regional integration in Africa and reviewed developments in intra-African trade. It also examined the latest developments in the international trade arena, particularly within the context of the WTO negotiations and Africas EPAs with Europe. The Committee examined the issue of mainstreaming regional integration at the national level and made recommendations for enhancing the implementation of Africas regional integration agenda accordingly. It also reviewed the major activities undertaken during the 2008-2009 biennium and work priorities for 2010-2011. 142. The meeting was attended by more than 140 representatives from 39 member States, 4 observer countries and 15 regional and international organizations and other institutions.

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come of the negotiations supports Africas development agenda. 146. The Committee also urged ECA and AUC to harmonize their meetings and programmes on trade and regional integration. ECA was called upon to explore the possibility of aligning its Committee on Trade, Regional Cooperation and Integration with the AU Conference of Ministers in charge of regional integration.

explore funding modalities for the permanent secretariat. ECA was further requested to provide technical assistance to enable countries to develop environment statistics and indicators, and to continue to organize training workshops in that area.

First meeting of the Committee on Governance and Popular Participation

150. ECA organized and serviced the first meeting of the Committee on Governance and Popular Participation in December 2009. The Committee was created in 2007 following the ECA repositioning, which resulted in a review of the intergovernmental machinery to align it with ECAs new programme structure. The Committee serves as a forum for discussion of issues related to the promotion of good governance and participatory development in Africa. It oversees the work of ECA in the areas of areas of governance and public administration, private-sector development, engagement by civil society and support to the APRM. 151. The meeting brought together representatives from governments, civil society and the private sector to address governance issues and discuss the new Committees operations. The objectives of the twoday meeting were to review ECAs work in the area of governance and public administration from the 2008-2009 biennium and propose priorities for the 2010-2011 biennium; The meeting also considered two parliamentary documents, on governance and the fight against corruption and on private-sector development in Africa. 152. The Committee approved the programme of work of ECAs Governance and Public Administration Division for the next biennium, as well as a list of recommendations regarding the Divisions work over the coming two years. These recommendations included a continued close working relationship with the AU C to help member States ratify and domesticate the African Charter on Democracy; commissioning an in-depth study of countries where corruption perception is low, to find lessons learned that could inform best practices in countries where corruption perception is high; and contributing to peace processes via analytical work on social and economic dynamics so as to better inform the overall efforts for pre-conflict and post-conflict resolution and peacebuilding.

Second session of the Statistical Commission for Africa

147. ECA organized the second session of the Statistical Commission for Africa (StatCom-Africa II) from 18 to 21 January 2010 in Addis Ababa. Representatives from national statistics offices, statistical training centres, statistical associations and development partners and young statisticians attended the session. The session discussed several emerging issues in the area of statistics and statistical development, including the 2010 ound of population and housing censuses, civil registration and vital statistics, global strategic plans to improve agricultural statistics, environment statistics and climate change as well as joint technical advisory missions by ECA and AfDB. The meeting also reviewed and considered progress reports on the activities of the StatCom-Africa working groups on data management, development indicators, gender statistics, harmonization of statistics in support of economic integration, the informal sector, statistical training and national accounts. Awards were also given to four persons in tribute to their contributions to statistical development in Africa. 148. The meeting adopted key recommendations ondata management, development indicators, the informal sector, national accounts, harmonization of statistics in support of economic integration, civil registration and vital statistics, agricultural statistics, environmental statistics and climate change, poverty reduction,; geography and statistics, and social inclusion and protection. 149. In addition to the above areas of statistical application, the recommendations also highlighted statistical training infrastructure and coordination as priority areas needing sustained development. ECA was requested to coordinate the various initiatives on statistical training and establish a programme to that effect. The meeting also endorsed the establishment of the African Group on Statistical Training and Human Resources, to be hosted by ECA, and requested the African Statistical Coordination Committee to 28

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Sixth session of the Committee on Women and Development

153. The 6th Session of the Committee on Women and Development (CWD) was held in Banjul in November 2009 to consider the new structure of the Committee; review the accomplishments of ECA in the areas of gender and the advancement of women during the 2008-2009 biennium and provide guidance on the work priorities for the 2010-2011 biennium. 154. The statutory meeting was organized as an experts meeting to prepare for the 8th African Ministerial Regional Conference on Women (Beijing+15) held immediately afterwards. In this context, the meeting also provided an opportunity to review the synthesis of the Beijing+15 report prepared by ECA, which highlighted the findings of the survey carried out to review the progress made by African countries in implementing the BPfA since 2004. 155. The ministerial declaration adopted at the end of meeting statement called on Governments, the African Union and UN system organizations to take the following actions: (a) Governments to allocate adequate resources to accelerate the implementation of the Dakar and Beijing Platforms for Action; (b) Governments to adopt and implement a multisectoral plan to address gender-based violence, within the framework of the UN Secretary-Generals UNite to End Violence against Women and Girls campaign, with particular emphasis on its Africa component, (c) international partners, including organizations of the UN system, to provide adequate technical and financial support in line with the Accra Agenda for Action on Aid Effectiveness; (d) the AU Commission, the UN system, the AfDB and the RECs to strengthen their coordination and harmonization processes with regard to the implementation of the priorities identified in the Ministerial Declaration, including that of facilitating South-South collaboration and exchange of experiences and best practices; (e) AUC and ECA to monitor and report on progress made in implementing the relevant development programmes and plans, and to ensure that the follow-up to the Dakar and Beijing Platforms for Action is included in the work plan of the Committee on Women and Development; and (f ) the UN Secretary-General to implement General Assembly resolution A/RES/63/311 on the establishment of the new gender entity.

Sixth session of the Committee on Food Security and Sustainable Development

156. In October 2009, ECA convened the 6th Session of the Committee on Food Security and Sustainable Development (CFSSD-6) under the theme: Sustainable Consumption and Production for Sustainable Growth and Poverty Reduction. CFSSD-6 reviewed implementation of the 2008-2009 work programme of the ECA Food Security and Sustainable Development Division (FSSDD) and provided guidance on the work programme for the 2010-2011 biennium. 157. On the main theme of the meeting, the Committee made the following recommendations: (a) promoting traditional, underutilized crops and, therefore changes in eating habits; (b) improving livestock contribution to food security, strengthening the livelihoods of pastoral communities and rehabilitating marginal lands; (c) controlling trans-boundary pests and diseases that affect production and marketing of both crop and livestock products; (d) providing affordable credit to small holders in order to boost production. This is to be considered alongside provision of subsidized inputs; (e) studying the role of strategic food reserve as a stop gap measure for emergencies; (f ) establishing a well connected early warning system in the region and food emergencies preparedness mechanisms; (g) documenting and assessing initiatives such as weather-based insurance schemes, which are on-going in Ethiopia, Malawi, South Africa; and (h) supporting research, monitoring, evaluation and extension services of agricultural and related institutions involved in food security-related work. 158. The meeting of the Committee also provided a platform for the Africa Regional Implementation Meeting (RIM) in preparation for the 18th Session of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-18). The RIM was organized in collaboration with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). The RIM reviewed progress in the implementation of Agenda 21, the Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21 and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (JPoI) commitments related to the thematic areas of transport, chemicals, waste management, mining, and a 10-year framework of programmes on sustainable consumption and production. The meeting adopted the RIM Outcome Document as Africas input to the global CSD to be held in May 2010. 29

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B. Intergovernmental Committees of Experts

(a) West Africa
159. The twelfth meeting of the ICE for West Africa took place in November 2009 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, under the theme Food security in West Africa. In addition to discussing the economic and social conditions in West African countries during the period 2008-2009, the meeting also considered a number of statutory issues relating to the performance of the subregional office in 2008-2009 and its programme of work for 2010-2011, as well as other topical issues, agricultural transformation and mining policy development. Delegates also participated in a round table organized alongside the ICE meeting to discuss the challenges of developing a mining policy framework in West Africa. The Committees recommendations, designed to strengthen strategies aimed at enhancing food security, will help fine-tune the future programmes of the office, especially in the context of the multi-year programme signed between the subregional office and ECOWAS. 160. To improve food security in the subregion, the Committee stressed the need for member States to increase the level and quality of public expenditure in agriculture in accordance with the Maputo objectives of allocating at least 10 per cent of public expenditure and directing more public investment towards water control, land tenure, capacity-building in the agricultural sector and the establishment of an incentive framework for commercial agriculture. 161. In the ensuing discussions on Millennium Development Goal 8 in West Africa, the Committee requested ECA to collect and provide member States with best practices in the area of reducing tax evasion in order to assist them to improve the fiscal space and hence mobilize domestic resources for development, and to advise member States on strategies which will enhance the skills of young people. 162. The discussion on mining policy development changes highlighted capacity challenges faced by member States in negotiating mining contracts with investors and emphasized the need for ECA to provide them with technical assistance in developing such capacity and devising policies which will ensure that mining activities contribute effectively to sustainable development. Following these discussions, the Committee recommended the development of harmonized regional policies with respect to environmental and 30

social issues in mining communities, enhancement of the skills and capacities of government departments to monitor compliance with environmental regulations, capacity-building to enable member States to negotiate contracts effectively and the development of a platform to share experience, as well as efforts to enhance synergies around shared technical skills and best practices in mining policies. 163. On the programme of work of the subregional office for 2010-2011, the Committee recommended that ECA should take into account the importance of mining issues in the subregion and develop programmes to enhance the capacity of member States to negotiate mining contracts. ECA was also requested to mobilize resources for the organization of a forum on exchanges among land-locked and coastal countries. Finally, ECA was encouraged to ensure convergence between its approved programme of work and the ECOWAS work programme to ensure greater synergy.

(b) Southern Africa

164. The subregional office held the fifteenth meeting of its ICE from 23 to 25 June 2009 in Lusaka, under the theme Enhancing domestic resource mobilization: challenges and opportunities for Southern Africa. This theme was in line with that of the second joint annual meetings of the AU Conference of Ministers of Economy and Finance and ECA Conference of Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development. The theme sought to address the negative economic impacts of the global financial crisis, such as reduced investment and aid flows. The Committee also reviewed reports on economic and social conditions in Southern Africa, especially in the light of the global crisis; the work of the subregional office; United Nations system-wide support to the AU and its NEPAD programme; and mainstreaming regional integration into national development plans. 165. The Committee observed that, although Southern Africa was rich in natural and human resources, the public sector had not been effective in mobilizing and managing financial resources. The tax base was narrow, little value was added to mineral resources, and capital flight from the subregion was significant. 166. The Committee recommended a review of fiscal policy to improve revenue collection and expenditure. Such a review should include the broadening of financial intermediaries to under-served markets, such as the informal sector, while the banking regulatory frameworks should be improved to stimulate domestic

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savings. The Committee further recommended building capacities to better manage the exploitation of mineral resources through improved mineral regimes and negotiating mineral contracts that enhance local content and value addition to mineral products. 167. To facilitate the mainstreaming of regional integration into national development plans, the Committee underscored the need to raise awareness through emphasis on the benefits of regional integration, and requested ECA to assist member States to develop harmonized policy frameworks in support of regional integration. The Committee noted that several countries had requested assistance from ECA to mainstream regional integration into their national development plans.

Mechanisms for monitoring the implementation of the ECA-Arab Maghreb Union multi-year programme; Strengthening partnerships between the Maghreb region and the rest of Africa and scaling up South-South cooperation; The Maghreb region and the international agenda; Achieving the MDGs in the context of the recent financial crisis; Partnerships and resource mobilization for effective global collaboration; Strengthening partnerships between the private sector and civil society; and Policy measures for employment- generating growth.

C. Preview of the ICE meetings in 2010

(a) North Africa

(b) West Africa

170. The subregional office for West Africa is holding the thirteenth meeting of its ICE in Dakar from 16 to 19 March 2010 under the theme Youth self-employment and development in West Africa. The Committee will review reports on: economic and social conditions in West Africa; progress in regional and international development, including NEPAD and other special initiatives in the subregion, with particular focus on the MDGs; the work of the subregional office in West Africa, including the multi-year programme with ECOWAS; and implementation of the recommendations of the twelfth session of the ICE. The meeting will also review the work of the committee tasked with the preparation of a subregional plan of action on adaptation to climate change. 171. The main expected outcomes of the meeting are a set of recommendations on the following: Challenges to be addressed in the light of recent economic and social trends in West Africa; Policy measures for employment-generating growth; Revamping the primary agricultural sector and ensuring enhanced inter-sectoral linkages to the rest of the economy; Policy measures for improved public financial management through good political and economic governance; and Strategies for consolidating efforts to secure political and social stability for greater economic and social development in the subregion.

168. The twenty-fifth meeting of the ICE for North Africa is scheduled to take place from 16 to19 March 2010 in Rabat. The meeting will seek to assess the economic and social performance of the economies of North African countries in 2009 against the backdrop of international and regional developments, including the recent global financial and economic crisis, and propose appropriate action to accelerate the development of the subregion. In addition to discussing statutory issues relating to the implementation of the 2008-2009 multi-year programme with the Arab Maghreb Union in the context of activities jointly undertaken, the subregional offices programme for 2010-2011 and the ECA strategic framework for the period 2012-2013, the meeting will also address other issues of interest to the subregion such as growth and employment, with a focus on unemployed young people and women, and monitoring the impact of climate change using appropriate tools and indicators of the economic and social performance of the subregion. 169. The main results expected from the meeting will be a set of recommendations on: The impact of the crisis on economic and social conditions and the financial crisis in North Africa; Monitoring the impact of climate change on economic and social conditions; Strengthening support to the Arab Maghreb Union secretariat and regional integration;

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(c) Central Africa

172. The 2010 meeting of the ICE will be held in March 2010 in Ndjamena, Chad, under the theme Domestic resources mobilization and economic diversification in Central Africa. 173. The meeting will examine macroeconomic trends in 2008-2009 and forecasts for 2010, social development in 2009, the status of regional integration in Central Africa, progress achieved by member States within the framework of the implementation of NEPAD, the MDGs and other special initiatives in the subregion, and progress in the implementation of the recommendations made at its last session. 174. The expected outcomes will be a set of decisions and recommendations on: Pursuing the implementation of sound economic and fiscal policies, with particular emphasis on capital expenditure, the monitoring of risks and the vulnerability of the financial sector in Central Africa; Policies aimed at supporting strategies for resource mobilization and diversification of the economies in Central Africa; Implementation by CEMAC and ECCAS of the revised and harmonized rules of origin and agreement procedures for the subregional preferential tariff regimes; Establishment of a subregional integrated database on formal-sector enterprises for the operationalization of the free movement of persons (CEMAC passport); and Relaunching the negotiation process for the adoption of unified tools for the customs union between CEMAC and ECCAS.

as well as respond to the needs and priorities of the RECs, intergovernmental organizations and Eastern African member States. The subregional office will present two reports. 176. A report on Tracking progress made in macroeconomic and social development in Eastern Africa analyses economic and social conditions in the Eastern African countries and the whole subregion. It highlights progress made, challenges, strengths and prospects. 177. A progress report on the implementation of regional and international agendas, including NEPAD, the MDGs and other special initiatives in the subregion, is designed to inform ECA member States in the subregion about United Nations systemwide support to AU and its NEPAD programme and major activities in pursuit of the MDGs. The report also highlights the outcomes of the last meeting of the ECA-led United Nations Regional Coordination Mechanism (RCM), as well as issues and recommendations relating to the implementation of the multiyear programmes signed between the subregional office, RECs and intergovernmental organizations in Eastern Africa. 178. The thematic segment of the meeting will be devoted to in-depth discussions on various topics and issues related to food security in Eastern Africa. Under this segment, the Committee will discuss key emerging issues of concern in member States such as land policy, agri-business development and value chains, and environmental security. 179. During the meeting, the subregional office will also organize three expert group meetings. The first meeting will be on the theme Economic modelling and forecasting for EAC central banks. The objective is to assess existing potentials and gaps in macroeconomic modelling and forecasting as well as discussing the need for capacity-building for central banks in the EAC region. This should enable EAC member States to strengthen their capacities in economic modelling and forecasting and to meet international requirements in line with the recent recommendations of the Communitys Monetary Affairs Committee and Central Bank Governors. 180. The second meeting, on Microcredit, poverty reduction and stability in the Great Lakes region, will discuss the main challenges to developing a regional microfinance framework for the subregion, and the way forward in this respect. The third meeting is on the theme Assessment of the impact of the current global and financial and economic crisis on

(d) Eastern Africa

175. The fourteenth meeting of the ICE, scheduled to take place from 15 to 18 March 2010 in Kigali, Rwanda, aims at enhancing understanding of existing socio-economic conditions in the Eastern African subregion, including the key drivers of economic growth, the level of intraregional trade and the status of food security; knowledge of and agreement on the processes and mechanisms to foster regional integration in the subregion; and partnerships and compacts between the subregional office, RECs, intergovernmental organizations, member States and other stakeholders that can contribute to the implementation of the programme of work of the subregional office 32

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remittances in Eastern Africa, and will make policy recommendations on strategies and the way forward towards enhancing countries capacities in this area.

(e) Southern Africa

181. The sixteenth meeting of the ICE will be held in Lilongwe, Malawi, in March 2010, under the theme Responses to the impacts of the global financial and economic crisis in Southern Africa. Southern Africa is primarily a mineral-commodityexporting subregion. With the collapse of most mineral commodity prices during the recent global economic crisis, many of the economies in the subregion experienced greatly reduced export earnings, rising inflation, weakened exchange rates and rising unemployment, as mines were either put under care and maintenance or closed altogether. The reduced domestic and foreign earnings constrained national budgets and reduced both public and private expenditure. This led to negative impacts on social service delivery in some countries. The meeting will provide member States with a platform to assess the impact of the crisis on their national economies, share national mitigatory responses and collectively explore measures to insulate themselves against future financial and economic crises. 182. The Committee will also review economic and social conditions in the subregion, especially as it

emerges from the global financial and economic crisis; the Regional Gender Monitoring Tool and Protocols, especially in relation to budgetary implementation challenges; progress achieved by member States in the implementation of NEPAD, the MDGs and other special initiatives in the subregion; and the performance of the subregional office, especially with regard to the implementation of the recommendations made at the last ICE meeting, which focused on domestic resource mobilization, and a general review of the achievements of the subregional office during the year. These relate to strengthening of the capacities of the RECs, including harmonization of their sectoral policies and programmes, especially under the multiyear programme approach with SADC, as directed by the General Assembly at its sixty-first session. 183. The main results expected from the meeting will be a set of recommendations on policy measures to mitigate likely adverse impacts of future external shocks on the regional economy. The Committee will, in addition to the report of the meeting, prepare a policy brief reflecting consensus in the form of broad policy recommendations, which will serve as guidelines for action by the member States.

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CHAPTER IV Resource mobilization and management

184. Efforts continued in the past year to strengthen organizational and management processes centred on the implementation of results-based management in all aspects of ECAs work. This chapter highlights the performance of the ECA secretariat in building a more transparent, accountable and results-based organization, with particular focus on measures to enhance resource mobilization and management. The chapter also describes the measures taken to strengthen human resources management for enhanced performance and effectiveness.

larly, internal evaluations will be institutionalized and an independent impact evaluation conducted. The refined organizational structure will facilitate and ensure the coherent adoption of all integrated management instruments and support the Executive Secretary in the utilization of these instruments. 187. Regarding quality assurance, it is self-evident that as a knowledge institution whose core objective is the generation, synthesis and dissemination of knowledge products and services, the results that ECA delivers to RECs and member States are highly dependent on the quality of its outputs. More importantly, ECA recognizes that its unique dual role as a regional arm of the United Nations and part of the institutional landscape in Africa is relevant only to the extent that its products and services are aligned to the stated priorities of member States and other stakeholders. The Commission recognizes that its relevance is equally linked to the added value of its products and services compared with those already available to its stakeholders, or indeed what the stakeholders can deliver by themselves. This added value is in turn dependent on the quality of ECAs outputs, measured by the depth of its analytical work and standard to which evidencebased findings and recommendations are packaged or major events are organized. 188. Hence the Commission recognizes the importance of putting in place appropriate quality assurance procedures and guidelines to ensure that all it analytical and advisory outputs and services are of the very highest quality. Indeed, developing a quality assurance strategy was one of the major outcomes of the ECA repositioning exercise of 2006. It is planned to link standard business processes associated with the quality assurance strategy directly into ECAs knowledge management system. 189. Implementation of the strategy is well under way. In that regard, ECA has already developed draft guidelines for processing all its analytical and advisory tasks, in both regular budget and extrabudgetary activities. The Commission has also developed a 35

A. Enhancing programme management for better results

185. Following an internal review of management processes, on the basis of recommendations from the 2009 inspection by the Office of Internal Oversight Services, and in line with accepted best practices, ECA, as part of the fine-tuning of its organizational structures, has created a critical mass of planning, monitoring and evaluation resources. This has been done by merging these functions, on the one hand, and creating a new section to handle quality assurance on the other hand. The refined and strengthened planning, monitoring and evaluation structure provides not only a critical mass with added capability but also enhanced synergy between the functions, and is expected to result in the establishment of an integrated programme management loop which fully satisfies the requirements of the results-based management approach. This synergized structure has already been successfully put in practice, as evidenced by the preparation, through a participatory/integrated approach, of the strategic framework for the biennium 2012-2013 (separately submitted for concurrence of the current session of the Commission). 186. In order to fully discharge the responsibilities of managing the programme cycle, planning and monitoring tools will be adapted or developed in line with all related guidelines and procedures and in full conformity with United Nations practices. Simi-

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methodology for assessing the quality of randomly selected activities and outputs with a view to establishing a baseline against which to judge trends in the quality of its products. The underlying processes aim at ensuring that each ECA activity is relevant and responsive to client needs, is assigned to experienced team leaders and suitably qualified teams, and is delivered to high-quality standards, thus leading to better results. 190. ECA moved the agenda on enhancing the quality of its work a step forward by creating a new section on quality assurance as part of measures taken to fine-tune the repositioning of the Commission in 2006. The section, which is part of the Office of Strategic Planning and Programme Management, will be responsible for revising and implementing ECAs quality assurance guidelines and procedures, assessing the quality of ECA outputs and ensuring that these outputs are of high quality and lead to the intended impact.

posals on collaborative arrangements and partnerships in several key areas of ECAs work. 193. The Thematic Working Group meetings of ECA partners continued to be a useful medium for closer and qualitative interactions, professional exchanges and networking and information-sharing on the progress of work in the different thematic areas of ECAs work programme. Three thematic working group meetings and workshops were held during the reporting period. 194. A Partner Support Group has also been jointly established with the African Union Commission. The Support Group demonstrates ECAs strong partnership with the African Union and establishes a clear linkage between partnerships and commitments to provide support. It is also intended to enable a highlevel buy-in for the ECA Business Plan by officials from the capitals of bilateral partners. 195. The first AUC-ECA Strategic Partnership Forum was held in Addis Ababa from 1 to 2 December 2010. The forum brought together senior officials from the capitals of development partners, AUC and ECA. The AUC-ECA Partnership Forum is a new joint initiative which aims at redefining, in close consultation with strategic partners, the emerging role of Africa in the new political, economic, environmental and security architecture of the world. Its ultimate goal is to build new patterns of cooperation by promoting greater synergy and coherence between AUC and ECA to optimize their interaction with the international community. 196. Among other issues, the two-day meeting focused on AUC and ECA global perspectives in key areas, including peace and security, climate change and food security, governance issues and infrastructure development. Discussions highlighted the importance of a deeper and scaled-up diversification agenda, via regional integration and the conclusion of the Doha round of world trade negotiations and EPA negotiations, with a development focus. It was also noted that Africa would not be able to play a significant role in the international arena unless steps are taken to consolidate benefits from South-South trade and deepen the understanding of links between trade and poverty, as well as gender and environment. The review of AUC and ECA Medium Term Priorities was also an important item on the agenda of the first meeting. Discussions in this regard were aimed at building a consensus on the content of a strategic partnership and outlining a clear process and framework for the transformation of existing partnership arrangements into results-oriented relationships. The AUC-ECA

B. Financial resource mobilization and management through enhanced partnerships

191. ECA has always recognized that partnerships based on comparative advantage and the pooling of resources are critical to maximizing impact on Africas development. Therefore, the Commission has progressively strengthened its partnership agenda with a wide spectrum of partners both within and outside the continent. In that context, ECA has continued to witness a remarkable improvement in its donor relations. Accountability for donor funds has been enhanced through regular dialogue, increased transparency, timely reporting and joint reviews of project implementation with partners. 192. In particular, the ECA Partners Forum has continued to be a very important medium for dialogue between the Commission and its partners, as it provided useful opportunities for discussion of ECAs ongoing work programme and new priority initiatives. The Forum met twice in the reporting period to exchange views on several issues, including addressing the risk of climate change and the global financial and economic crises, emerging development priorities for Africa, and key ECA initiatives in support of these priorities, as articulated in the ECA 2007-2009 Business Plan. The Forum also discussed the Commissions extra-budgetary funding, a more flexible budget support funding modality and concrete pro-

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strategic partners expressed their readiness to strive to develop a joint roadmap towards the implementation of core, untied budget support by 2011. 197. The outcome document adopted by the Forum stressed the need to establish a permanent policy and organizational development dialogue. The meeting proposed that the AUC-ECA Strategic Partnership Dialogue Forum be institutionalized as a regular multilateral platform for interaction between pan-African institutions and their key development partners. The objective is to ensure that partner support to AUC and ECA has an impact and is in line with principles and international instruments promoting aid effectiveness, including the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and the Accra Agenda for Action. 198. Overall, the outcomes of this and other meetings and dialogues have helped to enhance programme implementation and delivery, strengthen partners confidence and promote greater accountability and transparency in the Commissions Trust Fund operations. In addition, through ongoing interactions, the meetings provided an important interface between ECA and partner governments. 199. ECA prepared its Business Plan covering the period 2010-2012, which is a strategic articulation of its programme of work for the period. It outlines the achievements of the 2007-2009 Business Plan and highlights how ECA plans to deepen its work in identified priority areas in partnership and collaboration with the AUC, AfDB and the RECs. It also underscores the importance ECA attaches to the close collaboration with other United Nations agencies and development partners to achieve better results and have a greater impact on Africas emerging priorities. The plan specifies the resource requirements needed for its successful implementation, as well as activities that will be undertaken to further enhance implementation. A key purpose of this Business Plan is to secure additional resources to supplement ECAs regular budget. Extrabudgetary resources of this nature enable the Commission to deepen its work in identified priority areas and give flexibility to respond

adequately to emerging issues that cannot be captured in a static planning framework. 200. To illustrate the importance of extrabudgetary resources, ECA signed funding support agreements amounting to $54 million during the period 2007 2009. These agreements earmarked support tied to long-running projects and initiatives which continue beyond the 2007-2009 plan period. The total contribution from partners was $4.63 million in 2007, $13.68 million in 2008 and $14.06 million in 2009. This shows the steady increase in extrabudgetary resources between 2007 and 2009 (figure I). The thematic distribution of extrabudgetary resources for the period 2007-2009 is shown in table. 1.

201. To further enhance oversight of its strategic management of extrabudgetary resources and ensure integrated planning, budgeting and management of core and extra budgetary resources, ECA established an Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Matters in 2006. The Committee oversees the management and allocation of extrabudgetary resources, with the same due diligence as for regularbudget resources, ensuring that the distribution of extrabusgetary resources is linked to strategic ECA and donor priorities, and encouraging multidisciplinary programme implementation. The Committee is chaired by the Deputy Executive Secretary and meets regularly, including during the period under review. 202. The ECA Donor Portal, designed as a web-based application to provide personalized information to donors and partners on the management of ECA Trust Fund activities, was also launched during the reporting period. The portal enables ECA donors and partners to log on remotely and access information in relation to their funds and other ECA Trust Fund activities. The information provided on the network includes unaudited Trust Fund financial statements, Trust Fund annual reports, the ECA Annual Report, a short profile of ongoing projects, progress and terminal project reports, and other relevant information.

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Annual Report, 2010

Figure II. Extrabudgetary resources received from 2004 to 2009

2009

14.06 13.68 4.65 8.72 7.71 6.57

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

XB funds received (in US$ Millions)

Source: ECA

Table 1. Thematic distribution of extrabudgetary resources, 2007 2009 (millions of dollars)

Thematic areas 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Regional integration and economic cooperation International trade, finance and economic policies Growth and poverty reduction Sustainable development and food security (incl. ACPC) Promoting gender equality and social development Promoting good governance and popular participation ICT and science and technology for development Strengthening statistics and statistical capacity in AfricaAfrica Special events Promoting knowledge management and peer learning Total 2007 0.58 0.95 0.05 0.46 0.52 1.3 0.65 0.04 0 0.08 4.63 2008 0.63 3.07 0.93 0.23 3.75 1.07 2.03 0.22 1.75 0 13.68 14.06 2009 0.42 1.72 0.08 7.29 3.49 0.2 0.01 0.11 0.74 Total 1.63 5.74 1.06 7.98 7.76 2.57 2.69 0.37 2.49 0.08 32.37

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B. Human resources management

Recruitment and placement of staff
203. ECA continued to make significant efforts to strengthen its recruitment programme in the period under review. During this period, 59 posts - 31 in the Professional category and 28 in the General Services category - were filled through recruitment, promotions and lateral moves. Of these, 40 (16 Professional posts and 24 General Service) were filled through promotion, while 17 (13 Professional and 4 General Service) were filled through external recruitment . 204. However, as reported in last years annual report, the problem of high rates of voluntary departure continued, and will be more difficult in the coming years due to the recent classification of Addis Ababa duty station from C to B status. Eleven staff at the Professional level left the Commission on transfer to other United Nations organizations and offices or elsewhere, which contributed to the high vacancy rate during this period. ECAs cumulative vacancy rate for the period January December 2009 was 21.8 per cent. The increased vacancy rate could also be attributed to new posts created in 2008 and distributed as follows: 8 for the subregional offices, 6 for the African Centre for Statistics, 13 National Officers and 1 Legal Officer for the Office of the Executive Secretary.

205. ECA met the target of 50 per cent female representation in the Director category as at 31 December 2009. Female representation in the Professional category and above is 32.4 per cent, an improvement over last year.

Operational effectiveness
206. In line with the goal of the repositioning of ECA in 2006 to enhance the efficiency of service delivery and improve client orientation, business process reengineering was conducted to streamline workflows and modernize operations. This has resulted in an improvement of service delivery through process automation and reduced transaction costs and turnaround time. In this regard, Service Level Agreements were established to provide performance standards for efficient client service. 207. In the reporting period, efforts were made to raise the awareness of staff in relation to management reforms adopted by the General Assembly in December 2008, notably the new contractual arrangements, talent management, enterprise resource planning systems and the amended Staff Regulations and Rules.

Staff development activities

208. As part of efforts to ensure career development and capacity-building, ECA continued to provide training tailored to the requirements of its staff. In 2009, the Commission implemented 32 learning

Figure III. Vacancy rate for Professional posts

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Annual Report, 2010

programmes intended to improve the efficiency and productivity of staff. 209. Specific achievements included the introduction of new learning options such as a Cross-Occupational Learning Programs; a total increase of 21 per cent in staff participation in all learning activities; 100 per cent utilization of the training budget, with training programs aligned with the United Nations focus; improved participation by subregional offices in centrally coordinated substantive, technical and computer training programmes; implementation of training cost-sharing methods through the establishment of an effective learning network with United Nations agencies; and the setting up of project-based initiatives to improve career support services. Table 2. Learning programmes, 2009
Learning category Centrally coordinated training programs Substantive and technical upgrading skills Career support programmes Cross-occupational learning International Computer Driving Licence programme Total

210. As indicated in table 2, career development opportunities were made available equitably to staff at all levels, including Professional and General Service staff, taking into account gender and category perspectives. For instance, 47 and 53 per cent of female and male staff were trained, while the proportions of General Service and Professional staff trained were 48 and 52 per cent respectively. 211. A total of $145, 900 was allocated to training in the period under review, a 29.3 per cent improvement compared with the previous year. The trend is illustrated in figure IV.

Status General Service 506 30 66 33 32 667 Professional 160 47 21 7 8 243 Male 356 59 38 2 17 472

Gender Female 310 29 44 38 23 444

Total 666 77 87 40 80 950

Figure IV. Training budget allotments, 2007-2009

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