Africa Forum 2014: New OECD Development Centre's Africa Action Plan to support the continent's integration and transformation agenda

By Organization for Economic Co-operation and Develop

PARIS, France, October 6, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- With an average growth rate of about 4% in 2013, compared with 3% for the global economy, Africa continues to show strong dynamism in the face of regional and international turbulence. The continent´s average growth is projected to accelerate to close to 5% in 2014 and 5-6% in 2015.

However, lasting success will require making this growth more inclusive and more sustainable; for instance by helping African firms harness regional and global value chains to create new jobs, or by implementing innovative territorial policies to promote balanced regional development and make the most of emerging rural/urban dynamics.

Those issues are the heart of the 14th edition of the International Economic Forum on Africa: “By Africa, for Africa? Industrialisation and Integration for Inclusive Growth”.

For the first time, the African Union Commission (AUC) is invited by the OECD Development Centre to co-organize the Forum. As she pays her first official visit to the OECD, AUC Chairperson Ms Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma will sign a formal agreement, aimed at sustaining high-level dialogue over the coming years on a pan African agenda of integration and transformation.

The Forum will also host the launch of the OECD Development Centre's Africa Action Plan which builds on the Centre's partnerships and activities with member countries and institutions in Africa.

At the global level, the Action Plan aims at developing policy dialogue platforms with the African Union Commission on global value chains and on natural resource-based development; and improving tax revenue statistics. Working with the Economic Commission for Africa, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, the African Development Bank and the United Nations Development Programme, the Action Plan assesses national experiences in promoting industrial policies and productive transformation. It also assesses how to strengthening of the African Economic Outlook project.

At a country level, the Action Plan will draw from a new series of multi-sectorial country reviews to support the design and implementation of African national development strategies. Côte d'Ivoire is the first in the series, to be followed by Morocco and others. Several countries will also be engaged in the analysis of the economic implications of migration, establishing sustainable social protection systems, promoting youth policies and developing of appropriate skills for employment.

The Forum's debates will build on the conclusions of the African Economic Outlook 2014 jointly produced by the African Development Bank, the OECD Development Centre and UNDP.

Follow the discussions on #AF 2014.