ECA technical cooperation report 2012

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United Nations

Economic Commission for Africa

ECA Technical Cooperation Report

2012

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EGA Technical Cooperation Report — 2012

Introduction ■ 1

I. Key accomplishments and results by thematic areas 2

A. Economic development and NEPAD 2

B. Food security and sustainable development 5

C. Promoting good governance and public administration 8

D. Information and communication technologies (ICT) and science and technology for

development 12

E. Regional integration, infrastructure and trade 16

R Promoting gender equality and social development 19

G. Strengthening statistics and statistical capacity 23

H. Knowledge management and peer learning 26

II. Delivery of results through strategic partnerships and dialogue 28

A. ECA Partners' Forum 28

B. Technical dialogue and consultations 28

C. Coalition for Dialogue on Africa 31

III. Financial overview and analysis ■ 32

A. Extrabudgetary contributions from partners in 2012 32

B. Distribution of extrabudgetary resources by thematic areas 33

C. Extrabudgetary Income and Expenditure in 2012 34

IV. Conclusions 36

Tables

Table 1: Extrabudgetary contributions received from partners, 2011 - 2012 ($m) 32 Table 2: Thematic distribution of extrabudgetary resources 2012 33 Table 3: Income and expenditure by thematic area (figures in $m) 34 Figures

Figure 1: Thematic distribution of extrabudgetary resources 2012 34

Figure 2: Income and expenditure by thematic area 35

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Acronyms and Abbreviations

ACPC African Climate Policy Centre ACS African Center for Statistics ADF African Development Forum AFREF African Geodetic Reference Frame AGDI African Gender and Development Index AfDB African Development Bank

AGGS African Group on Gender Statistics AMDC African Minerals Development Centre AMV Africa Mining Vision

APGS Africa Programme on Gender Statistics APRM African Peer Review Mechanism

ARIA Assessing Regional Integration in Africa ATF Africa Trade Forum

AU-ABC African Union Advisory Board on Corruption AUC African Union Commission

AWRO African Women's Rights Observatory BME Bio-Medical Engineering

CAADP Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme CFTA Continental Free Trade Area

CGE Commission for Gender Equality CoDA Coalition for Dialogue on Africa

COMESA Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa CRVS Civil Registration and Vital Statistics

CSO Civil Society Organizations.

CSPG Cross-Sectoral Planning Group DELCO Desert Locust Control Organization EAC East African Community

ECA Economic Commission for Africa

ECCAS Economic Community of Central African States ECE Economic Commission for Europe

ECOWAS Economic Community ofWest African States

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:CA Technical Cooperation Report — 2012

ERA Economic Report on Africa

ESCWA Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia FTA Free Trade Area

GFMD Global Forum on Migration and Development

GIE-KSMTF Groupement d'Interets Economiques - Kenian Sylliah Mambi Traore et Fils

HLP High Level Panel

ICPD International Conference on Population and Development ICT Information and Communication Technology

IFF Illicit Financial Flows

IOM International Organization for Migration IPA Innovation Prize for Africa

ISS Institute for Security Studies ISS-2012 Innovator Summer School 2012 JFA Joint Financing Arrangement LPI Land Policy Initiative

MDG Millennium Development Goal

MFPD Ministry of Finance and Development Planning MRDE Mutual Review of Development Effectiveness NEPAD New Partnership for Africa's Development NGO Non-government Organization

NITDA National Information Technology Development Agency OAPI African Intellectual Property Organization

OECD Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development PHC Population and Housing Censuses

PPP Private Public Partnership

RCM Regional Coordination Mechanism

SADC Southern Africa Development Community SMME Small Micro and Medium Enterprises SNA System of National Accounts

SRO Sub Regional Office

TF Trust Funds

UNDESA United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs UNDP United Nations Development Programme

UNFPA United Nations Population Fund

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■hnical Cooperation Report ■

UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNICEF United Nations Children Fund

UNITAR United Nations Institute ofTraining and Research UNSC UN Statistical Commission

WHO World Health Organization

XB Extra Budgetary

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ECA Technical Cooperation Report — 2012

Introduction

This is the third report on the ECA Trust Funds and Technical cooperation activities since the launching of the 2010-2012 ECA Business Plan. The report presents the progress made in 2012 in the implementation of ECA Technical Cooperation Trust Fund activities, focusing on the main results and accomplishments and highlighting challenges and lessons learned. The report also highlights the importance of strategic partnerships and dialogue in the delivery of results; and presents the status of funding support received from ECA partners during the reporting period.

The report is organized in three chapters. The first chapter provides an overview of the status of programme implementation during the reporting period. It also highlights the results, challenges and lessons learnt recorded within the seven thematic areas of ECA work programme. Chapter two outlines the various efforts and initiatives undertaken to consolidate and strengthen partnerships and trust fund management processes. The last chapter provides an overview of XB resources in terms of contributions received from partners, funding distribution by thematic areas and analysis of funds utilization during 2012.

The importance of extra budgetary (XB) resources in the overall ECA work programme cannot be overemphasized. The availability of XB resources from partners has enabled the Commission to carry out its priority activities and respond effectively to emerging development issues, such as the global economic crises and the impact of climate change impacts facing the continent.

ECA continued to forge strategic alliances with a number of partners to advance the African development agenda. The Commission also continued to witness notable improvements in its partner relations, particularly in nurturing new partnerships. The process and nature of ECA engagement has also evolved to a phase characterized by the interdependence of efforts and rewards; and the frank and periodic dialogue with partners and stakeholders regarding their respective interests, concerns and contributions.

The enhanced internal capacity in Trust Fund (TF) management, increased transparency, timely reporting, and accountability for funds have helped to boost partner confidence in the Commission.

Similarly, regular consultations and review meetings with funding partners and other stakeholders have remained central to continued engagement, increased impact and effective delivery of results.

The Commission takes this opportunity to thank all the partners that supported it during the reporting period, particularly the Governments of Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, as well as the European Union, The funding and technical support received from these partners enabled ECA to deepen its work in the identified priority areas and gave it the flexibility to respond adequately to emerging issues that could not have been captured in a static planning framework.

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tCA Technical Cooperation Report — 2012

Key accomplishments and results by thematic areas

Economic Report on

A. Economic development and NEPAD

The Commission's endeavour in the area ofeconomic development and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) has focused on promoting policies, strategies and programmes for high-level and gender-sensitive sustainable growth, employment creation and poverty reduction within the context of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and other internationally agreed development goals.

ECA has continued to contribute to the achievement of these expected accomplishments through a number of specific outputs, strategic activities and targeted interventions that have resulted in tangible development outcomes for member States.

One of the major accomplishments in the area of macroeconomic analysis was the production of the annual flagship publication - Economic Report on Africa 2012 (ERA 2012) under the theme " Unleashing Africa's Potential as a Pole of Global Growth". Launched during the joint annual ECA and AUC Conference of Ministers, in March 2012, the policy recommendations as set forth in ERA 2012 stimulated lively discussion and was intensely deliberated during this Conference. Policy makers, private sector, civil society and other stakeholders at the national, regional and continental levels as well as development partners attended the meeting. African ministers of finance commented that ERA 2012 was timely and pertinent. Member States used the report as a platform to advocate for improved governance, institutional, economic and social policy to encourage domestic structural transformation for greater inclusive economic growth on the continent and sustain it over the long run. Lastly, the ERA report assisted ECA, the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the African Union Commission (AUC) to offer advice to the African ministers of finance and planning and governors of central banks to have a coordinated policy response to global financial crises.

The 2012 African Economic Conference on "Inclusive and Sustainable Development in an Age of Economic Uncertainty" provided a unique opportunity to discuss issues related to stimulating economic growth that translates into broader gains in human welfare and sustainabihty. The conference held from 30 October to 2 November 2012 in Kigali, Rwanda, was organized in partnership with AUC, AfDB and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Over 500 participants from a broad cross-section of experts, academics and policy makers attended the conference to reflect and dialogue on new directions for growth and determine the best approaches for attaining the MDGs and the objectives of NEPAD as well as accelerating Africa's sustainable development.

During the reporting period, ECA, jointly with AUC and the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), published and launched the 2012 edition of the African Economic Outlook (AEO) in Arusha, on the margins of the AfDB annual meeting. In the 2012 edition, ECA

Africa

2012

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:CA Technical Cooperation Report — 2012

presented country notes on six countries, namely Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Niger, Sudan and Zambia. The report was widely disseminated to policy makers and the public; and helped member States understand the various strategies they could apply to address the problem of youth unemployment in Africa.

In order to improve member States' capacity to develop, implement and monitor policies conducive to increasing finance and investment opportunities, ECA undertook successful capacity-building workshops for mobilizing domestic and external resources for development which resulted in the identification of priority actions that should be considered to improve the mobilization of both domestic and global financial resources from emerging countries.

Financing for development was also high on the global agenda. ECA actively supported member States to cope with the impacts of the crisis. As a contribution to the formulation of Africa's common position on the ongoing reforms of the international financial architecture, ECA prepared a technical research paper on the reforms, which put forward a set of policy recommendations to member States.

ECA also worked in collaboration with AUC, AfDB and UNDP to produce and disseminate the 2012 edition of Assessing Progress in Africa toward the Millennium Development Goals in order to enhance regional and national capacity to design, implement and monitor policies to achieve the MDGs. The provided information on the regional progress towards the MDGs and also on policy direction in the areas of financing and the implications of broader institutional and social issues

such as poor data collection and social inequality impeding progress towards the

goals. ;

MDG Report 2012

The MDG report was submitted to the Conference of Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development in March 2012, where the challenges of meeting performance targets were discussed and member States urged to pursue more strategic and integrated approaches to the delivery of social services. The report also identified and put forward alternative sources of financing to buffer national economies from exogenous shocks whilst maintaining sufficient social spending. Member States echoed the need for stronger government policy responses to tackle the regions slow progress towards attainment of the MDGs and also to focus on adopting a common African position on the post-2015 development agenda so as to ensure that Africa's priorities are better reflected. In order to warrant wider dissemination, access and readership, a policy brief was derived from the report, which succinctly captured the key issues and trends of

progress on MDGs in the region. The policy brief contained a concise set of policy options to sustain and fast track MDG progress in Africa.

ECA also continued to advance consultations on articulating an African position on the development agenda beyond 2015. Two subregional consultations, where key stakeholders deliberated on the post- 2015 agenda, were held. The outcome of these consultations resulted in the contribution of ECA to the report, "Beyond 2015: A Future United Nations Development Agenda'. In addition, ECA actively supported the United Nations Secretary-Generals High-Level Panel on the Post-2015 agenda in its efforts to evaluate the results and achievements of the MDGs and advise the Secretary-General on the global development framework beyond 2015. As the result of the work undertaken in the above- mentioned areas, ECA has continued to receive requests from member States to provide technical

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assistance, particularly in the areas of medium to long-term development planning, capacity building and the provision of additional support for sectoral policy development, implementation and monitoring. As such, ECA provided technical assistance to Djibouti, Niger, The Gambia, Ghana, South Sudan and Togo to develop or revise their national development plans and strategies. It also assisted key sectors such as tourism and mining.

In order to enhance the United Nations system-wide support initiative for the African Union (AU) and NEPAD, ECA took the lead as coordinator of the Regional Coordination Mechanism for Africa (RCM-Africa). The nine clusters of RCM-Africa prepared demand-driven business plans, shared information and mainstreamed cross-cutting issues such as gender, youth and human rights to support AU and NEPAD. Working hand-in-hand with AU, the Mechanism also provided effective technical support, built capacity and consensus and advocated on behalf of Africa's regional and subregional organizations. A work plan the mechanism developed, to build the capacity of AUC and its organs, is being implemented by the various clusters.

Challenges and lessons learnt

• There is inadequate reliable and timely data to measure performance on development indicators. This constrains more significant reporting on internationally agreed goals, including the MDGs. This is a widespread problem across the continent and not necessarily unique to ECA. Collecting primary data would require significant time and financial

resources.

• For those activities focused on capacity-building, it is accepted that in the short-term, there will always be challenges in capacity retention ("brain drain") for many reasons, including institutional and regime changes. It is hoped that as countries experience greater economic growth (and improvements in governance), this phenomenon will reduce over

time.

• Better linking policy-level support with support for programme implementation at the country level. The increase in extra-budgetary support is laudable and much needed. The relative availability of such funds affords ECA the opportunity to support the design and implementation of pilot projects and concrete programmes at the country level.

• To ensure continued success of RCM-Africa, there should be increased focus on multi- sectoral strategic areas of capacity building for AUC to complement existing bilateral cooperation. The scope ofexisting structures need to be further broadened to include issues such as economic development, management and support services, regional integration, private sector development, statistics, energy and minerals. In addition, gender, youth and sustainable development needs to be better integrated into cluster business and work plans informed by regional and global policy commitments. There is a need to increase efforts to improve the availability and quality of baseline data within the RCM-Africa framework, to better measure progress on the achievements of the cluster targets and for monitoring their respective business plans.

• ECA should further strengthen research work and help articulate and support Africa's position in international meetings and negotiations aimed at addressing emerging global

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challenges. Given the importance of development finance and the continent's vulnerability to external shocks, there is a need to allocate adequate financial resources to the Division to enable it to respond meaningfully and flexibly to the increasing demands placed on the Commission.

B. Food security and sustainable development

Under this thematic area, the Commission continued its efforts by undertaking multiple activities towards strengthening the capacity of member States to formulate and implement sound policies, strategies and programmes to address the challenges of food insecurity and sustainable development in Africa, whilst addressing the challenges of climate change.

The Commission published the fourth issue of the Sustainable Development Report on Africa (SDRA IV) on the theme, "Managing Africa's natural resource base for sustainable development".

As part ot this process, ECA has developed a comprehensive set of indicators on various aspects of sustainable development, crucial for assessing progress towards sustainable development in Africa.

The identification, development and analysis of sustainable development indicators carried out as an integral part of preparing the Sustainable Development Report significantly contributed to informing Africa's deliberations in preparation for, and at, Rio+20.

In preparation for the Rio+20 meeting held in June 2012 in Brazil, ECA worked closely with AUC, AfDB and other regional and international organizations to spearhead a bottom-up and multi- stakeholder regional preparatory process for the conference. Working through an inter-agency steering committee, ECA provided technical support to the African group of negotiators to ensure that Africa was adequately represented at both political and technical levels during the Conference.

Several supportive side events included an Africa Day and joint exhibitions, and advocacy material such as an Africa Consensus Statement to Rio+20, as well as brochures and leaflets on Africa's perspectives on the conference, were widely distributed. As a result of these efforts, the Rio+20 outcome document, "The future we want" largely addresses and reflects Africa's concerns and priorities

As a follow up to Rio+20, ECA, jointly with AUC, AfDB and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) organized the twen tieth session of the Africa Regional Implementation Meeting (Africa RIM) of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) in November 2012. The RIM adopted an outcome document detailing Africa's position on the main outcomes of Rio+20, including the High-Level Political lorum on Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals, to be submitted for endorsement at the forthcoming AU Summit in January 2013.

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ECA work on promoting strategic food and agricultural value chains focused on enhancing the capacity of African policymakers to mainstream policy measures for the development and promotion of agricultural value chains into agricultural policies within the context of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP). Three strategic partnerships were established to provide technical support to member States and the regional economic communities (RECs) on value chain development. Participants in the partnerships include: the AU Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources; the African, Caribbean and Pacific European Union Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation; the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research; and the Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centres (comprising the Africa RICE Center, the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the International Livestock Research

Institute (ILRI).

Furthermore, ECA produced a report on "Rethinking ofAfrican Agriculture and Rural transformation in the Global Context: Challenges, Opportunities and Policy Options". The report, in the new global context, is intended to raise the awareness of African policy makers about the urgency and need to accelerate agricultural and rural transformation in Africa. The report reflected on NEPAD/CAADP

as well as tie NEPAD Rural Futures Programme, to provide the most updated inputs for further

informing existing frameworks and their implementation processes. Six country case studies, based on which actionable recommendations and targeted priority interventions would be made at the national, subregional and regional levels were generated.

In terms of technical support to the implementation of the AU Declaration on Land, ECA undertook the following activities: studies on large-scale land-based investments to provide reliable information to African Governments on land investments; concrete recommendations to the land policy initiative (LPI) for the development of guiding principles for maximizing the opportunities of land-based investments, while minimizing associated risks; study on land conflicts in East Africa, which provided concrete recommendations to African Governments on how to mainstream conflict prevention and resolution in land policy formulation and implementation; study on women's land rights, designed to afford African Governments promising practices on improving access to land and strengthening land rights for African women; assessment study on large-scale land-based investments. In addition, ECA facilitated the establishment ofstrategic partnerships for resource mobilization with development partners such as UN-Habitat, the Global Land Tool Network and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. Key themes running through these activities included mainstreaming land issues in development planning, enhancing women's land rights and developing a capacity development framework. A technical assessment report on land policy capacity development needs and supportive programmes at the regional and national levels was also produced.

Concerning water resource development and management, many activities were undertaken during the reporting period, the key results achieved included:

• Improved awareness of the African Water Vision 2025 among policy makers in Namibia

• Enhanced water information for the planning of development projects in South Sudan

• Enhanced capacity ofthe Global Environment Facility Water and Marine Project Managers in Africa to utilize appropriate methods of economic valuation of water and ecosystem services in their projects

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• The section on Hydropower of the World Water Development Report 2014 on the theme

"Water and Energy" prepared by ECA

• Enhanced ECA participation in the United Nations Water and improved inter-cluster collaboration within the United Nations Regional Coordination Mechanism with the water sub-cluster serving as an example

In terms of supporting member States to improve their capacity to mainstream climate change into development policies, strategies and programmes, stakeholder consultations and needs assessments related to meteorological and hydrological data rescuing, information management, upgrading networks and capacity development were completed for Ethiopia, the Gambia and Rwanda. Implementation of the pilot case studies in these three countries will commence during the first quarter of 2013.

Furthermore, needs assessments on climate services in Mozambique, Zambia, Malawi, Mali, Burkina Faso and Cote d'lvoire are scheduled for early 2013.

With regard to quality data analysis for decision support and management practice, remarkable progress has been noted. Concept notes, methodology and field work related to loss and damage projects have been completed and a workshop is planned for the beginning of 2013 to review the findings. Similarly, concept notes on climate change on the water resources of the Congo, Nile, and Zambezi river basins have been prepared. Country visits were made and policy analyses for the agricultural sector in Kenya, Mali, and Malawi have begun. Inputs and presentations were provided during the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change workshop under the Nairobi Work Programme. The stakeholder workshop on Sustainable Energy for All (SEFA) was conducted and a SEFA by 2030 work programme designed. Twelve country studies for collecting, analyzing and disseminating information on past and current practical adaptation actions and measures, including adaptation projects, short- and long-term adaptation strategies and local and indigenous knowledge covering have commenced.

Lastly, ECA provided key papers as input to the African Group of Negotiators to bridge knowledge gaps, and throughout the Conference of the Parties (CoP-18) period, provided technical backstopping to support the negotiation process.

• A major challenge in the area of environment and sustainable development is the mobilization of adequate resources for the implementation of activities in an effective and timely manner. As such, there is a need to mobilize and provide adequate resources to enable effective follow-up and implementation of the Rio+20 Outcomes as well as to implement other planned sustainable development activities. This is particularly so because of the increasing requests from member States following Rio+20.

• The major challenge to agriculture and food security is the additional requests generated by the successful consultative and technical meetings with the RECs and international agricultural research centers to cover more strategic agricultural commodities. Also, more requests have been made to include climate and land issues in the baseline studies. A key lesson and the way forward is to continue flexibility in the allocation of resources, which approach has been important in allowing ECA to respond in a timely and efficient manner to demand-driven requests as well new and emerging priorities from member States.

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The importance of the joint AUC/ECA/AfDB Land Policy Initiative is being confirmed and concrete progress is being made in implementing the AU Declaration on land. While knowledge management on land should be improved, a major constraint to the successful implementation of the Declaration is human resources. As a way forward, the LPI should prepare for reporting back to the Summit of Heads of State and Government on progress achieved in implementing the Declaration on Land.

In the area of climate change, as the African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) expands its research agenda and attempts to meet growing climate change needs, it will have to fill key positions that will enable the Centre to respond to its remit and overall aspirations. At the same time, the different entities of ClimDev are also required to be functional to enable the programme to effectively deliver on its mandate. Moving forward therefore, the three founding institutions need to work to their full potential. The ClimDev Africa Special Fund is not yet operational. ACPC is currently aligning its work programme to meet demand in ways that will allow the Centre to focus on key climate change priority sectors.

C. Promoting good governance and public administration

Aiming at promoting good governance practices, policies and standards for all sectors of society in Africa in support of economic and social development, ECA continued its work in 2012 in the following areas: enhancing capacities of member States to adopt good governance practices and standards to attain major development goals in the context of AU, NEPAD and African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) programmes; publication of the African Government Report (AGR III); anti- corruption; publication of the Mutual Review of Development Effectiveness (MRDE) report; illicit financial flows; enhancing engagement of non-State actors in development and democratic processes;

and peace and security.

Through support to the APRM process by way of country review missions, capacity building training, workshops and paper presentations, there has been systematic improvement in the capacity of the APRM Secretariat as well as stakeholders in member countries. Sierra Leone was peer-reviewed in January 2012, while Zambia and Tanzania completed the review process and were awaiting peer review by the AU Assembly of the Heads of State and Government in January 2013. Also, Niger acceded to the APRM process in January 2012. The APRM has registered remarkable successes so much so that many countries have now embraced it and feedback from support and review missions conducted so far has indicated that ECA support is regarded as very professional and effective by both the APRM Secretariat and participating countries. APRM participating countries have become more effective in addressing the challenges of good governance leading to the adoption of best practices in codes and standards.

Significant progress was made in the preparation and production of AGR III, with ECA providing technical support and oversight in the production of the country reports. Expert interviews numbering 4,800 were conducted and 400 focus group discussions held in the AGR III data collection phase.

These processes resulted in increased domestic policy dialogue on issues of better electoral performance and diversity management in member States. ECA provided advisory services at the launch/validation workshops of the country reports. Thirty-seven country reports were produced and 17 validation workshops were conducted, leading to the mainstreaming of AGR III policy recommendations into governance reform process in countries such as the Seychelles. Besides, AGR has elicited increased

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awareness and interest from institutions such as the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), which has

sought technical support from ECA. Draft AGR III chapters were produced and reviewed at an expert

group meeting in October 2012. The two main challenges that faced the process were the political

context in countries such as Morocco, and the varying capacity of national research institutions in

member States.

ECA continued to implement the Regional Anti-Corruption Programme for Africa (2011-2016) in

areas of technical support to regional and subregional institutions, production of technical policy papers, peer learning and capacity development. To that end, the Commission embarked on the following activities: (a) preparation of the African Union Advisory Board on Corruption (AU-ABC)

annual report on the "State of Corruption in Africa and efforts at combating it" and its submission to the AU Executive Council (b) organization of the International Anti-Corruption Week, in conjunction

with the AU-ABC and the Government of Rwanda, from 5 to 9 December 2012 in Kigali, with the

first ever award of prizes for the African Anti-Corruption Youth Essay Competition; (c) support to the process of reviving the African Association of National Anti-Corruption Institutions by reviewing

and finalizing a draft constitution for the association; (d) working with the Economic Community for Central African States (ECCAS), in November 2012, to facilitate the establishment of the network of national anti-corruption institutions for Central Africa. The network is expected to enhance the

efficiency and effectiveness of national anti-corruption institutions in Central Africa and also improve

coordination of anti-corruption activities among countries in the subregion. The Commission also conducted four major studies on: (i) '"The Private Sector and Corruption in Africa"; (ii) "The Media and the Challenge of Transparency and Accountability in the Public Sphere in Africa"; (iii) "Model

Anti-Corruption Legislation for Africa"; and (iv) "Findings from the APRM Country Reports on

Corruption in Africa". These activities have contributed to improving member States' understanding of the scale and dimensions of corruption on the continent as well as influencing national and regional policy discourses on corruption. The activities have also contributed to strengthening existing national

and regional anti-corruption institutions and establishing new ones. A case in point is the strengthening of the AU-ABC, as evidenced in the remarkable improvement in the quality and content of its report to AU polio- organs, which has the overall impact of effectively strengthening official policy interventions

in the fight against corruption.

The 2012 MRDE report was released in May 2012 and distributed to African Heads of State, embassies, United Nations and multilateral agencies, non governmental organizations (NGOs), research institutions and university libraries across the continent. The report generated great interest from key stakeholders, who called for it to be published annually. Undoubtedly, it has emerged as an important mechanism for mutual accountability between African countries and development partners, including the United Nations General Assembly and the NEPAD Heads of State and Government Orientation Committee. The MRDE report is considered as one of the main technical inputs for the new monitoring mechanism of development effectiveness being proposed by the Office of the Special Advisor on Africa to the United Nations Secretary-General.

A high-level panel (HLP) on illicit financial flows (IFF) in Africa was established in February 2012 by

ECA at the request of the 4th Joint Annual Meetings of the ECA Conference of Ministers of Finance,

Planning and Economic Development and the AU Conference of Ministers of Economy and Finance

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in March 2011. The panel was inaugurated on 5 February 2012, held its first public consultation in

Kenya in August 2012 and carried out the following activities during the year: (a) finalized a background

research paper on "Illicit Financial Flows from Africa: Scale and Developmental Challenges", based

on an innovative model developed by ECA on the sectoral approach to IFF from Africa; (b) held four panel meetings, a regional consultation and public consultation meetings from February to October 2012; (c) organized a workshop, as part ofthe 15 th International Anti-Corruption Conference that was organized by Transparency International in November 2012, in Brazil; (d) developed a comprehensive communication strategy for its engagement with other stakeholders within and outside Africa; and (e) as part of the communication strategy, a dedicated HLP website was established. These milestones notwithstanding, the HLP technical committee needs more support to perform its core functions, particularly translating the panel's policy decisions into action, coordinating efforts in implementing its plans and providing it with overall secretariat support.

In terms of engaging civil society organizations {CSOs) to have an active voice in promoting good governance, ECA resuscitated the African Centre for Civil Society, which helped to define a structured process of engagement between ECA and CSOs. The Centre also serves as a repository of relevant and

timely information on issues related to civil society in development and governance. It also facilitates effective and programme-based linkages between African CSOs and the international development

community. In addition, CSOs have been mainstreamed into the APRM process through ECA training

workshops at the national and continental levels. Lastly ECA undertook missions to post-conflict

countries and provided substantial advisory services to mainstream civil

ECA YOUTH AMBASSADORS: , ^ ParticiPation in the Policy

up resourcesfor climate-friendly investments was produced and a workshop

"Let us acknowledge and celebrate t organized on the same theme. Another publication, "Promoting economic what youth can do to build a safer, and corporate governance to improve private investment in Africa'' was more just world. Let us strengthen also produced. These activities resulted in improved climate-friendly our efforts to includeyoungpeople in f investment in general and renewable energy in particular, through PPP policies, programmes and decision- implementation.

making processes that benefit their *

futures and ours," * On peace and security, research was conducted on the comparative analysis of African peace accords. The comparative study will serve as an

(Ban Ki-Moon, UN Secretary-General, 12 ' authoritative policy document for mediators and other actors involved ugust2010) in African peace processes. ECA organized a meeting on "Peace, Security

— _J am* Regiona* Integration in the Horn of Africa", jointly with the

Government of Djibouti. A sensitization workshop for civil society on the APRM in Cote d'lvoire was also organized in April 2012.

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ichnical Cooperation Report — 2012

Case study: Youth and the fight against corruption

The ECA Governance and Public Administration Division (GPAD), in col laboration with AU-ABC, developed a five year (2011 -2015) regional anti- corruption programme for Africa. The programme seeks to scale up the fight against corruption in Africa with a view to ensuring a corruption-free, better-governed and economically prosperous continent. The Regional Anti-Corruption Programme for Africa launched the Anti-corruption Youth Essay Competition on the theme "Fighting Corruption in Africa: A Youth Perspective", aimed at establishing awareness among African youths about the manifestations and impact of corruption. The competition, launched in June 2011, was scheduled to be completed in one year and was held in phases: the first was a call for written essay entries from col lege and high school students from across the continent. The joint panel, comprising members of AU-ABC and ECA, rigorously evaluated the 58 essay entries received and short-listed the best. Oral telephone inter views were then conducted with the authors of the five short-listed es

says, culminating in the selection of the best three. The interviews were carried out by three ECA staff members, with the endorsement of the Secretariat of AU-ABC.

Tsepo Makakane (standing next to the Rwandan Minister ofJustice, Hon. Tharcisse Karugarama) showing his prize

Mr. Tsepo Makakane, a nineteen year old, from Lesotho was the winner. Sixteen year old Joshua Welwean from Liberia and fourteen year old Dina Randriamahefarison from Madagascar were the first and second runners-up respectively.

The three were invited to participate in the International Anti-corruption Day Celebration on 9 December 2012 in Kigali, where they were awarded cash prizes and certificates.

Imbibing a culture of probity among Africa's youth is a potentially rewarding investment. It is expected that this initiative will create a critical mass of youth ambassadors who will champion the fight against the scourge of corruption on the continent.

• A significant proportion of the APRM-acceded countries have yet to set the review process in motion due to reasons such as low political will, inadequate capacity, logistical challenges and setting other internal priorities over all other governance concerns. However, it was learnt, during the course of the year, that APRM participating countries had become more effective in addressing the challenges of good governance, leading to the adoption of best practices in codes and standards.

• The AGR country report process was slow in some countries, given the political sensitivity of the theme and the varying capacity of national research institutions in the 40 AGR III countries. The big lesson learned during the reporting period was that there was a need for continuous capacity reinforcement to member States to enable them to lead the AGR research process and implement the outcome of the AGR reports.

• Challenges faced in implementing the anti-corruption programme in 2012 included the level of political that did not match policy pronouncements in Africa and the poor and/or lack of synergies between national structures and institutions fighting against corruption and subregional and regional structures.

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D. Information and communication technologies (ICT) and science and technology for development

In 2012, ECA continued to provide technical support to African countries to formulate, implement and evaluate inclusive and gender-sensitive national and sectoral information, communication and science, technology and innovation (STI) policies. The Commission also provided support for geo- information strategies for development and enhancing the capacity of member States to nurture and harness STI for development at the national, subregional and regional levels.

Policy support, by way of technical assistance, capacity building and awareness raising, was provided to eight countries. As a result, four of them have since completed the activities related to developing and implementing national and sectoral information and communication infrastructure, STI and national spatial data infrastructure policies and plans, as evidenced by the following country cases: Ethiopia completed the development of its national information technology audit framework as part of its cyber security strategy; Ghana completed the review of its national ICT for development strategy and developed a geographic urban service infrastructure; Mauritius successfully organized a regional forum on business process outsourcing in Africa, as part of implementing its national ICT strategy; Rwanda established the Rwanda Science, Technology and Innovation Endowment Fund to support innovation in the country as part of implementing its national STI strategy; and Zimbabwe completed review of its national ICT policy and plan.

ECA has been implementing a project on e-commerce facilitation through tele-innovation centres to improve the performance of small, micro and medium enterprises (SMMEs). This is expected to enhance access by SMMEs to markets at national and regional levels for their products and services through community ICT centres. The first phase of the project was completed by undertaking an e-commerce readiness assessment among SMMEs in Ethiopia and The Gambia. Currently, the second phase of the project is underway in the same two countries, focusing on application development and implementation.

At the subregional level, ECA and AUC coordinated the development of a regional convention on cyber legislation, based on the continent's needs and which adheres to the legal and regulatory requirements on electronic transactions, cyber security and personal data protection. The guidelines and the convention have been reviewed by each subregion and were adopted by the AU Heads of State and Government Summit in 2012. In addition, ECA supported the development of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) e-commerce strategy in 2012.

In the area of measuring and evaluating the information society the Scan-ICT project has been implemented in Nigeria, in collaboration with the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA). The results of a carefully designed and implemented survey were published in the report of the project. A national web portal has also been developed, specifically focusing on households and individuals, as well as specific sectors of the economy. The report assesses the essential steps to developing IT policies and questions for developing an IT strategy; sectors that IT policy- making should deal with, and the approach to IT action planning. The surveys described in the report were carried out in eight representative states of Nigeria, evenly distributed across geo-political and socio-economic profiles and covered the key sectors of education, agriculture, business (commerce), government, and health. The outcome of this exercise contributed significantly to the Nigerian Governments capacity to evaluate its national ICT strategy implementation, under NITDA.

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In 2012, the development ofa framework for a set ofglobally comparative e-government core indicators was completed, reflecting the emphasis on e-government by the World Summit on Information Society and the suggestion by the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC) that the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development should extend its core list of ICT indicators to include ICT use in government. The set of seven e-government indicators were reviewed by the international partnership and adopted by UNSC in February 2012 for use at the global level.

Furthermore, an assessment study on ICT policy implementation has been completed in five selected countries (Cameroon, Ethiopia, Gambia, Morocco and Mozambique) and country reports prepared.

Currently, a synthesis report comparing outcomes from national surveys is being prepared and will be finalized in early 2013.

In the area of geo-information, ECA continued its support to member States to put in place policies, resources and structures to coordinate dissemination of geo-enabled information and communication technologies to decision makers and the community. In particular, the approach focuses on formulating and linking National Information and Communication Infrastructure policy and National Spatial Data Infrastructure strategies. The African Geodetic Reference Frame (AFREF) was conceived as a unified geodetic reference frame for Africa, fully consistent and homogeneous with the International Terrestrial Reference Frame, which will be the fundamental basis for the national and regional three-dimensional reference networks. The AFREF project aims at having at least, one station in every country that is registered with IGS and meets its standards. Eventually, more stations will be established to ensure a 1000-kilometre radius, at least, for users. In 2012, ECA negotiated with Trimble and Ordnance Survey to donate 35 reference stations to the AFREF project. ECA and the International Steering Committee on AFREF selected the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia and Sierra Leone as the first installation sites based on carefully developed criteria.

ECA also supported the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development of Ghana for the development of the National Street Addressing and Numbering Systems. The first step proposes the development of an appropriate policy framework (conceptualization, planning, design, and implementation strategy) for addressing related services in Ghana. The framework has helped the country to identify the necessary linkages (standards, inter-operability, geocoding systems, etc.) with other initiatives at the international, regional and national levels so as to establish an addressing model that can be leveraged for socioeconomic development. The provision of the satellite imagery has great value for the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, which now owns a GIS-ready and ideally suited image base for creating and/or revising, mapping and updating the city cadastre with a high degree of accuracy.

The immediate impact is better access to markets, faster emergency response, efficient goods delivery, improved revenue collection and more spatially information-based decisions.

With regard to science and technology, a bio-medical engineering (BME) curriculum was developed by ECA. Nine universities are now participating in the pilot phase: two in Ethiopia, three in Kenya, one in Malawi, two in Uganda and one in Zambia. Kenyatta University and Moi University have completed drafting of their BME curriculum. Mekelle University in Ethiopia is adapting the generic BME curriculum developed by ECA at its Ethiopian Institute of Technology. Notable outcomes include:

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FXA Technical Cooperation Report — 2012

• Following thehighlypublicizedandsuccessfullnnovator Summer School held in Kampala, the BME programme at Makerere University's Medical School became one of the most popular courses. In the 2011 intake, redirected students were requested to consider BME but in the 2012 intake, the course was oversubscribed, reflecting an increase in demand.

• The four students from Kyambogo University, who attended the ISS-2012, set up a company that provides maintenance and produces basic biomedical devices such as infant incubators.

ISS-2012 winners with the Vice Chancellors of University ofMakerere and Kyambogo; and ECA staff

• Two ladies who won the award for the most innovative concept

at ISS-2012 are looking at options to protect their invention, which was one of the subjects

of ISS-2012.

• The number of projects submitted to the International Design Competition by Malawi

increased to seven.

• The participating universities resolved to form a consortium.

ECA has also trained and guided the Groupement d'lnterets Economique-Kenian Sylliah Mambi Traore et Fils (GIE-KSMTF, a phytomedicine manufacturing firm in Mali, to develop and file a patent and trademark application with the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI) on their high blood pressure and diabetes drugs. ECA also supported an ongoing joint research and development venture between GIE-KSMTF and Promotion de la medicine traditionelle (PROMETRA), which is using science and technology to improve safety and resolve compliance with international standards for the drugs. In the same vein, ECA provided technical assistance on patenting and marketing of Desert Locust Control Organization-East Africa (DELCO-EA) bio-isolates from Ethiopia for combating desert locusts in the agricultural and food sectors in Africa and beyond. The ECA ICT and Science and Technology for Development division is guiding DELCO-EA inventors in preparing the patent application documentation for filing with OAPI and the World Intellectual Property Organization.

AJso, potential manufacturers and specialized research and development institutions willing to develop and disseminate DELCO-EA products have been identified and contacted.

ECA supported the establishment of the Knowledge Network of African Community Telecentres in which over 18 community telecentres and seven national and subregional telecentre networks participated from seven countries, namely, Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In 2012, ECA continued to support this network through capacity building, creating platforms for knowledge sharing and networking and supporting innovative ideas to transform the role of the community telecentres into tele-innovation centres. To this end, three projects from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda have been selected to be supported under competitive selection criteria. In Kenya, the Ugunja Community Resource Centre has been supported to develop a participatory village mapping using OpenStreetMap open source application which enabled them to develop an online map of the Ugunja district. In Uganda, the Nakasake Community Telecentre has been supported to develop a mobile application, called MFarmer, using FrontlineSMS open source application and launched a mobile-based service on agricultural market information and weather updates to farmers.

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Cooperation Report

In Tanzania, Sengerema Community Telecentre has been supported to develop and launch a mobile and web-based agriculture information service.

During the reporting period, online and on-site capacity building and training sessions were held for a broad range ofstakeholders. They targeted parliamentarians, diplomats, women's groups, statisticians, policymakers etc. In 2012, a total of 32 policy makers, drawn from seven countries (the Comoros, Djibouti, the Gambia, Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal and Tanzania) graduated and received certificates after successfully completing the course materials. An additional e-learning course on geo-information has been developed and added to the Academy of ICT Essentials for Government Leaders course series. A trainine workshop on deployment of an e-Learning system was organized and delivered for technical and teaching staff of the Ethiopian Management Institute and Public Service College of Oromiya. Information and Communication Technology for Africa has created a working relationship with the Global Development Learning Network and the African Association of Distance Learning Centers and made its course materials available to the members during their annual meeting held in Cotonou on 26 May 2012.

"/ would like to thank everybody in the IPA team, ECA and AIF for their great efforts and ideas.

Everybody was sincere and everything wasperfect.

Sure, the Award will motivate me for more hard work and commitment in scaling up my project andpromoting innovation in Africa."

Mohamed Sanad, Winner IPA 2012

The Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA) honours and encourages innovative achievements that contribute to developing new products, increasing efficiency and saving cost in Africa. The prize also promotes the efforts of young African men and women pursuing science, technology and engineering careers as well as business opportunities that contribute to sustainable development in Africa. The 2012 Prize saw 485 applications from 38 countries in various sectors such as ICTs, health, agriculture and food security and green technologies. The applications were reviewed by a technical team of experts. Two winners (from Egypt and Algeria) were identified and profiled.

Numerous applications/inventions that could stand to any competition worldwide were revealed.

IPA 2012 demonstrated that Africa had numerous dormant international-standard assets in ICTs, green and clean technologies/energies, health and agriculture and food security. IPA winners, nominees <tnd pre-selected candidates are attracting international manufacturers, venture capital companies, specialized research and development centres, etc.

Challenges and lessons learnt

• Low capacity to carry out e-transactions (e-payment system and legal and regulatory frameworks).

• Low ICT and business development skills in SMMEs and lack of awareness about the potential of e-commerce.

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• Lessons learned from ECA technical support to the Gambia will be scaled up towards the ECOWAS Wide Area Network (ECOWAN), -a regional e-commerce initiative of the ECOWAS subregion. In Ethiopia, the project activity is envisaged to further facilitate and intensify adoption of the country's e-commerce law to address legal and regulatory issues, including institutional frameworks for effective e-commerce deployment.

E. Regional integration, infrastructure and trade

During the reporting period, ECA continued to focus on strengthening the process of regional integration in Africa, through enhanced intra-African trade and physical integration, with particular emphasis on infrastructure and natural resource development, in line with the vision of the African

Union.

The Commission published the fifth edition of the Assessing Regional Integration in Africa (ARIA V) series, at a time of renewed political commitment to accelerate the pace of regional integration in Africa. The overall objective of ARIA V was to provide analytical insights into the continent's efforts towards the establishment of the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) and boosting of intra-African trade. The main findings were part of the set of key background documents presented to the AU Heads of States and Government at their 18ch Assembly in January 2012 in Addis Ababa. These key findings fed into the Summit's deliberations and successfully contributed to the decision by AU to adopt the

"Action Plan for Boosting Intra-African Trade" as well as the establishment of the CFTA. ARIA V was launched at the 19ch Assembly of the AU Head of States and Governments held in July 2012 in Addis Ababa and was distributed to participants at the Summit. The publication has also been distributed to key ministries of member States. ARIA V has achieved extensive media coverage, which continues to create awareness across the African public and has been widely recognized by political leaders as a reference and guide to building the CFTA and boosting intra-African Trade.

Supporting the vision of the AU to see intra-African trade double from its current level of 10-12 per cent to 20-25 per cent within the next decade, ECA developed a working paper entitled "Regional Integration and Trade Flows and Pattern". The paper provides further insight into the nature and scope of intra-African trade, disaggregated by country, sector and product and enhances the information base to support the continent's efforts towards the establishment of the CFTA and boosting intra- African trade.

Key accomplishments and best practices in the four key thematic areas of regional integration (trade and market integration, free movement ofpeople and right of establishment, transport and communication and macroeconomic convergence) were catalogued. Field work was conducted to document some of the tangible best practices in the East African Community (EAC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) regions. The complete findings of the exercise were presented at the Eighth Session of the Committee on Trade, Regional Cooperation and Integration in February 2013.

Some impacts of the field work recorded are:

• Results of the COMESA, EAC and SADC online reporting mechanism revealed that to date, 329 complaints have been registered, out of which about 227 (69%) have been

resolved.

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• COMESA member States that are members of the free trade area (FTA (CM/XI/60)) receive 90 days visa upon arrival. The same is true within ECOWAS. In addition to granting diree months' visas to national passport holders, the EAC also grants six months visas to EAC passport holders, while the ECOWAS regional passport serves as the best example for improving the movement of people.

• The single currency, CFA, has helped to remove exchange rate uncertainties, reduce transaction costs and deepen the integration process in Monetary and Economic Community of Central Africa and West African Economic and Monetary Union.

• The result of the M-Pesa experience as a tool to facilitate payment systems revealed that there were over 10 million subscribers and over 2 million daily transactions, facilitating over $415 million per month in point-to-point transactions in Kenya alone. Vodacom Tanzania and Rwanda's MTN have also launched their mobile money initiatives in their

respective countries.

A web based user-friendly interface, "Observatory on Regional Integration", was developed (https://

www.facebook.com/groups/observatoryonregionalintegration/), in order to enhance the exchange of timely information and ideas and also to promote dialogue among stakeholders and partners of the regional integration agenda in Africa, while taking advantage of other social media like twitter. Its mandate is to transcend further to becoming a primary source of information to assist policy makers, member States, RECs and all stakeholders with timely and relevant information on current progress, challenges and issues on regional integration. The Observatory ensures the active involvement of RECs, member States and partner institutions such as the AUC, AfDB and the World Bank in the implementation of regional integration activities.

In the area of natural resource development and governance, ECA, AUC and AfDB co-organized the Eighth African Development Forum (ADF-VIII) on the theme, "Governing and Harnessing Natural Resources for Africa's Development", held from 23 to 25 October 2012 in Addis Ababa.

Over 800 participants from Government, private sector, academia, development partners and non governmental organizations attended. It entailed three days of intense debate and discussions among stakeholders, and ended with a consensus statement that outlined actions and commitments that would see Africa gain more from its land, mineral, forestry and fishery resources to achieve beneficial

development goals for its citizens.

The African Mineral Skills Initiative was announced at ADF VIII, as one "We need t0 develop the capacities among other expressions ofconcrete support towards the implementation and s""ls ofour people - especially of the Africa Mining Vision (AMV). The AMV was adopted by the the youth and ^omen - to enable AU Summit of Heads of State and Government in February 2009. them to be f"^ involved and following the October 2008 meeting of African Ministers responsible participate effectively in all aspects for Mineral Resource Development. It is Africa's own response to °fthe management and the value tackling the paradox of great mineral wealth existing side by side with chain °f our natural resource pervasive poverty. The AMV is designed to exploit Africa's mineral utilization"

endowment and the prevailing high commodity prices and to improve

its development prospects. It is a strategy for integrating Africa's mining ^ Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, Chairperson of

. , , , , it the African Union Commission

sector into its broader social and economic development processes, and thereby addressing its persistent poverty and underdevelopment. This is

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an attempt, not only to address the sector's isolation from mainstream

"Our deliberations are takingplace social and economic activities, but to create win-win outcomes for all against the background of renewal stakeholders. The AMV is a developmental mining approach that insists and revival in Africa. Seven out of that the viable road to growth is through building economic and social the ten fastest growing economies linkages that benefit Africa itself.

in the world are in this continent.

Yet, we have six out ofthe ten most In addition to adopting the Africa Mining Vision (AMV), the first AU unequal societies in the world." Conference of African Ministers Responsible for Mineral Resource

Development, held in Addis Ababa in October 2008, adopted the CarlosLopes, Executive Secretary ECA, October declaration on the "Development and Management of Africa's Mineral 2012, ADF VIII Resources". The declaration reaffirmed the Ministers' "commitment to prudent, transparent and efficient development and management of Africa's mineral resources, to meet the MDGs, eradicate poverty and achieve rapid and broad-based sustainable socio-economic development".

The same Conference of Ministers was mandated by the AU Heads of State and Government in February 2009 "to develop a concrete action plan for the realization of the AMV".

The Second AU Conference of Ministers further approved the establishment of the African Mineral Development Centre (AMDC) to provide strategic technical support to AU/NEPAD, RECs and member States for the implementation of the action plan and hence the AMV", and called on development partners to support the activities of the proposed centre. This was subsequently endorsed by the AU Heads of State and Government Assembly in July 2012, which further requested the "AU Commission and NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency, in collaboration with the RECs, ECA and AfDB, to submit progress reports on the implementation of the action plan of the AMV to the Assembly every two years"

In its capacity as host of the AMDC, ECA is working toward the signing of an MOU with the Government of Canada, which has indicated its strong intention to fund the Centre to the tune of Canadian Dollars 15 million. The Government of Australia has also indicated its firm intention to fund the Centre, and it is believed that other partners will follow suit.

During the reporting period, ECOWAS, EAC and SADC received advisory services, through workshops and seminars in trade and the environment, WTO negotiations, aid for trade, the African Growth and Opportunity Act, trade facilitation and trade and gender. Some of the training conducted covered market analysis tools and modelling techniques in trade negotiations as well as designing and formulating trade policies in member States.

The major outcomes of the second Africa Trade Forum (ATF II) held in November 2012 in Addis Ababa were the adoption of a strategic implementation framework and recommendations on four thematic areas of the Action Plan for Boosting Intra-African Trade, namely enhancing productive capacities, trade facilitation, trade in finance and infrastructure for trade as well as the establishment of the CFTA. The recommendations and CFTA Implementation Strategic Framework fed into the African Ministers of Trade meeting held in November 2012 in Addis Ababa. The ATF-II strategic objective was to provide a comprehensive, integrated and inclusive platform for intense policy dialogue between various trade constituencies to deliberate and agree on common approaches and strategies for implementing the Action Plan on Boosting Intra African Trade and the establishment of the CFTA.

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ECA conducted an e-commerce study in the SADC subregion in six

member States, namely Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic "ECA's role is vital in the agenda of

of the Congo, Lesotho, Mauritius and South Africa. SADC Ministers Africa"

responsible for telecommunications, postal and information and

communication technologies met in Mauritius in November 2012 and Senior Programme Officer ofthe Trade, Industry approved the SADC e-Commerce Strategic Framework. The subregional and Investment Directorate ofSADC'

e-commerce strategy was launched as part ofthe ECA/SADC multi-year

programme to boost trade among member States through e-commerce, "The professional and technical as the up and coming medium for conducting trade in goods and services, advises receivedfrom ECA were with full commitment and were of high

significance to trade negotiations**

Challenges and lessons learnt

Director General of the trade Relations and

_ _ . , , ^ J n,

hCA is expected to deliver on the assumption that member Negotiations Directorate of the Ministry of States are willing to implement their obligations. Low Trade ofEthiopia

national commitment to implement adopted protocols and decisions undermines progress.

• While the full involvement ofthe RECs in the design and implementation of joint tasks remains a challenge, it is necessary to enhance their participation and ownership of outcomes and better target the different needs of beneficiaries in terms of key messages and outputs arising from ECA work.

• The opportunities for the observatory to bring on board all member States and other stakeholders to manage information sharing and flow and ensure efficient accessibility cannot be discounted. However, the slow progress in functionalizing the new dynamic webpage and the lack of an operational and permanent contact person to update and operate the webpage are key challenges.

• With regard to the African Trade Policy Centre, the low capacity of target beneficiaries (RECs) to formulate and follow up on their technical cooperation request, impinges on delivery, compounded by ad-hoc demands. The lesson learnt here is that ECA needs a scaling up of resources to provide adequate support to the RECs.

F. Promoting gender equality and social development

In 2012, the ECA African Centre for Gender and Social Development enhanced the capacity ofmember States by developing and implementing sound and effective socially inclusive and gender-responsive strategies, h focused on strengthening the capacity of African countries to foster social development and mainstream gender into national policies and programmes, in line with the priorities identified by the 15-year review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action in Africa, and the follow up on the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD); implementation of the African Gender and Development Index (AGDI) in more African countries; strengthening the capacity of member States in the area of gender statistics; promoting information and knowledge sharing through the African Women's Rights Observatory (AWRO) and international migration.

ECA technical cooperation report 2012

United Nations

Economic Commission for Africa