Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff
Published: Tuesday, June 24th, 2014
New York (TADIAS) — The 2014 African Economic Conference will take place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in November and organizers are calling on African researchers in the Diaspora to participate. One of the key objectives of the annual conference, now in its ninth year, is to “provide an opportunity for young African researchers, Africans in the Diaspora, regional and sub-regional organizations to disseminate their research findings as well as share information with African policymakers on the work they do in the region.”
The two-day gathering — scheduled for November 17th through November 19th, 2014 — is being organized jointly by the African Development Bank, the Economic Commission for Africa and the United Nations Development Program.
“This year’s AEC will offer a unique avenue for researchers, policymakers and development practitioners from Africa, and elsewhere, to debate Africa’s soft infrastructure needs and their catalytic impact on speed and scope of economic transformation and inclusive growth,” noted the announcement from the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). “In the light of Africa’s search for economic transformation and its current skills and technology deficit in the face of knowledge-intensive and innovation-driven global competition, Africa needs to urgently devise strategies to capitalise on its youth bulge to drive technological innovation, skills development and the search for new sources of comparative advantage.” The UN agency added: “There is also the need to reflect on the critical barriers to be overcome and seek to capture the lessons to be learnt from various experiences on the continent to guide the development of appropriate policy responses and investment frameworks (public and private). In addition, critical regional dimensions need to be examined.”
Organizers credit high commodity prices and good macroeconomic management for the continent’s notable “economic growth rates averaging 5.2 per cent over the past decade.” Despite this growth, conference organizers are keen to note that there is still failure to translate this success in terms of employment opportunities and other measures of socio-economic development.
“Much attention has been given to the constraints imposed by the physical infrastructure deficit on Africa’s industrialization and structural transformation goals. Issues around Africa’s deficit of soft infrastructure such as skills, technology and innovation have not received equal attention, even though Africa’s severe shortage of technical skills is arguably more likely to pose a binding constraint on achieving sustainable industrialization, transformation and inclusive growth. As the continent pursues its agenda for economic transformation and inclusive growth enshrined in the African Union’s vision of “an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the global arena”, success will critically depend on the continent accumulating a critical mass of skills, technology and innovation. African leaders, by identifying youth development, and science, technology and innovation as key pillars of the AU Agenda 2063 and the African Common Position on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, give credence to this view.”
Click here for the Call for Papers.
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