| Janneh calls for Second Review of Aid for Trade to Ensure Commitments lead to Action. Addis Ababa, 03 July 2009 (ECA) - United Nations Under-Secretary General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Mr. Abdoulie Janneh, has said that ECA will continue to closely monitor the implementation of the Aid for Trade initiative in order to maximize the benefits accruing to African countries. Mr. Janneh made the comments on the eve of the Second Global Review of Aid for Trade, taking place in Geneva, Switzerland from 6 – 7 July 2009. The review will evaluate progress made since the First Global Review of November 2007. This review will scrutinise the operationality of aid for trade initiatives in recipient countries and examine progress made in securing additional financing. Stating that ECA was vigorously monitoring the delivery of all development commitments made to Africa, Mr. Janneh said “it was therefore natural for (ECA) to take on the task of monitoring the implementation of aid for trade.” Aid for Trade is designed to help developing countries build the necessary infrastructure to effectively participate in international trade. One of the main question for the review is assessing whether the commitment of funds has led to implementation of concrete projects at multilateral, regional and national levels. The meeting will also analyse how trade can be better integrated into core national and regional development strategies and boost inter-African trade. This is one key area of concern highlighted by Mr. Janneh. “We remain concerned with the marginal nature of Africa’s trade performance globally, which is still around 3%; and the low intra-African trade that for many years now has remained below 10% of Africa’s trade,” he said. He pointed out that “One of the promises of the Aid for Trade was that it would help Africa, given its regional dimension, deepen intra-African trade by building connectivity across borders that would expand regional markets.” Commenting on ECA’s future work on Aid for Trade, Mr. Janneh promised that “we intend to follow up on the benchmark report that ECA has produced with empirical investigations to establish whether indeed there are improvements in Africa’s trading capacity that can be significantly associated to the Aid for Trade.” “Our sub-regional presence will provide us with the platform to continue supporting through the African Trade Policy Centre (ATPC) the sub-regional reviews that we are collaborating with the African Development Bank, the World Trade Organisation and the regional economic communities. “The success of the COMESA-EAC-SADC North-South Corridor Pilot Aid for Trade Conference that we were part of in April 2009, provided useful lessons to take to our next planned sub-regional review in ECOWAS region” concluded Mr. Janneh. Issued by the ECA Information and Communication Service Tel: 251 11 5445098 |
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