Mobilising Aid for Trade: Focus Africa

Addis Ababa, 26 September 2007 (ECA) - The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the African Development Bank and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) will jointly organise the regional review meeting on “ Mobilising Aid for Trade: Focus Africa” in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on 1 – 2 October 2007.

This conference is the first of its kind in Africa. President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete of Tanzania, Mozambique's former President, Joaquim Chissano and former UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, have been invited to the conference which will bring together key actors – trade and finance ministries, donors agencies, international financial institutions, multilateral and regional organizations, and the private sector – to focus on mobilizing increased and effective financing for building trade capacity and infrastructure across the region.

The key objective is to forge a long-term vision for the region – one in which trade, growth and global integration become central elements of the development agenda.

Todays increasingly open and integrated global economy has created huge potential for developing countries to harness trade as an engine of growth. But to seize this opportunity, they need the capacity to export successfully and to connect to the global marketplace.

Many still lack the basic infrastructure – roads, ports, telecommunications networks – to link exporters to world markets. Others lack the capacity to formulate effective trade strategies or to successfully negotiate trade agreements. Weak export sectors or high adjustment costs also prevent many poorer countries from embracing trade liberalization and taking advantage of global opportunities .

In that context, while the Doha Round of WTO negotiations are about opening up new trade opportunities – Aid for Trade is about “making trade happen ”. The Dar es Salaam conference will therefore look at ways to mobilize the political and financial commitments required to address this challenge.

Above all, this conference is about moving from policy debate to implementation, from needs assessments to deliverable plans. By shining a brighter spotlight on the issues - and launching a dialogue among key decision makers - the aim is to come out of the Dar es Salaam conference with a clear plan of action and a shared political commitment to implementing it. A paper summarizing discussions at the event and outlining proposed next steps will therefore be produced after the conference. Recommendations will be fed into the WTO's Global Aid-for-Trade Review in Geneva on 20–21 November 2007.

Background

The conference, which will hosted by the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania, is one of three regional meetings organised by the WTO in preparation for the Global Aid-For-Trade Review meeting in Geneva in November 2007. In September, the Latin American regional meeting was held in Lima, Peru and the Asian regional review convened in Manila, Philippines.

For more information please visit: http://www.uneca.org/aidfortrade/media.htm