AFRICA REGIONAL MINISTERIAL MID-TERM REVIEW OF THE DOHA PROGRAMME OF ACTION (DPoA) 2022 – 2031
Closing Remarks
By
Claver Gatete
United Nations Under-Secretary-General and
Executive Secretary of ECA
[As Delivered]
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
9 September 2026
Excellencies,
Honourable Ministers,
Distinguished delegates, partners and colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Good afternoon.
As we conclude this very important meeting, I’d like to thank you all for your active participation and thoughtful contributions to the discussions over the past two days.
I am also grateful to the Government of Ethiopia and the United Nations Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States for their partnership in convening this review.
At the opening of this meeting yesterday, I asked whether we were making progress on the Doha Programme of Action at the pace and scale required.
After two days of discussions, I think we now have a better sense of the areas requiring greater effort and more urgent action.
Our task now is to take the priorities identified here forward and deliver tangible results for Africa’s Least Developed Countries.
Economic transformation must remain at the centre of our efforts.
We need economies that produce and process more, diversify into higher-value activities and create decent jobs.
But economic transformation must also improve people’s lives.
That means investing in education and skills, strengthening social protection and deliberately expanding economic opportunities for women and young people.
Science, technology and innovation must also help us raise productivity, close the digital divide and create new opportunities for our people and businesses.
But as we build these economies, we must also make them more resilient to the growing impacts of climate change.
Across Africa and around the world, we see floods, droughts and other extreme events destroying lives and livelihoods, disrupting food systems, damaging infrastructure and placing even greater pressure on public finances.
We must therefore invest more in adaptation, early warning systems and climate-resilient infrastructure, while ensuring that our countries can access the climate finance needed to support these efforts.
And as Ethiopia prepares to host COP32 here in Addis Ababa in 2027, we have an important opportunity to ensure that the priorities of Africa’s LDCs are reflected in the global climate agenda.
Excellencies,
Realizing these ambitions will require significantly greater investment.
That is why we must strengthen domestic resource mobilization and create conditions that attract greater private investment.
But with many of our countries facing limited fiscal space and growing debt pressures, national efforts will need to be complemented by stronger international support.
That support must include affordable and predictable development finance, greater access to technology, capacity-building and investment that strengthens productive sectors.
Greater investment must also go hand in hand with stronger access to markets.
This is particularly important as countries move towards graduation and prepare for the loss of some of the trade preferences they currently enjoy.
The African Continental Free Trade Area can help ease that transition by opening larger markets, strengthening regional value chains and creating new opportunities for African businesses.
Excellencies,
I believe we have done important work here in Addis Ababa over the past two days. Our attention must now turn to the global mid-term review in Doha next March.
What we take from Addis Ababa to the global review should reflect an honest assessment of where implementation is falling short and evidence of what is working.
We must also be assertive in making the case for what Africa’s LDCs need to accelerate progress during the remaining years of the Doha Programme of Action.
Africa’s LDCs need affordable and predictable financing, greater investment in productive capacity, better access to technology and stronger support as they approach graduation.
But graduation on its own should not be the end goal.
Countries must be able to remain competitive as they transition out of the LDC category, withstand future shocks and sustain the development gains that made graduation possible in the first place.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Our next task is to ensure that the priorities identified at this meeting are backed by the decisions, partnerships and resources needed to deliver, at the national level, across our region and through the international community.
And when we meet again in Doha next March, we should be able to demonstrate not only what we agreed here, but the progress made since Addis Ababa.
I wish you all safe travels back to your respective destinations.
Thank you.
Merci.
Ameseginalehu.
(ah-meh-seh-gee-na-leu)