2018 African Union Commission (AUC) Sixth Congress of African Economists

The African Union Commission (AUC), through the Department of Economic Affairs organizes every two years the African Economists Congress (AEC), a continental Economic Policy Dialogue framework which aims to analyze economic issues that are critical to Africa’s economic and social transformation in order to design and propose optimal solutions. The Sixth edition will be held under the theme: “Public policies, Governance and structural Transformation in Africa” The Sixth edition is expected to attract prominent African Economists within the continent and its Diaspora to deepen the understanding of the role of Public Policies and Governance for Africa’s Economic Transformation.

Following two decades (80s and 90s) of slow growth, Africa has experienced strong economic growth, despite the recent slowdown. The average growth rate has been about 5% since 2000, at the time when other regions experienced a decline or stagnation of their economic activity. However, this growth has not substantially reduced poverty and inequality nor led to job creation.

Conscious of this, the African Union through Agenda 2063 would like African economies to be structurally transformed to create strong, regular and inclusive growth, generating jobs and economic opportunities for all. It is within this framework that the Congress’s reflections will focus on the link between public policies, governance and the structural transformation of African economies.

The theme of the Sixth edition of the Congress of African Economists is therefore in line with the theme adopted by the African Union for the year 2018, ” Winning the Fight against Corruption: A sustainable path for Africa’s Transformation”. This theme will examine, inter alia, the following sub-themes:

1) Understanding structural transformation in Africa (drivers, dynamics, comparative analyses etc.);
2) Build strong institutions for structural transformation in Africa;
3) Informality, rural-urban migration, labour markets and Structural Transformation in Africa;
4) The role of agricultural development policies in promoting Africa’s Structural Transformation; 5) Industrial policies for Africa’s Structural Transformation: challenges and emerging solutions; 6) Financing the Africa’s Structural Transformation: domestic resource mobilization, Illicit Financial Flows, Public finance management and corruption;
7) Policies and incentives to support entrepreneurship and innovation for Africa’s development; 8) Policies and incentives to support entrepreneurship and innovation for Africa’s development; 9) Governance, growth and development in Africa;
10) Youth and governance;
11) Social policies for structural transformation in Africa;
12) Governance, productivity and structural transformation;
13) Regional integration policies and globalization to accelerate structural transformation in Africa;
14) Effective public policies (financial, monetary and fiscal) for structural transformation in Africa;
15) Evaluation of public policies in Africa: key to new governance;
16) State of public policy in Africa: how to make progress?
17) Public policies as tools to eradicate inequality, poverty and unemployment;
18) Regional public policies: a new dynamic for creating growth and jobs for young people;
19) Policy coherence for Africa’s structural transformation.