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United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Sustainable Development

United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)

Q1. How have the COVID-19 pandemic and the current food, energy and financing crises changed the priorities of your organization? 

The triple crises facing the world in 2022 – accelerating impacts of climate change, lasting effects of COVID19 and the financing shortfalls facing developing countries, and food and energy crises due to the war in Ukraine – are having a particularly marked impact on African economies. Indeed these global events are highlighting and exacerbating ongoing challenges and vulnerabilities already faced across the continent. Countries in the region need multilateral agreements to end or address these global mega-trends, along with enhanced access to financing for climate initiatives, poverty reduction, economic transformation, and other needed interventions to help the region progress towards the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063 of the African Union.

ECA is positioned as a regional institution that provides a host of support services to its member States – through policy advising, thought leadership, capacity building, technical cooperation and financial support – while addressing the continent’s development challenges and representing and promoting the role of the region at the global level.

In servicing this mandate, ECA had focused on providing concrete services and assistance, and has been further amplified by recent crises to develop impactful programmes that spur meaningful change. For example, immediately following the onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic, ECA has been leading and contributing to several initiatives to help African countries cope with the social and economic implications of the pandemic, access vaccines and build forward stronger. As a member of the African Vaccine Acquisition Taskforce Team (AVATT), ECA provided technical backstopping especially on the economic and multilateral dimensions of the vaccines access and rollout, facilitating access to COVID-19 vaccines in 36 countries. Furthermore, the AfCFTA-Anchored Pharmaceutical Initiative aims to identify how African countries can leverage both the free trade area and growing healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors to boost local production, with a pilot project of maternal and childcare drugs and products across 10 countries. ECA has participated in global diplomatic processes, bringing meaningful results by taking part in negotiations to secure the safe transport of grain from Ukraine to help alleviate the dire food crisis and its severe impacts in Africa, while assessing vulnerabilities of African nations through transmission mechanisms of food, fuel and finance, and is working to assess these vulnerabilities and allocate resources to understand and address their root causes. ECA is working with Afreximbank, AUC and AfCFTA Secretariat to repurpose the African Trade Exchange Platform (ATEX) to assist countries deal with these shortages. ECA played a strategic role in collaboration with key international and regional financial institutions and supported African economies to raise financial resources during the Covid-19 pandemic and widen their fiscal marge of manoeuvre. Concrete outcomes of this advocacy include: (i) Debt service suspension in 2020 and 2021 (13 billion of liquidity); (ii) Special Drawing Rights ($33.7 billion early 2021); and (iii) the increase of disbursement of new credits by the Multilateral financial institutions.

Building off these leading initiatives, ECA has further conceptualized and is delivering a number of initiatives to help the region progress towards the SDGs and Agenda 2063, including but not limited to: the Liquidity and Sustainability Facility to help facilitate climate and development finance and ease debt burdens, to save a potential $11 billion in interest costs over a five-year period for African countries; expanded access to climate finance including through green and blue bonds and the reallocation of SDRs; The Connected African Girls Coding Camp to ensure young people and girls in particular have the skills to link-into the global green economy; The Great Blue Wall initiative; a battery mineral value chain to harness growing demand for mineral inputs to lithium ion batteries in order to spur resource-based industrialization; and other key activities. ECA incorporates the partnerships and lessons from all of these activities in its direct support to member States in progressing towards both the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063, namely through the Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development and support to Voluntary National and Local Reviews of sustainable development progress.

Q2. How has your organization supported Member States to accelerate their recovery from COVID-19 and the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda? How has your organization cooperated with other UN system organizations in these efforts to achieve coherence and synergies?

ECA has undertaken a number of active initiatives to support member States accelerate their recovery from COVID-19, and assist their full implementation of the global 2030 Agenda and the regional Agenda 2063. These activities build on the existing work programmes of ECA that promote inclusive socioeconomic development and transformation. ECA then initiated very proactive areas of work to maximize impact in member States, including three that will be detailed here (the COVID Vaccine Initiative, Liquidity and Sustainability Facility, and Africa Lithium Ion Battery Value Chain), as well as many further initiatives that will be detailed throughout this survey.

Please highlight up to three high-impact initiatives, especially those that address interlinkages among the SDGs and involves interagency collaboration. Concrete initiatives might be selected to be spotlighted during relevant intergovernmental meetings.

Initiative COVID Vaccine Initiative
Partners OSAA, WHO, WTO, COVAX, GAVI, WB, NEPAD, UNAIDS, the People Vaccine Alliance, WFP, CEPI, ONE campaign, MasterCard Foundation, Brookings, MCKINSEY, CGDEV, AfDB, AFREXIMBANK, Africa CDC, AMSP
Relevant SDGs All, particularly 1, 3, 10, 17
Member States benefiting from the initiative All
Description ECA has launched and supported various initiatives across Africa to procure, deliver, and manufacture Covid vaccines. Through its Covid-19 coordination meetings, ECA closely worked with the above partners to monitor, coordinate and inform the Africa vaccination strategy in close collaboration with member States. As a member of AVATT, ECA negotiated with vaccine providers and ensuring close collaboration with COVAX and Africa CDC to ensure the delivery of vaccines to African countries. COVAX and AVAT enabled the securing of 653 million of Covid-19 vaccines to African countries. AVATT launched also AVAT No Fault Compensation Scheme as a no-fault lump-sum compensation in full and final settlement of any claims to individuals who have suffered a Serious Adverse Event resulting in permanent impairment or death associated with a COVID-19 vaccine procured or distributed under the AVAT Framework, or the administration of such a Vaccine, within any of the participating member States.
Website  
Initiative Liquidity and Sustainability Facility (LSF)
Partners LSF Secretariat, Afreximbank
Relevant SDGs All, particularly 13 and 17
Member States benefiting from the initiative African countries with existing access to the international capital markets, which potentially include: Angola, Algeria, Cameroun, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, Seychelles, South Africa, Rwanda, Tanzania, Tunisia, and Zambia.
Description The LSF was established by ECA in November 2021 at COP 26 in Glasgow, with the dual objective of supporting the liquidity of African Sovereigns Eurobonds and incentivizing green and SDG- related investments such as green bonds across the African Continent. Its aim is to improve African Sovereign debt sustainability by providing African governments and private investors with a liquidity framework on par with international standards. And by seeking to improve the terms of new issuances of SDG- or climate-linked bonds of African nations, the LSF seeks to dramatically increase the volume of green and blue bond financing, and at affordable rates.
Website https://lsfacility.org/
Initiative African Lithium-Ion Battery Value Chain
Partners Governments of DRC and Zambia; Afreximbank; African Union Commission; African Minerals Development Centre; African Development Bank; Steinbeis Foundation; University of Lubumbashi
Relevant SDGs 1, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15, 17
Member States benefiting from the initiative DRC, Zambia
Description As the world seeks to reduce emissions in line with the 2030 Agenda and Paris Climate Agreement, lithium ion batteries for energy storage in electric vehicles and renewables will be crucial. Many critical minerals for this green transition are located in Africa, which produces over 70% of the world’s cobalt, and significant copper, graphite, nickel and other minerals. The region’s priority, as outlined in the Africa Mining Vision, is to ensure these minerals fuel industrialization and economic transformation, through which the continent will shift from a source of raw minerals to a center of mineral-based industries. This will raise incomes and improve livelihoods for the children and women involved in Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining as well. ECA and partners are supporting the development of a battery value chain, centering on DRC and Zambia as major battery mineral suppliers. Thus far, the initiative includes a Centre of Excellence for Advanced Battery Research in Lubumbashi, DRC, and a cross-border Special Economic Zone for battery minerals and products in Kipushi.
Website  

Q3. Has your organization published or is it planning to publish any analytical work or guidance note or toolkits to guide and support recovery efforts from COVID-19 while advancing full implementation of SDGs at national, regional and global levels? 

One of the core mandates of ECA is to serve as a knowledge hub, generator of ideas and think tank on the many pressing issues affecting the continent and based on direct requests from ECA’s member States to pursue research and produce documents on a number of topics. This includes existing and planned resources as per ECA’s programme of work, but has expanded significantly following the effects of COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine, in order to produce further timely and requested analytical work, guidance notes and toolkits. Three specific examples are detailed here – the Africa Regional Voluntary Local Review Guidelines, ECA’s SDG Dashboard, and the Integrated Planning and Reporting Toolkit Plus (IPRT+). However, many more such examples of highly relevant and well-receive knowledge products exist, including firstly the Economic Report on Africa 2021, which addresses poverty and vulnerability in Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the 2022 Africa Sustainable Development Report - a joint publication of AUC, ECA, UNDP and AfDB - underscores Africa’s progress in implementing Agendas 2030 and 2063. These reports reflect reality on the ground and directly feed into programmes and initiatives of ECA in support of African member States.

Please select up to three high-impact resources to highlight, especially those that address interlinkages among the SDGs. Selected resources will be highlighted to inform relevant intergovernmental meetings.

Resource Africa Regional Voluntary Local Review Guidelines
Publishing entity/entities ECA, UN-Habitat, UCLGA
Relevant SDGs All, particularly SDG11
Target audience Municipalities, governorates and districts undertaking reviews of their sustainable development frameworks and progress
Description It is being increasingly recognized that sub-national governments and grassroots stakeholders are central to progress towards inclusive sustainable development. In this regard, localities across the world and in Africa are onboarding tenets of the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063, and conducting Voluntary Local Reviews (VLRs) of their alignment and progress towards these important goals. At the 2020 ARFSD, member States called on ECA to establish a set of guidelines and template for conducting VLRs recognizing the unique cases and specificities of Africa, and based on ECA’s experiences supporting 5 VLRs at that point. To respond to this request, ECA, UN-Habitat and UCLGA have compiled the Africa Regional VLR Guidelines, including a template and specific information on engaging stakeholders, collecting and analysing data, and presenting the report. The guidelines are currently being harnessed to assist next-round VLRs in 5 countries and growing.
Website https://www.uneca.org/voluntary-local-reviews-in-africa/documents
Language English, French
Resource SDG Dashboard
Publishing entity/entities ECA
Relevant SDGs All
Target audience UN system, Member States, general public
Description The Africa SDG Progress dashboard is intended to provide all users, regardless of their level of expertise in interpreting figures or numbers, a quick and easy to use tool for assessing Africa’s progress on Agenda 2030, and whether SDGs will be achieved based on the current pace. The dashboard also addresses progress on Agenda 2063, “The Africa we Want”, for goals which overlap with SDGs. The tool is a resource for all stakeholders involved in prioritizing, planning, implementing, and following-up the 2030 Agenda to leverage for advocacy, accountability, and action. Tracking progress is possible at the Continental level, and through a range of sub-regional groupings like the ECA Subregional Offices (SROs), Africa’s Regional Economic Communities (RECs), and other groups such as Island countries, LDCs, Landlocked LDCs, Sahel countries, Sub-Saharan countries, and the Horn of Africa countries, amongst others. The tool is a result of joint work undertaken by the five UN Regional Commissions to expand access in measuring progress towards leaving no one behind.
Website https://ecastats.uneca.org/unsdgsafrica/SDGs/SDG-progress
Language English, French
Resource Integrated Planning and Reporting Toolkit Plus (IPRT+)
Publishing entity/entities ECA
Relevant SDGs All
Target audience All member states
Description IPRT+ is a web application sponsored by ECA, developed in response to the needs of African countries to simultaneously adopt and integrate both the SDGs and Agenda 2063 into their national development plans, enabling harmonized reporting on progress. The goals, targets and indicators of the two Agendas are built into the software, enabling users to easily assess the level and strength of alignment between the two Agendas in relation to their national development plans. In-built dashboards allow for visualization of summary information on the alignment, as well as country performance regarding alignment with the two agendas and progress in implementing the national goals and targets. IPRT+ has five modules: Alignment; Monitoring and evaluation (indicators, baselines, targets); Reporting (on progress); Admin (which allows configuration of country information); and an Integrated National Financing Framework module which analyzes financial needs and gaps vis-a-vis the NDPs.
Website https://iprt.uneca.org/
Language English, French

Q4. How has your organization engaged with stakeholder groups to support SDG implementation and COVID-19 recovery at national, regional and global levels? Please provide main highlights, including any lessons learned. For example, what has worked particularly well as a model for effective stakeholder engagement? 

ECA works closely with a host of partners and stakeholder groups in order to work together with as broad a coalition as possible to bring about meaningful progress towards the SDGs and Agenda 2063. This coalition of stakeholder groups has been pivotal in the COVID-19 recovery initiatives ECA has taken part in, and has expanded in number and scope due to the many key grassroots and local actors who are at the center of Africa’s responses to the pandemic and to food and energy crises. Effective partnerships with stakeholders are exemplified by three notable concrete examples, including: the Coalition for Voluntary National and Local Reviews in Africa which focuses on major groups and other stakeholders; the Young Economists Network; and Partnerships for climate financing as initiated for the climate round tables, innovative climate financing tools, CCDA and COP.

If your organization has established multi-stakeholder partnership(s) in this regard, please describe them (name, partners involved, relevant SDGs, Member States benefiting from the partnership) and provide links to relevant websites for more information.

Partnership Coalition for VNRs and VLRs in Africa, focusing on major groups and other stakeholders
Partners ARMMGoS, A4SD supporting non-government stakeholders; also DESA, UN-Habitat, OSAA, AUC supporting VNRs
Relevant SDGs All
Member States benefiting from the initiative All, particularly countries conducting VNRs and VLRs over past two years.
Description At the annual Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development, ECA convenes member States, national and local stakeholders, and international partners in order to deliberate and contribute to the region’s sustainable development roadmap. These deliberations inform the voluntary national and local reviews of progress towards the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063 being undertaken. This includes capacity building workshops for major groups and other stakeholders, and on the VNRs and VLRs themselves. Since 2020, ECA has provided secretariat services to the Africa Regional Mechanism for Major Groups and Other Stakeholders (ARMMGoS) to facilitate the engagement of African CSOs at the regional forum and globally at the HLPF. ECA also coordinates with A4SD to support MGoS’ contributions to VNR processes.
Website https://www.uneca.org/?q=events/technology%2C-climate-change-and-natura…
Partnership Young Economists Network
Partners 88 African Universities
Relevant SDGs 8
Member States benefiting from the initiative 29 member States
Description The Young Economists Network (YEN) is an ECA initiative launched in December 2021 aiming to create a learning and research platform between peers in macroeconomic modelling. YEN encourages the emergence of a new generation of young macroeconomic modelers capable of carrying the torch of excellence in macroeconomic modelling on the continent and helping countries to effectively achieve the SDGs and Agenda 2063. To date, the YEN comprises 988 members holding bachelor's, master's or PhD in economics, planning or management, from 88 universities and prestigious higher schools in 29 African countries. YEN members benefited from various programmes since its inception. The two major activities organised are centred around a course on macroeconomic modelling and a research project toward 10% economic growth in Africa. The course has been successfully delivered while the research activity is still ongoing. In addition, YEN mobilizes its members upon call for submission of scientific papers pertaining to economic development.
Website  
Partnership Partnerships for climate financing (as initiated for the climate round tables, innovative climate financing tools, CCDA and COP)
Partners AUC, IUCN, CBCC, UN Climate Champions
Relevant SDGs All, with a focus on 7, 9, 13 and 17
Member States benefiting from the initiative All member States; most projects are multiregional; specific projects in Egypt, Kenya and Nigeria.
Description As climate finance is key to the transition to a resilient and zero-emissions world, the African Regional Roundtable was held in August 2022. A concrete implementation process with a catalogue of 10 bankable projects was launched, with a further 30 projects based on regional priorities. The ministerial meeting in September 2022 was distinguished by a unified vision of key areas of action to stimulate climate investments and actions to advance the implementation of the Paris Agreement, Agenda 2063 and the 2030 Agenda (Sustainable Debt Coalition launch). Finally, the CCDA-X in October 2022 recalled Africa must be at the forefront of defining, leading, and owning a people-centered just transitions agenda aligned to the fundamental common but differentiated responsibilities principle of UNFCCC, optimal use of the continent’s abundant resources, and the urgency to build resilient economies to close huge development gaps on the continent. All of these initiatives have relied on strong partnerships between stakeholders, which have yielded a strong and unified coalition.
Website https://www.uneca.org/events/african-climate-policy-centre/african-roun…

Q5. In the 2019 SDG Summit declaration (GA Resolution 74/4), Member States outlined ten priority areas for accelerated action in SDG implementation. Please highlight any major integrated and innovative policies or initiatives that your organization may have adopted in these ten priority areas:

5.1 leaving no one behind

ECA has mainstreamed leaving no one behind as a key tenet of its activities and initiatives and policy advocacy, particularly regarding support to SDGs and Agenda 2063, and COVID-19 response. To take one example, ECA, in partnership with UNWOMEN, has developed “Care Economy Guidelines” to integrate gender perspectives and the care economy in the COVID-19 recovery policies, to ensure that no one is left behind. These guidelines are intended to provide a framework for policy action through a development account project on “Strengthening Social Protection for Pandemic Response”, which set out to support member States across the five Regional Commissions with the aim of strengthening national capacities to design and implement social protection policies, with a gender perspective, for sustained recovery from COVID-19, and increasing resilience, especially of the most vulnerable populations, against future exogenous shocks. In particular, the project aimed at Strengthening care economy policies for recovery by developing innovative capacities and cooperation mechanisms to integrate the care economy into social protection and other public policies of COVID-19 recovery. The guidelines places strong emphasis on gender equality and the enhancement of human rights, particularly on “leaving no one behind” and underscoring methods for identification and targeting of new vulnerable groups and better integrating the care economy into social protection policies. In addition to this, ECA is addressing the concept of leaving no one behind through: 1. the Risk and Vulnerability Index for poverty and vulnerability policy analysis and technical assistance to ensure targeted policies and programmes for those most at risk of poverty and other shocks 2. The ECA designed Price Watch Index which entails collecting, processing and analyzing price related data and the impact on economies and societies. 3. ECA has supported some countries, such as Morocco, to create and apply a national mechanism for migrants’ skills recognition in the country, paving way for migrants’ employment. 4. ECA developed a health cost of action and inaction model/toolkit for Diarrheal Diseases and Lower Respiratory Tract Infections that helps in review health budget and rates of return of scaling-up towards health coverage, one of the SDGs.

5.2 mobilizing adequate and well-directed financing

Innovative market-based mechanisms are being developed to help bridge financing gap for African countries to achieve the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063, which include the Liquidity and Sustainability Facility, debt-for-nature swaps, the issuance of green/blue bonds, carbon credit markets for debt sustainability and promotion of SDG-linked investments.

5.3 enhancing national implementation

ECA developed the Integrated Planning and Reporting Toolkit (IPRT) to assist African countries in implementing and integrating the goals of Agenda 2030 into their national development plans and to track and report on the progress realized at goals, targets and indicators levels. The toolkit also includes an integrated national financing framework designed to link development financing with national development plans that are aligned with the 2030 Agenda. It can also be used to facilitate the alignment of planning and financing functions and to view a dashboard of a country’s financing landscape. ECA has been provided trainings on IPRT across the continent and to date, 28 countries have adopted IPRT as a planning tool.

5.4 strengthening institutions for more integrated solutions

Institutional architecture to combat illicit financial flows (IFFs) is being strengthened in 11 pilot countries with technical working groups to enhance coordinated whole-government and whole-society approach to curbing illicit financial flows, through raising awareness, undertaking risk-assessments and profiling, and establishing or strengthening the IFFs data ecosystem to inform policy responses. Institutional needs are being identified to inform effective policy responses to curb IFFS and boost domestic resource mobilization for financing sustainable development.

5.5 bolstering local action

ECA has partnered with four other Regional Commissions to implement a project on “Building urban economic resilience during and After COVID-19”. The project aims to support local governments in designing, implementing and monitoring sustainable, resilient and inclusive COVID-19 economic responses, recovery packages and rebuilding plans. In Africa, three cities - Accra, Harare and Yaoundé - are being supported by ECA to develop and implement their COVID-19 economic recovery and resilience plans. Project delivery is informed by detailed data collection on several aspects of local economic resilience, to contribute to policies and programmes designed by the three cities to mitigate the negative economic effects of the pandemic. The project produced a number of knowledge products and tools to strengthen capacities of local governments, including: o Global Compendium of Practices on Local Economic and Financial Recovery o Guiding Principles and Practices for Urban Economic Recovery and Resilience o Urban Economic Recovery and Resilience Diagnostic and Planning Tool For more information, see: https://www.uneca.org/poverty%2C-inequality-and-social-policy/building-…. ECA has also developed regional Voluntary Local Review guidelines for use by cities, municipalities and districts in taking stock of sustainable development progress and charting a roadmap in cooperation with stakeholders, as noted earlier in this survey.

5.6 reducing disaster risk and building resilience

In March 2022, ECA provided technical support to the Desert Locust Control Organization of East Africa (DLCO-EA) to patent its green inventions (green pesticides) based on naturally occurring biological materials for controlling the outbreaks of locusts that have been a been devastating planted forests and increasing the risk of food insecurity, particularly in the Horn of Africa. The patents were filed at the South African Companies and Intellectual Property Commission and will facilitate the manufacturing and market availability of the green pesticides. Consultations are ongoing to assist DLCO-EA with international protection for its green inventions for the control of locusts and other migratory pests through the Patent Cooperation Treaty route. ECA is also helping DLCO-EA to build Satellite-based modeling tools for improved monitoring of desert locust distribution and density and guiding the integration of those green pesticides in national plans to reduce the impacts of locusts on food security starting with Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Kenya. The pesticides will furthermore be part of the integrated pest management plans to mitigate the risks on biological disasters. Furthermore, in January 2022, ECA completed its support to Sudan to assess the effects of the flood on SMEs, social, and macroeconomic stability in Sudan and improve resilience, mitigation, adaptation, and other recovery plans. The assessment report was completed and received favorably by the Minister of Finance of Sudan.

5.7 solving challenges through international cooperation and enhancing the global partnership

ECA has assisted member States in addressing pressing challenges through a number of partnerships and cooperation arrangements, including: • The Great Blue Wall Initiative by IUCN, ECA and other partners to accelerate the blue economy in the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) region countries, draw attention to the importance of SDG 14 and set ambitious targets aiming to increase Marine Protected Areas from 8% in 2021 to 30% by 2030, conserve and restore 2 million hectares of blue ecosystems, sequester 100 million tons of CO2, create 1 million blue jobs by 2030 and develop livelihood opportunities for 70 million people. • In collaboration the Congo Basin Climate Commission (CBCC), development of a regional carbon market among the Congo Blue Funds’ member countries: To date this partnership initiative has helped to develop a Harmonized protocols for carbon accounting, verification, reporting, and registration across the CBCC member countries, and the development a registry for carbon credit, and trading. • Africa UN Data for Development Portal developed and implemented with other UN entities to support SDG reporting and evidence-based SDG implementation policies. • The African medical supplies platform: for timely access to urgent medical equipment and medicines while also encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship. • Cooperation under the AVATT, LSF, AfCFTA and other broad-based initiatives, as noted above.

5.8 harnessing science, technology and innovation with a greater focus on digital transformation for sustainable development

One further initiative to help harness science, technology and innovation has been the Tech African Women Initiative (TAW), launched in 2022 to train young African women with idea-stage tech startups for an incubation program opportunity that supports the transformation of their idea and prototypes into validated business models, ready for market and ready for investment products. TAW offers women an exclusive opportunity to transform their community, acquire new skills, increase business visibility, access funds and connect with other African female entrepreneurs, it provides solutions for the SDGs by increasing the human capacity of female entrepreneurs want to play a role in the continent's development. Through this human capital-focused initiative, ECA motivates creativity on local solutions to tackle the continents’ problems to accelerate economic diversification and job creation. Member States involved thus far include Ethiopia, Senegal, Tanzania and Tunisia, and Tunisian venture builder firm Betacube has bene a key partner. See more information at: https://www.techafricanwomen.com/

5.9 investing in data and statistics for the SDGs

ECA advocates for innovative initiatives and policies including: Digital census in the 2020 round, as censuses contribute data to at least 10 of the 17 SDGs. Other projects include: the Digital ID where ECA is advocating for building holistic CRVSID systems including population register and the active engagement of national statistics offices in the initiatives for development of CRVSID systems in African Countries; and Computer Assisted Telephone Interviews and Computer Assisted Person Interviews for collection of consumer prices. As a part of modernizing their data production processes and developing resilience to crises like the Covid-19 pandemic, Big Data and data science for official statistics are encouraged through the African Regional Hub for Big Data and Data Science.

5.10 strengthening the High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF)

ECA is proactive in supporting the participation of its member States and stakeholders at the HLPF, and in conveying the key messages from the region as formally agreed to each year at ARFSD, but also from the regional Conference of Ministers of Finance and Planning, and Africa’s participation at COP. This includes: • financing of participation of the ARFSD bureau at HLPF; • providing technical and financial support to the VNR countries that are presenting at HLPF; • Compiling for presentation by ECA and regional member States and participants the key messages and resolutions from the region Going forward, countries and particularly stakeholders from the region will require more institutional support from the HLPF processes at headquarters in attending and participating meaningfully at HLPF, with improved coordination between ECOSOC, DESA, the Regional Commissions and the DCO system.

Q6. Following the adoption of the 2022 Ministerial Declaration, please highlight any major integrated and innovative policies or initiatives that your organization may have adopted related to the below, if applicable:

6.1 Member States encouraged "the United Nations system and all relevant actors to take advantage of emerging technologies and their applications, as appropriate, in order to maximize impact and effectiveness in data analysis and collection and stress the need to bridge the digital gap among and within countries" (Paragraph 86)

• ECA and the AU have co-developed the continental AU - Digital Transformation Strategy that outlies key policy recommendations and engagement areas for harnessing the benefits of digitalization for inclusive and sustainable development in the continent. The Strategy has been endorsed and set into action by the AU Summit of 9 February 2020. In line with and based on global good practices, the African Union Data Policy Framework has also been adopted in July 2022. This policy framework is set to guide data governance in the continent and enable as a reference policy for respective national frameworks for member States.

• ECA supported the establishment of the first African Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (ARCAI) in Congo Brazzaville under the University of Denis Sassou Nguesso which was inaugurated in March 2022 with the primary objective of undertaking cutting-edge research on artificial intelligence (AI) focusing on a human-centered approach to maximize the benefits and counter the challenges of socio-economic development. The centre will also advise on legal and regulatory environment and fiscal regime that would facilitate the adoption of AI in Africa. (https://www.uneca.org/stories/eca-set-to-launch-africa%E2%80%99s-first-…)

• ECA has hosted the Connected African Girls Hybrid Coding Camp, in partnership with host governments and other institutions, to help close the Gender Digital Divide on the African continent by providing skills to girls and young women ages 12-25 that will help them prepare for the 4th Industrial Revolution and make them fully involved in the African digital economy. Training has focused on the following areas:
o TECHNICAL SKILLS in Animation, Gaming & Web Development, Turtle Stitch, Robotics & IoT, Fashion, Design Thinking, Computational Thinking, & 3D Printing.
o SOFT SKILLS in leadership public speaking, Climate Changing, GBV UN SDGs, and gender equality. Over 25,000 African girls have been reached in 52 countries with the Connected African Girl Coding Camp. There were 240 innovative projects developed by trainees in the camp, 60 of which won awards for excellence.

• Smart Bots Lab in Botswana: ECA is providing the technical and financial support for the establishment of a SmartBots Lab centre of excellence in the Republic of Botswana. The center of excellence will support digital innovation ecosystems for the 4th industrial revolution, including applications for the social and economic development. The smart lab will be the first of its kind in the African continent, equipped with highly sophisticated systems and technology to support innovation. The smart lab will help Botswana take advantage of the opportunities presented by the 4IR; transit to a Knowledge-Based Economy without leaving anyone behind, support the ideation, co-creation, incubation, acceleration and commercialization innovative ideas. The project started in February 2022 and the center is expected to be official launched in February 2023.

• Lobu Small stock Farm (LSF) in Botswana: ECA is providing technical and financial support through a strategic partnership with IFAD to the Republic of Botswana in its digital transformation strategy for the Lobu small stock Farm (LSF). The strategy aims to transform the LSF into a center of excellence for small stock development, leveraging on smart agriculture technologies. To achieve this, LSF is being remodelled and upgraded to incorporate smart technologies in production, management, precision livestock farming, environmental management, farmer capacity building and training, animal health and welfare monitoring, sustainability and competitiveness of the farm, information management systems and farm sustainability.

6.2 Member States specifically called upon the UN system "to work with the newly established United Nations Food Systems Coordination Hub, hosted by FAO, to support Governments to develop and strengthen SDG-based national pathways for sustainable food systems transformation" (Paragraph 128)

ATEX initiative: ECA and AFREXIMBANK, in collaboration with AUC and the AfCFTA Secretariat, have developed a digital business-to-business and business-to-government exchange platform known as African Trade Exchange Platform (ATEX). ATEX opens opportunities for Intra African Trade under AfCFTA Rules of Origin and negotiated Tariff Offers. As an African-driven response, ATEX was repurposed to deal with shortages of food and fertilizer many Africans are experiencing due to conflict. ATEX will help enhance African food security and Economic resiliency. At this stage, ECA and AFREXIMBANK are undertaking a demand mapping process to enable the pool procurement mechanism as well as facilitating the onboarding of African suppliers of critical commodities including Fertilizer, Wheat, Maize, Rice, Soybean oil, Palm Oil, Sunflower Seed Oil and Sugar. The work on the ATEX can be leveraged to guide and complement the work of the United Nations Food Systems Coordination Hub.

Q7. The 2023 SDG Summit is expected to provide political leadership, guidance and recommendations for sustainable development and follow-up and review progress in the implementation of sustainable development commitments and the achievement of the 2030 Agenda, including through national and regional consultations, which will mark the beginning of a new phase of accelerated progress towards the SDGs. In the lead up to the 2023 SDG Summit, please provide your organization’s recommendations on how to overcome challenges to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the achievement of the SDGs, taking into account the thematic reviews and voluntary national reviews conducted to date. 

The world is not on course to meet its commitments and ambitions to keep global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius and to build an inclusive economy and society for all. Progress towards the 2030 Agenda was already slow before the COVID-19 pandemic and food and energy crises due to the war in Ukraine, and the severe impacts of these have caused significant setbacks across all SDGs. The African region is no exception, with a revamped focus on broad-based sustainable development needed to reverse course at this halfway point towards the 2030 Agenda, and ten years into implementation of the region’s Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want. In strategizing how to overcome these challenges, the Africa’s regional agenda and indeed other regional and local initiatives across the world provide a first entry point to realizing our sustainable development aims. Local solutions – such as grassroots covid response strategies and the manufacture of PPEs – are grounded in the realities faced by communities, and can help inform our inclusive strategies going forward. Such voices need to be elevated and heard at both the HLPF and the 2023 SDG Summit. The Summit should also be a venue to present national and regional-level best practices in implementing initiatives for the two Agendas, to assist other countries and regions, while also learning from those exemplary cases around the world that have overcome challenges to push towards sustainable development. Finally, the SDG Summit should serve to galvanize needed investments, collaboration, and support for Africa and indeed all member States in their pursuit of the 2030 Agenda. This should include, for example, exploring opportunities for financing, technical cooperation and technology for the green transition. Commitments and pledges must be met with implementation and sustained support, in order to show our citizens and communities that the sustainable development agenda remains the pressing priority for our policy makers.

ECESA Plus Member
Year of submission: 2022