Three major continental organizations to launch Africa Regional Integration Index
Three of the major organizations working together for Africa’s economic and social development will jointly launch an Africa Regional Integration Index.
The three organizations, the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the African Union Commission (AUC) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) have joined forces to produce an Africa Regional Integration Index, a press release issued in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Tuesday November 25, 2014 says.
The release says, the index, which is the first systematic, quantitative, continent-wide monitoring system for regional integration in Africa – is designed to track African countries’ progress towards meeting the goals shared by African governments in the context of the Abuja Treaty for integration on the continent.
“It will allow countries to track their progress in regional integration and identify gaps and further facilitate better policy analysis regarding which policies are delivering the regional integration outcomes that Africa is aiming for, and identify star performers that can serve as examples to other African countries,” it says.
The release notes that given the novelty of the exercise and the fact that much of the data that are to be used for many of the indicators in the index have never been compiled in this manner before, the ECA, AUC and the AfDB are organizing a series of training sessions for national statistical focal points.
“ In the first instance, the three institutions are focusing on training statistical focal points from countries that are members of COMESA, EAC or SADC,” it adds.
The training planned for November 26 to 28, 2014 will take place at the AUC Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The ECA, AfDB and AUC will present their ongoing work on the index at the margins of the Africa Directors-General of Statistics meeting in Tunis in December 2014, as well as at the AU Summit in January 2015, it says.
The final report of the index, according to the release, will be presented at the Joint AU Conference of Ministers of Economy and Finance and ECA Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development in March 2015.
By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi