Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, February 26, 2021 (ECA) – The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) on Tuesday held its 28th quarterly African Ambassadors briefing to update Addis Ababa-based Permanent Representatives on the work of the Commission over the past three months.
This includes ECA’s focus to ensure African countries have adequate resources to respond to the deadly COVID19 pandemic, with calls for an extra financial liquidity amounting to $500 billion through the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), policy support actions, better market access, more concessional resources and an extension of the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) to the of end 2022.
“The important conversation today is around what we are calling Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), their allocation and how that would work and why that is important for Africa,” ECA Executive Secretary, Ms. Vera Songwe said.
She added the SDRs were money that is printed for the whole world in four currencies – the US dollar, the pound, the Euro and the Yuan – and then allocated through national central banks.
Africa will receive SDR 25.6 billion if a new allocation of SDR 500 billion is issued, which is what ECA is calling for, based on the continent’s quota of 5.12 percent. SDR allocations have no conditions.
Ms. Songwe said the allocation based on the 5.12 percent quota would be important but won’t go far enough in tackling the enormous challenges facing the continent following the outbreak of COVID-19. The ECA is advocating for the reallocation of SDR resources for Africa to receive more liquidity, allowing the continent to respond effectively to the pandemic and build forward better.
“Much of the developed world has already gotten extra liquidity as their central banks have the latitude to print additional money. However, developing countries in Africa do not have that option,” the Executive Secretary said.
Reducing the cost of borrowing for African nations was also paramount, said the ECA Chief, adding that ECA and its partners were looking up to the new US administration to lead on the issue of the SDRs.
Furthermore, Ms. Songwe called on the continent to work together on the COVID-19 vaccine rollout and urged countries to register on the Africa Medical Supplies Platform (AMSP). She also called on African countries to ratify the treaty that would establish the African Medicines Agency (AMA).
The legal commitment of 15 countries is required to set up the continent-wide regulatory agency tasked with ensuring access to safe, effective, and good quality medicine and health technologies.
AfCFTA
Mr. Stephen Karingi, Director, Regional Integration and Trade Division at the ECA, briefed the Ambassadors on the status of AfCFTA following the start of trading among African countries on January 1, 2021.
He said the ECA is supporting the implementation of the AfCFTA in African Union member States and Regional Economic Communities (RECs).
A major challenge in the implementation of the AfCFTA, said Mr. Karingi, was having countries harmonize the AfCFTA with their national laws for smooth implementation.
The ECA is currently supporting 40 countries to develop AfCFTA strategies and this includes four RECs; the EAC, ECCAS, ECOWAS and IGAD. So far, 11 countries have validated their AfCFTA strategies and seven are being supported with the implementation of specific interventions.
Mr. Khaled Hussein, interim Director of the ECA Sub-regional Office for North Africa, updated the Ambassadors on the Meetings of the Intergovernmental Committee of Senior Officials and Experts (ICSOE) that are hosted annually by the ECA’s sub-regional offices in south, central, west, north and east Africa.
The ICSOEs provides a platform for high-level experts of national governments, researchers, representatives of the private sector and civil society to discuss recent economic and social development issues across the region.
The Ambassadors, led by the chair of the ECA Conference of Ministers’ Bureau, HE Mohammed Arrouchi, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of Morocco, commended the ECA’s work under difficult conditions and extended their support. They also encouraged more webinars on vaccine acquisition as nations scramble to ensure they have supplies.
Issued by:
Communications Section
Economic Commission for Africa
PO Box 3001
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
Tel: +251 11 551 5826
E-mail: eca-info@un.org