The High-Level sessions and discussions aim to drive the realization of various Agenda 2063 flagship projects and programmes such as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA); the African Financial Institutions; the African Economic Platform; the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP); Gender and Youth Empowerment, among other key projects.
1. African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)
This session will focus on the African Union’s vision to create one African Trade market. It will explore ways to accelerate intra-African trade and boosting Africa’s trading position in the global market by strengthening Africa’s common voice and policy space in global trade negotiations. Africa is, by creating the African Continental Free Trade Area also signaling to the wider world that she is committed to multilateralism and global interdependence. This session seeks to identify entry points to enhance stakeholder engagement on the implementation of the AfCFTA and increase participation opportunities in the work programme of the AfCFTA.
Read more - https://au.int/cfta
2. Agribusiness development.
The potential contribution of Africa’s agriculture to food and nutrition security, employment, household incomes, poverty reduction and economic growth is significant. This session will focus on accelerating the implementation of efforts to engage the private sector community in identifying and seizing opportunities for their increased participation in the development of agricultural value chains in Africa in the process of sustaining the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP).This will be an opportunity to identify high priority strategies designed to support the growth of a modern, robust and inclusive private sector-led African agribusiness to give impetus to the realization of a vibrant agribusiness and agritrade business environment by improving coordination, mobilization, advocacy, and communication among various actors in the agribusiness landscape.
This session of the Forum will allow the private sector to participate in the productivity of African agriculture and the sustainable agro-food industry, while addressing agricultural development from the point of view of the development of rural entrepreneurship and the transformation of agricultural raw materials through industrialization. It will also address the critical issue of climate change with a view to developing a resilient and prosperous agricultural sector in Africa.
Read more- https://au.int/en/agricultural-development
3. Digitalization in Africa
This session will focus on incorporating emerging technologies in Africa’s development plans and ensuring these technologies are used for the benefit of African individuals, institutions and nation states providing experience sharing and input towards the implementation of African Strategies and policies relating to Digitalization in line with Agenda 2063 flagship project on the Pan –African E-Network. The session will support the integration of technologies in enterprises and address the issue of investments that will need to be generated accordingly. It will also discuss developing strategies to encourage African industries breakthroughs in core technologies and take advantage of the Internet to reshape development. For African citizens, the true promise of connectivity and digitization is the eradication of poverty, equal opportunities for all, enhanced quality of life and opportunities for entrepreneurship. Strengthening the African digital and technological ecosystems is paramount as they are the foundations for 21st century’s knowledge economy and are key enablers of sustainable innovations and new employment opportunities. The AUC is currently developing an African Digital Transformation Strategy to be presented to Heads of State and Government at the next AU Summit in February 2020. The outcomes of these discussions will greatly contribute to this Strategy.
Read more - https://au.int/en/ie
4. Capacity building of Women and Youth Entrepreneurs
Women and youth must be at the centre of the planning and operations of the private sector engagement. This session seeks to advance the AU Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa and the commitment to youth empowerment, with a view to giving new impetus to the commitments agreed at the global and regional levels in the following areas: poverty, economic empowerment and entrepreneurship; agriculture and food security; ; education, science and technology; environment and climate change; peace and security; governance and legal protection; finance and budget; women in decision-making positions and promotion of gender equality.
A 3-day Capacity Building for Women and Youth Entrepreneurs will be held ahead of the Private Sector Forum from 3-5 November 2019. In line with THE Commission’s mandate to include Gender engagement programmes in the continental integration and development areas, this will be an opportunity to provide a platform for Women an Youth Entrepreneurs in key sectors such as Agriculture, Energy, Digitalization and Innovation and others, to get equipped with a number of skills that will help push their businesses forward. The theme of the Capacity Building will be ““Empowering women and youth with Modern self-employability and creative entrepreneurial skills” and Training sessions will include Market Analysis; Marketing; Project Identification; Project Financial Management; Facilitating access to Finance for Entrepreneurs to name a few.
Read more - https://au.int/en/gender-equality-development
5. Experience sharing of the private sector from South-South countries and other parts of the world
This session will focus on learning from best practices and lessons learned from other South-South countries around the World in relations to the development of their private sectors. It will also be an opportunity to encourage networking among the different stakeholders in view of the need to integrate African economies into regional and global economies and taking into account the opportunities offered by the sharing of information and business skills as well as the development of the business network between private actors in these areas. It would be beneficial to discuss ways and means to implement for cooperation between the stakeholders and thus create a strong synergy of development between South-South countries.
Read more - https://au.int/en/ea and https://au.int/en/aep/about
6. Financing investments in key sectors of African transformation
Africa is overcoming the historic fragmentation and isolation of her economies by opening up huge commercial opportunities as well as improving transport and communication linkages among our countries. This aggregation and connectivity of forces for accelerated growth and sustainable development of African countries will enable us and realize the vision of the African Union and Agenda 2063 for ‘An integrated, prosperous, and peaceful Africa, driven by its citizens, representing a dynamic force in the global arena.
The session on Financing and Investing in the transformation of African economies will provide an opportunity for constructive dialogue among stakeholders on possible mechanisms, to provide opportunities for co-financing investments in key sectors of the economy; and to discuss alternative financing partnerships open to businesses to support their development and thereby accelerate economic transformation on the continent. Private Sector and Youth Skills Development in Africa
7. Private Sector and Youth Skills Development in Africa
In line with the African Union’s initiative 1Millionby2021 whose goal is to reach 1 Million African Youth aged from 18 to 35 in the key areas of Employment, Entrepreneurship, Education and Engagement, a session will be organized on Private sector and Youth Skills Development. Discussions from this session will be centred on the role of private sector in skilling youth for jobs of today and tomorrow. Critical focus will be on private sector engagement, and the generation of labour market information that could enable better planning and provision of market relevant skills.
Read more - https://au.int/en/directorates/strategic-planning-policy-monitoring-eva…
8. Innovative Strategies for promoting tourism
Tourism is a great contributor to economic development of Countries. Tourists can contribute to greater Sales, Income, Job creation and other sectors of a countries economy, This session will focus on finding Innovative ways to build the African Tourism sector as a major contributor for Socio-Economic development in Africa as outlined in Aspiration 1 of the African Union for a “A prosperous Africa based on inclusive growth and sustainable development”.
The session will provide a public-private platform for exploring winning strategies for enhancing tourism and will focus on ideas on how to better promote African countries in terms of marketing and investment.
