MEDIA ADVISORY:

The Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) WEEK 2016

What: PIDA WEEK 2016 under the theme:  Creating Jobs through Regional Infrastructure Development.

When:  21 - 25   November 2016

Where:   Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire

Who: Organized by African Union, African Development Bank, African Development Fund, The New Partnership for Africa's Development. (NEPAD). 

Why: PIDA week 2016 intends to build on the achievements of the inaugural event in 2015 to increase the visibility of PIDA projects, gather and reach out to the global infrastructure investor community, development finance institutions, export credit agencies, project sponsors (public and private) and governments. It also aims to discuss and evaluate progress made within the sector programmes/projects and facilitate sharing of knowledge and experiences

Expected outcome:  PIDA week 2016 will showcase the importance of regional infrastructure (PIDA) projects and the impact thereof on the socio-economic development of Africa and particularly on job creation for the youth. The PIDA 2016 Report will be released and distributed during PIDA Week.

In bringing together key stakeholders, PIDA Week will lead to the following outcomes:

• Sustaining and accelerating PIDA implementation
• Facilitating a conducive and enabling environment through recommendations and decisions of the PIDA governance structures
•  Enhancing private sector engagement in PIDA
•  Increasing the visibility of PIDA’s impact on Africa’s transformation

Participants:    

PIDA Week will bring together a cross-section of stakeholders including:

• Public sector - fast-tracking PIDA implementation
• Private sector - engagement with PIDA projects on the ground
• Financiers - funding and investment opportunities
• Project owners - project marketing and showcasing
• Media - informing Africa and the world about infrastructure projects and their implementation

Background:

The Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) is an African Union (AU) initiative implemented through a partnership between the AU Commission (AUC), the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency (NPCA) and the African Development Bank (AfDB).

The AU Assembly approved PIDA during the 18th Ordinary Session of the African Union (AU) held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 29th – 30th January 2012(Assembly/AU/Decl.2 (XVIII)).

As a continental initiative, PIDA aims to address the infrastructure deficit that severely hampers Africa’s competitiveness in the world market. It provides a common framework for African stakeholders to build the infrastructure necessary to create jobs for the growing population, to increase intra-African trade and thus to boost socio-economic development on the continent.

Since its adoption in January 2012, progress has been made towards the implementation and development of the 51 PIDA Priority Action Plan (PIDA PAP) programmes (around 430 individual projects) at the country as well as regional levels.

To complement the project-level progress, several other activities and initiatives have been undertaken in the areas of creating an enabling environment, human capacity building and advocacy towards high-level decision makers in support of regional infrastructure development.

Press Briefing

A Press briefing is scheduled on November 23rd from 15:30 to 16:30 at AfDB CCIA building in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.  Journalists are invited to cover the briefing. For accreditation and registration, you are invited to send confirmation emails to the contacts provided below.

Closer to the date, a full programme with speakers will be shared with registered journalists

Contacts

For media inquiries, please contact

Mr Ricardo Dunn. NEPAD Head of Communication. RicardoD@nepad.org

Mrs Wynne Musabayana. Head of Communication. African Union Commission. MusabayanaW@africa-union.org  

Ndong Obiang, Olivia Nadine; Principal Communication Officer, African Development Bank O.NDONG-OBIANG@AFDB.ORG