MEDIA ADVISORY

33rd Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union AFRICAN UNION COMMISSION SUMMIT, Joint AUC-AfDB Side Event

Launch of the 2020 African Economic Outlook and Presentation of the 2019 Africa’s Development Dynamics Reports

INVITATION TO REPRESENTATIVES OF THE MEDIA

When: February 7th, 2020

Where: African Union Commission (AUC) Headquarters, Addis Ababa

The side-event will be held in the Small Conference Hall 3 (NCC)

Time: 10:00 am – 1:00 pm

Theme: African Economic Outlook 2020: Developing Africa’s workforce for the future and Africa’s Development Dynamics 2019: Achieving Productive Transformation

Who: This event will be hosted by the AUC Department of Economic Affairs in collaboration with the African Development Bank (AfDB)

The High Level dialogue will be addressed by the following:

• H.E. Prof. Victor Harison, Commissioner for Economic Affairs, AUC
• Dr. Charles Lufumpa, Acting Vice-President and Chief Economist, AfDB
• Dr. Ephrem Tekle Lemango, Commissioner, Job Creation Commission, Ethiopia
• Mr. Tewolde GebreMariam, CEO Ethiopian Airways
• Prof. Emmanuel Nnandozie, Executive Secretary, African Capacity Building Foundation Dr. Hanan Morsy, Director, Macroeconomics Policy, Forecasting and Research, AfDB
• Mr. Mario Pezzini, Director, OECD Development Centre
• Mr. Talla Kebe, Director Knowledge Management & Programme Evaluation AUDA-NEPAD
• Dr. Hippolyte Fofack, Chief Economist, Afreximbank
• Mr. Caleb Meakins, Founder of Mella and Bake & Brew, and RALA MEDIA

Participants: Participants will include: High-level invitees from the African Union Commission Summit (Heads of State and Government, delegation heads, ministers, ambassadors), media, global and regional development organizations, civil society and academics.

Background: The AEO, produced by the African Development Bank, presents the current state of economic and social developments in Africa and provides projections of the outlook for the coming two years. The 2020 edition of the AEO focuses on “Developing Africa’s workforce for the future”. It analyzes the state of education and skills development in Africa and discusses key policy actions to prepare Africa’s workforce to meet future challenges in the labor markets.

The 2019 edition of the AfDD, produced by the African Union Commission in collaboration with the OECD Development Centre, focuses on the theme of “Achieving Productive Transformation” in Africa. It proposes policies for building the organisational, productive and technological capabilities of Africa’s firms to perform at their best and diffuse those results throughout the rest of the economy for the benefit of society.

Objectives: The objectives of the launch of the 2020 African Economic Outlook and presentation of the 2019 Africa’s Development Dynamics reports during the February 2020 AU summit are to, inter alia:
(i) Disseminate the findings of the reports to a wide range of stakeholders including high level policymakers, the media, global and regional development organizations, civil society, academia and the wider public.
(ii) Provide a platform for a policy discussion and information exchange on critical areas covered in the report that are critical to Africa’s structural transformation.

Journalists are invited to cover the High Level Launch and Presentation of the two reports.
(Attached is the draft programme of the event).
Media Contact:
Ms. Esther Azaa Tankou - Head of Information Division, AUC DIC / Tel: +251911361185 E-mail: (YambouE@africa-union.org )

For further information:
Directorate of Information and Communication | African Union Commission I E-mail: DIC@african-union.org I Website: http://www.au.int

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