The African Institute for Development and Economic Planning, the ECA’s training arm, provided training for 5,000 people in 34 courses in 2024 – more than the 3,000 it initially planned to, said its director, Karima Bounemra Ben Soltane. She said programmes were being designed in response to member states’ concerns and aligned to their development needs.
In her report back on the Institute’s activities over the last year, she said that based on a needs assessment, IDEP now has courses for both private and public sector actors. These include courses on digital transformation and free trade.
“A few years ago, we started dealing with trade negotiations and trade policies. We have increasingly adapted our training to the launching of the AFCFTA and its implementation,” she said.
She said it was important for countries to share experiences on what has worked and what is not working in terms of policies and other areas and IDEP could play a role.
“We will launch the ECA School of Thought and Practice to provide a platform to learn from each other’s successes and failures, and the African Development Impact Forum to give member states a platform to discuss how to transform strategies into tangible and impactful actions.”
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).