The ECA will hold an Inception Meeting on the preparation for the 2018 edition of the Economic Report on Africa which will take place in Conference Room 3 on 13 January 2017 from 08.30hrs through 18.00hrs.

The 2018 edition of the Economic Report on Africa (ERA) will mark the diamond Jubilee of the establishment of ECA, it is currently conceptualized to capture ECA’s contribution to developmental thinking that has shaped Africa’s economic progress as well as identifying major trends and issues that ECA may engage in for next phase. It will inevitably build on previous ECA thoughts captured in various editions of flagship and non-recurrent publications in each area of ECA’s programmes of work through time.

The 2018 ERA will be structured in two parts:

Part I will discuss both recent developments in the world economy and their implications for Africa, and examine recent trends and policy challenges in economic and social development. This part also provides forecasts on Africa’s medium-term economic outlook with the associated downside risk analysis. It also examines the social trends of relevance for growth and structural transformation in the continent.

Part II of the report will address number of thematic issues and is currently conceptualised to comprise of six chapters. The Chapters will cover the following:

(1) ECA’s contribution to Thinking on Africa’s development since independence; (2) ECA’s contribution to Africa’s institutional landscape and capacity development on the continent; (3) ECA’s perspectives on Governance (political, economic and corporate), Development Planning and Sustainable (economic, social and environmental) Development; (4) Regional integration and global partnerships; (5) Statistics and Africa’s: Social-economic Development narrative, and (6) Africa of the Future.

The meeting will be interactive with brainstorming sessions moderated by selected ECA Directors to ensure deep and comprehensive discussions, to provide clear scope for each chapter and overall report. Participants will include invited pan-African development thinkers and advocates as well as ECA staff - past and present. The final report will be launched at the 2018 AU/ECA Joint Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development.