Objectives & Expected outcomes

Objectives of the Conference

• To promote knowledge management as an important component of good policy design and implementation;
• To foster dialogue and promote the exchange of ideas among economists and African policymakers;
• To encourage and enhance research on economic issues related to the development of African economies;
• To provide an opportunity for regional and sub-regional organizations to disseminate results of their research as well as share information with African policymakers on the work they do in the region.

Format of the Conference

The conference will be held over three days at the United Nations Conference Centre Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It will have plenary as well as break-out sessions. The plenary speakers will be outstanding scholars in various fields of economics invited as special guests. The break-out sessions will be based on submitted papers and will focus on broad themes determined by the program committee. The committee encouraged submissions in all areas of economics but is particularly interested in papers that fall into the following broad areas: Regional Integration, Trade, Monetary and Financial Sector, Growth and Equity, Financing Development, Investment, Private Sector, Natural Resources, Asia and Africa. The main aim of these Sessions will be to examine and explore Africa’s growth prospects and chart the way forward. For each of the selected sub-themes renowned specialists will present papers for discussion, with the objective of informing the Bank of the current state of affairs as well as generating results for use by policy analysts and policy makers.

Conference Output

Output of the Conference in terms of papers presented will be published for widest possible dissemination among African Policy Makers in Regional Member Countries, International Organizations, the donor organizations and other stakeholders in Africa’s development. It is also expected that the conference will lead to the establishment of an African Economic Association with a secretariat that will take on the responsibility of organizing the annual conference.

Conference Participants

The Conference will be attended by about 300 participants from Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas, drawn from government officials, the academia, private sector and non-governmental organizations.