Report by Josiane Kouagheu, Juliette Jabkhiro and Aaron Ross



YAOUNDE/DAKAR (Reuters) &#8211; When a passenger arriving from Brussels at Cameroon’s Yaounde Nsimalen airport on Saturday was found to have a temperature, health officials say he was whisked to a hospital and diagnosed inside four hours as the country’s fourth case of coronavirus.



The central African country was doing more generalised screening for disease long before China revealed the new virus that has killed around 7,000 people globally. Along with other countries on the continent, it hopes its experience guarding against Ebola and other epidemics will help its health system cope with a pandemic that could quickly overwhelm it. 



“We have cases that were not caught by the measures in France and Italy that were caught here,” Georges Alain Etoundi Mballa, who runs the health ministry’s epidemic response, told Reuters, describing the screening as a “spying network”. 



“Epidemics come and go, but we keep on the surveillance.” 



The virus now ravaging Europe has appeared in at least 26 out of 49 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. In most of them the recorded cases are still in single figures and have come in from abroad &#8211; notably Europe &#8211; rather than emerging at home. [nL8N2BA5PT] 



The stakes are high &#8211; if the disease gets into Africa’s poorest areas, squalid, cramped conditions could cause it to spread at lightning speed. 



Hospitals are already overburdened with cases of measles, malaria and other deadly infectious diseases, and conflicts have displaced hundreds of thousands of people and destroyed infrastructure. 



Asking patients to self-quarantine at home is not practical in many areas, where families cram into a single room, share a communal tap or latrine, and survive on daily earnings. 



“Africa should brace itself for a serious challenge,” John Nkengasong, head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said on March 11. “I still believe containment is possible, but only with extensive testing and surveillance.”



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">EBOLA EXPERIENCE </h3>



In some places that looks all but impossible. 



In South Sudan, devastated by a five-year civil war, the government has just 24 isolation beds, said Dr. Angok Gordon Kuol,&nbsp;incident manager for the outbreak at the Ministry of Health. 



He said public officials were trying to encourage hand-washing, but many in the impoverished East African nation of 12 million people could not afford soap and did not have running water. 



The health ministry in Burkina Faso, which is under siege from jihadist groups linked to Islamic State and al Qaeda, said in a report last week that the country lacked the resources to deal with the outbreak. 



Its border crossings have no sites to isolate suspected cases, and the West African country does not have enough skilled health workers, the report said. “This can result in high mortality rates and an increased risk of spreading the disease.” 



Ebola killed more than 11,000 people in West Africa between 2013 and 2016, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. It devastated communities but provided valuable lessons. 



The Africa CDC, set up by the African Union in 2017, has been working with the World Health Organization (WHO) to strengthen emergency coordination, improve testing and surveillance, and equip treatment centres. 



“We know the fragility of our system, and because of that, when the outbreak was declared, the countries just went into action,” said Mary Stephen, technical officer at the WHO’s Africa office. 



The number of countries with labs able to diagnose COVID-19 in the region increased from two to 39 in just over a month. But that still leaves eight countries without. 



Passengers arriving at major airports have temperatures checked and are asked to fill out travel questionnaires, and in Nigeria, a taskforce meets regularly to evaluate the risks. 



“We will never be caught pants down,” said Bamidele Mutiu, who helped coordinate the West African country’s Ebola response and now runs a biosafety lab in Lagos. 



With three confirmed cases, Africa’s most populous nation is scrambling to increase the number of isolation beds and provide more specialized medical training and equipment at state hospitals. 



“Our health system is not as strong as we’d like it to be,” said Chikwe Ihekweazu, head of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control. “It is because we are a bit worried about our capacity to deal with a large outbreak that we are focused so intensively on prevention and early detection.” 



Promoting good hygiene is a key part of that effort. But that is easier said than done. Less than half the population in 34 African countries have basic hand-washing facilities in their homes, according to a 2017 United Nations survey. 



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">KEEPING CLEAN </h3>



In Senegal’s capital Dakar, announcements ring out through loudspeakers on passing cars urging people to wash their hands. A group of school children in soccer shirts reels off highlights from a recent lesson &#8211; a crash course in preventing COVID-19. 



But in their suburb, Pikine, where more than a million people live, the water is frequently cut off. 



“Cleanliness is important, but here it’s not easy,” said Marcelle Diatta, a 41-year-old mother of four who lives in a two-bedroom apartment with four extended family members. 



Khary Faye Sougou, head nurse at a local health centre in Pikine, where donkey carts jostle with delivery trucks on sandy alleyways, said she was encouraging residents to stockpile bottles of water; but not everyone could afford to do so. 



In Senegal, a West African country that has recorded 27 cases, medical staff said they had received limited protective equipment beyond extra gloves and masks. 



“If we have a case, maybe I’ll go with a mask and my white coat, and after the visit I’ll throw them away,” Sougou said. 



Ousmane Gueye, head of the crisis unit at Senegal’s health ministry, said the government was deploying protective gear to facilities that need it. 



There are ample stocks of masks and gloves and enough beds to accommodate dozens more patients, according to health officials. However, there are no reserves of ventilators, which are in short supply across Africa. 



In South Africa, which has recorded 62 cases of the virus, medical services could be “swamped” if it spreads within the country’s vast shanty towns, Susan Cleary, a health economist at the University of Cape Town, said. 



“Transmission in an informal settlement is a disaster, an absolute disaster,” she said. 



(Additional reporting by Christophe Van der Perre in Dakar, Alexis Akwagyiram and Angela Ukomadu in Lagos, Paul Carsten in Abuja, Omar Mohammed in Nairobi, Giulia Paravicini in Addis Ababa, Wendell Roelf in Cape Town, Joe Bavier in Abidjan and Henry Wilkins in Ouagadougou; Writing by Aaron Ross; editing by Edward McAllister, Alexandra Zavis and Philippa Fletcher)



This article was first published on Reuters Africa <a href="https://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFKBN214328-OZATP">https://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFKBN214328-OZATP</a> and is republished with its permission.

Armed with lessons from Ebola, Africa braces for coronavirus surge

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Last year around this time as collaboration between the NBA and FIBA, plans to establish the Basketball Africa League were discussed – fast forward to this past weekend during the NBA AllStar weekend in Chicago, Illinois and the 12 inaugural teams of BAL were officially announced with the season slated to kick off on March 13th in Dakar, Senegal. Michael Mugisha, Analyst of Michael Mugisha Podcast joins CNBC Africa for more.

How sport on the continent is growing with official launch of Basketball Africa League

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On the side-lines of the IMF&#8217;s International Conference in Senegal which focused on sustainable development and debt sustainability – CNBC Africa&#8217;s Frederic VandeVyver caught up President and CEO of NSIA, Jean Kacou Diagou for an assessment insurance business in Africa.

Sustainable Development

Sustainable Development, Sustainable Debt: NSIA CEO Kacou Diagou on company’s expansion plans into Central Africa

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Senegal’s Minister for Economy, Planning and International Corporation, Amadou Hott, says when African countries borrow, they have to make sure the debt is mostly used for acquiring assets that generate both social and economic returns. CNBC Africa&#8217;s Kenneth Igbomor caught up with him on the sidelines of IMF&#8217;s International Conference in Senegal which focused on sustainable development and debt sustainability.

Sustainable Development, Sustainable Debt: Debt must acquire assets that generate social & economic returns – Amadou Hott

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Deputy Secretary-General of United Nations (UN), Amina Mohammed says the context, quality and the use of debt matters. She discussed Africa&#8217;s progress on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with CNBC Africa&#8217;s Kenneth Igbomor on the sidelines of IMF&#8217;s International Conference in Senegal which focused on sustainable development and debt sustainability.

Sustainable Development, Sustainable Debt: The context, quality and the use of debt matters, says UN’s Amina Mohammed

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Nigeria&#8217;s Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed says it is very important for African countries to balance the need between development and debt sustainability. She also stressed that Nigeria is not anywhere near debt distress levels when asked about the government&#8217;s recent borrowing plans. CNBC Africa&#8217;s Kenneth Igbomor caught up with Zainab Ahmed in Dakar at International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) international conference on Sustainable Development and Debt Sustainability.

Sustainable Development, Sustainable Debt: Zainab Ahmed: Nigeria not anywhere near debt distress levels

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CNBC Africa&#8217;s Kenneth Igbomor caught up with IMF&#8217;s Deputy Director for Africa Department, Dominique Desruelle to get the IMF&#8217;s thinking on debt sustainability and Africa&#8217;s development challenges on the sidelines of IMF&#8217;s International Conference in Dakar Senegal.

Sustainable Development, Sustainable Debt: Understanding debt sustainability & Africa’s development challenges

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President of Global Development Network (GDN) and Member of Circle of Economists, Pierre Jacquet says sustainable development and debt sustainability should be constantly in the minds of African policymakers and sustainability is about the quality of investments that are financed through debt. CNBC Africa&#8217;s Kenneth Igbomor caught up with Pierre Jacquet for more.

Sustainable Development, Sustainable Debt: Sustainability is about quality of investments financed through debt – Jacquet

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IMF&#8217;s new Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva says Africa is halfway to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and needs to accelerate the speed of development to get there. CNBC Africa&#8217;s Kenneth Igbomor spoke with her on the sidelines of the International Conference on Sustainable Development and Debt Sustainability in Dakar, Senegal for more.

Sustainable Development, Sustainable Debt: IMF’s Georgieva on achieving SDGs to accelerate development

Senegal Air SA has ordered two ATR 72-600 aircraft in a 50 million euro ($56 million) deal as the new flagship carrier seeks to build up a fleet ahead of its launch later this year, the ministry of tourism and air transportation said on Thursday.
Toulouse, France-based ATR, a partnership between Airbus and Italy&#8217;s Leonardo, will deliver the two turboprop planes in November, the ministry said.
Senegal Air was formed in April 2016 with 40 billion CFA francs ($68 million) in state capital to replace the now defunct, heavily indebted carrier Senegal Airlines.
Senegal is aiming to become a regional air transportation hub with the scheduled December opening of the new Blaise Diagne International Airport located outside the capital Dakar.
Senegal Air will initially fly to Senegalese and West African regional destinations before opening a Paris-Dakar route during the course of 2018.
Airlines have long been a fraught business in West Africa though there have been some success stories, including Ivory Coast&#8217;s Air Cote d&#8217;Ivoire.
Senegal revoked the air operator&#8217;s certificate of Senegal Airlines after it ran up debts of more than 100 billion CFA francs in less than five years of operation.
($1 = 0.8968 euros)
($1 = 587.6800 CFA francs)
(Reporting by Diadie Ba; Editing by Joe Bavier and David Evans)
&nbsp;

Senegal Air orders two ATR aircraft in 50 mln euro deal -ministry

Ori Lewis | JERUSALEM
Israel&#8217;s ambassador to Senegal will return to his post after he was recalled last year following Dakar&#8217;s support of a U.N. Security Council resolution against Israeli settlements.
The announcement was made after a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Senegal President Macky Sall on the sidelines of an Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) gathering in Liberia
Netanyahu addressed ECOWAS as a guest speaker on Sunday and met several African leaders, including Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, the president of Mali, a Muslim state with whom Israel has no diplomatic relations.
A statement from Netanyahu&#8217;s office said Senegal had agreed to support Israel&#8217;s candidacy to become an observer nation at the Organisation of African Unity.
The two states also agreed to resume joint projects and cooperation in security and agriculture, the statement added.
Senegal, New Zealand, Malaysia and Venezuela, sponsored last December&#8217;s Security Council resolution demanding Israel end its settlement activity on occupied territory which the Palestinians hope will be part of an eventual independent state.
Netanyahu recalled the envoys to Senegal and New Zealand, Israel has no diplomatic ties with Malaysia and Venezuela.
The resolution passed in the 15-member Security Council because the United States, under the administration of former president Barack Obama, broke with its long-standing approach of diplomatically shielding Israel and did not wield its veto power, instead abstaining.
(Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
&nbsp;

Israel and Senegal end diplomatic rift after leaders’ meeting

The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) launched the second generation of its country profiles at African Development Week. This year 21 reports were produced, on top of last year’s 20 reports, bringing the total to 41. The reports offer a snapshot of economic and social development in each of the countries profiled and provide recommendations to decision-makers from national and regional institutions to address the challenges they face.
Giovanie Biha, Deputy Executive Secretary for Knowledge Delivery, UNECA says: “The country profiles allow us to build a bridge between the work that we do on continental level, at a sub-regional and then at a country level. The focus of the analysis is on social and economic transformation.”
While acting as a diagnostic tool, the profiles provide a vehicle for the ECA to engage with member states on critical issues of economic development that drive structural transformation.
Overall, the ECA worked with the African Centre of Statistics, with specific contributions being provided by the Macroeconomic Policy Division, the Regional Integration and Trade Division as well as the Social Development and Policy Division. There was also close cooperation with the African Union Commission and the African Development Bank, on issue of continental integration.
The South African profile, for example, was completed with input from Statistics South Africa, the National Treasury and the South African Reserve Bank. For the Nigerian profile, a significant contribution was made by Joe Amoako-Tuffour, Senior Advisor and Director of Research at the African Centre for Economic Transformation. Data provided by the Bank of Central African States contributed to the profile on the Central African Republic.
Sources of data and statistics
“The sources of data and statistics used for all indicators are national, so that the ECA can work with them to identify gaps – whether they are systemic, institutional or infrastructural. This also gives the country involved the opportunity to own the narrative developed in the profile,” explains Biha. “The profiles also enable the ECA to evaluate a country’s commitment to integration and to assess the extent to which it meets its commitments.”
The core of the analysis in the country profiles is to look at policy challenges related to structural and economic transformation.
“The issue of structural and economic transformation is complex, difficult and long-term issue. A number of countries are really committed to long-term development and planning. There are very clear objectives for low income countries to become middle income countries,” Biha elaborates.
While a number of countries have achieved high growth rates, this was mainly through commodities, and the growth rates had no impact on inclusivity, or economic transformation and diversification.
The matter of demographic dividend was also widely discussed at the conference. “Across the countries that we have looked at, not many of them have crossed the path of demographic transition. I think there are only about three or four countries that can really talk about demographic transition,” Biha says.
Many voices bring change
Youth unemployment cuts across all 41 countries that were analysed for the profiles. “The issues are not new. What we are really pushing through this analysis is for the right policies and ensuring that there is a dialogue around those policies, and that those policies are being implemented. And that we are not the only voice. Many voices actually bring the change.”
Biha says the country profiles has strengthened the evidence-based policy engagement and dialogue between the ECA and its member states, and are “easy to read and accessible to a large group of ECA’s constituencies.”
The first set of 20 profiles were originally designed in 2015 in accordance with Resolution 917 of the Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (meeting in Abuja in 2014), with the aim to provide African decision-makers with an independent analysis of their countries’ economic and social development including the progress made to achieve regional integration.
Innovations in reporting
They include various innovations such as: the African Social Development Index (ASDI), which measures human exclusion in six key dimensions of wellbeing throughout the life cycle (survival, health, education, employment, means of subsistence and the capacity to live a decent life after the age of 60), the African Gender and Development Index (AGDI) and the African Regional Integration Index based on the five pillars of regional integration – trade integration, regional infrastructure, productive integration, free movement of people &amp; financial and macroeconomic integration.
The countries covered in the 2016 Country Profiles are Algeria, Angola, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Chad, Central African Republic, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria, Somalia, South Africa, Swaziland and Tunisia.
Angola needs economic diversification 
The overview in the report for Angola for example, explains that the pace of economic growth remained subdued in 2016, with a projected rate of 3.0 per cent as it was strongly affected by low oil prices in the world markets.
“Diversification of the economy is a crucial step to ensure sustainable growth,” the overview concludes. “The country’s efforts to bring structural transformation currently focus on modernizing and constructing infrastructure, spanning from transport networks, energy and water facilities to telecommunications. Ensuring sustainable funding, attracting investor and raising competitiveness are among the greatest challenges of the State. Simultaneously, guaranteeing positive social spill-overs should be another focus area of the policy makers.”
Mix of energy sources recommended for Nigeria
The profile on Nigeria places emphasis on the power crisis that has been plaguing the country for the past two decades, restraining structural transformation of the economy. It is crucial to scale up both public and private investment in the electricity sector.
This depends on strong input from the government, including a clear regulatory framework, investment in human capacity through the National Power Training Institute of Nigeria, and the development of public private partnerships.
The report recommends that Nigeria should reinforce its effort to establish a market-oriented policy aimed at promoting a secure, competitive and reasonably priced energy supply and policies that enhance the reliability and sustainability of the power system and encourage equipment and technology acquisition.
The country will also benefit from investment in a diversified mix of energy sources through incentive policies.
Major policy challenges for South Africa
South Africa faces high unemployment, and has to overcome the challenge of deep inequality to sustain socio-economic gains achieved since 1994. The richest 10 per cent of household controls over half of the national income.
The Gini coefficient shows inequality increased from 0.64 in 1995 to 0.69 in 2005 and then decreased again to 0.63 in 2011. The gender equality index was 0.461 in 2013 and the multidimensional poverty index was 0.041 in 2012 – one of the lowest in the sub region. The country ranks fourth in the sub-region in the human development index, falling in the medium human development category with a score of 0.658 in 2013 (UNDP, 2014).
Globally, South Africa was ranked 118th out of 187 countries in the same period. It is important for the country to strengthen its efforts at building social cohesion.

African Development Week: Country profiles to inform high level decision-making

A platform to promote inclusive markets on the continent was the topic of discussion at a side event at African Development Week. The African Inclusive Markets Excellence Centre (AIMEC) is set to become the premier pan-African regional platform for thought leadership and action on inclusive business and inclusive markets.
Inclusive business will improve the lives of millions of people in Africa and help to implement the provisions of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, said Anthony Mothae Maruping, Commissioner for Economic Affairs, ACU, as he introduced the session.
The Centre would promote growth by encouraging transformative inclusive regional value chains, which in turn would lead to income generation and poverty alleviation across the continent.
“The Centre will need active participation from established business. It will target clients in the public and private sectors, including SMMEs,” Maruping said. “It will need the efforts and support of all stakeholders.”
According to studies, economic inequality remains a big problem in Africa. Some African countries have a Gini coefficient of 65% compared to an average of 42% in other developing countries. (A Gini coefficient of zero expresses perfect equality, where for example, everyone has the same income. A coefficient of 1 – or 100% – expresses maximal inequality where only one person has all the income or consumption, and all others have none.)
The AIMEC centre will respond to that challenge.
Inclusive business includes the poor as clients and customers as well as employees, producers and business owners at various points in the value chain. Inclusive businesses build bridges between the established business sector and the poor, for mutual benefit.
“’During our research, we found that technology has supported inclusion in many ways. One of the big cases of inclusion in Africa is the mobile banking network M-Pesa in Kenya. They have 25 million Kenyans now who have access to finance through their cell phones,” says Tomas Sales, Special Advisor, Private Sector, Inclusive Growth, and Sustainable Development Cluster, UNDP Regional Service Centre for Africa.
“Picture that in other sectors. For instance, the government of Rwanda has supported a business which uses drones to give access to health care products in remote rural areas. So, inclusion can be promoted through technology. It is actually a powerful driver for it,” he says.
<h3>The heart of an NGO and the brain of business </h3>
Based in Senegal, Bonergie is a social business providing solar energy to people living in poverty. Its founder and Managing Director is Gabriele Schwarz. She says: “The inclusive market has a lot of potential for economic growth of African countries because we involve the bottom of the pyramid. We look at people we call poor as customers, as employees, as market players, and this is quite a new approach.”
“There are many opportunities for Africa to establish a wide range of inclusive businesses because the old structures like we have in Europe or the Western world are not so strong here, so here you could really start something new,” she continues.
Most such initiatives have taken place in English-speaking Africa in the areas of mobile banking, energy and agriculture. “I am sure there are many more examples which we don’t know of, that is why it is so interesting to be together and to have a platform and meeting and look at what is working and what is not. Because if you focus on things that are not working, you lose a lot of time, energy and also money. And that is why it is so important to replicate the things that are working,” Schwarz says.
She describes inclusive business as a mix of NGO and business, which is very attractive to young people who are trying to open new businesses because they’re looking for a meaningful way to do business. The collaboration it fosters is ideal to address issues like eliminating poverty.
<h3>Need for new funding infrastructure</h3>
Finding funding for inclusive business is difficult at the moment as it is a new sector. Traditional funders of NGOs don’t fund the private sector. Traditional investors don’t fund inclusive business because poor customers are not seen as bankable. “So, we really have to set up a new funding infrastructure as well, like impact investors,” says Schwarz. “Some people call this patient money. There are already some good initiatives on the market, and impact investing is also for the financial business a growing market.”
Nana Oumou Toure-Sy, Coordinator, UNDP Regional Service Centre for Africa, West &amp; Central Africa Sub-Regional Platform, describes AIMEC as a flagship for UNDP’s work in Africa. The UNDP’s 2013 report on inclusive business recommended the establishment of such a centre as it would support innovative private sector development.
Tomas explains: “One of the main ideas is to bring the different stakeholders together – big companies, small companies, government, academics, civil society – and the point is to review what is happening in the sector, what are the needs, what are the opportunities. Make no mistake, regulation and incentives are a critical part of this.”
Asked what the objective is at this stage, he replies: “Actually we came to Dakar to get an approval from the Ministers on the idea of the creation of the centre. As you know, the meetings couldn’t proceed as envisaged, I just talked to the African Union counterpart in they told us there is a plan to still organise the meeting somewhere in April. If that happens, we’re going to proceed with the original plan, which is: The centre is approved by the African ministers of economic development and finance, the heads of state approve and then we get into the process of identifying the host country and implementing it. We hope it can still be done this year because the needs are huge.”

Africa Development Week: AIMEC, a platform for inclusive business in Africa will address inequality

Dakar, Senegal &#8211; The fast rate at which Africa is urbanising– one of the fastest in the world – is giving African decision and policy makers an opportunity to rethink the path urbanization has so far trod on and chose one which will contribute to Africa achieving the continental targets for inclusive growth and transformation.
The Economic Report for Africa 2017, which was launched this weekend during the Africa Development Week – with the theme “Urbanization and Industrialization for Africa’sTransformation” – says that Africa has so far followed its own path of urbanization, which is weakly linked to structural transformation. This has resulted in the loss of many opportunities for enhanced growth and productivity, for poverty reduction and for social development.
“Urbanization in many African countries has not been driven by improving agricultural productivity,” says the Report. “Most countries are urbanizing rapidly amid declining or stagnant industrial output and low agricultural poverty.”
But with Africa now approaching 50% urbanization, governments at all levels have to make hard choices for the scale and type of investments they need to make, and for the spatial pattern and urban form they want to see, says the Report.
Governments are encouraged to take advantage of the changing patterns of urban consumption and rising demand for manufactured and processed goods to conceive and implement industrialization policies to cater for such needs. The largely unmet urban housing needs also provide an opportunity to improve living conditions and generate construction and service jobs.
The report argues that because of its multi-dimensional implications, urbanization should be anchored in national development plans that would harness it through a strategic cross-sectoral policy framework.
Governments also need to better manage urban form, improve public land management and the efficient functioning of property markets, streamline social housing programs, prioritize strategic infrastructure investments and place industry at the front rank for local economic development, says the Report.
It would also be important to back urbanization and industrialization policies by financing and institutional set ups that allow for coordinated implementation and budgetary support.
Capacity building should also be givenconsideration in urbanization and industrialization projects since the paucity of knowledge and evidence remains one of the biggest challenges in harmonizing urban and industrial development. “It is vital to develop tools to guide policy makers, planners and practitioners in formulating and implanting urban and industrial policies in a coordinated way, as they focus on national targets of growth and transformation,” concludes the Report.

African Development Week: Africa’s tough choices for urbanization

Dakar, Senegal,25 March 2017 (ECA) &#8211; The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) is revamping its fellowship programme to ensure it is relevant and makes sustained contributions to Africa’s transformation agenda.
The new look fellowship programme was unveiled during Africa Development Week in Dakar under the theme “Growth, inequality and unemployment”.
Capacity Development Division Director, Stephen Karingi, said the ECA fellowships are being re-aligned with the organization’s greater mandate of promoting the economic and social development of its 55 Member States, fostering intra-regional integration and promoting international cooperation for Africa’s development.
“In October 2012, ever changing the ECA embarked on a strategic retooling and reorientation process to ensure continuous relevance to the ever-changing dynamics of Africa’s development,” said Mr. Karingi. “We want the fellowship programme to continue to provide an avenue for knowledge sharing and provide opportunities for Africa’s youth so they can contribute to shaping policy on the continent even at a young age.”
The new fellowship framework fits into the four key areas identified by ECA as fundamental to ensuring regular, relevant and sustained contributions to Africa’s transformative agenda. These are: cutting edge policy research, knowledge delivery, dynamics for an integrated and coherent approach and aligning corporate incentives and support systems.
Mr. Karingi said the realignment of the current fellowship programme is meant to ensure a better fit within the new Capacity Development Strategy and to respond proactively to the capacity development needs of Member States.
This framework is developed and fits within the four key areas identified by ECA as fundamental to ensuring regular, relevant and sustained contributions to Africa’stransformative agenda. These are: cutting edge policy research, knowledge delivery, dynamics for an integrated and coherent approach and aligning corporate incentives and support systems.
The main objectives of the fellowships include supporting young African scholars acquire professional knowledge and operational experience as fellows and to apply this new and innovative knowledge to help Africa’s transformative agenda; to provide opportunity for young African scholars to gain exposure working in an international environment; and to build a community of experts in Africa that can serve as a resource for formulating, implementing and monitoring development activities at the national, sub-regional, regional and international levels.
A minimum of 40 fellows shall be recruited, trained and mentored annually by the ECA. At least six of the students will be ECA Prize Fellows, 30 ECA Regular Fellows, and the rest would be partner-sponsored fellows.
The ECA prize fellowship is a high-level fellowship programme that will be implemented in conjunction with African universities and institutions of higher learning on African issues both within and outside the continent.
Its aim is to provide recently graduated African youth, both on the continent and in the diaspora, who have excelled in their fields of study, an opportunity to experience and be part of policy and research work at a pan-African level.

ECA revamps fellowship programme targeting African students

Dakar, Senegal, 25 March 2017 – (ECA) – Africa’s health experts gathered in Dakar Saturday to discuss health financing and social protection to ensure there’s universal access to health on the continent amid worries that commitments by most governments and stakeholders on this issue were not being translated into action on the ground.
Speaking at the joint Economic Commission for Africa-World Health Organization event on health financing in Africa, the ECA’s Social Development Policy Division Director, Takyiwaa Manuh, said though African governments committed through the Abuja Declaration of 2001 and more recently the Tunis Declaration and others to put more money into health, many such commitments remain untranslated into concrete actions for reasons that range from inadequate resources to weak administrative and institutional mechanisms.
“In recent years, investment in health has been getting a raw deal in comparison to other sectors of the economy,” said Ms. Manuh, who spoke on behalf of ECA’s Deputy Executive Secretary Giovanne Biha.
“Member states are on average still far from meeting key health financial financing goals of allocating 15 percent of their national budgets towards health.”
By 2015, only Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Rwanda, Togo and Zambia had met the Abuja Declaration target.
Ms. Manu highlighted a number of innovative options she said could be explored by the continent to finance health in Africa.
First, she said, domestic resource mobilization for health financing was one of the most viable options, especially through strong institutions that collect and manage tax revenues.
Secondly, Ms. Manuh added, Africa should use economic rents from its rich natural resource endowments to finance its social development, including health, in a more transparent and sustainable manner, adding it was also important for the continent to harness remittances from the Diaspora into the health sector.
She said the introduction of health insurance and social insurance schemes and ensuring effective and efficient use of both public and private resources for the health sector was of paramount importance to the continent.
“Sustainable health financing will only be realized if there’s political will from all stakeholders to translate words into action,” said Ms. Manuh, adding the ECA remains committed to undertaking evidence-based research to generate robust recommendations to support policy formulation and implementation by member states on health financing.
“We are all accountable to our citizens and our citizens expect more from us so it cannot be business as usual. In this context, high-quality, timely and reliable data becomes extremely important to inform policy intervention in Africa.”
WHO Afro Regional Director, Matshidiso Moeti, said all efforts have to be taken to ensure health financing works for Africa.
“It is important for us to put more resources into the health sector because it is good for economic development and economic development is what we all want for the African continent and we feel that the health sector has more to contribute towards human capital which is so essential for countries to be successful in that regard,” said Ms. Moeti.
She said it has been a long time now since experts have been pleading with political leaders that people should not be dying needlessly due to preventable diseases and that health was a human right.
“Investing in health is a smart investment, we could save almost half of our GDP in future if we invest in health and if we look at how much we should invest it would be far less than what we will save in future or the trillions we will lose if we do not invest in health,” said Ms. Moeti.
She said Africans should also demand that their governments invest in health care.
Senegal’s Budget Minister, Birima Mangara, said his country was doing all it can to ensure it achieved universal health access, adding since 2012 the government has been putting more resources into health to avoid unnecessary loss of lives.
Senegal’s health minister Amarie Coll Seck gave an impassioned plea to health ministers and experts present, calling on the continent to have a holistic and sustainable human development approach ensuring greater budgetary allocations go to health.
“Our investments in the health sector have to be long term and critically there has to be accountability, leadership, and governance because they are critical is we are to achieve universal access,” said Ms. Coll Seck.
A technical report prepared by the ECA and the WHO was presented to the meeting with panel discussions delving into issues related to financing for health systems and programmes, epidemiology and the economic burden of disease in Africa and related issues.
The experts are expected to come up with recommendations of key actions related to health financing for ministers of finance in Africa.

Africa Development Week: ways to increase health budgets for universal access

Development of the youth, regional integration and industrialisation on the continent will be top of the agenda of African Development Week 2017, which kicks off in Dakar, Senegal today, 23 March. This is the 10th annual meetings hosted jointly by the African Union Specialised Technical Committee on Finance, Monetary Affairs, Economic Planning and Integration, and the Economic Commission for Africa Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development.
That’s quite a mouthful. But there will indeed be a lot to be discussed over this jammed-packed week, which will keep delegates on their toes during long sessions, which include the formal programme and interesting and important side events.
Dr. René Kouassi, Director for Economic Affairs, Commission for the African Union, welcomed the media and put them in the picture of the main issues and talking points of the week.
The theme for the meetings is Growth, Inequality and Unemployment. These are important areas of discussion for the continent, as growth has been weak, at a rate of only 0.5%. The drop in commodity prices has severely affected a continent reliant on its resources.
Through the commodity boom years, Africa did not invest in industrialisation, preferring to concentrate on the service industries and agriculture.
Dr. Kouassi is of the opinion that the continent is in need of radical solutions of its problems, including food, economic and financial insecurity.
Fifty-two years after independence, African economies remain dormant. This has caused a wave of migration, especially among the youth, who go in search of job opportunities outside of their home countries, many leaving the continent. And then there is the issue of the stateless, the people who have never been registered at citizens of any African country.
“We need radical transformation, otherwise the migration factor will continue to haunt Africa,” Dr. Kouassi said. “Only by integration, can the continent absorb and deal with the external shocks” it is facing today.
Also addressing the media, Dimitri Sanga, Director ECA Sub-Regional Office for West Africa, UN Economic Commission for Africa, said ordinary Africans are not being given the tools to generate enough income to support their families. Personal income can only be improved by countries putting a greater emphasis on processing and industrialisation, while not neglecting efficient utilisation of their natural resources.
The balance of trade for most African countries is in deficit as they import more than they export. Intra-African trade makes up less than 15% of the continent’s trade, and this trend needs to be reversed.
The conference and meeting of ministers will also discuss Sustainable Development Goals, which should be achieved not only by individual countries, but also by regional groupings, to make an impact on structural transformation.
Other hot topics are a single regional currency, diversification of economies and investment funding.
Currently, $50 billion leaves African countries annually through illicit flows of money out of the continent, offsetting the foreign direct investment that comes into the continent.
Said Sanga: “We must mobilise our domestic resources and stop the haemorrhage of local money.”
Watch CNBC Africa from today until Thursday next week for full coverage of Africa Development Week &#8211; in daily markets show interviews and five highlights specials.

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