The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) launched today in Dakar the second generation of its country profiles, on the margins of the African Development Week (Dakar, 23 – 28 March 2017). These reports, which offer a snapshot of economic and social development in African countries, identify policy challenges and provide recommendations to decision-makers, national and regional institutions to address those challenges, this year cover 21 countries.
“The 1st generation of country profiles has strengthened our evidence based policy engagement and dialogue with ECA’s members States. Based on data generated by national institutions, they address critical issues at the core of countries economic and social transformation strategies said Giovani Biha, ECA Deputy Executive Secretary for Knowledge Delivery . “They are easy to read and accessible to a large group of ECA’s constituencies. This second generation of country profiles builds on the success of the 2015 country profiles.”
The ECA Country Profiles were originally designed in 2015 in accordance with Resolution 917 of the Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (Abuja, 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.
The country profiles are based on data provided by member States and they complement ongoing ECA efforts to improve the collection and use of statistical data in Africa.
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 AGDI (African Gender and Development Index) and the African Regional Integration Index, based on the five pillars of regional integration (trade integration, regional infrastructure, productive integration, free movement of people & 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.
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For more information about the ECA country profiles, please visit: http://www.uneca.org/publications/country-profiles .
