UN looks to post-Covid-19 recovery plan for north Africa
The UN Economic Commission for Africa has painted a bleak picture for the subregion.
CAPE TOWN, November 17 (ANA) – The UN Economic Commission for Africa organised the 35th meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee of Senior Officials and Experts (ICSOE) for north Africa on Tuesday to discuss a post-Covid-19 recovery plan for the region.
This year’s theme was “Recovering from Covid-19: Policies and Strategies for North Africa”. The meeting was held virtually due to coronavirus restrictions.
According to Khaled Hussein, interim director at the ECA Office for North Africa, the ICSOE is a yearly meeting held with member countries’ representatives, academics and experts to take stock of the work the organisation has carried out in support of the subregion, as well as to agree on the office’s strategic orientations for the year ahead.
The meeting also allows the participants to analyse the impact of Covid-19, which has infected just over 650,000 people in north Africa.
Hussein said they expected 2021 to be another difficult year for north African economies and a vital turning point for various sectors to reorient their approaches.
According to the ECA, the subregion suffers from one of the biggest economic shocks in its modern history, with experts fearing major and long-lasting socio-economic repercussions for its member countries and a slow recovery starting from 2021.
Meanwhile, UN forecasts expect the global economy to shrink by –3.2% in 2020, with a mere 0.3% GDP growth in north Africa in the best-case scenario and a –5.4% drop in the worst-case scenario.
The ECA explained that prior to the pandemic, north Africa had achieved some growth, but this was marred by insufficient structural transformation, low productivity growth, participation in lower value-added links of global value chains and high unemployment rates, especially among the youth.
Not forgetting the political instability in both Libya and Sudan, which has driven many refugees out of their home countries in the hopes of reaching Europe to begin a new life.
– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Yaron Blecher
