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Addressing Gaps and Challenges in Africa’s Middle-Income Countries
November 28, 2023 @ 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
ECA Sub-regional Office for North Africa will organize, in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Morocco), a webinar on “Addressing Gaps and Challenges in Africa’s Middle-Income Countries”.
Objectives of the webinar
Large public debt burdens in Africa’s MICs need to be addressed for countries to have adequate funds for investment in human and physical capita and reach SDGs. The webinar will focus on two distinct but interconnected areas: (i) strengthening human capital and (ii) addressing the debt burdens. The webinar will be an opportunity for policymakers, practitioners, and academics to exchange experiences, views and shed light on the following questions:
On the 1st topic, strengthening human capital, the discussion will center on:
- The shortage of human capital is one of the main determinants of the middle-income trap. What enhancements to human capital African countries need to support developments of new sectors that are key for sustainable structural transformation?
- What job opportunities do African economies need to create to match the educational attainment of the labor force and prevent brain drain (and loss of human capital)?
- How are countries’ educational systems adapting to 4th Industrial Revolution to ensure that the workforce has adequate skills to tap into the opportunities the 4IR brings? What are the best practices on the continent and in other regions?
- How can the digital skills gap be measured and addressed?
On the 2nd topic, addressing the debt burdens, the discussion will center on:
- Amid enormous public debts globally, how should limited concessional finance be allocated across the spectrum of developing countries, including MICs? How should the debt burdens of African MICs be addressed, and the looming debt crises avoided?
- According to the IMF forecasts, for MICs the outlook for per income per capita growth has dimmed, implying that growing out of debt will be increasingly challenging. How can policymakers support inclusive and sustainable growth?
- How should the G20 Common Framework be restructured to become more common, less political and more rule-based and encompass needs of MICs? What other debt relief initiatives are needed?
- How can regional partnerships between African MICs and international partners help alleviate liquidity constraints and reduce public debt burdens?
Date & Time: November 28, 2023 at 2:00 pm (UTC+1)
Format: Online (Zoom)
Interpretation: Arabic, French and English
This webinar will be live streamed on: 
Speakers
Antonio Pedro, Deputy Executive Secretary for Programme Support at the ECA. He has been a mineral exploration geologist with more than 40 years’ experience, involved in the promotion of regional integration and cooperation on the continent since 1984. He was Managing Director of several companies in Mozambique and Deputy National Director of the country’s Geological Survey. Pedro was the Director of ECA’s Sub-regional Office for Central Africa
Zuzana Brixiova Schwidrowski, is Director of the ECA Office for North Africa. Her previous experience includes VP & Senior Analyst covering Southern Africa sovereigns and several African MDBs at Moody’s Investors Service, Lead Advisor to the Chief Economist & Vice President at the AfDB and IMF Resident Representative in Belarus and Lithuania. She was Adjunct Professor at the University of Cape Town and Fulbright Scholar at the Addis Ababa University.
Martin Kessler, Executive Director of the Finance for Development Lab FLD. He was previously an economist at the OECD Development Cooperation Directorate where he focused on development finance trends in developing countries, and especially debt risks
Rabah Arezki, Director of research at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the Center for Studies and Research on International Development (CERDI) and lecturer at the FERDI Foundation and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He was previously Chief Economist and Vice President of the AfDB and Chief Economist specializing in MENA region at World the Bank WBG
Mohamed El Moctar Mohamed El Hacene, Head of the UN ESCWA Shared Economic Prosperity Cluster. El Hacene has high-level experience in economic development and institutional development, capacity building, regional cooperation and conflict resolution. A former Mauritania minister of Petroleum and Mines, El Hacene has worked for the UN, the World Bank and AfDB
Anthony Simpasa, is Manager, Macroeconomic Policy, Debt Sustainability and Forecasting Division in the Macroeconomic Policy, Forecasting and Research Department of the African Development Bank. Until recently, he was Lead Economist for Nigeria. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Cape Town, South Africa
Audrey Verdier-Chouchane, is Lead Economist for the North Africa region and Acting Division Manager for Central North and West Africa in the Country Economics Department of the AfDB. She gathers more than 20 years of experience in Development Economics, first in academia as an Assistant Professor then as a Chief Research Economist in the Macroeconomic, Forecasting and Research Department. Audrey Verdier-Chouchane holds a Ph.D. in Economics
Adnan Mazarei, Senior Non-Resident Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics PIIE where his work is mainly focused on major economies of the Middle East and Central Asia and the long-term financial and macroeconomic challenges they face. Former deputy director of IMF’s Middle East and Central Asia Department, he contributed to the IMF’s policy work on international financial architecture and sovereign debt issues
Amal Nagah Elbeshbishi, is working as an Economist for the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa – Office for North Africa, Morocco. She is also a tenured Professor of Economics at Faculty of Commerce- Mansoura University, Egypt (on national assignment).
Amandine Nakumuryango, is working as an Economist for the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa – Office for North Africa, Morocco
