Description: Port of Rabat in Morocco. The AfCFTA agreement is expected to easily boost intra- African trade from an existing level from approximately 13 per cent to 25 per cent or more during the next decade. Photo © Shutterstock Image: Description: AfCFTA Business Forum, Kigali, 20 March 2018. Photo © ECA Image: Description: ECA Trade promotion conference held in Addis Ababa in 1972. Photo © UNECA Image: Description: The Africa Trade Forum 2018, held in Lagos, Nigeria on 2 and 3 November 2018, under the theme “The AfCFTA [African Continental Free Trade Area] ratification and implementation: A game changer for African Economies”. Photo © ECA Image: Description: Assessing Regional Integration in Africa (ARIA) VII publication launch at the 2016 Conference of Ministers Image: Description: ECA has intensified its work by providing advocacy and technical assistance for more African countries to sign the AfCFTA agreement, ratify and implement it. Photo © ECA Image: Description: Port of Mombasa, Kenya. The country is one of the 49 African countries that have signed the Agreement establishing the AfCFTA. 12 countries have so far ratified it with 10 more expected to ratify it for the agreement to come into force. Photo © Shutterstock. Image: Description: High-level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows. Shown from right to left: Former Deputy Executive Secretary of ECA, Abdalla Hamdok; former President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki; and other delegates Image: Description: The 2014 Africa Development Forum (ADF-IX) Plenary session 4 on illicit financial flows. ECA groundbreaking research work on illicit financial flows methodology on trade mis-invoicing, which inspired similar estimates by Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean(ECLAC), Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific(ESCAP) and Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). Photo © ECA Image: Description: Press conference at the closing of the 2016 Conference of Minister, Addis Ababa, 5 April 2016. A resolution was passed at the Conference, following a request by Member States to have an integrated planning and reporting tool for the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063. Photo © ECA Image: Description: Screen shot of the SDG 2030 and AU 2063 Agendas harmonization tool. Image: Description: ECA has placed particular emphasis on the importance of industrialization in advancing structural transformation and inclusive growth in Africa through the various policy options presented in the African Union Commission and ECA Economic Reports on Africa from 2013 to 2017, giving traction to the issue in the development policy discourse. Image: Description: Launch of the Economic Report on Africa 2017 report in Dakar, Senegal on 26 March 2017. The report contains an examination of how the continent can accelerate industrialization as a vehicle for Africa’s structural transformation by harnessing opportunities arising from rapid urbanization. Photo courtesy Image: Description: Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon (third from left) speaking at the opening session of the Third Forum on Financing for Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development, held in Addis Ababa, 14 July 2015. Pictured from left: ECA Executive Secretary, Carlos Lopes; Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma; Director-General, United Nations Industrial Development Organization, Li Yong and Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Hailemariam Dessalegn. Photo © UN Image: Description: Textile factory in South Africa. During a good part of the current decade, industrialization has gained traction as exemplified by Sustainable Development Goal 9 on industry, innovation and infrastructure and ECA advocacy has been the bedrock on which major infrastructure developments in Africa are anchored, as well as the African Continental Free Trade Area-driven trade agenda. Photo © Shutterstock Image: Description: Private Equity panel discussion at the ninth African Development Forum (IX) in Marrakech, Morocco, 14 October 2014. Photo © ECA Image: Description: In the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), ECA has been working with MiDA and a regional mortgage refinance fund (CaisseRegionale de Refinancement Hypothecaire - CRRH) to promote the right for more people to have access to affordable housing in the subregion. Photo COURTESY. Image: Description: Opening of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD3) on 13 July 2015 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia., which was attended by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Hailemariam Dessalegn and ECA Executive Secretary Carlos Lopes. Photo © UNECA Image: Description: The private sector contributes the largest part of Africa’s economic growth. It generates an estimated 70 per cent of Africa’s output, approximately two-thirds of its investment and 90 per cent of employment on the continent. Photo courtesy Image: Description: Former ECA Executive Secretary, Carlos Lopes (left) and Executive Secretary, Vera Songwe at the Conference on Digital Trade in Africa in Addis Ababa, 31 May–1 June 2018. The work of ECA in promoting the development of the sector in Africa and leveraging innovative sources of financing the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063 gained momentum in 2018. Photo © ECA Image: Description: Panel discussion on the theme “Private-sector perspectives”, 09 May 2012, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Photo ©ECA Image: Description: The newly appointed ministers of Ethiopia taking their oath in October 2018, after the 50-50 cabinet reshuffle that ensured 50 per cent men and 50 per cent women in the cabinet. Photo Credit: Pual, Schemm Image: Description: REDUCING THE GENDER GAP: Former President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, addressing the High-level Thematic Debate on Advancing Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women in the post-2015 Development Agenda on 6 March 2015. ECA developed the African Gender Development Index (AGDI), a tool that supports the Commission’s member States to measure the gap in the relative status of African men and women, and to assess progress made in implementing government policies to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. Image: Description: The election of the first female president in Ethiopia, Sahle-Work Zewde, has been enthusiastically greeted in Ethiopia and beyond, raising hopes among advocates for gender equality. Photo © ECA Image: Description: Former ECA staff, Meaza Ashenafi (centre), the first female president of the Supreme Court in Ethiopia, together with former colleagues, Konjit Digaf and Mulutsega Legesse during the “ECA at 60 celebrations” on 17 December 2018. Photo © UNECA Image: Description: Gender parity at ECA - ECA female staff members at the 60th Celebrations on the 17 December 2018 Image: Description: Participants at the Business for Africa and the World summit, Africa 2018 at Sharm-El-Sheik, Egypt. The first day focused on the theme “Women Empowering Africa. Photo courtesy Image: Description: Vice-President of the Gambia, Isatou NjieSaidy (left), addressing a press conference on the need for a gender perspective in dealing with the economic, food and climate change crises in Africa. Others who participated in the press conference were Chief of ECA Information and Communication Section, Myriam Dessables, the Director of Women, Gender and Development at the African Union Commission, LithaMusyimi-Ogana; and Houda Mejri (right) of the African Centre for Gender and Social Development, Economic Commission for Africa. The press conference was held at the United Nations Headquarters on4 Ma Image: Description: An elderly woman from a Herero village in Aminuis, Namibia on 1 April 1992. For a long time, Africa’s development dynamics have been skewed with differences in age, gender, ethnicity and income thereby excluding large segments of the continent’s population from development processes. Photo © United Nations. Image: Description: Launch of an innovative tool, the African Social Development Index (ASDI), at the African Development Forum in Marrakech, Morocco,12–16 October 2014. It was developed by the Social Development Policy Division of the Economic Commission for Africa in response to the call from African Member States for an African-specific indicator of exclusion. Photo © ECA Image: