AfCFTA poised to revive economies of landlocked developing countries, small island developing states

Addis Ababa, February 27, 2023 (FBC) – The fundamental role of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in overcoming the peculiar challenges faced by Africa’s Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) was highlighted today in Harare at a high-level event jointly organized by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS).

“When we talk LLDCs and SIDS in the context of the AfCFTA, we are talking about a total of 22 African countries, making up 40 percent of the entire AU membership today,” Coordinator of ECA’s African Trade Policy Centre (ATPC), Melaku Desta told more than 100 representatives of government, civil society as well as UN and African Union officials.

Melaku further underscored that LLDCs and SIDS can often be differentiated by the specific challenges they face, but are also confronted with many common challenges, particularly those related to the economic, social, and environmental factors that are global in scale.

“The Agreement Establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) promises to contribute towards addressing some of these challenges,” he underlined.

Melaku further stressed that all six of Africa’s SIDS and 15 of the 16 African LLDCs have ratified the AfCFTA, as a sign of their readiness to leverage the opportunities offered by the AfCFTA.

He went on to highlight that the priorities defined in both the Vienna Programme of Action (VPOA) for LLDCs and the SAMOA Pathway for SIDS share some of the same goals as the AfCFTA, including that of breaking down geographical, logistical, and regulatory barriers to trade and investment and enhancing productive capabilities.

On his part, Mr. Mamadou Biteye, Executive Secretary of the African Capacity Building Foundation, also emphasising the diversity of African LLCDs and SIDS, highlighted three key considerations that would require urgent attention, namely creating effective and strong institutions; change readiness, innovativeness and inventiveness as they offer LLDCs and SIDS a key solution to overcome their geographical vulnerabilities; and strengthening member countries education to develop their economies in order to benefit from the AfCFTA.

Over 100 participants including 30 online attended the two-day meeting, held in Zimbabwe under the theme “leveraging the AfCFTA towards addressing the peculiar trade and development challenges of Africa’s LLDCs and SIDS”, which took place in Harare, Zimbabwe on 27 and 28 February 2023, as per ECA.