2024 AfIGF Overview
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ECA
Digital identity use case for Kaduna State pensioners: Case study
Africa has the largest number of people living without any form of identity document, numbering 470 million in total. These people lack access to vital services, including health care, social protection, education, and finance. Closing the global identity gap requires a coordinated effort and tried and tested interventions aimed at accelerating progress towards target 16.9 of the Sustainable Development Goals: “By 2030, provide legal identity for all, including birth registration”, and in line with indicator 17.19.2, which gives increased impetus for improving civil registration and vital statistics systems. The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has been working in close collaboration with the Kaduna State government, the Kaduna State Residents Identity Management Agency, and the Kaduna State Pension Bureau on the conduct of a digital identity use case, with a view to simplifying and digitalizing the process of establishing and verifying the identity of pensioners. ECA developed an application for the Pension Bureau to replace the physical verification exercise that the 16,651 State and local government pensioners had to undertake every 90 days. The Kaduna State Pension Bureau use case is one of the Centre’s signature projects in advancing the adoption of digital identity systems in Africa. The Kaduna State government requested the support of the ECA Digital Centre of Excellence to assist with the scoping, preparation and launch of a digital identity and electronic civil registration and vital statistics use case solution. The objective of the assessment was to enhance and demonstrate inclusiveness, to facilitate the development of a digital economy, consistent with and reflecting best practices, and to use the insights and learning from the pilot to develop a policy for the leveraging of digital identity in all aspects of governance in Kaduna State.
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2024 Africa Sustainable Development Report
Reinforcing the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063 and Eradicating Poverty in Times of Multiple Crises: The Effective Delivery of Sustainable, Resilient and Innovative Solutions.
The 2024 Africa Sustainable Development Report (ASDR) reviews the status of the implementation of the two Agendas in Africa and offers policy recommendations to facilitate their attainment. As in previous years, the 2024 report aligns with the theme and corresponding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the high-level political forum on sustainable development (HLPF) selected for any particular year. In this context, the SDGs under review by the 2024 HLPF focus on ending poverty (Goal 1); eliminating hunger (Goal 2); combating climate change (Goal 13); promoting peaceful societies (Goal 16) and strengthening global partnerships (Goal 17). Each SDG is analysed in relation to the corresponding goal of the African Union Agenda 2063.
The findings of the report highlight the need for Africa to accelerate progress on SDGs 1, 2 and 17, reverse the negative trend on climate action (Goal 13) and strengthen statistical systems to track performance particularly on good governance (SDG 16), where data limitations abound and inhibit performance tracking. For Africa, less than six percent of the 32 measurable SDG targets are on track to be achieved by 2030. Of the remaining measurable targets, 21 need achieving in the region and the negative trends for 8 need to be reversed. Overall, data gaps prevent a full picture of the continent’s performance.
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Digital trade regulatory review for Asia-Pacific, Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean 2024
The 2024 edition of the Digital Trade Regulatory Review is a joint report by the three United Nations Regional Commissions (UNRCs) for Asia-Pacific, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean under the ESCAP-ECA-ECLAC Digital Trade Regulatory Integration Initiative. The report provides a preliminary step towards deepening the understanding of the digital trade policy environment within and between these three regions. It presents an overview of the digital trade policy landscape of 102 economies, based on data as of 2023. The data collection and analysis are based on the ESCAP-ECA-ECLAC common framework of the Regional Digital Trade Integration Index (RDTII) 2nd edition (RDTII 2.0)*. The report also proposes recommendations for enhancing digital trade integration within and between the three regions.
*Please see the RDTII Version 2.0: A Guide for information about analytical methodology behind the analysis in this report.
Role of technology incubators in the development of micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises in selected Southern African countries
Micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises are the backbone of economies, in particular in the developing world. They account for over 80 per cent of jobs in Africa, although most are predominantly micro, informal, low value added and needs-driven businesses. As such, they need to be supported in order to develop and be sustainable. Their growth and sustainability are essential for the economic development and growth of the continent’s economies. If these enterprises were more opportunity driven, more innovation focused and higher growth, they would have a significant impact on and would contribute to economic development. Micro-, small and medium sized enterprises face several challenges, including a shortage of business and technical skills, limited access to finance and technology, a lack of market knowledge and regulatory hurdles. Incubators are essential interventions to help such enterprises navigate through these challenges. Incubators take various forms and offer a variety of services, which include the provision of office or laboratory space or a mixture of dedicated services, such as: intellectual property advice; training on implementation modalities for innovative projects; business model concept testing and product insight testing; access to research and development through their proximity to universities and research institutions; prototyping and piloting facilities; access to financing and, in some cases, seed financing provided by the incubators themselves; mentorship and coaching; networking; and industry linkages.
Policy position paper towards a digital economy policy framework for Africa: policy paper
The definition of the digital economy for Africa is the subject of continuing debate, and there is a desire to have indicators that will ensure the alignment and comparability of the definition with that of other regions. With such indicators, it will be possible to collect data and then to compare the progress within Africa, its subregions, and its countries, which will provide clarity on which intervention measures are needed. In the present paper, a definition of the digital economy has been adopted that is broken down into three tiers: core (digital sector and associated technologies), narrow scope (digital services and the platform-based economy) and broad scope (all digitalized sectors), as inspired by the work of Bukht and Heeks (2017) and adopted by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in its reports on the digital economy (UNCTAD, 2019). In addition to digital infrastructure, the data flows across the region that would facilitate the development of the digital economy are nascent. Important elements to be addressed include the security of the data, the framework for their protection and the digital identities of users. The African Union has endorsed policy frameworks, but they have yet to be implemented. In 2014, African Governments acceded to the African Union Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection (Malabo Convention), but it still has not come into force, denying Africa the opportunity to benefit from a framework for the secure cross-border data flows that are critical for trade.
Economic Report on Africa 2024
Amid the fragmented and conflict-prone world, Africa faces many economic, social, and environmental challenges. They are unprecedented in scale, complexity, and interconnectedness, and they impede Africa’s attaining the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the African Union’s Agenda 2063. These global challenges render business-as-usual strategies unsustainable. A new approach is required to accelerate wealth creation, reduce inequality, and achieve more equitable and sustainable development.
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