African Economic Conference 2014

The ninth edition of the African Economic Conference (AEC 2014) will be held in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire from 1-3 November on the theme, "Knowledge and Innovation for Africa's Transformation".

This year's conference will offer a unique avenue for researchers, policymakers and development practitioners from Africa, and elsewhere, to debate Africa’s soft infrastructure needs and their catalytic impact on speed and scope of economic transformation and inclusive growth. In the light of Africa’s search for economic transformation and its current skills and technology deficit in the face of knowledge-intensive and innovation-driven global competition, Africa needs to urgently devise strategies to capitalize on its youth bulge to drive technological innovation, skills development and the search for new sources of comparative advantage. 

The conference will reflect on the critical barriers to be overcome and seek to capture the lessons to be learnt from various experiences on the continent to guide the development of appropriate policy responses and investment frameworks (public and private). In addition, critical regional dimensions will be examined.

AEC is an annual conference targeted at researchers. It is organized jointly by the African Development Bank, the Economic Commission for Africa and the United Nations Development Program. 

Objectives:

The key objectives of the African Economic Conference series are to:

-     promote knowledge management as an important driver of policy dialogue, good policy planning and implementation;

-     foster dialogue that promotes the exchange of ideas and innovative thinking among researchers, development practitioners and African policymakers;

-     encourage and enhance research on economic and policy issues related to the development of African economies;

-     provide an opportunity for young African researchers, Africans in the Diaspora, regional and sub-regional organizations to disseminate their research findings as well as share information with African policymakers on the work they do in the region

-     AEC 2014 will explore Africa’s existing skills, technology and innovation capacities against the needs required to realise Africa’s transformation agenda and debate practical policies and strategies that can rapidly eliminate existing deficits and grow capacities across all sectors of the economy. The Conference will comprise a number of plenary and break-out sessions that will feature presentations and discussions by prominent academics, policy makers, business actors and opinion leaders, as well as representatives from development partner organisations.

Call for Papers: Click here for the Call for Papers