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Description
Background
Following similar
meetings in Latin America and Asia, under the aegis of the joint UNCTAD/UNDP
Programme on Globalisation, Liberalisation and Sustainable Human Development,
ICTSD convened its African policy dialogue in Windhoek, Namibia, from 10-12 May,
2000. The participants, included high-level government officials, and
representatives of academia, civil society and the private sector.
Programme
Overview
The
ICTSD African Policy Dialogue explored the effects that several topical aspects
of globalisation are likely to have on sustainable human development in Africa,
including foreign direct investment, regional integration, special and
differential treatment in the multilateral trading system, and export-led
growth. Of particular importance to African societies today is the changing
pattern of FDI in Africa, shifting as it is from natural resources to the
servicing and manufacturing sectors, opening up new possibilities but also
raising new concerns. Regional integration is expected to experience a further
boom as African countries prepare for the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs)
that are slated to gradually replace the Lomé Convention between the European
Union and ACP countries after 2008. The EPAs will eventually lead to reciprocal
trade concessions between the EU and African countries instead of the market
access preferences the EU has unilaterally offered under the Lomé Convention.
African economies also need to assess how the WTO’s special and
differential treatment provisions can assist their sustainable human development
goals, including through attracting larger foreign direct investment flows. The
participants in the ICTSD African Policy Dialogue looked at the scope special
and differential treatment could offer to infant industry protection and trade
restrictions imposed for balance of payment reasons. While some African
countries, such as Senegal and Mauritius, have succesfully established and
exploited export-processing zones, a roundtable session examined the linkages
between export-led growth, human capital development and female employment, as
well as potential inconsistencies with the WTO’s Agreement on Subsidies and
Countervailing Measures.
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