The economic report Africa’s Development Dynamics 2021: Digital Transformation for Quality Jobs was jointly prepared by the African Union Commission (AUC) and the OECD Development Centre. It is published under the aegis of H.E. Moussa Faki Mahamat, President of the AUC, and H.E. Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD. It was guided by H.E. Victor Harison, Commissioner for Economic Affairs of the African Union, and Mario Pezzini, Director of the OECD Development Centre and Special Advisor to the OECD Secretary-General on Development. It was supervised by Jean-Denis Gabikini, Ag. Director of Economic Affairs, and Dossina Yeo, Head of Economic Policy and Research Division, Department for Economic Affairs of the AUC, along with Federico Bonaglia, Deputy-Director of the OECD Development Centre, and Arthur Minsat, Head of the OECD Development Centre’s Africa Unit and Senior Economist.
The drafting team of the AUC was led by Dossina Yeo, Head of Economic Policy and Research Division (Department for Economic Affairs) and Moctar Yedaly, Head of the Information Society Division (Department of Infrastructure and Energy), with Moses Bayingana, Senior Policy Officer for ICT, Ndinaye Sekwi Charumbira, Policy Officer, and Djeinaba Kane, Policy Officer, and with contributions from Rumbidzai Treddah Manhando, Mary Menta and Edwin Kofi Owusu-Ansah. The members of the team included Désiré Avom (University of Yaoundé II-Soa), Aram Belhadj (University of Carthage), Jude Eggoh (University of Abomey-Calavi), Kouadio Clément Kouakou (Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny), Winford H. Masanjala (University of Malawi) and Elijah Bitange Ndemo (University of Nairobi). The team at the OECD Development Centre, led by Arthur Minsat, Head of Africa Unit, with Bakary Traoré, Economist, included Devank Agarwal, Keiko Alvarez, Adrien Corneille, Ana Grozdev, Mariana Lopes, Sébastien Markley, Francesco Napolitano, Thắng Nguyễn-Quốc and Elisa Saint-Martin. Chapter 8 benefited from contributions from Joseph Stead, OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration.
The report drew from the kick-off meeting the AUC organised in Addis Ababa in February 2020 and from two peer review meetings the OECD Development Centre organised in April and May 2020 on the initial draft chapters. These peer review meetings took place digitally following measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The report also relied on the results of a joint AUC/OECD 2020 Expert Survey on Digitalisation in Africa. Respondents included African policy makers, recognised experts on digitalisation, and representatives of private companies working in Africa’s telecom and digital sectors.
The chapters benefited from comments from the following experts: Chiza Charles Newton Chiumya and Mahoule Balbine Kpako (AUC Department of Trade and Industry); Nicholas Ouma and Meshack Kinyua Ndiritu (AUC Department of Human Resources, Science and Technology); Barassou Diawara and Herbert Robinson (African Capacity Building Foundation [ACBF]); Christian de Boissieu and Jean-Hervé Lorenzi (Cercle des économistes); Unami Mpofu (African Union Development Agency [AUDA-NEPAD]); Benedict Musengele (COMESA); Charles Martin-Shields and Elvis Melia (DIE-GDI); Aime Uwase (EAC Secretariat); Gaëlle Doléans, Efrem Garlando, Nicoletta Kolovou, Pablo Molina Del Pozo and Ramon-Maria Reigada-Granda (European Commission); Joël Cariolle (FERDI); Hanae Bezad, James Cheryl, Dambisa Dube, Laura Erfen, Niklas Malchow, Ibraheem Sanusi and Honore Tshitenge (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit [GIZ]); Genaro Cruz and Max Cuvellier (GSMA); Mireille Razafindrakoto (IRD-DIAL); Karishma Banga (ODI); John Stuart (TRALAC); Zoubir Benhamouche and Andrew Mold (UNECA); Clémence Pougue Biyong (Université Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne); James MacGregor (University of Surrey); Souleymane Coulibaly (World Bank); Laurent Bossard (SWAC/OECD); and Rashad Abelson, Miriam Allam, Catherine Anderson, Stijn Broecke, Claire Charbit, Charlotte Denise-Adam, Ben Dickinson, Janos Ferencz, Michelle Harding, James Karanja, Iza Lajarraga, Martin Lestra, Dorothy Lovell, Sébastien Miroudot, Alistair Nolan, Luis Padilla, Dirk Pilat, Lorenzo Pavone, Jan Rielaender, Henri-Bernard Solignac-Lecomte and Martin Wermelinger (OECD). All chapters profited from an additional review by José Pineda (University of British Columbia). Julia Peppino (OECD) and Yamrot Kifle (AUC) gave valuable support to the research, production, logistics and administrative work on the report.
The report benefited from external consultations held in 2020 at the German Development Institute (DIE) in February; at the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and at the 2nd International Conference on the Economic Francophonie organised in Morocco by the University of Montreal’s Observatoire de la Francophonie Économique (OFE) in March; at the GIZ and at Drive Innovation Insights in May; at the OECD EMnet Working Group on Digitalisation, at the Resilient Africa Week 2020 organised by The African Catalyst and at the Experts’ Meeting on EU/AU Dialogue on Digitalisation co-organised by the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET), the German Development Institute (DIE) and the European Centre for Development Policy and Management (ECDPM) in June; at the Centre for Africa-China Studies (CACS) of the University of Johannesburg in July; and at a Friends of Europe webinar in September.
The involvement of the editing, translation and proofreading team was crucial to producing the report on time. It was edited by Sabine Cessou (for chapters drafted in French) and Jill Gaston (for chapters drafted in English), with inputs from Elizabeth Holbourne, and translated by Catherine Nallet-Lugaz and the OECD Translation Services. Delphine Grandrieux and Elizabeth Nash supervised the production with Marika Boiron, and JOUVE who were responsible for page layout. Aida Buendía created the graphic design and the cover, and Irit Perry developed the infographics.
The African Union and the OECD Development Centre are grateful to the ACBF and to the AUDA-NEPAD for their engagement in this report. The OECD Development Centre is grateful to the European Commission (DG DEVCO), Germany (BMZ/GIZ), Italy (Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation) and Portugal (Camões – Instituto da Cooperação e da Língua, I.P.) for their additional support to this third annual edition of Africa’s Development Dynamics.