The flagship economic report Africa’s Development Dynamics 2023: Investing in Sustainable Development (AfDD 2023) 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, AUC President, and H.E. Mathias Cormann, OECD Secretary-General. It was guided by H.E. Albert M. Muchanga, Commissioner for Economic Development, Trade, Tourism, Industry and Minerals of the African Union, and by Ragnheiður Elín Árnadóttir, Director of the OECD Development Centre. The report was supervised by Djamel Ghrib, Director, Department of Economic Development, Trade, Tourism, Industry and Minerals, and by Patrick Ndzana Olomo, Acting Head of the Economic Policy and Sustainable Development Division, Department of Economic Development, Trade, Tourism, Industry and Minerals, 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 consisted of Patrick Ndzana Olomo, Acting Head of the Economic Policy and Sustainable Development Division, Rumbidzai Treddah Manhando, Economist, Ndinaye Sekwi Charumbira, Policy Officer (Department of Economic Development, Trade, Tourism, Industry and Minerals), and Yeo Dossina, former Acting Director (Department for Economic Development, Integration and Trade). Regional experts who contributed to the report included Abiodun Egbetokun (De Montfort University and Nigeria’s National Centre for Technology Management), Kevin Ibeh (Birkbeck University, University of London), Nabil Jedlane (ENCG Tanger), Nicholas Ngepah (University of Johannesburg) and Bruno Emmanuel Ongo Nkoa (Université de Yaoundé II). The team at the OECD Development Centre, led by Arthur Minsat, Head of the Africa Unit, with Nicolas Friederici, Francesco Napolitano and Elisa Saint Martin, included Bakary Traoré, Keiko Álvarez, Niall Begley, Médina Issa, Sébastien Markley, Ignacio Moreno, Shodai Tonomoto and Anne Weaver. Julia Peppino, Anne-Marie Trang (OECD) and Yamrot Kifle (AUC) gave valuable support to the research, production, logistics and administrative work on the report.
Inputs and data were provided by the OECD Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs, the Network of Foundations Working for Development (netFWD), the International Energy Agency and the OECD Trade and Agriculture Directorate. Chapters 1 and 2 benefited from feedback from Mariya Aleksynska, Nelson Amaya, Pierre de Boisséson, Juan de Laiglesia, Håvard Halland, Alejandra Meneses, Bathylle Missika, Hyeshin Park, Lorenzo Pavone, Jan Rielaender, Henri-Bernard Solignac-Lecomte, Melanie Vilarasau Slade and Ayumi Yuasa (OECD Development Centre); Antonella Noya, Irene Basile and Chiara Petroli (OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities); Dirk Röttgers (OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration); Hélène François, Fatos Koc, Iris Mantovani, Catriona Marshall, Giulio Mazzone, Stephen Thomsen and Martin Wermelinger (OECD Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs); Yasmin Ahmad, Abdoulaye Fabregas, Ida McDonnell and Rachel Morris (OECD Development Co-operation Directorate); David Drysdale and Juliette Schleich (OECD Trade and Agriculture Directorate); Carlos Condé and Alin Horj (OECD Global Relations and Co-operation Directorate); Emma Gordon, Arnaud Rouget, Carlo Starace, Gianluca Tonolo and Daniel Wetzel (International Energy Agency); and Johannes Jütting (PARIS21).
A survey and interviews with private investors supported the original analysis in Chapters 1 and 2. Several African business councils and the EU-Africa Business Forum supported the dissemination of the AUC-OECD Development Centre investor survey from June to October 2022. Interviews, facilitated with support from the staff of the OECD Emerging Markets Network (EMnet), were conducted with representatives of the AeTrade Group, the African Association of Automotive Manufacturers (AAAM), American Tower, AT&T, Enel Green Power, Eni, Huawei and Mastercard.
The report drew from the following consultations held in 2022 and 2023: the kick-off meeting (March 2022); the high-level consultation event “Mobilizing Investment for Productive Transformation and Quality Jobs” in the framework of Senegal’s chairmanship of the African Union in 2022 (May); the joint AUC-DEV high-level working lunch “Strengthening Africa’s Regional Production Networks” in the framework of the 21st International Economic Forum on Africa and the OECD Ministerial Meeting 2022 (June); the joint AUC-DEV high-level policy discussion “Enhancing Cross-border Digital Payment Systems for Africa’s Regional Trade and Integration” (June 2022); the AUC-OECD Development Centre regional kick-off meeting; the 5th AU Specialized Technical Committee on Finance, Monetary Affairs, Economic Planning and Integration on the theme “Improving Africa’s Access to Capital: Debt Management and the Rising Influence of Credit Rating Agencies” (July 2022); the meeting on AfDD 2023 at the Camões Institute; the AfDD 2023 peer review meeting (December 2022); the “AU-OECD/DEV High-level Dialogue on the AfDD 2023 Report” organised back to back with the 36th African Union Summit (February 2023); and the OECD Development Centre Governing Board meeting (April 2023).
Substantive contributions from Anzetse Were (FSD Kenya); Katharina Gugerell, Melinda Kunde and Stefan Weyler (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit [GIZ]); Jeremy Hajdenberg and Samuel Monteiro (Investisseurs & Partenaires), and Rana Roy (consultant) are gratefully acknowledged. The chapters benefited from comments and inputs from the following experts: Barassou Diawara (African Capacity Building Foundation [ACBF]); Ed Brown, Rob Floyd and Charles Odoom (African Center for Economic Transformation [ACET]); Julius Chupezi Tieguhong (African Development Bank [AfDB]); Adenle Ademola (Africa Sustainability Innovation Academy [ASI-Academy]); Eoghan Molloy (Asian Development Bank); Michel Rougeron and Françoise van de Ven (ATIBT); Pamla Gopaul (African Union Development Agency [AUDA-NEPAD]); Jeanne Lätt and Karen Pfundt (Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung [BMZ]); Margarida Araújo, Paula Machado and Filipa Sousa (Camões – Instituto da Cooperação e da Língua, I.P.); Richard Eba’a Atyi (Center for International Forestry Research [CIFOR]); Charles Muchunku (consultant); Robert Zougmoré (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research [CGIAR]); San Bilal and Bruce Byiers (ECDPM); Koffi Simeon (ECOWAS); Colin Bermingham (EIB); Geoffrey Aori Mabea (Energy Regulators Association of East Africa); Anna Hakami, Claire Hunault, Isabelle Magne and Domenico Rosa (European Commission); Kieu Ly Doan and Lisa Roob (GIZ); Matthias Hahl and Tim Heinemann (KfW); Thắng Nguyễn-Quốc (Oxford Economics Asia), Gonçalo Silva Marques (Permanent Delegation of Portugal to the OECD); Giovanni Valensisi (UNCTAD); Rodrigo Deiana (UN DESA); Zoubir Benhamouche, Adam Elhiraika, Sonia Essobmadje, Robert Lisinge and Sheng Zhao (UNECA); Barbara Boreta and Natasha Weisert (UNIDO); Leila Baghdadi (University of Tunis); Andrew Lawrence (University of the Witwatersrand) and Adeel Abbas Syed (World Bank).
The report benefited from external consultations held in 2022 and 2023 at the following meetings: AFD, “L’économie africaine 2022 : vers une relance durable ?”; AUC/UNIDO, “Towards a Commodity-based Greener Industrialization under the AfCFTA” (February 2022); Cameroon’s African & Foreign Investment B2B senior management seminar (March 2022); the AUC Fridays of the Commission “Key Actions to Drive Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Development in African Countries” (April 2022); Le Cercle des Économistes, “L’Afrique : partenaire leader” (May 2022); the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa Regional workshop “Scaling-up Private Sector Participation in North Africa” (July 2022); the AUDA-NEPAD/OECD-DEV High-level Dialogue on Rethinking Development Co-operation at the United Nations General Assembly (September 2022); Innodays: International Conference for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (November 2022); the OECD EMnet’s Annual Meeting “Navigating Risk in Emerging Markets: From Crisis to Opportunity?” (December 2022); the African Sports and Creative Institute Business Breakfast “Investing in Africa Sports Industry” (January 2023).
The involvement of the editing, translation and proofreading team was crucial to producing the report on time. The report was edited by Isabelle Delpech (for chapters drafted in French) and Jill Gaston (for chapters drafted in English) and translated by Marika Boiron and the OECD Translation Services. Delphine Grandrieux and Elizabeth Nash supervised the production, and Luminess was responsible for page layout. Aida Buendía and Melodie Descours created the graphic design and the cover, and Irit Perry developed the infographics.
The OECD Development Centre is grateful to the European Commission (DG INTPA), Germany (BMZ/GIZ), Italy (Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation) and Portugal (Camões – Instituto da Cooperação e da Língua, I.P., and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) for their additional support and valuable feedback on this fifth annual edition of Africa’s Development Dynamics.