The document discusses the OECD's work with Africa to support its development. It notes that while Africa has made progress in recent years, it still faces major challenges like poverty and food insecurity. The OECD aims to intensify its partnership with African countries by sharing expertise in areas such as governance, investment, trade, and climate change to help accelerate Africa's development and achievement of UN Millennium Development Goals. Progress has been made but more efforts are still needed if Africa is to meet all of the goals by the 2015 target date.

1. Active with

2. OECD Active with Africa
CONTENTS
FOREWORD
OVERVIEW
• Africa has made enormous progress but faces major challenges
• An intensified partnership between the OECD and Africa
• Addressing new challenges and opportunities in the Middle East and North Africa

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1 SUSTAINABLE GROWTH
1.1 Investment 12
1.2 Trade 14
1.3 Agriculture and Food Security 15
1.4 Competition 16
1.5 Innovation and ICT 17
1.6 Green Growth 19
2 PUBLIC FINANCE
2.1 Tax 20
2.2 Financial Education 21
2.3 Budgeting and Public Expenditures 21
2.4 Public Debt Management 22
3 GOVERNANCE
3.1 Fighting Corruption 24
3.2 Public Governance and Regional Development 26
3.3 Business Integrity in the Extractive Sector 28
3.4 Corporate Governance 29
4 SOCIETY
4.1 Labour Markets 30
4.2 Education and Training 31
4.3 Health 32
4.4 Migration 32
4.5 Income Distribution and Poverty Reduction 34
4.6 Internet Economy 35
4.7 Child labour 35
5 CLIMATE CHANGE
5.1 Climate Change 36
5.2 Other Environmental Issues 38
6 SURVEYS AND STATISTICS
6.1 Economic Surveys 40
6.2 Statistics 42
7 DEVELOPMENT CO-OPERATION
7.1 Monitoring Aid Flows to Africa 43
7.2 Mutual Accountability 43
7.3 Improving Development Effectiveness 44
7.4 Developing Policy Frameworks 45
Annex 1: Participation of African countries in official OECD Bodies
Annex 2: Aid to Africa at a Glance
Annex 3: Aid at a Glance for South Africa
Who’s who: Contact Points
ANNEXES

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FOREWORD
Achieving global prosperity, social inclusion and the well-being of citizens worldwide has always been at the heart of the OECD’s work. The ‘D’ in OECD stands for development. By sharing knowledge and best practices, and through analysis and fact-based policy advice, we contribute to the development of all countries. Our mission is to build a stronger, cleaner and fairer world economy. This is a shared responsibility between OECD countries and their partners in every region around the world. Africa’s development is to everyone’s interest and the OECD is ready to continue to play its part.
This ‘Active with Africa’ brochure provides a glimpse of the scope and depth of our work with African countries and highlights the great potential to strengthen our partnership.
Africa is a continent with a great future and this future is now finally being realised. Despite the impact of the recession, current economic growth in Africa outpaces that of many OECD countries. With an emerging middle class, a new generation of innovative entrepreneurs, increasing school enrolment and significant advancement in ICT development, the continent is reaping the benefits of integration into the world economy. Recent democratic transitions in parts of North Africa and the consolidation of democracies in other parts of Africa are creating much optimism and huge potential in terms of economic and social development. Nevertheless, major challenges remain: poverty levels are still high, famine and food insecurity affect many, violent conflicts persist in certain places and climate change poses a growing threat to long-term development prospects.
Mindful of these challenges, the OECD has intensified its commitment to working with Africa. We are supporting governments throughout the region in their broad reform agendas:
• to strengthen democratic and effective governance structures and enhance representative forms of government,
• to improve the investment climate through their investment framework and appropriate capital market rules and institutions,
• and to promote sustainable economic growth and employment through growth-enhancing structural policies that can help tackle poverty.
On climate change, we have developed a comprehensive analysis of its effects in Africa, with a focus on assessing the costs and benefits of adaptation.
In response to the famine crisis in the Horn of Africa, donors of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) are not only

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delivering strategic and effective funding to meet immediate
humanitarian needs, but also providing long-term policy guidance
to help build a sustainable recovery. To address food insecurity,
we have carried out a detailed assessment of the impact of rising
and volatile food prices on hunger, poverty and security, as well
as an analysis of possible policy options.
Our co-operation with South Africa is particularly advanced.
This has also helped us to develop closer relations with other
governments, private sector actors and civil society leaders across
the region. The OECD’s commitment to Africa’s development
is illustrated by initiatives like the African Economic Outlook,
produced jointly with AfDB, UNECA and UNDP, which annually
charts economic, social and political developments in fifty African
countries; by its continued hosting of the Africa Partnership
Forum Support Unit and the Sahel and West Africa Club; and
by new initiatives like the African Tax Administration Forum,
which supports governments in the region in their efforts to
fully mobilise their domestic resources and improve governance
through accountability and the effective management of public
finances.
Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, the OECD is proud that
African governments and institutions are increasingly turning
to it as a partner. We also greatly appreciate our long term
partnership with NEPAD, and congratulate it on its achievements
as it celebrates its 10th anniversary.
We will continue to put our full range of expertise at the service
of Africa in order to accelerate the continent’s progress towards
achieving the Millennium Development Goals and creating more
cohesive societies. In this spirit, we will continue and deepen
our co-operation and partnership with African countries based
on our OECD Development Strategy, making our knowledge on
good and effective policies available for African governments
and societies, supporting the reform agendas in those countries
with our analysis and advice and, thus, working together with
African policy makers towards better policies for better lives.
Angel Gurría
OECD Secretary-General

6. Acronyms
AfDB African Development Bank
APF Africa Partnership Forum
ATAF African Tax Administration Forum
AU African Union
CILSS Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel
ECOWAS Economic Community of West African States
FAO Food and Agriculture Organisation
GDP Gross Domestic Product
GTZ Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit
IEA International Energy Agency
ICT Information and Communication Technology
MDGs Millennium Development Goals
MENA Middle East and North Africa
NEA Nuclear Energy Agency
NSDS National Strategies for the Development of Statistics
NEPAD New Programme for Africa’s Development
OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
PARIS21 Partnership in Statistics for Development in 21st Century
RECs Regional Economic Communities
RPCA Food Crisis Prevention Network
SADC Southern African Development Community
SARS South African Revenue Service
OECD/DAC OECD Development Assistance Committee
OECD/SWAC OECD Sahel and West Africa Club
UEMOA West African Economic and Monetary Union
UNECA United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
UN/OSAA United Nations Office of the Special Adviser on Africa
WP-EFF OECD/DAC Working Party on Aid Effectiveness
Note: This document and any map included herein are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area. 4

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Africa had registered four consecutive years of record
economic growth up to 2008 before the global downturn
caused a slowdown in 2009. Great progress has been
made in areas such as primary school enrolment and
development of ICT infrastructure. However, poverty
and food insecurity remain key challenges in many African countries.
Africa’s economies have rebounded from the slump which had
been caused by the global recession. In 2010, Africa’s average rate
of growth amounted to 4.9%, up from 3.1% in 2009. The political
events in North Africa will impact on the continent’s growth
rate, which is projected to be 3.7% in 2011. However, this forecast
is surrounded by considerable uncertainty. Risks are related to
the global economy and to Africa, in particular because of the
developments in Libya and Côte d´Ivoire and how these affect
neighbouring countries. Assuming that economic normality
returns in these countries, the African Economic Outlook
2011, jointly published by the OECD, AfDB, UNDP and UNECA,
expects Africa´s average growth to accelerate to 5.8% in 2012.
Despite the incredible diversity of countries and contexts
within the African continent, aid has played a critical role in the
development of many African nations. Some forty countries have
adhered to the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and to the
Accra Agenda for Action. As a region, Africa has made progress
towards almost all of the 2010 Paris Declaration targets, with a
number of countries on track to meet all of them. These findings
are high on the agenda of the Fourth High-Level Forum on Aid
Effectiveness in Busan, Korea on 29 November - 1 December 2011.
With 2015 as the target date, Africa’s progress on many of
the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has been
sluggish and it looks unlikely that they will all be attained in
Africa. In spite of significant advances in primary education,
gender and health, several countries remain off-track to meet
the MDGs on employment, poverty and maternal mortality.
If Africa is to accelerate its progress towards the MDGs,
it needs to maintain the high growth rate of recent years.
African governments face many of the challenges that
have confronted OECD governments for decades: how to
promote sustainable economic growth, how to improve
public financial management, how to build sound governance
systems, how to achieve more inclusive societies, and how
to tackle the challenge of climate change. The international
community has a key role to play in restoring confidence and
stimulating the real economy also through concrete policies
to support inclusive growth and employment in Africa.
AFRICA HAS MADE ENORMOUS PROGRESS
BUT FACES MAJOR CHALLENGES

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which includes OECD and emerging and developing economies, they oversee the content and implementation of bi-annual work programmes and increasingly engage in targeted research and policy dialogue activities undertaken by the Centre.
• Working with other international institutions on global policy issues that have an impact on Africa, such as Economic Partnership Agreements with the European Union, the global economic crisis and falling commodity prices.
• Continued hosting of the Africa Partnership Forum (APF) Support Unit, which prepares regular updates on the continued fallout from the economic crisis as it relates to Africa and development finance, and other priority policy themes.
• Contributing to major international initiatives, such as the UN Secretary-General’s MDG Steering Group and the G8 and G20 processes. At the request of G8 leaders in L’Aquila in 2009, the OECD has been working together with the AfDB to report on their actions in the area of strengthening the contribution of tax policy to development. The APF Co-Chairs wrote to the Chairs of the G20 Summits in 2009 highlighting Africa’s priorities in the context of the global economic crisis. The conclusions of the 14th APF (Toronto, 2010), which focused on the MDGs, informed the G8, G20, African Union and the September
The OECD’s long-standing involvement in Africa has been deepened and widened, reflecting the priorities of African governments and their international partners, including the priorities of African leaders emerging from discussions at G8 and G20 Summits. This partnership includes:
• Co-operating with African governments, pan-African institutions and Regional Economic Communities (RECs) on a wide range of public policy issues to facilitate the formulation and implementation of national and regional strategies and policies. For example, the NEPAD-OECD Africa Investment Initiative promotes a continued regional dialogue on ways of improving Africa’s business climate and supports the implementation of investment policy reform at country level.
The African Economic Outlook provided the background for discussions for the 2009 African Union (AU) ICT Ministerial Meeting in South Africa. More recently, the AU asked the OECD to draft Open Access Principles for endorsement by the AU delegates at their Ministerial Meeting in Nigeria in August 2010.
Cape Verde, Egypt, Mauritius, Morocco, Senegal and South Africa are full members of the OECD Development Centre. Together with another 36 countries sitting on the Centre’s Governing Board,
AN INTENSIFIED PARTNERSHIP
BETWEEN THE OECD AND AFRICA

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UN MDG Review Summits. The co-Chairs of the NEPAD-OECD Africa
Investment Initiative wrote to the Chairs of the G20 Development
Working Group to ask the G20 to take decisive action for enhancing
infrastructure investment in Africa. The OECD is actively involved
in implementing the G20 Seoul consensus for development and its
multi-year action plan.
• Playing a unique role in the monitoring of aid statistics, structural
analysis and peer review of donor programmes, and helping to set
the agenda on aid effectiveness.
The OECD’s engagement in Africa is not confined to its development
specialists: it reaches across the Organisation and draws on core areas
of expertise such as compiling comparative statistical, economic,
and social data, conducting analysis and comparison of the data
collected, identifying and promoting best practices and standards,
and monitoring progress. Some specific illustrations are:
• Promoting sustainable economic growth, through mobilisation
of experts on investment policy, innovation, trade and agriculture.
The OECD works on sharing of best practices and lessons learned
in implementing investment reforms. It also assesses the impact of
rising food prices on hunger, food security and poverty.
• Helping to alleviate poverty and develop capital markets through
private pensions. The agenda of the Global Forum meeting on
private pensions, in South Africa in October 2011, focuses on these
regional issues in particular, including how pension coverage can
be improved and how pension funds in developing countries can
finance infrastructure projects that contribute to sustainable growth.
• Helping to combat the illicit trade in minerals that finance armed
conflict. In 2011, OECD Ministers adopted the ‘Due Diligence Guidance
for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and
High-Risk Areas’. The OECD, the International Conference on the Great
Lakes Region (ICGLR), which is comprised of eleven African countries,
and the UN Group of Experts on the DRC are working together to
implement the Guidance in Africa’s Great Lakes region.
• Improving public financial management through mobilisation of
experts on tax policy, budget reform and public debt management. The
Organisation will share best practices with African debt managers,
central bankers and other financial officials involved in public debt
management through the newly established Centre for African Public
Debt Management and Bond Markets, located in Midrand, South Africa.
• Improving systems of governance, drawing upon OECD’s expertise
on fighting corruption and improving systems of public and corporate

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governance. The OECD and the AfDB have signed a declaration to support business integrity in Africa and have also undertaken a project on the corporate governance of state-owned enterprises in Southern Africa.
• Building more inclusive societies, drawing on OECD expertise in the fields of labour markets, education and training, health, migration, income distribution and the Internet economy.
• Tackling the challenge of climate change has been a major focus of the OECD’s recent work, which includes: assessing the costs and benefits of adaptation; a comprehensive analysis of the impact of climate change on Africa; and discussions on the key issues that could support development of a post-2012 climate framework.
• Surveys and statistics: the OECD shares its expertise in economic analysis through national, regional and global surveys. It also has one of the world’s largest and most reliable sources of comparative statistical data. Its shared responsibility, with AfBD, UNECA and UNDP, for the African Economic Outlook and its role of host to the Partnership in Statistics for Development in 21st Century (PARIS21) provides support for African countries in the development of their statistical capacity.
• Development co-operation: the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) has a unique role in monitoring aid statistics, peer reviewing of donor programmes and setting the international agenda on aid effectiveness. The DAC provides a key forum for donor co-ordination and produces an annual Development Co-operation Report that provides authoritative statistics on official development assistance. Recently, the OECD worked closely with ECOWAS on the West Africa Report on Resources for Development and with UNECA on the 2011 Mutual Review of Development Effectiveness in Africa.
• OECD Development Strategy: At the OECD, we have reaffirmed our commitment to global development. At our 50th Anniversary OECD Ministerial Council Meeting, Heads of State and Government and Ministers endorsed the Framework for an OECD Development Strategy. We aim to achieve higher, more inclusive and sustainable growth for the broadest array of countries. This will be accomplished through greater collaboration and knowledge sharing, engaging in mutual learning, and deepening partnerships with developing countries, other international organisations and key stakeholders. Strategic areas where the OECD could add value include innovative and sustainable sources of growth; mobilisation of domestic resources; good governance; and measuring progress. We will also address the gender dimension of development by presenting policy options for the three ‘E’s for women’s economic empowerment: Entrepreneurship, Employment and Education.

11. Since 2002, NEPAD and the OECD have been engaged in a partnership to support African development. We have collaborated in the implementation of the NEPAD- OECD Africa Investment Initiative which is working to improve the investment climate, particularly for the agriculture and infrastructure sectors; the Initiative has provided support for the reform of investment regimes in four African countries using the OECD’s Policy Framework for Investment and the outcome of its Dakar Ministerial meeting in 2011 fed into G20 discussions on development.
We also work with the DAC on the enabling environment for infrastructure investment in Africa. We co-operate closely with the APF Support Unit hosted by the OECD in the organisation of Africa Partnership Forum meetings between African countries under the auspices of AU-NEPAD, and partners represented by OECD members and international agencies on priorities for Africa’s development. The preparation of the reports on the Mutual Review of Development Effectiveness provides a further opportunity for co-operation with OECD and UNECA (latest edition published in October 2011).
NEPAD values its collaboration with the OECD across a range of policy areas and issues relevant to development effectiveness in Africa: through our growing partnership, NEPAD can link with OECD’s other international partnerships and initiatives (such as on aid and development effectiveness, the China – DAC Study Group, and its deepening links with major emerging economies, including the Republic of South Africa). OECD tools and working methods have demonstrated how useful they can be for developing better policies for better lives, also in Africa.
As we celebrate the landmark of NEPAD’s tenth anniversary, and the OECD’s own fiftieth anniversary, I welcome the long collaboration between NEPAD and the OECD and take satisfaction in noting that our broadening cooperation has gone far beyond aid. We clearly see the OECD as a strategic partner for Africa in its efforts to achieve its development priorities. Dr Ibrahim Mayaki,
Chief Executive Officer of the NEPAD Agency
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Against a backdrop of historical political change across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), the OECD is intensifying its partnership with countries across the region with a view to helping governments address major social and economic issues. Countries such as Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia face popular demands for improved living standards, yet their resources are constrained by slowing economies, accelerating inflation and high unemployment, especially among youth. The right domestic policies and international support are therefore critical to building confidence and enabling these countries to successfully meet the political and economic challenges that lie ahead.
The OECD has been invited to be part of the Deauville Partnership, an initiative launched in May 2011 by the G8, under the French Presidency, to support the transition taking place in the MENA region. The OECD’s contribution is founded on the MENA-OECD Initiative, launched in 2005, which has successfully created a network of government officials from both OECD and MENA countries who regularly meet to discuss governance and economic policy reforms. Our future activities in the region will be based upon the Deauville ‘building blocks’: strengthening governance and transparency; economic and social inclusion; job creation; and accelerating private-sector-led economic growth.
Strengthening governance and transparency
• As part of the OECD-MENA Initiative, the OECD is providing advice on improving public service delivery, creating a ‘rule of law’ compact to improve the regulatory framework and facilitate business and citizens transactions.
• The Support for Improvement in Government and Management (SIGMA) Programme, a joint EU-OECD programme, has been extended to Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia.
• The OECD is working with MENA governments to review tax policies and tax administration systems to assess their capacities to collect tax revenues and to develop reform plans to strengthen the tax and business environment.
Economic and social inclusion
• The OECD-MENA Initiative has created a Women’s Business Forum which provides an open regional network, helping leverage the expertise of different stakeholders.
• Tunisia and Jordan already participate in the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which measures students’ performances and supports efforts to move to higher education.
ADDRESSING NEW CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA

13. 11
As encouraged by the G8, all MENA countries have been invited to
participate in PISA.
• Egypt participates in the Assessment of Higher Education
Learning Outcomes (AHELO) feasibility study and also recently
undertook an OECD/World Bank Review of Higher Education in
2011.
Job creation
• In Tunisia, a review of entrepreneurship education is currently
underway, along with development of a report on policies to
support growth of ‘Young Enterprises’. Both Tunisia and Egypt
have requested a review of their national Small and Medium
Enterprise (SME) finance policies.
• Tourism is of great importance to the MENA region and
governments have looked to the OECD to provide policy advice
on how to build a more competitive and sustainable tourism
economy. Egypt has already participated in various tourism
initiatives with the OECD.
Accelerating private-sector-led economic growth
• The OECD continues to work with MENA governments to improve
their investment regimes through the application of international
investment standards and instruments. Egypt, Tunisia and
Morocco have already adhered to the OECD international
investment instruments.
• The OECD is providing policy advice on corporate governance to
Ministries of Economy and to Finance Securities Regulators in the
region with a view to developing local capital markets and attracting
long-term investment.
• Reform of competition regimes is a key policy area that can enhance
economic growth and produce fairer economic outcomes. Egypt has
recently undertaken an OECD peer review of its competition regime.
Key links:
www.oecd.org/mena
www.oecd.org/mena/investment
www.oecd.org/mena/governance
www.sigmaweb.org

14. 1
SUSTAINABLE GROWTH
1.1 Investment
The NEPAD-OECD Africa Investment Initiative supports African governments in designing and implementing investment policy reforms. Based on strong African ownership and co-chaired by South Africa and Japan, it uses peer learning methods and co- operation instruments from both NEPAD and the OECD.
The Initiative is a vehicle for co-operation between African countries and the world’s major investing countries and works in partnership with the private sector. It also supports investment reform implementation at country and regional level, doing so through investment policy reviews which have been done on Botswana, Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia.
The Initiative has developed the Policy Framework for Investment in Agriculture (PFIA) to support African governments in assessing and reforming their policies for agricultural investment. It has also launched a new project on Aid for Investment, which monitors donor support to the enabling environment for infrastructure investment. The April 2011 Ministerial Meeting, held in Dakar, with high-level political participants including the President and the Prime Minister of Senegal and 11 African Ministers, called on the G20 to take decisive action to promote infrastructure investment in Africa.
Working with international organisations, research centres, and the UN Special Rapporteur for the Right to Food, the Sahel and West Africa Club Secretariat (OECD/SWAC) promotes dialogue between investing countries and West Africa through principles for responsible land investment and the use of OECD investment tools.
Poverty reduction and the achievement of the MDGs require a favourable environment for investment, which can also help African countries to integrate into the global economy, to improve their agricultural development and to foster innovation. 12

15. Investment is also one of the core monitoring issues of the Africa Partnership Forum (APF), which was created at the Evian G8 Summit in 2003 to broaden and deepen the dialogue between Africa and its development partners. Responsible and value-added investment, along with the regulatory framework for the private sector, are key themes of the 17th APF meeting in Kigali, Rwanda on 18 October, 2011.
South Africa was actively engaged in the development of Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict- Affected and High-Risk Areas adopted by OECD Ministers in 2011. The Due Diligence Guidance combats the illicit trade in minerals that finance armed conflict. Illegal exploitation of natural resources in fragile African states has been fuelling conflict across the region for decades.
While data is scarce, it is estimated that up to 80% of minerals in some of the worst-affected zones may be smuggled out. The illegal trade stokes conflict, boosts crime and corruption, finances international terrorism and blocks economic and social development.
The Guidance clarifies how companies can identify and manage risks throughout the supply chain, from local exporters and mineral processors to the manufacturing and brand-name companies that use these minerals in their products. The OECD, the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) and the UN Group of Experts on the DRC are working together to implement the Guidance in Africa’s Great Lakes region.
The OECD has a long history of assisting countries in evaluating the quality of their policy framework to attract and promote private domestic and foreign investment through its Investment Policy Reviews. The reviews are carried out using a process of peer examination and draw on OECD investment instruments and tools, such as the Declaration on International Investment and its Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the Policy Framework for Investment and the Principles for Private Participation in Infrastructure.
In response to growing demand from countries for policy advice on how to mobilise more ‘green investment’, the OECD has started analysing countries’ green investment policy frameworks for a special chapter in the Investment Policy Reviews. This work seeks to help countries improve domestic conditions to mobilise investment in support of green growth objectives. Tunisia’s investment policy framework is currently being reviewed.
The OECD continues to develop close collaboration with pension regulators, supervisors and policy makers in Africa to explore how pensions can play their part in poverty alleviation and capital market development. The 2011 Global Forum meeting on private
South Africa
There is deepening co-operation on investment policy between the OECD and South Africa, the latter being a co-chair in the NEPAD- OECD Africa Investment Initiative and participating in Freedom of Investment Roundtables. The country also contributed to the 2011 revision of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, as well as discussions on international investment agreements and arbitration.
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16. 1.2 Trade
The OECD carries out substantial analytical and policy-related work in the trade area, covering issues of direct interest to Africa, such as analysis of the relationship between trade and employment. Building on this analytical foundation, the OECD promotes engagement among interested parties through regional or Global Forum events. Such initiatives provide opportunities for African representatives to participate in active and international exchanges of views.
Development topics feature prominently in our current work on trade. For example, the OECD is conducting an initiative on Aid-for- Trade to consider means to improve trade capacity in Africa and other developing regions. In addition, the OECD-led International Collaborative Initiative on Trade and Employment includes an Africa regional conference as well as several studies relevant to Africa.
In recent years, the OECD has undertaken studies on African economies concerning trade facilitation, trade in services, non-tariff barriers, comparative advantage, trade and structural adjustment, agricultural trade and employment, and linkages between trade policy and foreign direct investment in the agro-food sector.
Key links:
www.oecd.org/trade
www.oecd.org/trade/dev
www.oecd.org/trade/employment
www.oecd.org/swac/livestock
pensions, being held in South Africa, focuses on these regional issues – including how pension coverage can be improved and how pension funds in developing countries can finance infrastructure projects which contribute to sustainable growth. The event includes a roundtable of experts from a wide range of African countries, including Kenya, Nigeria, Botswana and Zambia, highlighting the range of pension reforms which are currently underway.
As a key steel-producing region, a number of African countries are analysed extensively in the two-yearly publication Developments in Steelmaking Capacity of Non-OECD Economies, which provides in-depth information on investment projects occurring in the steel sector as well as projections for steelmaking capacity.
Key links:
www.oecd.org/daf/investment/pfi
www.oecd.org/daf/investment/africa
www.africapartnershipforum.org
www.oecd.org/swac/land
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17. Africa features prominently in the analysis of the report Agricultural Policies for Strengthening Incomes in Developing Countries: a Synthesis, with key findings about the most appropriate policy options for countries at different stages of development
In co-operation with the Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS), the SWAC Secretariat manages the Food Crisis Prevention Network (RPCA), which monitors the agricultural and food situation in West Africa, publishes monthly food security briefs and makes policy recommendations for decision-makers. The SWAC Secretariat also supported ECOWAS and CILSS in conducting a large-scale consultation process on the new Charter for Food Crisis Prevention and Management, which will be adopted in October 2011 by 17 countries (ECOWAS members, Chad and Mauritania). Next steps include the setting-up of monitoring and evaluation mechanisms within the framework of RPCA.
The SWAC Secretariat’s 2011/2012 West African Futures (WAF) programme analyses the impacts of settlement and market integration on food security in a regional perspective (ECOWAS, UEMOA). Focusing on urbanisation and population growth, food crises, agricultural transformation and market trade, the WAF programme highlights the need for coherent and homogeneous regional statistics to better design food security strategies.
1.3 Agriculture and Food Security
The impact of highly volatile food prices on hunger, food security and poverty is a major concern. The OECD, in co-operation with the FAO, provides the market analysis and projections required for an informed dialogue. The OECD and FAO have co-ordinated the preparation of a report on price volatility and food security mandated by the G20, and have developed recommendations for the consideration of G20 Agriculture Ministers, covering agricultural, development, humanitarian and information dimensions. The OECD also provides a forum for high-level discussion of effective policy responses in areas such as agricultural support, humanitarian and development aid, biofuels policy and technological innovation.
A G20 Outreach Session on ‘Agricultural and food price volatility: African views and perspectives’ in June 2011 contributed to G20 reflections on how to mitigate the impacts of excessive price volatility, in particular for the most vulnerable. Concrete proposals for policy options and follow-up actions were made, including the establishment of a regional emergency food reserve in West Africa.
The NEPAD-Africa Investment Initiative and the SWAC Secretariat, in partnership with the UN Office of the Special Advisor on Africa (UN/OSAA), are jointly developing a policy framework to assess host country policies for investment in agriculture and to encourage private and international investment. The first assessment was conducted on Burkina Faso at the request of its government.
South Africa
South Africa’s agricultural policies are regularly reviewed and its support to agricultural producers estimated as part of a broader OECD exercise.
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18. The OECD is collaborating with the FAO on implementing a system for Monitoring African Food and Agricultural Policies (MAFAP), central to which is the production of a monitoring report and in-depth country studies containing indicators and analysis that will help inform decision-making in two key areas: (1) how food and agricultural policies can best address the country’s policy objectives with respect to development, food security, poverty reduction and natural resource use, and (2) how aid and public expenditures can most effectively target areas where the need is greatest and potential returns are highest. The information will feed into national decision-making processes and mechanisms for policy dialogue at the pan-African and regional level, as well as with donors and other stakeholders.
The APF Support Unit has produced a series of policy analyses and progress reports on agriculture and food security in Africa. Launched in October 2011, the OECD/UNECA 2011 Mutual Review of Development Effectiveness in Africa (MRDE) report examines what has been done to deliver on commitments for African agriculture and for food security, what results have been achieved, and what are the key future policy priorities. It also examines progress in 18 other key sectors for development in Africa.
Beyond the MRDE, the April 2010 APF meeting in Toronto addressed the issue of progress on the Millenium Development Goal of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger (MDG1). It examined the impact of the global financial and economic crisis on food security, projected world market conditions, innovative financing, innovative partnerships, and science and technology for food security in Africa. The October 2010 APF meeting in Lilongwe reviewed progress on delivering commitments and achieving all MDGs in Africa including MDG1 on the basis of the 2010 Mutual Review of Development Effectiveness (MRDE) in Africa conducted by the UN Economic Commission for Africa and OECD.
Key links:
www.agri-outlook.org
www.food-security.net
www.oecd.org/charter
www.oecd.org/waf
www.africapartnershipforum.org
www.oecd.org/apf/mrde
www.oecd.org/tad/support
1.4 Competition
Strengthening competition policy plays a key role in increasing consumer welfare and productivity. The OECD advocates best practices in competition law enforcement and encourages governments to protect and promote competition in markets.
Bid rigging in public procurement has serious adverse effects on the economy and wastes large amounts of public expenditure by raising the prices of goods and services purchased by governments. Specific projects can lead to substantial savings of government funds. The OECD has worked extensively on promoting more competitive bidding in public procurement, developing Guidelines for Fighting Bid Rigging in Public Procurement and a project to build capacity to detect and prevent bid rigging. Fighting bid rigging will be a
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19. priority project for the new African Competition Forum, a network of African competition authorities that was launched in March 2011.
An upcoming OECD report on Egypt’s competition law and policy will provide recommendations and a ‘roadmap’ to support legislative reforms for strengthening Egypt’s competition regime. The report will be released in Egypt in early 2012.
Key link:
www.oecd.org/competition
1.5 Innovation and ICT
The OECD Innovation Strategy, launched in 2007, involves significant efforts by OECD Member and non-Member economies to better understand the developing ‘ecosystems of innovation’ in an increasingly globalised world and to better harness them to meet policy goals. The OECD will continue to work with countries from all regions, including Africa. The 2010 report Innovation and the Development Agenda highlights the way forward in enhancing the role of innovation in development.
Innovation in information and communication technology (ICT) is a vital component of an economy’s dynamism and competitiveness. While Africa has much to do to expand access to fixed-line telephony, new technologies and business models are circumventing market inefficiencies and institutional bottlenecks.
In 2010, the OECD drafted a document on Open Access principles at the request of the African Union Commission (AUC). The document will be presented for endorsement by AU delegates at the 4th AU ICT Ministerial meeting in 2012.
African countries have a growing interest in OECD measurement standards in science, technology and innovation. South Africa actively participates in the Working Party of National Experts on Science and Technology Indicators (NESTI) and its statistics appear in the Main Science and Technology Indicators (MSTI). Also participating in NESTI is NEPAD, which supports R&D and innovation surveys in 19 African countries. As part of the activities
South Africa
The OECD project on reducing bid rigging in public procurement was extended to South Africa in 2009. The Organisation has worked with the South African Competition Commission to develop a successful anti-bid rigging programme which has already provided support to over 250 senior procurement officials across government and state owned enterprises. A certification of compliance was also developed and launched with the National Treasury as an additional tool to deter bid rigging, in line with best practices set out in the OECD Guidelines. Training has been provided to the Competition Commission’s cartel investigators to assist with enforcement action resulting in increased detection.
The OECD has worked with the South African Public Administration Leadership and Management Academy to develop a training module on bid rigging, based on OECD materials, as part of a national training programme for public procurement officials.
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20. of the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development, the OECD regularly contributes to statistical workshops in North Africa and the Middle East.
In many countries, ‘angel investment’ (seed or early stage equity financing from experienced entrepreneurs or business people) is the most significant source of outside equity for seed and early stage start-ups. A growing number of countries have begun focusing on this important market with private and public sector efforts to support its development.
An OECD project on financing high-growth firms focuses on developments in business angel activity around the world, including Africa. As part of the project, interviews were conducted with over 100 practitioners, experts and policy makers in 31 countries.
Key links:
www.africaneconomicoutlook.org/en/in-depth
innovation-and-ict-in-africa-2009
www.oecd.org/sti/innovation/reviews
www.oecd.org/sti/offshoring
www.oecd.org/ict/4d
South Africa
The results of the 2007 OECD Review of South Africa’s Innovation Policy have been widely shared by the South African government with countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
The OECD has examined the practicability of three areas of innovation: (1) enhancing the capacity to absorb technology, (2) transferring technology, and (3) building knowledge networks. The OECD also provided statistical assistance for the launch of an ICT Household Survey in South Africa in 2011.
A seminar organised by the South Africa Department for Science and Technology in September 2011, attended by government officials and representatives of academic, business and research communities, identified areas of improvement in South Africa’s innovation system through international benchmarking and using the methodology of the OECD publication Science, Technology and Industry Outlook 2010.
‘Angel investment’ is not yet widely practiced in most African countries. However, an initiative has recently been launched in South Africa to create the first angel group in Africa called ‘AngelHub’. This South African Group has two chapters, one in Cape Town and another in Johannesburg.
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21. 1.6 Green Growth
The OECD Green Growth Strategy, delivered at the 2011 OECD Ministerial Council Meeting (MCM), marks the start of the OECD’s longer term agenda to support national and international efforts to achieve green growth. Three reports form the basis of this strategy: Towards Green Growth, Towards Green Growth: Monitoring Progress - OECD Indicators and Tools for Delivering on Green Growth.
The Strategy aims to help countries foster economic growth and development while ensuring that natural assets continue to provide the resources and the environmental services on which our well-being relies. It outlines a flexible policy framework that can be tailored to different national circumstances and stages of development.
The OECD is building its capacity to achieve this by integrating green growth considerations into OECD’s national policy surveillance, notably into the Economic Surveys, Environmental Performance Reviews and Innovation Reviews. These reports will cover both OECD and emerging economies, including a green growth focus for the 2013 Environmental Performance Review of South Africa.
Work is also underway to examine how green growth strategies can be applied in the context of developing countries. This will involve assessing the links between green growth and poverty reduction, and identifying the changes needed in sectors such as agriculture and infrastructure to make them more supportive of development and green growth. Analysis will focus on how green growth policies in OECD countries may affect the economy of developing countries through changes in trade and investment patterns and competition for livelihood and assets. This work will inform policy makers on how development co-operation can support partner governments to maximise the poverty reduction potential of green growth.
A Green Growth Strategy for Food and Agriculture was released in June 2011, which will provide the basis for continued work in this area, including developing concrete policy proposals that illustrate how alternative policy sets can contribute to a greener growth model for food and agriculture. In this context, particular attention will be paid to the specific circumstances of developing countries.
The Sahel and West Africa Club’s 2011 Forum, on 5-6 September, 2011 in Praia, Cape Verde, was dedicated to the topic ‘Brazil and West Africa: jointly addressing renewable energy issues’, and defined a road map towards a regional strategy on renewable energy in West Africa.
Key links:
www.oecd.org/greengrowth
www.oecd.org/swac/forum
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22. Since 2009, the OECD has facilitated 32 capacity building events in Africa covering issues such as transfer pricing, tax treaties, exchange of information and tax administration. The OECD’s support for Africa’s tax administrations represents a key element of ATAF’s capacity building agenda.
The establishment in May 2010 of the informal Task Force on Tax and Development, a multi-stakeholder advisory group tasked with developing a coherent programme of tax-centred development activities, has further strengthened the OECD’s support for tax capacity building in Africa. The Task Force brings together members of the tax and the development communities, NGOs, business and other international organisations to develop a programme of tax- related capacity building initiatives.
2
PUBLIC FINANCE
2.1 Tax
Domestic resource mobilisation through taxation is critical for African countries to be able to raise the revenue needed to achieve the MDGs. Effective and fair tax systems improve the quality of government through increased accountability between governments and their citizens. Since 1999, the OECD has supported African governments in their tax policy and capacity building programmes.
The African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF), launched in November 2009, is implementing an Africa-wide and Africa-led programme of tax capacity development. Through its Committee on Fiscal Affairs (CFA) and the Tax and Development programme of the CFA and Development Assistance Committee (DAC), the OECD is working closely with ATAF to develop and deliver its agenda.
Governments need to be able to manage public finances effectively. The OECD shares its expertise with African partners in three key policy areas: taxation, budget reform and public debt management.
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23. In April 2011, the Task Force proposed an initial programme of initiatives, which were subsequently approved by the CFA and DAC for immediate implementation. These include initiatives designed to support ATAF’s work, focusing on tax and state-building, transfer pricing and increasing the transparency of financial reporting by multinational enterprises.
In addition, the Task Force is supporting the work of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes to ensure that African countries fully benefit from a more transparent global tax environment. Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, the Seychelles and South Africa are members of the Global Forum, and it is expected that African membership will significantly increase in the coming years.
Key link:
www.oecd.org/tax/globalrelations
2.2 Financial Education
In October 2011, the OECD will hold a conference in South Africa to explore consumer protection, pensions, financial inclusion and financial education in schools and includes a session focused on the National Financial Education Strategies and Initiatives in Africa. By hosting this conference, South Africa aims to promote and lead financial education initiatives in Africa and to encourage African countries to join the OECD’s International Network on Financial Education (INFE).
2.3 Budgeting and Public Expenditures
The OECD’s Working Party of Senior Budget Officials (SBO) is recognised as the world’s leading forum on international budgeting issues. Inspired by the SBO, the Collaborative African Budget Reform Initiative (CABRI) was launched in 2004, which brings together annually the budget directors and other senior budget officials from 24 African countries to share experiences and draw inspiration from each other with a view to improving budgeting systems.
The OECD co-operated closely with the South African National Treasury in establishing CABRI and has been closely associated with
South Africa
The OECD and South Africa have worked closely to support the formation and work programme of ATAF. This co-operation reinforces an increasingly important partnership between the OECD and South Africa, in particular in the tax area. South Africa takes an active part as a regular observer in the CFA and its subsidiary bodies, which have responsibility for key international tax issues including transfer pricing, tax treaties and exchange of information.
Co-operation with South Africa includes an annual programme of bilateral dialogue events on key taxation issues, as well as co-operation to establish effective mechanisms for African countries to exchange tax-related information. South Africa co-chairs the Task Force on Tax and Development, and provides experts to contribute to OECD/ATAF multilateral tax events.
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24. it ever since. At each annual meeting of CABRI, the OECD shares the results of its work on budgeting and public expenditures. Recently, the OECD and CABRI jointly extended the OECD Budget Practices and Procedures Survey to Africa. This provided comparable information for 24 African countries on budget formulation, legislative approval, budget implementation, and audit. This data has been analysed in co-operation with the AfDB.
The OECD is extending its work on budgeting and public expenditures to have a better understanding of the role of budgetary institutions in infrastructure, a project that will cover all countries in the African continent through country surveys.
The OECD also hosts the Task Force on Public Financial Management (a sub-body of the Working Party on Aid Effectiveness) which has been co-chaired by Malawi, Zambia and the World Bank. African countries are strongly represented in the activities of the Task Force, with the sharing of experiences and resulting guidance on strengthening public financial management, supreme audit institutions, parliamentary oversight of the budget process, and ensuring aid flows are channelled through national public finance institutions.
North African countries have been very active in the regional SBO network for the Middle-East and North Africa (MENA). Launched in 2007, the network is a component of the wider MENA-OECD Governance Programme, initiated and led by MENA countries. It promotes broad reforms to modernise governance structures and operations, strengthen regional and international partnerships, and promote sustainable economic growth throughout the MENA region. In September 2011, a MENA SBO meeting held in Beirut was the occasion for Morocco to present an in-depth examination of its budgeting systems and for Tunisia to present the major challenges for budgeting and public expenditures in the context of democratic transition and increasing social expectations.
Key links:
www.oecd.org/gov/budget
www.oecd.org/dac/effectiveness/pfm
2.4 Public Debt Management
Sound public debt management requires African policy makers to develop local-currency bond markets, thereby creating market- based funding sources to finance government deficits. The OECD project on African debt management and bond markets allows African debt managers to integrate into a worldwide network of their peers and to raise the awareness of advances in Africa among policy makers, investors and others outside the continent.
In response to a request by the 2007 G8 Summit, the OECD intensified its efforts to share best practices with African debt managers, central bankers and other financial officials involved in public debt management through a range of projects and annual fora. For example, the OECD Forum on African Public Debt Management and Bond Markets is an annual forum that addresses strategic policy issues in the area of public debt management, shares experience
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25. on OECD best practices and specific bond market development
issues of particular relevance to Africa.
There is great demand from within and outside Africa for reliable
information on outstanding government debt as well as more
general information on debt management policies and the
development of African bond markets. As part of a G8/G20 action
plan for developing bond markets in emerging markets, the OECD
has launched a database of African central government debt, using
OECD methodology to produce reliable statistical data that can lead
to comparative analysis and policy recommendations. The second
issue of the Statistical Yearbook on African Central Government
Debt was published in June 2011.
Key links:
www.oecd.org/daf/pdm/africa
www.publicdebtnet.org
South Africa
South Africa has played a strong and pro-active role since the
inception of the OECD project on Public Debt Management (PDM)
and Bond Markets in Africa. Its Treasury has hosted the Annual
OECD meetings on African Public Debt Management and Bond
Markets for the last four years. On 30 June 2011, The Centre for
African Public Debt Management and Bond Markets was launched
in Midrand, South Africa, and is supported by the OECD and the
National Treasury of South Africa.
The Centre will enhance South Africa’s supporting role as a
conduit of good practices from the OECD to other African
countries by facilitating access to and encouraging the use of
leading OECD practices in debt management and bond market
development. It will also support the ongoing international policy
dialogue between debt managers from OECD countries and those
from African countries. The Centre will develop capacity building
programmes, produce studies on public debt management and
the development of government securities markets, and publish
an Annual Yearbook on Central Government Debt of African
countries (based on the methodology of the OECD Annual
Yearbook on Central Government Debt) and a Bond Monitor.
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I have this faith in Africa’s ability to confront
and deal with its challenges. The continent
continues to show its ability to adjust to new
realities and remain focused on development.
It is this positive process that we in ECA in close
partnership with OECD are accompanying. We
believe, eventually, Africa will be transformed
into what we all aspire it to be: a continent that
governs itself better; utilizes its resources for
the benefit of its people; a continent whose growth has a positive
impact on its population. It is this belief which fuels my enthusiasm,
confidence and optimism in the future of Africa.
Abdoulie Janneh, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive
Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)

26. 24
3
GOVERNANCE
3.1 Fighting Corruption
The OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions (OECD Anti- Bribery Convention) has captured worldwide attention as the only global instrument focused on fighting the supply side of bribery in cross-border business deals. There are currently 38 State Parties to the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention (34 OECD Member countries and four partner economies, including South Africa).
In 2009, the OECD and the AfDB developed the Joint OECD/AfDB Initiative to Support Business Integrity and Anti-Bribery Efforts in Africa. The Initiative aims to help African countries fight bribery of public officials and to improve corporate integrity and accountability. Working in partnership with other international and regional
Strong public institutions at the local, regional and central level, strong public sector management, and corruption-free public and private sectors all help advance economic growth, trade, investment and job creation. The OECD produces internationally agreed instruments and principles to promote ‘rules of the game’ in these areas, and it is actively working with African partners to promote these standards in Africa as well. organisations, as well as with key stakeholders in the region, the Joint Initiative designs and helps put in place effective policies to combat bribery and support business integrity. This will support and reinforce the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption, the UN Convention Against Corruption and the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention.
A Stocktaking Report on Business Integrity and Anti-Bribery Legislation, Policies and Practices in Twenty African Countries will be published in late 2011. Its findings will serve as the basis for developing the Anti-Bribery and Business Integrity Course of Action for Africa, which will underpin the Joint Initiative. The Course of Action was discussed and adopted at the First Regional Experts’ Meeting in January 2011. The next steps of the Joint Initiative, including implementation of the Course of

27. Action, will be discussed at the Second Regional Meeting to be held in 2012.
In North Africa, within the context of the ‘Arab Spring’, popular discontent has been voiced about levels of corruption and the way it is impacting the daily lives of citizens and deepening a sense of insecurity. According to the public, corruption has prevented individuals from exercising their rights and freedoms and diverted away valuable resources that could have been used to promote economic and social development.
The OECD has been supporting countries in implementing policies and measures that promote integrity and corruption prevention in the public sector. In particular, upon request from Morocco and Egypt, the OECD conducted two peer reviews on integrity policies, measuring the coherence with international standards such as the United Nations Convention Against Corruption and the OECD Recommendation by using the OECD peer review methodology (Joint Learning Study).
To respond to the urgent demand of Tunisia and Egypt to support the implementation of integrity and corruption prevention reforms, the OECD has started the implementation of two assistance projects. In Tunisia, the OECD provides direct assistance to the Commission on Cases of Embezzlement and Corruption in designing an integrity strategy and action plan for implementation to investigate past abuses and prevent corruption in the future. In a unique regional project that brings together Tunisia and Egypt, the OECD provides assessments, benchmarking, recommendations and capacity building activities based on international good practices and standards in enhancing integrity in public procurement.
South Africa
South Africa ratified the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention in 2007, the first African country to do so. South Africa is now a Member of the OECD Working Group on Bribery in International Business Transactions and participates in the Working Group’s peer review monitoring mechanism that oversees the implementation and enforcement of the Convention. The OECD Working Group on Bribery published evaluations on South Africa’s implementation of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention in 2008 and 2010.
Ensuring public sector integrity and preventing corruption in the public sector help ensure a ‘level playing field’ for businesses and are essential to maintaining trust in government. To this end, South Africa has been an active participant in the Public Sector Integrity Network and the Public Governance Committee. Benchmarks from South Africa were used in the 2010 Integrity Review of Brazil. South Africa also contributed to the formulation of the OECD Recommendation on Enhancing Integrity in Public Procurement.
South Africa participated in the seminar on Internal Control and Internal Audit: Ensuring Public Sector Integrity and Accountability, in April 2011. More active participation in the work of the Public Sector Integrity Network could help provide relevant and credible data and benchmarks for South African policy makers on issues related to the integrity of the public sector.
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28. Several African countries participated in the Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue on Putting Anti-corruption Commitments into Practice, held on 9-10 June 2011, in Rabat. A series of proposals to improve governance and fight corruption was put forward in the Conference Conclusions, including the launch of an Integrity Forum to measure progress in the implementation of time-bound government commitments against corruption.
The DAC’s Network on Governance (GOVNET) is supporting donors in a number of African countries to enhance co-ordination around common anti-corruption response principles. In 2007, the OECD received the African Investor Award, in recognition of its important role in the fight against bribery.
Key links:
www.oecd.org/corruption/africa
www.oecd.org/corruption
www.oecd.org/gov/ethics
3.2 Public Governance and Regional Development
The consolidation of democracy and governance remains a key concern in many developing countries. The SWAC Secretariat is producing analyses of the regional dynamics of instability and conflict, including: (1) a comparative analysis of counter- terrorism laws in West Africa, (2) a case study on Chad with regards to ECOWAS security policies and, (3) an analysis of West African security issues, published within the OECD West African Studies series. This work will be combined with dialogue activities involving key stakeholders in West Africa.
South Africa
Discussions are underway for a further deepening of South Africa’s engagement in the activities of the OECD Public Governance Committee to facilitate regular policy dialogue between South Africa and OECD countries on key governance priorities.
More active engagement in the data collection activities for the publication Government at a Glance could provide useful policy benchmarks to support South African policymakers in advancing public sector reforms. Undertaking a set of governance reviews could support South Africa’s commitment to unlocking human capital and to strengthening and improving public sector performance, with a focus on the sustainability of governance arrangements.
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29. The OECD provides analysis on governance of information and communication (ICT) issues in African countries. This includes peer reviews of e-government frameworks and practices, for example, an ongoing project in Egypt to guide administrative reforms as part of the larger transition in government. This is the first review in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region of a country’s use of information and communications technologies, and particularly the Internet, as a tool to achieve better government and promote growth. The review will help the Egyptian government to improve and streamline government services to citizens and business and will provide other MENA countries with policy guidelines and examples of good practices as they address similar challenges.
Morocco chairs the MENA-OECD Focus Group on Green Growth and Territorial Development as an observer in the OECD’s TDPC, and will host a regional conference on territorial development in December 2011. The conference will focus on the coherence of territorial approaches, including urban, rural, environmental, and multilevel governance aspects, to support countries in the region promoting sustainable economic growth and reducing disparities between territories and citizens. In addition, the OECD is currently conducting a rural review on Morocco to identify how rural policies are conducted. The study will enable the country to develop more coherent frameworks for future rural policies that reflect current best practices in other countries.
With Tunisia, Egypt has launched the Task Force on Legal and Constitutional Reform. At the request of Egypt, the Task Force will focus on issues of the long-term consequences of the constitution for building a public administration that works and delivers in a transparent, accountable and efficient manner. The MENA-OECD Governance Programme has supported Egypt’s efforts in the review of the existing legislation in partnership with the Egyptian Regulatory Reform and Development Activity (ERRADA).
South Africa
The OECD supports South Africa in its regulatory reform efforts by providing expertise, exchange of information and organising seminars on topics such as Regulatory Impact Assessment and regulatory institutions.
The OECD Territorial Development Policy Committee (TDPC) supports African countries with advice on ways to improve their regional development policies that target both competitiveness and equity objectives. South Africa has developed close and consistent relations with the TDPC since 2007. South Africa is currently engaged in developing and implementing a regional policy agenda to address the wide regional disparities in economic and social well-being, the spatial polarisation in cities and the challenges of migration. These issues have been assessed in OECD metropolitan reviews of Cape Town in 2008 and of Gauteng City Region (Johannesburg – Pretoria) in 2010.
The recently launched 2011 edition of the OECD’s Regions at a Glance includes for the first time regional statistics from South Africa. Discussions are underway with Statistics South Africa (SSS) on how best to cross-benefit from the SSS-University of Stellenbosch Masters programme on Statistics, Space and City Systems for knowledge generation to define a new statistical agenda for South Africa.
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30. GOVNET is developing links to a number of key continental institutions, including UNECA and the African Governance Initiative, as well as national accountability institutions, to discuss improving donor support to domestic accountability. Multi- stakeholder dialogue on improving donor support to domestic accountability will take place in a number of African Countries, including Mali and Mozambique. On human rights, GOVNET had two consultations in 2010 in Africa (Kenya and Burkina Faso), working with local practitioners and in-country staff from donor agencies to anchor the Draft Principles on Human Rights and Aid Effectiveness in the realities of local contexts.
As part of the initiative to help implement the capacity priorities of the Accra Agenda for Action, the DAC is working with NEPAD and the Africa Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) to tackle systemic constraints and disseminate good practices in capacity development for good governance.
In the area of regulatory reform, Tunisia hosts the Regional Centre of Expertise for Regulatory Quality and has organised several regional training courses on Regulatory Impact Analysis, Public Consultation in the Rule-Making Process and Legal Review of Gender-based Policies.
Key links:
www.oecd.org/dac/governance
www.oecd.org/governance
www.oecd.org/swac/security
www.oecd.org/gov/regionaldevelopment
3.3 Business Integrity in the Extractive Sector
The OECD is working closely with the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) and its Member countries (including the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Rwanda) to promote responsible business in the extractive sector and to break the ‘resource curse’ that perpetuates underdevelopment and violent conflict. The OECD Pilot Project in the Mining and Minerals Sector is intended to clarify the nature of corporate due diligence and develop user-friendly practical guidance in the mining and minerals sector in conflict zones and other high-risk areas. The work is carried out through a multi-stakeholder OECD-hosted working group that includes OECD and African countries, international organisations, regional organisations, metal traders and suppliers, and experts.
In 2011, OECD Ministers adopted the Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas. The OECD, the ICGLR and the UN Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo are working together to implement the Guidance in Africa’s Great Lakes region.
Key links:
www.oecd.org/daf/investment/mining
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31. 3.4 Corporate Governance
The importance of corporate governance in Africa is recognised by the fact that, together with economic and political governance, it is one of the three pillars of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). In establishing the APRM, the AU endorsed the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance as a relevant self-assessment benchmark. The OECD Guidelines on Corporate Governance have also been used as a reference for corporate governance codes in some African countries, including Egypt and South Africa.
The OECD collaborates closely with regional and international institutions working to develop better corporate governance in both the private sector and state-owned enterprises (SOEs), including the Global Corporate Governance Forum, the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, NEPAD and the AfDB.
Key links:
www.oecd.org/daf/corporateaffairs
www.oecd.org/daf/corporateaffairs/soe
www.oecd.org/daf/corporateaffairs/soe/africa
South Africa
The OECD has established a Southern African Network on Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), to which South Africa has served as anchor since the network was first launched in Cape Town in 2008. The network supports SOE corporate governance reforms through policy dialogue among representatives of Southern African and OECD countries. Discussions are based on the OECD Guidelines on Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises.
The OECD is supporting the South African Presidential SOE Review Committee’s current review of governance and ownership arrangements for South Africa’s SOEs. In December 2010, the two bodies organised a seminar examining international practices related to ownership and governance of SOEs, showcasing the experiences not only of OECD Member countries, but also those of economies from other OECD regional networks in Asia and Southern Africa. The OECD also supports the Committee’s Research and Development Unit by providing access to OECD’s comparative research on these issues.
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32. 4
SOCIETY
4.1 Labour Markets
The OECD has reviewed labour market conditions in South Africa through economic surveys and through comparative work on labour market conditions in emerging economies (published in the Employment Outlook). The 2010 edition of the Employment Outlook features a chapter on how labour markets in key emerging economies have evolved during the recent global economic downturn and identifies the main labour market and social policy challenges they face. In particular, it highlighted numerous structural vulnerabilities in the social protection systems of these economies.
An important challenge in designing effective social protection systems in emerging economies is to ensure that these systems do not weaken incentives for work. This was the focus of the chapter on emerging economies in the 2011 edition of the Employment Outlook which provides an in-depth analysis of the role of social assistance for labour market incentives in the case of South Africa, a country with a relatively comprehensive and generous system of cash transfers.
As part of an in-depth study on labour market developments and inequality, jointly undertaken with the European Commission (EU), the OECD organised two international conferences on the role of recent labour market trends for the evolution of poverty and inequality in South Africa (as well as in Brazil, China and India) and the role that employment and social policies can play to alleviate poverty and reduce inequality. This work culminated with the 2010 OECD report Tackling Inequalities in Brazil, China, India and South Africa: What Role for Labour Market and Social Policies?
The OECD helps shape not only economic policy, but also social policy in areas such as labour markets, education and training, health and migration, which are all essential to achieving sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction, and responding to the challenges of globalisation.
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33. Key links:
www.oecd.org/els
www.oecd.org/els/social/inequality/emergingeconomies
4.2 Education and Training
The OECD provides policy support for better education and human capital development in a number of countries in Africa. For example, Tunisia is participating in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Following the success of the joint OECD/World Bank Review of Higher Education Policies in Egypt, the new Egyptian government has requested a review of pre-university and vocational education and training and is exploring the possibility for a review of higher education in regional and city development in the north governorates of Upper Egypt.
The Egyptian National Authority for Quality Assurance and Accreditation of Education is a regular member of the Institutional Management in Higher Education (IMHE) Programme. Egypt is also participating in the OECD feasibility study for an Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes (AHELO) and is involved in the three strands of its work: Generic Skills, Economics and Engineering. Higher education institutions from Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria and South Africa are also members of the Institutional Management in Higher Education (IMHE) Programme.
The OECD Programme on Innovation, Higher Education and Research for Development (IHERD), launched in September 2011, is a multi-year programme supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). The overall objective of the Programme is to increase strategic and coherent investments in innovation, higher education and research relevant to development on a global level, through increasing the policy relevance of research, better informed policy making, and policy coherence in investment in innovation, higher education and research by national governments and international funders. Africa will be a focal point of the Programme that also aims to build partnerships with African countries.
In the context of its overall effort in capacity development, the OECD/DAC is contributing to a joint international effort to generate good practice guidance for training and ‘alternative approaches to learning for capacity development’, with particular emphasis on Africa.
Key links:
www.oecd.org/edu/nme
www.africaneconomicoutlook.org
www.oecd.org/dac/capacitydevelopment
South Africa
The South African province of Free State is participating in the OECD review of higher education in regional and city development. The report will be published in 2012. Cape Town University of Technology (CPUT), a member of the Cape Higher Education Consortium, participated in the OECD reviews on quality teaching in 2010 and 2011.
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34. 4.3 Health
The 14th APF meeting, held in Toronto in April 2010, placed special emphasis on progress made in achieving the health MDGs, specifically maternal and child health. Discussions concentrated on the impact of the financial and economic crisis on health, strengthening health systems in Africa, innovative financing, innovative partnerships and science and technology for health.
The 15th APF Meeting, held in Lilongwe in October 2010, analysed progress made on achieving the MDGs in Africa, including health, and concluded that while significant progress had been made towards attaining some MDGs, several commitments by a number of countries had not been fully met, and that there was a need to accelerate progress over the next five years to ensure that the MDG targets are met.
Key links:
www.oecd.org/sti/biotechnology/nma
www.africapartnershipforum.org
4.4 Migration
The OECD publishes an annual International Migration Outlook, which monitors migration flows and policies in OECD countries. In 2008, more than 290,000 immigrants from Africa came to OECD countries, representing 5.4% of all inflows.
The database on immigrants in OECD countries (DIOC) provides estimates of ‘brain-drain’ from more than 200 countries of origin. This database has been recently extended to cover non-Member countries of destination, including South Africa and several other African countries.
International mobility of health workers has grown rapidly in the past decades. Medical brain drain from African countries exacerbates the health workforce crisis. To better monitor and understand the causes and consequences of health worker flows, the OECD in collaboration with the World Health Organisation has carried out a project on health workforce and migration, including a collection of data on doctors and nurses working in OECD countries, by detailed place of birth and place of training. Recent data by place of training is also available on African doctors and nurses.
The OECD Development Centre works extensively on migration, looking at two areas in particular: (1) the governance of international migration at the global, regional, national and local levels, and (2) the link between emigration and labour markets in developing countries. Its work currently focuses on West Africa, with specific studies conducted on the impact of migration policies
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35. on rural welfare in Burkina Faso, and on integration policies in South-South migration contexts in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. These studies and others are used as a basis for policy dialogue among policymakers in the region.
Key links:
www.oecd.org/migration/imo
www.oecd.org/swac/migration
www.oecd.org/health/workforce
South Africa
According to official data, there were an estimated 1.2 million immigrants in South Africa in 2007. A large number of immigrants have since arrived from Zimbabwe. Since 2008, South Africa is the largest recipient of individual applications for asylum, worldwide. The UNHCR estimates that South Africa was hosting 417,700 asylum seekers at the end of 2010.
Emigration from South Africa is mainly towards the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Canada. Insecurity and poorer working conditions in some occupations are among the main reasons for emigration. While absolute numbers are now rather low, emigration concerns mainly qualified and highly qualified South Africans. DIOC includes detailed information on people born in South Africa and living in the OECD area, as well as data on migrants in South Africa.
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36. 4.5 Income Distribution and Poverty Reduction
The OECD has been studying trends in South African income distribution and poverty since the end of Apartheid. In 2010, the OECD issued a Social, Employment and Migration Working Paper. An expert seminar was subsequently organised in Cape Town with South African researchers and government representatives along with OECD experts to validate the findings of the report and to discuss policy implications.
In June 2011, the OECD organised jointly with the National Planning Commission a Policy Forum in Pretoria on ‘How to address Inequality and Poverty in South Africa?’ This Forum brought together high- level policymakers from the South African administration with representatives from Brazil, France and the OECD to discuss policies and strategies to reduce poverty and inequality.
Key links:
www.oecd.org/els/social
www.oecd.org/els/social/inequality
www.oecd.org/els/social/inequality/emergingeconomies
Africa can benefit from OECD’s policy tools to reduce poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth. In turn, the Organization’s knowledge pool can be enriched by the region’s challenges and unique experience.
Closer co-operation between the OECD and Africa will prove useful in the search for a more inclusive globalisation process that may benefit all. HE Agustín García-López,
Ambassador of Mexico to the OECD
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37. 4.6 Internet Economy
Creation of local digital content
In 2011, the OECD partnered with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Internet Society (ISOC) to examine the relationship between Internet infrastructure, Internet prices and the development of local digital content.
The project included separate case studies on the development of local content in seven countries including Egypt, Kenya and Senegal, and a review of the mobile sector in Uganda. This research showed a strong correlation between the development of network infrastructure and the growth of local content, even after controlling for economic and demographic factors.
In addition, the research found a significant relationship between the development of international Internet capacity and the price of local Internet access. The results indicate that more developed local Internet markets tend to report lower international prices for bandwidth and vice versa: markets with more intense international Internet traffic tend to report lower local prices.
Egypt: the cost of cutting Internet access
The Internet and communications infrastructure is a key platform to conduct business, connect people and provide government services. During the popular uprising in Egypt in January 2011, Internet and communications services were shut down for five days. The OECD estimated and published the direct costs of the shutdown at USD 90 million over the period of five days, or on a yearly scale, for approximately 3-4% of GDP. The OECD figures were only direct effects but the indirect effects of the shutdown on the large call centre outsourcing business in Egypt (worth USD 1 billion per year) could be significantly larger. This initial work in Egypt was the beginning of a new OECD project to measure the size of the Internet economy.
4.7 Child Labour
Launched in 2008 at the initiative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Development Co-operation of Belgium, the SWAC Secretariat co-ordinated a regional initiative to combat the worst forms of child labour on West African cocoa farms. A joint position paper, signed by 14 key stakeholders, highlights the need for a regional approach. A guidebook on best practices, elaborated by the SWAC Secretariat in partnership with the International Cocoa Initiative, will be presented at a regional stakeholder meeting in November 2011.
Key links:
www.oecd.org/swac/cocoa
35

38. 5
CLIMATE CHANGE
5.1 Climate Change
Climate change and its related challenges are a major focus of OECD work. This includes work on carbon markets and climate finance, effective and efficient policy mixes for both climate change adaptation and mitigation, and support for discussions in the climate negotiations on such issues as improving transparency of countries’ emissions, mitigation actions, and financing, scaling-up access to the Clean Development Mechanism, and establishing low-emission development strategies. Implementing the OECD Green Growth Strategy will also be instrumental in connecting green growth policy challenges and opportunities with those germane to climate change.
Climate Change was identified as a key issue for Africa at the OECD joint meeting of Environment and Development Ministers in 2006, where leaders endorsed a Framework for Common Action around Shared Goals and a Declaration on Integrating Climate Change Adaptation into Development Co-operation. This was followed by a Policy Statement and Policy Guidance on Integrating Climate Change Adaptation into Development Co-operation, which was adopted by the Members of the OECD DAC and Environment Policy Committee at their High-Level Meeting in May 2009.
The Policy Guidance on Integrating Climate Change Adaptation into Development Co-operation provides recommendations on how to integrate climate change adaptation into donor activities, as well as into national, sectoral and local planning processes. It shows the impact of climate change on Africa and explains how to ensure greater resilience to climate change and adapt to it. In particular, the guidance includes examples of adaptation actions
36
Climate change is a major global challenge. The OECD has been working on climate change economics and policy for many years. Africa contributes least to the problem, yet it is the continent most affected. The OECD supports policy makers in Africa in identifying challenges and developing the policy responses required, and advises them on their implementation.

39. from Cameroon, Malawi, Kenya and South Africa. Germany’s GTZ and the OECD developed a training course based on this guidance which can be of use to African decision makers.
Economic Aspects of Adaptation to Climate Change: Costs, Benefits and Policy Instruments, published in 2008, assesses the costs and benefits of adaptation. Harmonising Climate Risk Management Tools provides an overview of the various tools available to development assistance projects for conducting analyses of climate change risks and offers suggestions which could improve the use of such risk screening and assessment tools.
The OECD has recently launched a project to support countries in assessing and promoting good practice policies to attract private finance and investment for low-carbon, climate resilient development. The project examines areas such as financial sector regulations and investment and climate change policies, and will identify good practice policies to address investment barriers in different country contexts, including in Africa.
Africa is playing an increasingly important role in the international climate negotiations under the UNFCCC, with South Africa hosting the COP17 in December 2011. The OECD regularly invites participation from African delegates to Climate Change Expert Group seminars on key issues in the climate change negotiations. The seminars in 2011 focused on carbon markets and the issue of transparency (measurable, reportable and verifiable climate actions, commitments and support), and benefitted from the active participation of delegates from several African countries.
Climate change, its impact on Africa, and appropriate policy responses from G8/OECD and African governments to adapt to these effects, have been a major focus for the meetings of the APF, which helped African countries build a common perspective to speak with one voice at the COP15 UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009. To this effect, the APF Support Unit co-ordinated the preparation of papers on Enhanced Action on Technology Development and Transfer and Carbon Finance in Africa. Current climate change and environmental sustainability challenges facing Africa and policy options are analysed in the UNECA/OECD 2011 Mutual Review of Development Effectiveness in Africa.
The SWAC Secretariat co-ordinated a project funded by the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs and the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office on the Security Implications of Climate Change in the Sahel (SICCS), which aimed to increase understanding of the linkages and impacts of climate change and security in the Sahel and on how climate change could contribute to future insecurity.
Key links:
www.oecd.org/env/cc
www.oecd.org/env/mrv
www.oecd.org/dac
www.oecd.org/swac/climatechange
www.africapartnershipforum.org
www.oecd.org/apf/mrde
37

40. 5.2 Other Environmental Issues
The OECD has been working together with the European Union (EU) Water Initiative in several African countries to support the financial sustainability of the water sector. A project on strategic financial planning in water supply and sanitation in Lesotho was completed in 2009. Launched at the 5th World Water Forum in March 2009, Managing Water for All – an OECD Perspective on Pricing and Financing includes lessons learned from several African country experiences as well as new data on water aid to Africa.
Case studies from South Africa and Uganda will be presented at the OECD Global Forum on Environment in October 2011, which focuses on the topic of ‘Making Water Reform Happen’. Several African countries, together with other developing and OECD countries have been invited to join discussions on effective ways to implement reform in the water sector.
The OECD is also examining policy approaches to water security as an engine of growth in South Africa, which was discussed at the UN Water Conference ‘Water in the Green Economy in Practice: Towards Rio+20’ in Zaragoza on 3-5 October, 2011.
The OECD, together with environment and development Ministries and agencies, governments and institutions from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Uganda and other developing countries are working together to develop Policy Guidance on Chemicals, Nanomaterials, and Biotechnology
South Africa is a full participant in the OECD Mutual Acceptance of Data (MAD) system, a multilateral agreement that shares the results of a variety of safety tests done on chemicals and chemical products across adhering countries. The country has been a regular observer in the Chemicals Committee and its subsidiary bodies since 2006.
South Africa has a well established strategy for addressing the emerging field of nanotechnology and nanoscience and has participated actively since 2009 in the OECD’s programme on the safety of manufactured nanomaterials. Currently, it is leading the safety testing of gold nanoparticles.
South Africa also plays an active role in the Task Force for the Safety of Novel Foods and Feeds, which deals with products derived from genetically engineered plants. It led the drafting of the food safety consensus documents on cassava and on sweet potato, published in 2009 and 2010 respectively.
The country also provides expertise on other key tropical crops such as sugarcane. South Africa is strengthening its participation in the Working Group on the Harmonisation of Regulatory Oversight in Biotechnology which focuses on environmental safety assessment. Currently, it is leading the drafting of an environmental safety consensus document on sorghum.
38

41. Capacity Development for Environmental Management, to be released in 2012. As part of this effort, a workshop took place in Malawi in 2010 on Aid Effectiveness and the Environment, which focused on integrating environment issues into national planning and budgeting.
Key links:
www.oecd.org/env/policies/database
www.oecd-nea.org
South Africa
South Africa has requested an OECD Environmental Performance Review (EPR) of the country, which will be carried out in 2012 and published in 2013. The review will focus on progress in achieving national and international environmental goals and will identify positive achievements as well as areas for further progress. OECD EPRs provide mutually agreed recommendations to support environmental progress and reforms in the reviewed countries, in line with good international practices.
South Africa has also been actively involved in OECD work related to Tax and Environment, and has provided inputs to the OECD/ EEA database on policy instruments used for environmental policy.
South Africa’s nuclear safety authority participates in the Multinational Design Evaluation Programme (MDEP), a unique international initiative with the aim of developing innovative approaches to leverage the resources and knowledge of national regulatory authorities reviewing new reactor power plant designs.
The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) acts as the Technical Secretariat for the MDEP. South Africa participated in two major international conferences that the OECD/NEA organised with the French Government, firstly, in March 2010 on Access to Civil Nuclear Energy and secondly, in June 2011, in the G8-NEA Ministerial Seminar on Nuclear Safety and the Forum of Regulators, dedicated to define international measures after the Fukushima accident.
We must produce an environment conducive to attracting investment, especially in regional infrastructure. Infrastructure is the key factor to facilitate trade and the movement of goods in order to improve the lives of people in our region.
The SADC Secretariat is pleased to be an official partner of the project of investment reviews, ‘Unlocking Southern Africa’s investment potential’, which the OECD is undertaking with Southern African countries. This should help to disseminate the results among the SADC member states and promote additional reforms in a region whose growth path is similar to those of many emerging economies. Dr Tomaz A. Salomão,
Executive Secretary of the Southern African Development Community (SADC)
39

42. 6
SURVEYS AND STATISTICS
The OECD publishes biannual Economic Outlooks with analysis and projections for major world economies, plus almost yearly Economic Surveys of each Member country, and of selected partner economies, including South Africa. It is one of the world’s largest and most reliable sources of comparative statistical, economic and social data, with databases spanning areas as diverse as national accounts, economic indicators, trade, employment, migration, education, energy, health and development assistance. In addition, the Development Centre publishes yearly African Economic Outlooks, jointly with other international organisations.
6.1 Economic Surveys
The African Economic Outlook (AEO) is a joint undertaking by the OECD Development Centre, AfDB, UNECA, and since 2010, UNDP. Using comparative data and analysis on Africa’s economic, political and social trends, and including original macro-economic forecasts, it helps identify successful policies. The AEO currently covers 51 African economies out of 54, together accounting for over 98% of Africa’s population and over 99% of its economic output. It also includes individual country notes, a continental overview and in-depth thematic analyses.
The OECD’s annual Going for Growth publication provides an overview of structural policy developments in OECD countries and six key emerging market economies from a comparative perspective. Based on a broad set of indicators of structural policies and performance, each edition takes stock of recent progress in implementing policy reforms to improve labour productivity and utilisation that were identified as priorities in the previous edition. The set of internationally comparable indicators provided enables countries to assess their economic performance and structural policies in a broad range of areas. In 2011, South Africa was included in Going for Growth for the first time.
The ‘West Africa Gateway’ aims to serve as a platform for exchanging and sharing information between SWAC Members and any person or institution concerned by West African issues. Due for launch in late 2011, it is a resource pool that includes statistics, maps, regional country profiles, thematic analyses, news briefs to which one can subscribe by RSS feed, a contact and document database.
40

43. Key links:
www.africaneconomicoutlook.org
www.oecd.org/southafrica
www.oecd.org/swac/westafricaobserver
www.westafricagateway.org
South Africa
Within the context of the African Economic Outlook, the
Development Centre annually assesses the performance of the
South African economy in its regional context. Macroeconomic,
structural, social and political aspects are covered.
The 2010 OECD Economic Survey of South Africa highlighted the
country’s importance in the region not only as the predominant
economic power but also as an economic and political model
for other African countries. The Economic Survey reviewed
the impact of the global crisis on the South African economy
and discussed a number of issues linked to raising long-term
growth rates, including refinements to the macroeconomic
policy framework, while its in-depth structural chapter focused
on policy recommendations to increase South Africa’s low
employment rate.
Since 2008, the biannual OECD Economic Outlook has included
a country section on South Africa, with analysis of recent
economic developments and current policy issues, together
with projections for selected economic indicators.
41
South Africa believes that the Enhanced
Engagement process serves as an opportunity
to build partnership with the OECD
through a strengthened relationship and
a more structured interaction, based on
mutual interests. The success of Enhanced
Engagement will depend on our willingness
to establish mutually beneficial areas of work
and monitor progress.
HE Dolana Msimang
Ambassador of South Africa to France

44. 6.2 Statistics
The OECD is host to the Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st Century (PARIS21), which provides support for African countries in the development of their statistical capacity. It helps countries design, implement and monitor National Strategies for the Development of Statistics (NSDS). Its activities include methodological guidance on the design and implementation of these strategies, co-ordination with international partners on resource mobilisation, and the archiving and dissemination of existing survey micro data. PARIS21 also provides support for the mainstreaming of statistics into high-level policy discussions, and conducts annual surveys of technical and financial support to statistics in all developing countries.
The OECD Development Centre and the OECD Statistics Directorate are organising, in association with the Planning Commission of Morocco (Haut-Commissariat au Plan), AfDB and ECA, an African Conference on Measuring Well-Being and Fostering the Progress of Societies, to take place in Morocco in April 2012. This conference aims to promote a more holistic approach to development, and to leverage statistical capacities in the region to promote the elaboration of data and indicators capturing the most salient dimensions of well-being for countries in the region. The outcome of this regional conference will then be presented at the 4th OECD World Forum on Statistics, Knowledge and Policies, in Delhi, India, in October 2012
Key links:
www.paris21.org
www.oecd.org/progress
www.oecd.org/statistics
South Africa
As a key partner, the OECD has intensified efforts to integrate data from South Africa into its databases. South Africa is an official observer to the Committee on Statistics and also participates regularly in Working Parties on National Accounts and on Trade in Goods and Services.
South African data has been included in the flagship monthly publication Main Economic Indicators (MEI) and the OECD Factbook for a number of years, but co-operative work is now underway with Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) on full integration of National Accounts and other data on a regular basis.
The OECD also partnered with StatsSA and the World Bank to organise the 4th International Seminar on Innovative Approaches to Turn Statistics into Knowledge, in Cape Town, in December 2010.
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45. 7
DEVELOPMENT CO-OPERATION
Within the OECD, the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) has an established role on key issues of development co-operation. These include the monitoring of aid flows, the promotion of improvements in development effectiveness, the conduct of peer reviews of donor agencies, and the development of policy frameworks and guidance on specific issues.
7.1 Monitoring Aid Flows to Africa
As part of its core task of providing comparable and reliable statistical data, the OECD publishes detailed statistics and analysis of aid flows to Africa as well as globally. These are presented in the form of charts and comparative tables, highlighting specific features and main trends in aid delivery to Africa (see Annex 2).
The OECD now also collects data on donors’ future spending plans that, when combined with statistical analyses of aid fragmentation and concentration, builds evidence to address existing aid fragmentation and improve donor division of labour. The OECD also analyses the sector allocation of aid. These analyses help compare recipient countries’ specific needs with the types and sectors of aid they receive.
The OECD annually collects, analyses and publishes data on aid and non- aid (trade, direct investment, remittances, illicit flows, peacekeeping expenditures) flows to about 30 Sub-Saharan African countries in situations of fragility, to ‘ensure that fragile states are not left behind’.
7.2 Mutual Accountability
Jointly with UNECA, the OECD undertook the 2010 Mutual Review of Development Effectiveness in Africa report (MRDE) launched by OECD Secretary General, Angel Gurría and UNECA’s Executive Secretary, Abdoulie Janneh at the UN MDG Review Summit in September 2010. This review is an exercise in ‘mutual accountability’ – assessing what has been done to deliver commitments, and a review of ‘development effectiveness’ – assessing what results have
43

46. been achieved. It covers four main topics: sustainable economic growth, investing in people, good governance and development finance.
The 15th APF meeting, held in Lilongwe in October 2010, focused on monitoring the delivery of development commitments by Africa and its development partners to achieve the MDGs, using the MRDE as the main background document. The 16th APF, held in Paris in April 2011, addressed private investment and job creation, and examined the key preconditions for successful economic growth, including regional and market integration, development of infrastructure.
The APF Support Unit, which prepares a number of publications for the APF such as those on development finance, responsible investment, corporate responsibility and private sector development, works in close partnership with the NEPAD Agency, UNECA, the AU and development partners to organise these bi-annual meetings and thematic APF Special Sessions.
Key links:
www.africapartnershipforum.org
www.oecd.org/apf/mrde
7.3 Improving Development Effectiveness
The OECD/DAC Working Party on Aid Effectiveness (WP-EFF) is an international partnership of 80 donors and partner countries working to ensure aid is most effective in helping to reduce poverty. It oversees the implementation of the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and 2008 Accra Agenda for Action. The Working Party is now preparing for the Fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, to be hosted by Korea in Busan in November 2011.
The WP-EFF is also mandated to assess progress towards the objectives of the Paris Declaration including monitoring the implementation of commitments made in Paris and Accra. The third and final round of monitoring supported by the DAC Secretariat took place in early 2011 with over 39 countries participating from Africa. Ten African countries had participated in the in-depth Evaluation of the Paris Declaration in 2010. The results of both the monitoring and the evaluation inform future commitments expected to be reached at the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness.
Other OECD-supported work, focused on public procurement and financial management (co-chaired by Malawi and Zambia), strongly involves African countries. The DAC Secretariat along with the co-chairs and members of the Working Party, have facilitated broad country-led dialogues to implement country-specific commitments to improve the effectiveness of aid for development (including in Mali, Ghana and Rwanda, in 2010).
44

47. Key links:
www.busanhlf4.org
www.oecd.org/dac/effectiveness
7.4 Developing Policy Frameworks
The OECD is engaged in policy analysis and dialogue on key development issues. Some specific examples include:
• Policy work on Armed Violence Reduction (AVR), with a strong focus on Africa. This is being followed up with work on how to reduce urban violence, youth violence and to enhance SSR-AVR inter-linkages.
• Dialogue on Security System Reform (SSR), leading to the development of a handbook on tackling the challenges of insecurity and development in Africa, followed by in-country consultations in Burundi, Guinea Bissau and the Central African Republic, and practical training courses. SSR work on gender and monitoring and evaluation is now underway.
• An International Dialogue on Peace Building and State Building was launched in December 2008. It comprises donor countries of the OECD/DAC, as well as other donor governments and partner countries. The International Dialogue is currently co-chaired by the Democratic Republic of Congo. Other African partners include the AfDB, AU, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Côte d´Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, South Sudan and Togo.
The OECD is developing an analytical toolbox to improve the design and implementation of Aid-for-Trade programmes, with a focus on Least Developed Countries (LDCs), most of which are in Africa.
South Africa
South Africa is a leading member of the WP-EFF, leading work under the Task Team on South-South Co-operation which gives new recognition to the importance of Southern providers of development co-operation. South Africa shares its experience both as a recipient of aid and as a recent provider.
South Africa has also co-ordinated work on ‘responsible and transparent aid’ aimed at improving aid transparency and predictability, reducing aid fragmentation and improving the use of conditionality.
As it scales up its co-operation programmes, South Africa is seeking to strengthen its capacity to manage assistance. In order to gain an insight into the aid management practices of an OECD country, South Africa participated as an observer in the 2010 DAC Peer Review of New Zealand’s development co-operation.
45

48. It has established jointly with the WTO a monitoring system on Aid-for-Trade to improve its effectiveness.
The OECD is continuing its work to assist donor and partner countries in using the Paris Declaration and the Accra Agenda for Action as tools to advance gender equality and to empower poor women and men, based on the DAC Guiding Principles for Aid Effectiveness, Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (2008). Two practical briefs on managing for gender equality results – in donor agencies and in partner countries – were developed in 2009, using examples from Mozambique, Zambia, Uganda and Ghana.
The DAC and the Learning Network on Capacity Development (LenCD) are supporting key African partners, including the African Capacity Building Foundation and NEPAD to set up a broad based learning platform in capacity development for Africa.
Key links:
www.oecd.org/dac
www.oecd.org/incaf
www.oecd.org/apf/mrde
www. oecd.org/fsprinciples
www.oecd.org/dac/capacitydevelopment
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49. ANNEX 1Participation of African countries in official OECD bodies
Below is a list of African countries that participate as full participants or regular observers in OECD Committees and other bodies.
Most African countries along with the AU, NEPAD Agency, AfDB and other key institutions working on African development are members of the APF. Regional organisations, such as WAEMU, CILSS and ECOWAS are members of and financial contributors to the Sahel and West Africa Club.
REGULAR OBSERVER
• Steel Committee
• Committee for Information, Computer and Communications Policy
• Public Governance Committee
• Tourism Committee
• Committee on Consumer Policy
• Competition Committee
• Education Policy Committee
MAURITIUS
FULL PARTICIPANT
• Governing Board of the Development Centre
MOROCCO
FULL PARTICIPANT
• Governing Board of the Development Centre
PARTICIPANT
• Investment Committee, for work on the Declaration on International Investment and Multinational Enterprises
REGULAR OBSERVER
• Public Governance Committee
• Territorial Development Policy Committee
SENEGAL
FULL PARTICIPANT
• Governing Board of the Development Centre
CAPE VERDE
FULL PARTICIPANT
• Governing Board of the Development Centre
EGYPT
FULL PARTICIPANT
• Governing Board of the Development Centre
• Freedom of Investment, National Security and Strategic Industries’ Project of the Investment Committee
PARTICIPANT
• Investment Committee, for work on the Declaration on International Investment and Multinational Enterprises
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50. 48
SOUTH AFRICA
FULL PARTICIPANT
• Governing Board of the Development Centre
• Working Group on Bribery in International Business Transactions of the Investment Committee
• Joint Meeting of the Chemicals Committee and the Working Party on Chemicals, Pesticides and Biotechnology, as far as it relates to the Mutual Acceptance of Data
• Working Group of National Co-ordinators of the Test Guidelines Programme
• Working Group on Good Laboratory Practice (EPOC)
• Co-operative Action Programme on Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED) and its Directing Committee
REGULAR OBSERVER
• Joint Meeting of the Chemicals Committee and the Working Party on Chemicals, Pesticides and Biotechnology
• Joint Working Party on Agriculture and Trade
• Steel Committee
• Committee on Statistics
• Competition Committee
• Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy
• Committee on Fiscal Affairs
• Committee for Information, Computer and Communications Policy
• Working Party on Private Pensions (IPPC)
• Committee for Agriculture, its Working Party on Agricultural Policies and Markets and Commodity Groups
• Territorial Development Policy Committee
The following African countries are members of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes:
• Botswana
• Ghana
• Kenya
• Liberia
• Nigeria
• Seychelles
• South Africa.

51. ANNEX 2Aid to Africa at a Glance
ODA TO Africa - Summary
1. Top 10 ODA receipts by recipient
USD million, net disbursements in 2009
1
Ethiopia
3 820
8%
2
Tanzania
2 934
6%
3
Cote d’Ivoire
2 366
5%
4
Congo, Dem. Rep.
2 354
5%
5
Sudan
2 289
5%
6
Mozambique.
2 013
4%
7
Uganda
1 786
4%
8
Kenya
1 778
4%
9
Nigeria
1 659
3%
10
Ghana
1 583
3%
Other recipients
25 028
53%
Total
47 609
100%
2. Top 10 ODA donors
USD million, net disbursements in 2009
1
United States
7 672
16%
2
EU institutions
5 606
12%
3
IDA
4 823
10%
4
France
4 092
9%
5
United Kingdom
2 795
6%
6
AfDF
2 582
5%
7
Germany
2 084
4%
8
IMF (SAF, ESAF, PRGF)
2 076
4%
9
Spain
1 578
3%
10
Japan
1 499
3%
Other donors
12 803
27%
Total
47 609
100%
49

52. 5 252
2 229
4 142
8 123
27 863
Least Developed Countries
Other Low Income
Lower Middle Income
Upper Middle Income
Unspecified
4. ODA by income group
USD million, 2009, net disbursements
5. Sectors in 2009
Commitments
Trends in ODA 2008 2009
%
change
ODA net disbursements
(2008 UDS million) 43 926 49 081 11.7%
ODA Commitments
(2008 UDS million) 55 349 62 283 12.5%
Population
(Thousands) 985 042 1 007 904 2.3%
Net ODA per capita (USD) 44.6 47.2 -
3. Trends in ODA
50

53. Receipts 2007 2008 2009
Net ODA (USD million) 807 1 125 1 078
Bilateral share (gross ODA) 79% 79% 81%
Net ODA / GNI 0.3% 0.4% 0.4%
Net Private Flows
(USD million) 12 604 5 505 -377
Top Ten Donors of gross ODA
(2008-09 average) USD million
1 United States 451
2 EC Institutions 159
3 Germany 130
4 United Kingdom 93
5 Netherlands 43
6 Global Fund 42
7 France 35
8 Norway 27
9 Denmark 24
10 Ireland 22
ANNEX 3
Aid at a Glance for South Africa
For reference 2007 2008 2009
Population (million) 48.3 48.8 49.3
GNI per capita (Atlas USD) 5 760 5 870 5 770 Bilateral ODA by Sector (2008-09)
51

54. 52
Who’s who
OECD and Africa: Contact Points
OECD Directorates
Global Relations Secretariat
Relations with non-Member economieswww.oecd.org/globalrelations
ccnmcont@oecd.org
Development Co-Operation
Monitoring Aid Flows to Africa, Improving Development Effectiveness, Developing Policy Frameworks, Climate Changewww.oecd.org/dac
dac.contact@oecd.org
Economics
Surveys and statisticswww.oecd.org/eco
eco.contact@oecd.org
Education Education and trainingwww.oecd.org/edu
edu.contact@oecd.org
Employment, Labour and Social Affairs
Migrationwww.oecd.org/els
els.contact@oecd.org
Environment
Climate Changewww.oecd.org/env
env.contact@oecd.org
Financial and Enterprise Affairs
Investment, Public debt management,
Fighting corruption, Corporate governancewww.oecd.org/daf
daf.contact@oecd.org
Public Governance
and Territorial Development Budget reform, Fighting corruption, Public
governance and regional developmentwww.oecd.org/gov
gov.contact@oecd.org
Science, Technology and Industry
Innovation, Health www.oecd.org/sti
sti.contact@oecd.org
Statistics
Surveys and statistics,
Measuring the progress of societieswww.oecd.org/std
progress@oecd.org
Centre for Tax Policy and Administration
Taxwww.oecd.org/ctp
ctpa.contact@oecd.org
Trade and Agriculture
Trade, Agriculturewww.oecd.org/tad
tad.contact@oecd.org

55. Find out more about OECD work with Africa: www.oecd.org/africa
53
Other Bodies
Africa Partnership Forum Support Unit
Investment, Trade, Agriculture, Climate
Change, Climate Financing, Peace and
Security, Financing for Development, Crisis
impact and MDG Monitoring
www.africapartnershipforum.org
apf.contact@oecd.org
Development Centre
Surveys and statistics, Education
and training, Migration
www.oecd.org/dev
dev.contact@oecd.org
www.africaeconomicoutlook.org
Paris21
Surveys and statistics
www.paris21.org
contact@paris21.org
Sahel and West Africa Club Secretariat
Agriculture and food security, regional
security implications of climate change;
child labour; land investment and tenure
policies; migration; and cross-border co-operation
www.westafricaclub.org
swac.contact@oecd.org

56. © October 2011: Global Relations Secretariat, Africa Partnership Forum Support Unit
Original design and layout: AdNova, www.ad-nova.com
Photos: Daniel Nicholson, Nacho Fradejas, ILO, Worldbank, Noora Kero, Nawal Hassan RCRC National Society
The Global Relations Secretariat (GRS) is part of the OECD’s General Secretariat and oversees the strategic orientations of the OECD’s global relations with non-Members.
2, rue André Pascal
F-75775 Paris Cedex 16
France
Tel: +33 1 45 24 82 00
Fax: +33 1 45 24 91 77
E-mail: ccnmcont@oecd.org
Website: www.oecd.org/globalrelations
The Africa Partnership Forum (APF) was established in November 2003 as a way of broadening the existing dialogue to encompass Africa’s major bilateral and multilateral development partners. The APF’s mission is to strengthen partnership efforts in favour of Africa’s development.
2, rue André Pascal
F-75775 Paris Cedex 16
France
Tel: +33 1 45 24 87 75
Fax: +33 1 44 30 61 33
E-mail: apf.contact@oecd.org
Website: www.africapartnershipforum.org