Final Statement ICEAIII

From 17 to 19 January 2019, at the Abdou Diouf International Conference Center in Diamniadio, Senegal, the third edition of the International Conference on the Emergence of Africa, CIEA III was held.

The event was graced by the presence of their Excellencies:
- Mr. Macky Sall, President of the Republic of Senegal;
- Mr. Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, President of the Republic of Mali;
- Dr. TUN Mahathir bin Mohamad, Prime Minister of Malaysia;
- Mr. Amadou Gon Coulibaly, Prime Minister of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire;
- Mr. Lee Ju Young, Vice President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea and;
- Mrs. Ségolène Royal, representative of the President of the French Republic.

ICEA III featured the participation of eminent personalities from partner institutions, including Achim STEINER, Administrator of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB), Hans Peter Lankes, Vice President of the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank Group.

Also participating in this meeting were the leaders of international and African institutions through the African Union, ECA, ECOWAS, WAEMU, BOAD, BCEAO and eminent personalities from the private sector, academia, experts and representatives of civil society.

More than 1300 decision-makers and experts from around fifty countries around the world have discussed the issue of "Emergence, the Private Sector and Inclusiveness".

The work of this third edition, which started with a high-level session bringing together heads of state and government, heads of institutions, and business leaders, highlighted six major underlying themes the issue of the conference. These are:
• promote stability, both politically and securely, but also maintain the long-term strategy of emergence;
• Mobilize internal resources and encourage foreign direct investment (FDI) in strategic sectors with technology transfer;
• Develop human capital with special access to training-employment adequacy;
• Establish a network of local SMEs / SMIs through better access to financing and better consideration of local content in development projects;
• Broaden the size of African markets through country connectivity infrastructure and business development reforms and;
• Initiate a sustainable industrialization dynamic for a better valuation of raw materials.

These themes were further explored in discussions in plenary sessions and parallel panels that provided answers to questions relating to the promotion of the private sector as a driver of emergence, and of inclusiveness, a guarantee of the sustainability of emergence.

Following the discussions, the Dakar Conference made the following recommendations to stakeholders.

States are invited to:
• establish the conditions for political, institutional and security stability and build a shared long-term vision that transcends political mandates;
• Maintain efforts to reform the business environment, build productive support infrastructure and connect to markets, as well as training to ensure the employability of young people;
• Pay particular attention to tax reforms, with a view to better mobilizing domestic resources and;
• Promote the advent of national and regional champions, and develop intra-African trade through access to expanded markets.

For its part, the private sector has welcomed the willingness of states to support the rise of national champions. As such, it will have to be part of a long-term dynamic and exploit the opportunities offered by innovative public-private partnerships.

In addition, the private sector is expected to play its full role in the process of enhancing African products through natural resource processing and the use of innovation.

Also, it recognizes the importance of its role in the implementation of initiatives promoting the development of labor productivity as well as social and territorial inclusion.

The technical and financial partners reiterate their support for the efforts of States to formulate Emergence Strategies and to mobilize additional financial resources.

They also reaffirm their willingness to support private initiative, through the revitalization of the corresponding windows.

The conference recognized the importance of the sustainability and institutionalization of the meetings of the ICEA and recommends that the States, the private sector and the partner institutions work to make it a powerful lever of exchange of experiences to guarantee the fulfillment of their ambitions.

Thus, the fourth edition of the ICEA to be held in March 2021 in Abidjan will provide an opportunity to evaluate and learn from this initiative.

With this in mind, an Executive Secretary has been appointed to operationalize the ICEA Roadmap as soon as possible.


Diamniadio, January 19, 2019.

THE CONFERENCE