Government officials and experts recently converged in Marrakech, Morocco, to discuss building resilience in the face of global economic crisis that has led to rise in food and energy prices.

The delegates from West and North Africa are seeking to work together in addressing the complex challenges facing the two regions. 

The theme for this year’s conference is “Crisis Resilience and Development Sustainability in North and West Africa.”

Alagie Fadera, director of Development and Planning at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, who is the outgoing chairman of West Africa Bureau, outlined some of their achievements which includes training of 110 experts from member states and sub-regional organisation on National Transfer Account (NTA) methodology in 2021. 

“Despite the challenges exacerbated by Covid-19 and Russia-Ukraine war, activities continue to be carried out in accordance with the mandate of the sub-regional office which is to support the inclusive and sustainable development of West Africa by building capacities of member states to integrate the challenges of population dynamics into national policies.”

Hanan Morsy, deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. said the meeting is taking place at a critical time looking at the uncertainty around the world.

She described the period as the unfortunate economic fragmentation including the deepening country level diversion in Africa due to the war in Ukraine which exacerbated the pullout from the pandemic and the ongoing effects of climate change.

She added that the commodity price stock by the war in Ukraine and the pandemic has pushed the West and North Africa regions into import dependency challenges.  

Taieb Baccouch, Secretary general of Arab Maghreb Union said Ukraine-Russia war responsible for price instability of food energy. 

He said the world is facing high price for food, fertilizer and fuel owing to heighten geopolitical tensions, the global economic slowdown, the growing impact of climate change and the repercussions of the coronavirus disease pandemic.

Reporting by Mariama Marong