Think Africa _G20- Compact with Africa (CWA)

Following the 12-13 June, 2017, G20 Africa Partnership Conference in Berlin and the G20 Summit of 7-8 July 2017 in Hamburg, the G20 Compact with Africa (CWA) was launched. ACET was engaged by the G-20 Compact with Africa to host the first Ministerial meeting of CWA countries on September 6, 2017 in Accra, Ghana.At that meeting, the CWA Ministers of Finance and their representatives endorsed a CWA work program to address and implement key elements of the Compact. The CWA Governments and Germany further endorsed details of the approach during the World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings on 11 October, and indicated additional areas of expected support through ACET. On April 4-5 2018, Senior government officials from the Ministries of Finance of CWA countries convened in a conference jointly organized by ACET and the Government of Ghana in conjunction with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to learn and share experiences on how to address the current challenges of domestic revenue mobilization. CWA countries represented were Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana (host), Guinea, Rwanda, Senegal, Togo and Tunisia. Representatives from the World Bank, the IMF, Germany and a host of development partners supporting the DRM efforts in CWA countries, as well as key civil society organisations on the continent and the private sector were also in attendance. The conference focused on domestic resource mobilization (DRM), a key element of the first component of the CWA program, namely macroeconomic management. The discussion covered a number of key issues, including the institutional and political constraints in revenue mobilization, improving tax compliance, and alleviating base erosion and profit shifting by multinational companies. It also focused on common DRM challenges and proposed short- and medium-term growth friendly, revenue enhancing solutions. The conference essentially provided a platform for knowledge sharing and peer-to-peer learning for all participants. During the autumn of 2018, CwA undertook the following activities: Sub-component 2.1 – Strengthening Compact Countries’ Capacity ACET facilitates investment promotion as requested by the G20. In October 2018 ACET organized the Germany-Ghana Investor Forum, which included participation from a wide range of private sector representatives, as well as Chancellor Merkel, President Akufo-Addo and World Bank President Jim Kim. Sub-component 2.2. – Bi-annual Peer Review of CwA Self Assessments At the request of the G20 Africa Advisory Group ACET undertook independent peer reviews of the CwA in April 2018 and October 2018. The peer reviews have been included in the broader monitoring reports produced by the Africa Advisory Group (AAG). The latest one, developed in collaboration with IFC and AfDB, was published in October this year and is titled ‘Trends in FDI and Cross-border Investments in Compact with Africa Countries: Interim Monitoring Report – 2018 Annual Meetings’. ACET has furthermore participated in both AGG meetings in Washington and Bali. Sub-component 2.3. Advocacy for Africa and the CwA P1: ACET was actively involved in the T20 Forum held in Buenos Aires in September 2018. This event received widespread recognition and interest, and provided excellent opportunities for ACET to advocate for the CwA. ACET engagement included the submission of a CwA policy note, which was included in the T20 communique package for the Argentinian Presidency of the G20. The policy note was titled “Mobilizing Private Investment and the Compact with Africa: A Preliminary Assessment and Steps Ahead”. ACET furthermore moderated and facilitated a high-level panel discussion on ‘Ensuring Progress of the G20 Compact with Africa’. Panellists included: • Kojo Asante, Director of Advocacy and Policy Engagement, Center for Democratic Development (Ghana) • Elizabeth Sidiropoulos, Chief Executive, South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) • Uri Dadush, Senior Fellow, OCP Policy Center (Morocco); non-resident scholar, Bruegel (Washington) • Naoyuki Yoshino, Dean & CEO of the Asian Development Bank Institute (Tokyo) There are currently four components of CwA namely: - Think Africa-CWA Country Capacity and Peer Learning - Think Africa CWA Peer Review - Think Africa- CwA Advocacy and Advisory - GIZ Germans for CwA with IMF - Think Africa- CwA Transformation Fellowship program