Geneva - The Holistic and Multisectoral Support Programme implemented by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has trained 2,800 people in Angola in 680 national institutions since the beginning of its implementation in 2018.
The figures were presented by the Permanent Representative of Angola to the UN and other international organisations, Margarida Izata, during the presentation of the "index of productive capacities for the development of fact-based policies," during the 70th Session of the UNCTAD Council being held in Geneva, Switzerland, from June 19 to 28.
The initiative funded by the European Union is designed to address the challenges and gaps in Angola's productive capacities helping the country to change its dependence on oil vulnerability, external shocks and to adopt inclusive, diversified and sustainable growth and trade for the real benefit of the country.
It also aims to improve the development of human capital and institutional capacities formulating and implementing appropriate policies, as well as working on seven economic policy areas simultaneously, collaborating with 23 government ministries, several agencies, private sector entities, universities and civil society.
The diplomat said that in this framework, 75 national trainers were trained to move forward the programme's interventions and help identify and support value chain development for eight promising green products (such as fisheries, honey, four tropical fruits, coffee, wood) and creative industry sectors.
In addition, UNCTAD supported the government in more than 15 policy processes, trained a national Empretec institution to implement entrepreneurship training, helped develop public-private partnership projects for transport development for green sectors, conducted an investment policy review and supported investor orientation for the agricultural sector.
It also helped integrate teaching materials into the curricula of national educational institutions to increase the sustainability of interventions.
Margarida Izata said Angola defends the continued implementation of this programme.
The diplomat recalled that the country is a beneficiary of UNCTAD support through the assessment of the national productive capacities gap based on the Productive Capacities Index as well as the first pilot State of the holistic, multisectoral and multi-year support programme to promote productive capacities and structural transformation in the country.
"As you know, the Angolan economy is heavily dependent on oil, since this product represented 94 percent of the country's total exports in 2021", she said.
Similarly to other less developed countries and vulnerable economies, Margarida Izata stressed that the dependence on commodities leads to significant vulnerability to external shocks.
The diplomat explained that Angola's first national productive capacity gap assessment was conducted in 2022 to help assess the level of national productive capacity and explore the country's micro and macroeconomic fundamentals.
"The assessment identified comparative advantages and key binding constraints to socio-economic development, and recommended national and international policies and strategies to support Angola's sustainable development through the promotion of productive capacities and structural economic transformation", the diplomat said.
The diplomat explained that this allowed Angola under UNCTAD's support to start drawing up its National Strategy for Smooth Transition.
The assessment concluded that, apart from the extractive sectors, the productive capacities of the country's entire economy had significant gaps, the official said.
"These gaps left Angola below the average of the other least developed countries (LDCs) in the Productive Capabilities Index score, standing at 22.16 compared to the LDC average of 24.04", she said.
According to the Angolan ambassador, the results also confirmed the paramount importance of economic diversification and domestic added value, which has been a national priority in recent years.
Implemented since 2018, macroeconomic data shows a continuous and relatively resilient trend of increased non-oil exports since 2016 and investments in non-oil sectors in Angola.
The ambassador reaffirmed that the Government of Angola remains convinced that the support provided by the UNCTAD through the financial intervention of the European Union, continues to be essential for its development.
"The country needs productive capacities throughout the economy to broaden our economic base and export more value-added products and services, thus generating more decent employment opportunities and improving the livelihoods of the Angolan people, in order to reduce poverty in a sustainable way", Izata said.
Continuity
The Permanent Representative to the UN regretted the fact that the current EU-UNCTAD Joint Programme will come to an end at the end of 2023.
However, the diplomat stressed that Angola is confident that both partners can, together, find ways to continue this intervention and take it to a next level, based on the results and dynamics achieved so far, without interruption.
"I have heard that other countries in Africa and elsewhere have requested a similar holistic support programme, starting from a National Productive Capacity Gap Assessment and developing a programme to respond to the identified gaps", Izata said.
In the meantime, the diplomat recommended the approach of the current EU-UNCTAD Joint Programme, with other developing economies, in particular LDCs, which need concrete responses and tools to address their commodity dependence and vulnerability to external shocks, while facing enormous development challenges.
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development was established in 1964 in Geneva, Switzerland, in the context of the discussions on freeing trade in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. ART/Amp/jmc
