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The Protocol on Water and Health
The publication is aimed at raising awareness on the UNECE-WHO/Europe Protocol on Water and Health. It contains a section introducing the Protocol as a unique international treaty aimed at protecting human health and well-being through sustainable water management and at ensuring access to safe drinking water and sanitation for everyone. The document further discusses the key obligations of the Protocol and some of the benefits of being a Party as well as showcasing the technical areas of work in the Protocol's programme of work relating to water sanitation hygiene and health. Finally there is a Q&A section on the accession process targeted for those countries that may be considering becoming Parties to the Protocol.
Executive Summary, Key findings, Policy recommendationsand road-map/guide to ARIA X
This executive summary presents key findings and policy recommendations of the ARIA X report Africa’s Services Trade Liberalization and Integration under the AfCFTA for the top-most policy makers. Those policy makers and other stakeholders in the development sphere are encouraged to read this publication to unravel and address the difficulties and challenges associated with trade in the priority services: transport communications financial services tourism and business services.
Developing Services Value Chains and Boosting Services Trade Liberalization in the AfCFTA
Following the end of the Uruguay Round at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the consequent inception of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) services trade has become an important part of international trade regulation. Despite uncertainties about the potential for trade in services at the time services have undergone tremendous growth over the past decade and have become important contributors to the economies of both developing and developed nations. In Africa the service sector has exceeded essential industries as a share of gross domestic product (GDP) accounting for over 68 per cent in 2018 (Majumdar 2019).
The Status of Services Trade and Services Trade Policies in Africa
Over the past two decades the share of services in Africa’s GDP has grown while the shares of agriculture and manufacturing have been declining. That pattern is also true of total employment. Services thus drive value-addition and provide critical inputs for boosting other economic activities. But trade in services remains largely invisible and intangible tied to the national regional and international movement of people information money and goods (Feketekuty 1988).
Assessing Regional Integration in Africa X
The tenth edition of the report on Assessing Regional Integration in Africa (ARIA X) is on the theme: “Africa’s services trade liberalization and integration under the AfCFTA”. The report seeks to deepen understanding and appreciation of the critical role of services to trade production and the economy in Africa. It critically analyzes the types of approaches to liberalization of trade in services and regional regulatory cooperation under the AfCFTA which have the most potential to support Africa’s development including through the enhancement of intra-African trade in services enabling of better and more effective integration into regional and global value chains the enforcement of both public and privates sector capacities and overall greater competitiveness in an increasingly digitalizing global economy.
Foreword
As we present the 2022 edition of the Asia and the Pacific SDG Progress Report the world marks an important benchmark: the second anniversary of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Globally the consequences of the pandemic have been severe and these have increasingly coincided with natural and human-made disasters. Even as governments in the region took action to help those most in need and respond to ongoing crises the latest data indicate that vulnerability has increased and huge gaps persist across different population groups. Amid these challenges the region is not on track to achieve the 2030 targets of the Sustainable Development Goals. In fact progress in the region has slowed down and with every passing year the 2030 targets are further out of reach.
Executive summary
Throughout Asia and the Pacific Governments are striving towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the ambitious objectives of reaching the furthest behind first but the progress is insufficient and has in fact decelerated. The challenge of achieving the goals has been magnified in recent years by an increase in the frequency and intensity of humanmade crises and natural disasters as well as the challenges of responding to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. In this context the Asia-Pacific Sustainable Development Goal Progress Report 2022 provides an analysis of progress on 17 SDGs and 169 targets in the region and in each of the five subregions where there are unique challenges resources and opportunities for progress. The report also provides an analysis of data gaps that prevent the monitoring of progress and it provides an investigation of sources and priority areas for enhancing SDG data availability.
Foreword
Services play an increasingly important role in the economic performance and overall development of countries across the globe. In recent years the contribution of the services sector to countries’ trade investment employment poverty reduction and gross domestic product has outpaced that of such traditional sectors as agriculture and manufacturing. Services offer opportunities to diversify production away from traditional economic sectors. And a strong and efficient services sector is a key precursor to manufacturing competitiveness and a contributor to the ease of doing business and trading across borders. Low-cost high-quality services give countries opportunities to integrate and participate in local regional and global value chains—and enhance their prospects of achieving structural transformation and other development outcomes.
Regulating and Facilitating Intra-Africa Tourism
The tourism industry is now a priority sector across the African continent (AU/NEPAD 2004; 2010). The African Union (AU) Agenda 2063 identifies the sector as a pathway through which Africa could be transformed. Such recognition is premised on the potential of the industry to advance the continent’s economic diversity and resilience. With a strong pan-African orientation Agenda 2063 marks the turning point from previous approaches to tourism development which focussed on externally driven growth to an approach based on internal potential—in terms of existing and largely untapped products and markets.
Liberalizing and Regulating Communications Services Trade within the AfCFTA
The communications sector as conceptualized by the World Trade Organization (WTO)—which forms the starting point for the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) negotiations on the sector—represents a narrow view of tradable services within a larger and more complex communications sector. The sector is more appropriately understood as a broader technological ecosystem of dynamic interactions between people communications systems and services. While this chapter focuses on the narrow WTO description the sector is a much wider and more complex system with ever-increasing importance given its centrality in the global digital economy.
Intra-African Trade in Financial Services
The financial sector is a foundation for any economy allowing consumers and businesses to save borrow invest and mitigate risk exposure. It also serves as a platform for central banks to implement monetary policy. Financial services serve as payment platforms for domestic and international fund transfers allowing firms to sell their goods and services more efficiently.
Conclusion and Recommendations
This report has analysed the integration and liberalization of Africa’s services trade in the context of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Its progress report on developments in Africa’s regional integration has examined the agreement establishing the AfCFTA signed in March 2018; activities leading to macroeconomic convergence in five of the eight African Union (AU)–recognized regional economic communities (RECs); the role of infrastructure in promoting inclusive and sustainable development; the role of social services especially health and education services in that development; improved governance peace and security as the bedrock of an environment conducive to integration; and the free movement of persons across countries in the region as vital to integrated services trade.
Asia and the Pacific SDG Progress Report 2022
The Asia and the Pacific SDG Progress Report 2022 analyses regional and subregional progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and targets. This publication applies a measurement framework developed by ESCAP to identify progress gaps and acceleration requirements at goal target and indicator levels. On chapter 3 (Vulnerabilities and the pandemic: Risk of widening disparities) the report was developed in cooperation with UN agencies; ILO IOM UNDP UNEP UNESCO UNFPA UNHCR UNICEF UNODC and UNWomen. The following topics are introduced in the report: Chapter 1 – Regional overview Chapter 2 – Around Asia-Pacific: Diverse progress across subregions Chapter 3 – Vulnerabilities and the pandemic: Risk of widening disparities Chapter 4 – Unpacking the SDG data gaps
Impacts on Development of Services Trade Restrictions: The Case for Liberalization and Integration
Services contributing about half of Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP) and generating about a third of its formal employment are critical to the continent’s sustainable and inclusive economic development (UNCTAD 2019). With backward and forward linkages with the primary (mainly agriculture and mining) and the secondary (mainly manufacturing) sectors and linkage with trade the service sector is indispensable for creating growing and developing regional value chains and integrating into global value chains (UNCTAD 2019). An efficient service sector is crucial to the much-needed structural transformation of the continent.
Intra-African Trade in Business Services
The importance and role of the business service sector cannot be overemphasized. At the global level the business service market was estimated at $5.7 trillion in 2018 having grown at an annual rate of 7.4 per cent since 2014. With global growth projected to be 13.6 per cent annually over the next decade (EU Skills Panorama 2014) the sector is one of the top three—along with software and information technology (IT) services and real estate—to receive foreign direct investment (FDI) worldwide (fDi Intelligence 2019).
The Status of Regional Integration in Africa
Regional integration a key priority for Africa aims to transform and accelerate the integration of the continent’s fragmented small economies so they can reap the benefits of economies of scale for production and trade. Integration is an important channel for equitable economic growth and development as outlined in the Abuja Treaty establishing the African Economic Community (1991) and the Constitutive Act of the African Union (2000). The Abuja Treaty adopted and signed by African Heads of State and Government stipulates the guiding principles and a path leading to continental unity.
Acknowledgements
The tenth edition of Assessing Regional Integration in Africa delves into the theme “Services Trade Liberalisation and Integration under the AfCFTA.” It is a joint publication of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) the African Union Commission (AUC) the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
Transport Services Trade within the African Continental Free Trade Area Framework
With the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) lowering regulatory and financial barriers to trade cross-border trade gains can only be optimized if there is a well-functioning transport service sector on the continent as well as adequate infrastructure networks. But Africa’s economic growth is being hampered by weak infrastructure—particularly cross-border infrastructure—that compromises physical connectivity a major component of regional integration. In part Africa’s connectivity reflects its geography and its position in the global structure of transport and logistics networks.
Unpacking the SDG data gaps
The present chapter offers an overview of data availability to monitor the SDGs at the national and regional levels in the Asia-Pacific region. The analysis is based on data available on the Global SDG database. The chapter also provides an analysis of where data is lacking for SDGs monitoring and potential sources for filling the gap.