For the first time, Africa is hosting the Scientific Conference on the “Comptes de Transferts Nationaux – National Transfer Accounts (NTA-Africa)”.

The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), through its Sub-Regional Office for West Africa, is co-organising with the Regional Centre of Excellence in Generational Economics (CREG).

The exercise is the first edition of the NTA-AFRICA Conference, with the collaboration of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), partner universities and development partners.

Scheduled for October 28-30 in Mbour, Senegal, the central theme of this conference is: "Demographic Dynamics and Sustainable Development: The Contribution of the NTA to Agenda 2063".

The main objective is to promote the National Transfer Accounts (NTA) method, its applications and extensions as well as the political dialogue on demographic dynamics for development.

This gathering will be held in a context where the remarkable economic growth efforts observed over the last two decades are relatively compromised by high population growth in many African countries.

According to an ECA press release, a strategy for taking population issues into account could therefore make it possible to take advantage of demographic trends, to generate productivity gains and improve the quality of life for the population.

In line with the objective, the Sub-Regional Office of the United Nations Economic Commission for West Africa (ECA/SRO-WA) has set up a specialised Centre on Demographic Dynamics for Development (DDD) to promote the capture of the demographic dividend, amongst other things.
 

The October 28-30 Conference will see the participation of ECOWAS Member States in a high-level panel on the theme "Demographic Dynamics for Development: Challenges and Perspectives in Africa", and member countries of the project Sahel Women’s Empowerment and the Demographic Dividend (SWEDD) on the theme "National and Regional Demographic Dividend Observatories".

Contributions from the various research and technical teams of the International NTA network are also expected.

Jacob N.B. Parley
Member- ECOWAS Economic Journalists Network (Liberia)