African Leaders Chart Path Forward Amid Global Economic Headwinds

ABIDJAN, Côte d’Ivoire. Raymond Gilpin, Chief Economist and Head of Strategy, Analysis and Research at UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Africa, arrived at the African Development Bank Group headquarters this week with a measured message: the continent’s underlying human potential remains intact, even as global pressures mount. His assessment set the tone for three days of hard thinking about what ordinary African economies, and the people inside them, must do to stay afloat in a world that keeps shifting beneath their feet.

The African Economic Conference, held from 10 to 12 July in Abidjan, brought together researchers, policymakers and experts under the joint organisation of the African Development Bank Group, the United Nations Development Programme and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The central question was direct: how can African economies build the kind of resilience that lets them navigate competing global powers and changing trade patterns, without waiting for the world to settle down?

Gilpin’s answer was equally direct. What Africa needs now, he argued, is stronger partnerships and coordinated action, the kind that constructs resilience its own people demand and that the wider world requires.

That word, “coordinated,” carried real weight across the conference floor. Ida McDonnell, Senior Policy Advisor on Development Policy, Finance and Performance at the OECD, pressed the point that trade, debt, investment, climate action and development finance can no longer be treated as separate problems. They move together, she said, and policymaking must reflect that reality. For communities whose livelihoods depend on export markets, credit access, and climate-stable harvests all at once, that observation is less academic insight than daily fact.

Marie-Laure Akin Olugbade, Senior Vice President of the African Development Bank Group, described the discussions as having generated valuable insights into the policies Africa needs to strengthen its economic standing and build trade resilience, offering, she suggested, a foundation for action.

The most direct call for momentum came from Ahunna Eziakonwa, UN Assistant Secretary-General and UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa Director. She urged stakeholders to remove trade barriers that slow commerce between African nations, invest in innovation that can drive growth, strengthen regional value chains that keep wealth circulating within Africa, and empower young people who will lead future development. Her message carried a sharp caveat. Africa’s influence in a multipolar world will not come from external alliances or partnerships with distant powers, she said. It will come from building economic strength at home.

By contrast to the broad policy debate, two concrete institutional steps also emerged from the gathering. The Global Network of Chief Economists of Development and Financing Institutions held a meeting during the event, and organisers launched the African Chief Economists Network, a new forum for ongoing dialogue among the continent’s economic leadership.

Taken together, the conference reflects a recognition among Africa’s economic establishment that the old playbook no longer holds. As global power becomes more distributed and trade patterns shift, African nations face a choice: develop their own capacity to compete and cooperate, or risk being shaped by forces beyond their reach. Whether the new African Chief Economists Network can translate this week’s consensus into durable policy, for the farmers, traders and young workers who will feel the results, is the question that now follows the delegates home.