Africa Industrialization Day: 20 November 2017

Africa Industrialization Day will be celebrated on 20 November 2017.

The African continent is the second most-populated continent in the world, with over 1.2 billion people, or 16% of the world’s population. However, Africa currently accounts for less than 2% of international trade and global manufacturing.

Within the framework of the Second Industrial Development Decade for Africa (1991-2000), the United Nations (UN) General Assembly announced Africa Industrialization Day in 1990. The purpose of this day is to raise global awareness regarding the industrialization challenges faced by the African continent with regards to industrialization and to mobilize both African leaders and international organizations to advocate for the accelerated and sustainable industrialization of Africa.

The important contribution of inclusive and sustainable industrial development (ISID) in helping Africa overcome its critical development challenges is recognized in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, within UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 9 (SDG9), calling to build resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industrialization and foster innovation, and Agenda 2063, encompassed in Aspiration 1 of the First Ten-Year Implementation Plan, under “a prosperous Africa based on inclusive growth and sustainable development.”

As 2016 marked the beginning of the Third Industrial Decade for Africa (IDDA3), this year’s Africa Industrialization Day (AID) continues to promote the acceleration of sustainable industrial development in Africa, of which private sector contributions is a critical component.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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