The multi-stakeholder workshop on measuring the contribution of the services sector to national and regional value chains is for policy makers and experts from African member States, Regional Economic Communities, the private sector, academia and development institutions with an interest in regional integration issues, and in particular the services sector.

Unlocking the full potential of Africa’s services sector implies that its contribution to the economic performance and linkages to the productive sectors are fully understood to support timely policy-making process. This is very important at a time when the continent has embarked on the liberalization of its services sector under the AfCFTA.

A major challenge that remains for African countries is how to better assess the contribution of the services to the economy and fully capture its linkages to global and regional value chains. This entails addressing constraints related to data gaps on services and strengthening capacities at national and regional levels to measure the value added generated by services sectors with a view to supporting policy-making processes. 

The objective of the multi-stakeholder workshop is to share experiences and lessons learnt, as well as emerging best practices, in quantifying the contribution of targeted services sectors to national and regional value chains, and to support services trade policy making in the project countries.

The specific multi-stakeholder workshop objectives are to:

• Put Africa’s services sector into perspective within the AfCFTA and post-COVID-19 context.
• Share challenges and opportunities emanating from data collection exercises on trade in services in each of the project countries.
• Discuss the outcomes of the quantification exercises of services value chains in each of the project countries.
• Discuss policy options that could be considered at regional and national levels to unlock the potential of the selected services sector under the framework of the project (i.e. tourism, transport and financial services).
• Collect relevant materials and analysis to be compiled into a guidebook.

At the end of the workshop, participants are expected to:

• Have a better understanding of challenges related to data gaps in Africa’s services sector and necessary means to address them.
• Build upon lessons learnt and experiences in quantifying target services value chains in the project countries to support similar exercises in other sectors and countries.
• Discuss sectoral impacts of COVID-19 and policy responses that contribute to building resilience in the project countries.
• Be trained to utilize appropriate tools and acquire the knowledge necessary to support policy making in services value chains.