OREANDA-NEWS. Delegates from across the continent and around the globe are converging in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, where the African Development Bank (AfDB), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), are co-organizing the 2015 African Economic Conference (AEC) from November 2 to 4, 2015, to address poverty and inequality in the region.

Africa is currently on the move, but inequality constitutes an impediment to its efforts to reduce poverty. Amongst others, the continent has made rapid progress in increasing the proportion of seats held by women in national parliament than in other regions. Women’s share of non-agricultural employment also rose modestly in recent years. This performance, however, lags behind other developing regions. Access to safe drinking water has improved, but sanitation is still a challenge.

The ratio of girls to boys enrolled in primary schools continues to improve in many African countries, but the transition of girls and boys between different levels of education requires urgent attention. Addressing these challenges is therefore critical to achieving inclusive growth and sustainable development.

The theme of the 10th edition of the conference, “Addressing Poverty and Inequality in the Post 2015 Development Agenda”, will provide an opportunity to researchers, policy-makers, development partners, civil society organizations and the private sector representatives, to critically analyze the impact of current inclusive growth strategies on poverty, inequality and human development in Africa. It will also provide room for critical thinking on the way forward, more importantly on how to plan and implement Post 2015 Development Agenda.

Since its inception in 2006, the AEC has served as a platform for knowledge-sharing among AfDB, ECA and UNDP. It is in recognition of the prominent role of knowledge, and the three institutions’ quest for contributing to reducing the proportion of Africans in extreme poverty, that this year’s edition will address poverty and inequality. An interesting part of the meeting will be high-level interactions and debates as well as presentation of papers.