Annual African Economic Platform

Aim

The Annual African Economic Platform (AAEP) is the AU's high-level convening mechanism to confront Africa's development paradox, bringing together heads of state, private-sector leaders, academics, and civil society to generate actionable policy recommendations that feed directly into AU Assembly decisions.

Progress to date

The AAEP was inaugurated in Port Louis, Mauritius in March 2017. It has since convened annually across African capitals, producing thematic declarations on industrialisation, the AfCFTA, climate finance, and digital transformation. Participation has grown each year, establishing the forum as a credible companion to the World Economic Forum for African affairs.

Challenges

Translating AAEP declarations into binding AU policy commitments remains inconsistent, and securing broad private-sector follow-through on investment pledges made at the forum has proven difficult across successive editions.

Next steps

The AU Commission is strengthening the AAEP's linkage to the AU Assembly by formalising the declaration-to-policy pipeline and tracking implementation of commitments made at each forum through the Agenda 2063 monitoring framework.