The 2nd PIDA Week is being held from 21-24 November 2016 in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, under the theme Creating Jobs through Regional Infrastructure Development.

Organized by the NEPAD Agency, African Union, African Development Bank and the African Development Fund, PIDA Week 2016 intends to build on the achievements of the inaugural event in 2015 to increase the visibility of PIDA projects, gather and reach out to the global infrastructure investor community, development finance institutions, export credit agencies, project sponsors (public and private) and governments. It also aims to discuss and evaluate progress made within the sector programmes/projects and facilitate sharing of knowledge and experiences.

PIDA Week 2016 will showcase the importance of regional infrastructure (PIDA) projects and the impact thereof on the socio-economic development of Africa and particularly on job creation for the youth. The PIDA 2016 Report will be released and distributed during PIDA Week.

In bringing together key stakeholders, PIDA Week will lead to the following outcomes:

• Sustaining and accelerating PIDA implementation

• Facilitating a conducive and enabling environment through recommendations and decisions of the PIDA governance structures

• Enhancing private sector engagement in PIDA

• Increasing the visibility of PIDA’s impact on Africa’s transformation

The 2nd PIDA Week will include a combination of plenary sessions on the theme, sector seminars, including exhibitions which aim among other things, to provide project owners and project sponsors from both public and private institutions an opportunity to interact and leverage financing for key projects. Additionally, statutory closed meetings under the Institutional Architecture for Infrastructure Development (IAIDA) will be held during the PIDA Week.  The Infrastructure Consortium for Africa (ICA), the NEPAD IPPF and the Continental Business Network Council meetings will also be held during the Week.

Background

The Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) is an African Union (AU) initiative implemented through a partnership between the AU Commission (AUC), the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency (NPCA) and the African Development Bank (AfDB).

The AU Assembly approved PIDA during the 18th Ordinary Session of the African Union (AU) held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 29th – 30th January 2012.

As a continental initiative, PIDA aims to address the infrastructure deficit that severely hampers Africa’s competitiveness in the world market. It provides a common framework for African stakeholders to build the infrastructure necessary to create jobs for the growing population, to increase intra-African trade and thus to boost socio-economic development on the continent.

Since its adoption in January 2012, progress has been made towards the implementation and development of the 51 PIDA Priority Action Plan (PIDA PAP) programmes (around 430 individual projects) at the country as well as regional levels.

To complement the project-level progress, several other activities and initiatives have been undertaken in the areas of creating an enabling environment, human capacitybuilding and advocacy towards high-level decision makers in support of regional infrastructure development.