AFRICAN ECONOMIC

CONFERENCE 2025
Strengthening Africa’s Geopolitical Agency
and Trade Resilience in a Multipolar World

Call for Papers

7-8 December 2025

Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire
 CALL for Papers
The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) and the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP), are pleased to announce the 2025
African Economic Conference (AEC), to be held from 7th – 8th December
2025 in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

Since its inception in 2006, the African Economic Conference has

fostered research, dialogue, and policy innovation on Africa’s most
pressing development challenges.

The theme of this year’s conference is

“Strengthening Africa’s Geopolitical Agency
and Trade Resilience in a Multipolar World”
with a focus on the following four subthemes.

A) Strategic Diplomacy and Multilateral targeted reforms to increase representation

Engagement: Africa’s institutional in multilateral forums, and coalition-building
representation in global decision-making to maximize leverage in trade, finance, and
frameworks remains misaligned with its climate negotiations. In doing so, it will provide
demographic and developmental weight. a roadmap for Africa to engage the world from
Africa holds less than 7% of voting power at a position of strength, aligned with its long-
the IMF despite accounting for over 17% of the term development aspirations.
global population (IMF,2023). Africa’s limited
representation in major global governance B) Accelerating Digitalization and Innovation
institutions has often resulted in policies that in Key Sectors: Africa’s ability to thrive in a
do not adequately reflect the continent’s multipolar world will depend on how effectively
priorities. Strategic diplomacy and proactive it transforms its economic model from one
multilateral engagement are therefore essential reliant on raw commodity exports to one
to amplifying Africa’s voice, diversifying powered by innovation, technology, and value
alliances, and reducing overreliance on any addition. The AEC 2025 will champion youth-led
single political or economic bloc. This requires entrepreneurship, green technology, and digital
building strong coalitions within the African transformation as engines of diversification
Union and forging deeper partnerships with and resilience. By spotlighting scalable
Global South allies, particularly in emerging solutions in Agri tech, fintech, e-governance,
formations such as BRICS and the G20. The and renewable energy, the conference will
2025 AEC will explore practical strategies demonstrate how Africa can enhance food
for enhancing Africa’s geopolitical agency, sovereignty and capture greater value from
including coordinated negotiation positions, its natural resources. Digital ecosystems and
strategic use of economic diplomacy, innovation hubs will be presented not only as

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levers for industrial competitiveness but also strategies for unlocking the full potential of
as strategic assets for negotiating global trade the AfCFTA, including capacity-building for
and investment partnerships. In doing so, AEC trade negotiators, targeted support for small
2025 will foster a forward-looking narrative and medium enterprises to enhance export
of Africa as a proactive and influence actor, competitiveness, and the development of
ready to lead in global value chains shaped by policies that facilitate innovation and value
climate resilience and technological progress. addition.

C) Regional Integration and Intra-African D) Human Capital and Institutional Capacity:

Trade: Africa’s trade exposure to global Africa’s demographic profile is a strategic
commodity cycles, import dependency, asset- over 60% of the population is under
and fragmented supply chains that limits 25 (UNDP,2023), yet this potential remains
economies of scale, weakens Africa’s collective underutilized due to high youth unemployment
bargaining power in global trade negotiations, and limited access to innovative ecosystems.
and perpetuates high dependency on imports Additionally, weak governance, limited
from extra-continental markets contribute institutional capacity, and underinvestment
to persistent macroeconomic vulnerability. in research and innovation have historically
Regional integration is central to Africa’s long- constrained Africa’s ability to implement
term economic resilience and geopolitical transformative policies and negotiate
influence. Furthermore, he African Continental effectively in global forums. Through this pillar,
Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) presents a historic AEC will promote policies that support youth-
opportunity to reverse this trend by creating led entrepreneurship, digital innovation, and
a single, unified African market. According to capacity development, not only to advance
the World Bank (2020), full implementation growth but to strengthen institutional renewal.
of the AfCFTA could lift 30 million people
out of extreme poverty and boost intra-
African trade in manufactured goods by over
50%. Harmonizing trade regulations and
standards, improving cross-border logistics,
and enhancing infrastructure connectivity will
be critical to enabling seamless movement
of goods, services, and investments across
borders. This pillar will explore practical

Policy-oriented papers linked to the conference’s

overall theme are of particular interest.

Submission guidelines:
Interested authors should submit their papers to [email protected] by 20 October 2025.

Only full papers addressing the conference theme will be considered for presentation. We encourage
the submission of policy and solution-oriented papers with strong empirical foundation.

AFRICAN ECONOMIC CONFERENCE 2025 CALL FOR PAPERS

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Authors are asked to submit their papers and register according to the following schedule:

Description Deadline

Call for papers 11 September 2025

Deadline for paper submissions 20 October 2025

Notification of final acceptance 05 November 2025

Conference dates 07-08 December 2025

The AEC 2025 conference strongly

encourages submissions from young
African researchers (aged 35 years
and below). A core objective of the
AEC series is to provide young
African researchers a platform to
disseminate their research, engage
with a global audience, and build
professional networks.

Format Guidelines
for papers
• Papers that do not adhere to the prescribed guidelines will not be considered for review.
• Papers should be submitted electronically to [email protected]
• File types: MS Word (preferred) or PDF (with editable Word version upon acceptance).
• Length: Max 40 pages (including references, tables, figures). Excessively long papers may
be rejected.
• Font: 12-point Times New Roman, 1.5 line spacing, 1.5-inch margins.
• Title page with author names, affiliations, and contact details.
• An abstract of not more than 150 words.
• There is no requirement for a cover letter.
• Up to 3 authors per paper is allowed. Only the presenting author is eligible for sponsorship.

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Review process:
• Double-blind review by the co-organizing institutions.
• Criteria: Originality, policy relevance, methodological rigor, clarity.
• All accepted and presented papers will be archived in the AfDB’s open-access Virtual Center
for Development Knowledge (VCDA), ensuring lasting visibility and contributing to a cumulative
resource for African development research.
• Best Paper Prize: To be awarded to an outstanding young African researcher (35 years and
below) at the closing ceremony.

Sponsorship:
Authors requesting financial assistance to attend the conference must explicitly indicate their
need for support to cover travel, accommodation, and daily subsistence expenses. Sponsorship
is limited to one presenter per accepted paper, with priority given to presenting authors and young
researchers based in Africa.

For further information,

please read the link of the
AEC 2025 microsite.

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