Measuring, monitoring and evaluating economic integration: regional workshop

Location

Amman, Jordan

Contact information

Mr Mohamed Chemingui
cheminguim@un.org

The Development Account project on measuring, monitoring and improving performance in regional integration within the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the Economic Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), and ESCWA regions aims to provide a robust regional integration index to be used by member States to monitor and evaluate their economic integration performance. Within the framework of the project, ESCWA is organizing a regional workshop in Jordan. The session is part of a series of four and follows on from a regional workshop held 17-18 December 2019, in Morocco.

The workshop introduces member States to the final version of ESCWA’s System of Indices to Monitor and Evaluate Arab Integration (SIMAEI) performance and the dedicated SIMAEI platform. Analyses were undertaken to illustrate the best ways to use the system to monitor and evaluate Arab economic integration outcomes. Member States’ needs for further customization of the tool and the platform are also under discussion.

The workshop also presents the Index Simulator for Policymakers in the Arab Region (ISPAR) and the Arab Economy-wide Trade Simulator Interface (ATSI) toolkits. As part of the Arab Trade Gateway, ESCWA is developing these tools that focus on economic integration to assist decision-makers in assessing and developing regional integration strategies and policies to strengthen economic growth and employment.

Outcome document

Meeting outcome

There is ample room for cooperation on producing higher data quality, chiefly bilateral Foreign Direct Investments with sectoral breakdown, and bilateral workers’ remittances.
There is a need for additional trainings on how to best use the System of Indices for economic integration performance evaluation and monitoring, and the Trade Gateway Platform, in general.
Discussion about the Arab Trade Gateway and its launch were of interest.

Discussion

Presentation of the structure of ESCWA’s Arab economic integration monitoring and evaluation system of indexes and scoreboards

The structure of ESCWA’s Arab economic integration monitoring and evaluation system of indexes and scoreboards was presented. Avenues for further improvements were discussed with Member States.
The Trade Gateway Platform was presented that was built to monitor the progress achieved in the implementation of the Great Arab Free Trade Agreement and other preferential trade agreements. The platform provides a wide range of data and indicators related to trade integration between the Arab countries necessary to carry policy impact simulations.
The beta version of a Dynamic Computable General Equilibrium model was presented. Its functionalities were explained to Member states and demonstrations were done based on their specific questions.

Initiatives: Using index simulators