AFES 2024: Abidjan, World Capital of Econometrics
Abidjan, 06 June 2024: The Minister of Technical Education, Vocational Training and Apprenticeship, representing the Minister of the Economy, Planning and Development, opened the Africa Meeting of the Econometrics Society 2024 on the theme: ‘The Challenges of Employment in Africa’. The Opening Ceremony of the Meeting took place on Thursday 06 June 2024, at ENSEA, in the presence of prominent world-class economists.
After the 2021 edition, Abidjan is hosting the Africa Meeting of the Econometric Society (#AFES) 2024 for the second time. This international event was initiated to explore the continent’s economic challenges and opportunities, highlighting the latest research and innovative methodologies.
Representing the Minister for the Economy, Planning and Development, the Minister for Technical Education, Vocational Training and Apprenticeship recalled the government’s commitment to improving people’s living conditions through the analysis of economic data. “Increasingly, the culture of economic analysis and decision-making based on empirical evidence is at the centre of attention in most developing countries. In Côte d’Ivoire, this culture is reflected in the 2016 Constitution to show the importance of economic decisions in improving people’s well-being, in line with the vision of His Excellency Mr Alassane Ouattara, President of the Republic, a vision reflected in the Côte d’Ivoire Solidaire Society project”, said N’guessan Koffi.
To help meet the political challenges in many African countries, the Minister emphasised the efforts that need to be made to ‘provide lasting solutions to youth unemployment, with a view to improving people’s living conditions’, he added.
Earlier, the Director of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de la Statistique et d’Economie Appliquée (ENSEA) of Abidjan emphasised the importance of econometrics in training. “Econometrics is a central discipline in ENSEA’s training. We offer an undergraduate training for statistical officers at the Bachelor’s Degree level, called Statistics Analysts (AS), then a postgraduate Engineering Degree in Statistics and Economists for senior Statisticians, with dual competence in statistics and economics, as well as Master Porgrams in Agricultural Statistics, Actuarial Sciences, Data Science and a PhD Program”, said Hugues KOUADIO.
He took the opportunity to express his delight at the choice of his institution. “It is a great source of pride for our institution to host such a world-class event, especially as this 2024 edition is the second to be held in Côte d’Ivoire after the 2021 event, which we had the honour of hosting during the celebrations for ENSEA’s 60th anniversary,” he said.
The President of the Econometric Society thanked the Government of Côte d’Ivoire for the excellent organisation of the Meeting, and welcomed everyone’s involvement. Eliana Ferrara described the African section as young and very important, with 406 members to date, including 233 African researchers who have joined the Econometric Society.
She ended by pointing out that congresses are held every 5 years, the first of which took place in 2013 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The 2024 edition was attended by many national and international figures from the world of econometrics and economics. These included Eliana Ferrara, Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University, Douglas Gollin, Professor of Development Economics at Oxford University/Tufts University, Joshua Angrist, Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in memory of Alfred Nobel 2021.
