As part of the European Union´s Investment Climate Reform (ICR) Facility – Dr. Cesar Cordova worked on assisting governments of African, Caribbean, and Pacific Group of States (ACP) in mitigating the economic impacts of the COVID 19 Pandemic. The project comprised two components: the first consisted of preparing and delivering an international webinar on possible measures governments can establish to mitigate the economic impacts caused by COVID-19. This webinar, delivered in English and French in July 2020, was followed by more than 200 participants from ACP governments, think tanks, and BMOs. Key issues discussed were: how can they carry out diagnostics of the business environment and their readiness to better absorb the economic shocks of the crisis? How can reforming teams organize to diagnose and design reforms to respond to the crisis? How to prioritize the right areas of the business environment to respond to the crisis?
The project’s second component consisted of virtual one-on-one mentoring sessions of individual APEC countries officials. Dr. Cordova provided remote assistance to interested experts from governments and business organizations via video conferencing. The first intervention was on 24 September to Benin’s Agence de Promotion des Investissements et des Exportations (APIEX). During the event, Dr. Cordova guided how to approach reform, select the measure that can better handle the short and long-term crisis, and monitor for outcomes.
ACP States, European Comission under contract to Stichting SNV Netherlands Development Organisation, 2020
