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UNITED NATIONS
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
Economic Commission for Africa
Sixth meeting of the Regional
Technical Committee for PADIS
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia21-22 April 1993
Distr. LIMITED
ECA/PADIS/RTC/93/5 26 January 1993
Original: ENGLISH
Future of the
Regional Technical Committee for PADIS
ECA/PADIS/RTC/93/5
Background
1. The Regional Technical Committee for PADIS was set up by the ECA Conference of Ministers for Economic Planning and Development in accordance with Resolution 498 (XIX) adopted at their tenth meeting in 1984. The Regional Technical Committee
consists of the following members: '
a) The Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for
Africa, serves as chairman ex-officer. '
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b) Five highrlevel experts in telecommunications, documentations, library science, information or Computer Science, elected to represent tfyeir respective subregions and to serve in their personal capacities for a period, of four years.
c) A representative of OAU. :
d) A representative of UNESCO. ;
e) A representative of UNDP. ;
f) Members co-opted in accordance with the terms of reference mentioned below, on condition that there shall not be more than three such members at any time.
2. The terms of reference of the committee were; i
; !
a) To establish the overall policy of PADIS including technical |and financial
guidelines, ■ :
b) To advise the Executive Secretary on the formulation and implementation of the work programme of the project in accordance with the aforementioned guidelines.
c) To oversee the execution of the project at all levels of the system.
d) To take any other action to enhance the effectiveness and economic viability of the project.
e) To meet as often as required, but not less than once a year; during the transitional phase the committee shall meet at least twice a year.
f) To cooperate with specialists in the relevant disciplines, as necessary; and g) To report annually on its activities to the Conference^ Ministers through the
Preparatory Committee of the Whole.
3. Since the creation of the Regional Technical Committee, five meetings have been held. During these meetings, the implementation of PADIS at all levels i.e. national, institutional and sub-regional, has been discussed. Several resolutions on the im plementation of '■ PADIS have been drafted by the Regional Technical Committee and subsequently adopted by the ECA Conference of Ministers.
Future of the Regional Technical Committee
4. At the twenty-seventh session of the Commission/eighteenth meeting of the
Conference of African Ministers held in Addis Ababa from 20-23 April 1992, the ECA
Conference of Ministers adopted resolution 726 (XXVII) on strengthening the Economic
ECA/PADIS/RTC/93/5 Page 2
Commission for Africa to face Africa's development challenges in the 1990s. Operative paragraph 6 recomrpended the "establishment, within existing resources,! of a consult ative mechanism that would advise the Executive Secretary on specific themes, includ ing scheduling and tjhe preparation of conferences, meetings, seminars and workshops, taking into account the need to harmonize them with those of the organization of African unity and the African Development Bank, to avoid duplication and achieve
greater efficiency." j
5. This operative; paragraph implicitly called for a rationalization of the intergov ernmental bodies of[the Commission. It was felt that a streamlined and more effective intergovernmental machinery would be able to respond better to the' crucial and changing needs of member States in the light of the restructuring exercise of the ECA secretariat and the revised Medium-term Plan, as well as to utilise fully the multidis- ciplinary advantages of the ECA and benefit from the synergetic effects deriving from the new ECA priority areas which resulted from the thematic clustering of subpro-
grammes and divisions. ' T
6. In view of these concerns by the ECA Conference of Ministers and the envisaged change in the institutional framework of PADIS, the ECA secretariat has suggested the abolition of the Regional Technical Committee as a legislative organ dealing with
sectoral issues.
7. The suggestion to abolish the Regional Technical Committee stems from the paper entitled "The Economic Commission for Africa, in the 1990s: a policy and management framework for facing Africa's development challenges" (doc. no. E/ECA/CM 18/4) This paper was presented to the ECA Conference of African Ministers responsible for Economic Planning and Development in April 1992. It was deliberated upon and recommendations made, one of them being to cut down on the number of ECA
meetings and legislative organs.
8. For the discussion of the ECA Conference of Ministers at their nineteenth meeting to be held later this month, a proposed structure for the new intergovernmental machinery of the Commission has been made. Among the proposals made are to abolish the Regional Technical Committee for PADIS, along with three subsidiary organs of the Conference of African Ministers responsible for human development namely, the Conference of African Ministers responsible for Human Resources' Utili sation, Planning and Development and its Committee of Experts, the Conference of African Ministers of Social Affairs and its Committee ofExperts, and intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Nuclear Science and Technology for Development in Africa Other organs have been merged: for example, the Conference of African Ministers of Environment and its Committee of Experts and the Intergovernmental Regional Com
mittee on Human Settlements and Environment. '
9^ The meeting may wish to consider suggestions being made to have activities of
this committee shared between the Information Science Committee of the Joint Con
ference of African Planners, Statisticians and Demographers (which meets in even
numbered years), and the Intergovernmental Committee of Science and technology
(which meets in odd-numbered years) to cover issues of scientific and technological
information as well as information technology. Such an arrangement, if agreed upon
ECA/PADIS/RTC/93/5 Page 3
would entail a change in the composition of both the Information Science Committee and the Intergovernmental Committee on Science and Technology. The Joint Con ference of African Planners, Statisticians and Demographers will now meet every two years, and if agreeable to the RTC could handle socio-economic information and information science issues, whilst the second committee of science and Technology could handle scientific and technological information and information technology.
10. It is therefore incumbent upon the present members of the Regional Technical Committee to make specific recommendations on the future role of the Regional Technical Committee and its institutional framework in light of the envisaged institu tional and operational changes of the ECA secretariat and PADIS.
