Economic and Social Council
African Union
E/ECA/RCM/17/2 Distr.: General 25 March 2015 Original: English
Economic Commission for Africa
Regional Coordination Mechanism for Africa Seventeenth Session
African Union
Addis Ababa, 2 and 3 April 2016
Consolidated progress report for the period April 2015–March 2016
I. Introduction
1
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The years 2015 and 2016 present unique opportunities for the Regional Coordination Mechanism for Africa (RCM-Africa). Several agreements around which the Mechanism operates are coming or have come to an end. These include the Millennium Development Goals and the UN Ten -Year Capacity Building Programme for the AU. As a result, the continent through a consultative process has put in place its own development agenda called Agenda 2063, whilst globally the Millennium Development Goals have been replaced by the Sustainable Development Goals also known as the 2030 Agenda. In addition, in December 2015, at the COP21 meeting in Paris, the world agreed on an action plan for mitigating climate change.2. In support of these ongoing changes and the need to be proactive, the RCM-Africa made several restructuring proposals in order to make the mechanism more efficient and more agile including proposing a new framework for UN support to the AU and its Member States called the Partnership on Africa’s Integration and Development Agendas (PAIDA).
3. The theme for this year’s session of RCM Africa - as selected by the RCM Coordinators’ Retreat - is “AU-UN Partnership for the implementation of Agenda 2063 and Sustainable Development Goals” with an emphasis on the AU 2016 theme: “The African Year of Human Rights with a particular focus on Women’s Rights”.
4. The present report tries to capture the work of RCM -Africa during the period April 2015–March 2016. The report considers that the cluster system remained unchanged despite the several challenges identified with this mode of operation. Furthermore, the Sixteenth session of RCM -Africa has decided to keep the cluster system as is until more concerted and concrete plans emerge from the Agenda 2063 and 2030 Agenda in terms of alignment between the two Agendas and subsequent reconfiguration of the RCM -Africa structure. This year saw the emergence of the First Ten-Year Implementation Plan for Agenda 2063 (FTYIP) and significant work is taking place towards an integrated and coherent implementation of Agenda 2063 and 2030 Agenda in Africa. The AU Commission, in collaboration with the ECA and African statistics offices, is
working on indicators and targets for more convergence between Agenda 2063 and 2030 Agenda. Because of the transitioning nature of the period under review, the clusters of RCM-Africa were not very active. Some of them managed to carry out a number of activities captured in this report.
5. With the above background in chapter I, chapter II below considers the key achievements of RCM-Africa. Chapter III presents a summary of the challenges and lessons learned. Chapter IV provides recommendations and the way forward.
II. Key achievements
6. The Regional Coordination Mechanism for Africa (RCM -Africa) has been playing a major role in strengthening the partnership between the United Nations (UN) and the African Union (AU). It continued supporting the AU and its organs in the implementation of continental programmes and priorities, in particular the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the Ten-Year Capacity-Building Programme for the African Union. It helped to streamline planning and coordination between the two partners to allow for the better use of resources, comprehensive programming, and targeted approaches to benefit both sides in the partnership.
7. RCM-Africa can look at the year running from April 201 5 to March 2016 with a sense of satisfaction in terms of deepening consultations and refocusing on ways of strengthening the UN-AU partnership and the scaling up of UN support to the AU and its organs. Substantive issues addressed during this period related to (i) Strengthening the UN-AU partnership and RCM-Africa and (ii) improving coordination, collaboration and coherence of UN support for the thematic programmes of the AU.
A. Strengthening UN-AU partnership and RCM-Africa
8. Conduct of RCM-Africa annual sessions: For the second time, the 2015 annual session of RCM-Africa was held in the margins of the Ninth Joint Annual Meetings of the African Union Specialized Technical Committee on Finance, Monetary Affairs, Economic Planning and Integration and the Economic Commission for Africa Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development. The purpose of the joint conduct of the two meetings is to provide an opportunity for senior UN officials to engage directly with ministers responsible for finance, planning and economic development on pertinent issues relating to Africa’s development agenda. This year’s session is taking place for the third time back to back with the Ministerial conference under the theme "AU-UN Partnership for the implementation of Agenda 2063 and Sustainable Development Goals" . This format has proven to be successful in terms of popularizing the Mechanism and increasing the engagement between the UN System and the AU on emerging development issues. Outcomes of RCM-Africa sessions are propagated throughout the United Nations system and filtered into major forums and conferences a t the global scene.
9. Alignment of RCM-Africa with the strategic priorities of the African Union and its Agenda 2063: RCM-Africa was requested to align its structure with the AUC strategic plan for 2014–2017 in the short term, the FTYIP of Agenda 2063 in the medium term and Agenda 2063 in the long term.
Accordingly, a series of consultations and awareness raising activities took place in the context of RCM-Africa to support the implementation of Agenda 2063 and the sustainable development goals. Two Experts Group Meetings were also held in December 2014 and September 2015 with a view to strengthening
further the Mechanism at both regional and subregional levels, particularly in terms of aligning its support to the FTYIP and enhancing its monitoring and evaluation capacities for results based implementation. The meetings recommended that the Secretariat of the RCM-Africa, in collaboration with the AUC, supports efforts in the collection of appropriate statistics for measuring the indicators of achievements of the FTYIP by involving national planning and statistical structures.
10. Alignment of the RCM-Africa mechanism to the AU Agenda 20163 and the 2030 Agenda: A Retreat of RCM-Africa Coordinators was organised on 11 and 12 February 2016, in Bishoftu, Ethiopia, to specifically discuss the alignment between the AU Agenda 2063 and the sustainable development goals.
The ongoing work jointly carried out by AUC and ECA in this regard shows that there is convergence between the goals of 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063(about 90 percent). The convergence at the level of targets is around 69 percent. The indicators for 2030 Agenda have alread y been developed and can serve as Agenda 2063 indicators where targets match. More work is being undertaken with African statistics offices to bring more convergence between the Agenda 2063 and 2030 Agenda. The AUC is also working on monitoring and evaluation tools. One of the outcomes of the Retreat is the establishment of a Working Committee to examine the proposals made by the RCM -Africa Secretariat on the realignment of the clusters. The composition of the Committee is made up by Ambassador Febe Potgiter-Gqubule, Deputy Chief of Staff of AU Commission (Chair), Dr. Olawale Maiyegun, Director of Social Affairs, AU Commission, Ms. Treasure Maphanga, Director of Trade and Industry, AU Commission, Mr. Chris Kachiza, Ag. Director of Strategic Planning, AU Commission, Mr. Salvatore Matata, Head of COMESA Liaison Office to the AU Commission, Mr. Joseph Atta-Mensah, representing the RCM Secretariat and a representative of the NPCA. The Committee will submit its report to the 17th session of RCM-Africa for endorsement.
11. Comprehensive long-term UN programme of support to the AU: A new programme for UN-AU partnership anchored on Agenda 2063 was developed. The United Nations-African Union partnership on Africa’s integration and development agenda (PAIDA) was adopted by the AU Summit in June 2015, in South Africa. Subsequently, with the support of the Africa Group based in New York, the new framework was expected to be considered by the UN General Assembly in September 2015 to be adequately resourced and included in the 2016–2017 budget cycle of the United Nations. This process is still on-going and the RCM-Africa Secretariat will continue its follow-up on the matter.
12. Monitoring and Evaluation Framework: In response to the request made by its constituency, the RCM-Africa secretariat prepared a report on the enhancing monitoring and evaluation in the Regional Coordination Mechanism for Africa (RCM-Africa). This report was reviewed by an Experts Group Meeting that was held on 28 and 29 September 2015 in Adama, Ethiopia, and subsequently endorsed by the RCM-Africa Coordinators meeting that took place on 11 and 12 February 2016, in Bishoftu, Ethiopia.
13. Joint programming: The RCM-Africa Secretariat prepared a guidelines on joint programming providing some definitions and the different processes involved. The need for defined roles and responsibilities , commitment on the part of all partners, shared goals and a champion to advance the cause of flagship projects are listed as key ingredients to effective coordination and collaboration for impact. Identifying the capacity and the comparative advantage of each partner is also important. The guideline s are ready and being circulated to the membership of RCM-Africa. A workshop was held from 30 September to 1st October 2015 introducing the guidelines and their utilisation.
B. Coordinated United Nations support for the thematic programmes of the African Union
14. The work of RCM-Africa is organized around nine thematic clusters and sixteen subclusters. As indicated in the introductory part of this report, clusters and subclusters were not very active during this reporting period. Activities reported do not always appear to have taken place in the context of existing clusters and subclustrers of RCM-Africa due to the lack of vibrancy in the functioning of clusters. Nevertheless, contributions made by one or more UN agencies/organizations in fulfilling the objectives of clusters and subclusters are reported.
15. The Governance cluster consists of four subclusters – economic and corporate governance; human rights; public service and administration;
democracy and elections. The UNDP Regional Service for Africa is the coordinator on the UN side. In partnership with the AUC and acknowledging the importance of data/statistics in development, UNDP undertook a review of the pilot implementation of the Governance, Peace and Security statistics component of the Strategy for the Harmonization of Statistics in Africa (SHaSHA) in 9 countries namely Kenya, Malawi, Cameroun, Cape Verde, Cote d Ivoire, Mali, Uganda, Tunisia and Burundi. The expected final outcome of the partnership is an integrated governance, peace and security assessment framework which enables AU member states adopt and deploy national capacity for governance assessment. An integrated governance assessment framework/tool has thus become necessary to avoid multiplicity of tools, duplication of efforts and waste of scarce resources, challenge to authenticity of results, and confusion to member states as to which tool to adopt. This also helps AU prepare a data driven comparative analysis of situation of governance, peace and security in member states. The tool has been finalize and waiting full deployment by member states.
16. The UNDP supported the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) to undertake the country review of Djibouti which helped the country to better understand the situation of political governance, economic development and management, corporate governance; and socio -economic development.
Djibouti has prepared a National Plan of Action (NPoA) in response t o the deficits/weaknesses identified while a full peer review by the APR Forum holds in June 2016. During the period under review, UNDP provided further support which enabled the APRM develop a Communications and Knowledge Management strategy, participated in the search for a substantive Chief Executive Officer that has now been hired and assumed duty and managed the APRM Trust Fund.
17. UNDP acknowledges that rapid urbanization presents new frontiers in the development challenge for many African countries, particularly in service delivery in informal settlements, capacities for effective planning at all levels, and insecurity. To this effect, UNDP in collaboration with the UN -Habitat engaged in a process aimed to explore the urban accelerators to socio -economic transformation in Africa – including safety and security, equity, urban policy, planning, economy, municipal finances, youth and job creation, basic services, and governance - with a view to providing advice and guidance to national stakeholders on what could be changed with the way the urban sector is governed in Africa to bring about positive transformation on the continent.
Framing and policy papers have been developed to enrich the regional normative standards and understanding of urban accelerators to economic transformation in Africa.
18. UNDP supported the establishment of the framework for more enhanced capacity and more effective performance of national human rights institutions through the conduct of a study on the state of human rights institutions in Africa
and the domestication of the AU Luanda Guidelines on Pre -Trail Detention. The guidelines were developed in collaboration with the Open Society Foundation and the African Police Civilian Oversight Forum in Ivory Coast, Malawi, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. The study on the state on human rights institutions will enable the development of additional policy instruments by the heads of state to strengthen the capacity and performance on the institutions. The guidelines on pre-trial detention will enable the national authorities to strengthen their compliance with global human rights and rule of law standards, especially the standards on the treatment of persons awaiting trial.
19. UNDP supported the development of national knowledge products on the state of public service in Africa (SOPSA), which will provide the evidence for reviewing standards of performance and public service delivery in Africa.
Specifically, the study was carried out in 12 countries namely (West Africa) Togo, Senegal, Nigeria, Ghana, and Guinea Bissau; and Chad in Central Africa.
In Southern Africa, South Africa, Mozambique, Malawi Namibia participated in the study while in East Africa Kenya, Ethiopia and Burundi also took part.
Nine national reports have been completed, whil e the remainder are at different stages of completion. Upon completion, the studies will be presented to the Summit of Heads of State of the AU and widely disseminated.
20. UNDP launched the monthly Maendeleo Policy Forum meant to provide space for African statesmen, international mediators and negotiators, researchers, policy makers, development practitioners and writers on African issues, to dialogue and debate on critical issues of development in Africa. Three editions of the Forum were held on the following themes: (1) Pulling Back from the Brink: Options for National Dialogue in Burundi; (2) Violent Extremism in Africa: Challenges, Options and Opportunities for Response, (3) The Paris Climate Change Agreement and Africa: What next? The three editions have been well attended by well over 150 participants drawn from development partners including UN agencies, AU agencies, bilateral and multilateral partners Ethiopian Government and international NGOs.
21. The growth of violent extremism and the devastating impact of groups espousing violent ideologies – is not only setting in motion a dramatic reversal of development gains already made, but threatening to stunt prospects of development for decades to come. In response to the challenges of violent extremism in Africa, UNDP in partnership with AUC, IGAD and ECOWAS during the period under review, developed and launched USD50m programme on development solutions to violent extremism in Africa. The core elements o f the programme include addressing reform of criminal justice systems, enhanced governance of faith institutions, strengthened rule of law and human rights regimes, support for addressing the socio -economic drivers of violent extremism as well as developing better understanding to inform more appropriate responses to the roles and experiences of women in violent extremism.
22. In response to the AU supported Mbeki Report of Illicit Financial Flows from Africa, UNDP is collaborating with the AU C and ECA to strengthen National Capacities to Prevent Illicit Financial Flows in Africa. The project focus on developing the capacity of tax and revenue administrations to mobilize domestic resources and curb illicit financial flows; facilitate sub -Regional consultations to develop framework for National Action Plans on combatting IFF and on modalities for monitoring progress in the implementation of the PIF National Action Plans. The first consultation was held in Dakar in February 2016. Other objectives include strengthening the role of oversight institutions;
raising awareness of and strengthening civil society and media to monitor, investigate and curb illicit financial flows; strengthening the capacities of local researchers and analysts to monitor and report on such flows and increasing the implementation of Open Government Partnership (OGP) commitments to
increase transparency and accountability. The 16 initial beneficiary countries are Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Lesotho, Mauritius, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and Tanzania.
23. Other areas of support include the following:
(a) The development of a strategic assessment of the central Africa region. This assessment will be validated together with ECCAS in Libreville in April 2016.
(b) Supporting to the AU Office of the Legal Counsel to organize training programmes on legal drafting with regional and national partners to hasten the ratification and domestication of AU treaties and instruments. Simon can provide appropriate language.
(c) Support to the global summit of women in parliament and organization of two side events at the summit
(d) Supporting AUC to review the outcome of the Malta summit on migration and to develop follow on plans.
(e) Support for the development of a report on :Women as Policy and Decision-makers in local governments in Africa;
(f) Publication of popular versions of the AU Charter on the Values and Principles of decentralization, local governance and local development.
24. Science and technology: Focuses on capacity-building; knowledge production; and technological innovation.
25. Infrastructure development: Comprises four subclusters – energy;
information and communications technology; transport; and water, sanitation and hygiene.
26. In the area of maritime development, activities listed below were undertaken:
(a) Between April 2015 and March 2016, and as a complement to the implementation of the action plans of the African Union's 2050 Integrated Maritime Strategy and the Agenda 2063, IMO fielded some 70 technical assistance missions in 23 African countries.
(b) Activities related to the environment focused on oil spill response and preparedness in order to strengthen national response to marine pollution incidents in 3 countries. Several activities were also held relating to compliance with bio-fouling and anti-fouling legislation in 2 other countries.
(c) In the area of maritime security, both the Djibouti Code of Conduct and the Code of Conduct concerning the repression of piracy, armed robbery against ships and illicit maritime activity in west and central Africa were areas of focus, with a variety of activities supporting both Codes. Another priority for the region was activities relating to law enforcement and criminal investigation, as well as maritime domain awareness.
(d) With regard to social and human development, 32 fellowships for training were awarded to participants from 14 African countries during the year, and 6 students from 6 African countries graduated from the World Maritime University and the IMO International Maritime Law Institute on fellowships provided by IMO.
(e) With regard to strengthening institutional capacities, as an ongoing process, the Country Maritime Profile (CMP) of African countries has been developed. The CMP is a tool which identifies the maritime needs of African countries which necessitates the provision of relevant maritime
technical assistance. In addition, the EU-funded FlagPort WACAF project held a series of national advisory missions to assess the functioning of the maritime administrations and assist in the review of maritime legislation. Also, several regional training workshops on flag State implementation were held aimed at providing officers from maritime administrations with information of the obligations and duties of the flag State as required by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and various IMO and I LO instruments.
27. Social and human development: Has six sub-clusters – health, HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases; education and human resources; gender, youth and development; social welfare, protection and human trafficking; labour and employment; and sports and culture.
28. The Employment and Labour sub cluster has jointly planned and delivered the following results:
(a) A programme brief on the first Five Year Priority Programme for the implementation of the AU Declaration and Plan of Action on Employment Creation, Poverty Eradication and Inclusive Development was first endorsed by the First Meeting of the AU Specialized Technical Committee on Social Development, Labour and Employment (STC-SDLE-1) held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in April 2015 and adopted during the June 2015 Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, by African Head of States. Following the adoption, the Employment and Labour Sub cluster is supporting the AUC in the drafting of the First Five Year Priority Programme.
(b) Within the ambit of the Joint AUC/ILO/IOM/ECA/UNDP (UNDP recently joined the team) Labour Migration Governance for Deve lopment and Integration in Africa, known as the Joint Labour Migration Programme (JLMP), the following have been delivered:
o The First Labour Migration Statistics in Africa Report, a report comprised of statistics from 37 national statistical offices in Africa, would be launched in June 2016. This report would provide accurate data and statistics on labour migration and set the capacity of AU to produce by its own regular labour migration statistics.
o The First Specialized Technical Committee on Education, Science and Technology endorsed the Report on Skills Portability at Regional Economic Community (REC) and Continental Levels in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in October 2015. The finalized Report would be validated by Member States and REC’s experts in April 2016.
o A study on Skills Recognition and Portability which was considered by the STC on HRST in October 2015 with recommendations on way forward.
o A study on social security access and portability.
(c) A sectoral structure of the AU Statistic Plan of Action, the Labo ur Market Information System and Informal Economy focuses on the development and implementation of the Labour Market Information System harmonization and Coordination Framework (LMIS-HCF). ILO and the ECA are supporting the implementation of this component. Currently, harmonization and coordination tools have been developed (harmonized questionnaires on labour force survey, establishment survey and informal economy survey) and RECs were trained on the use. In addition, Member States have been requested to develop regional and country roadmap for the i mplementation of the LMIS- HCF.
(d) In April 2015, the First STC on Social Development, Labour and Employment, through the Addis Ababa Declaration on Social Protection for Inclusive Development, requested the AUC to work on the development of a Protocol on Social Protection and Social Security to the AU Charter on Human and People Rights. The Assembly also requested the AUC to develop a Social Agenda of the Agenda 2063, which will be done through the revision of the AU Social Policy Framework of 2008. The ILO, as a lead agency, in collaboration with the UNECA, UNICEF and UNDP, is supporting the formulation of this protocol. In addition, these institutions are also assisting with the revision of the AU’s 2008 Social Policy Framework in light of recent developments including AU's Agenda 2063 and Sustainable Development Goals 2030.
(e) The AUC-AfDB-ILO-ECA Joint Initiative on Youth Employment was formulated and its implementation started with support to Senegal (ECA) and Burkina Faso (ILO) in formulating national strategies.
29. The detailed key achievement were realized due to the effective AUC leadership as well the very good coordination and collaboration between the co - chairs (DSA and ILO). Finally the allocation of seed funding by the ILO and other UN partners is a key success factor in the work of the sub cluster. For the future, the work of the group will be anchored on the First Ten Year Plan of the Agenda 2063, linking with the Agenda 2030. The First Ten Year Plan c alls for domestication at regional and national level of the First Five Year Priority Programme and related policies/programmes. This will guide the undertaking of the sub cluster to effectively support the implementation of the AU policies on labour, employment, social protection and inclusive development .
30. Agriculture, food security and rural development: the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) provides the overarching framework for this cluster.
31. Peace and security: Consists of four subclusters – peace and security architecture of the African Union; post-conflict reconstruction and development; emergency preparedness and response; and transitional justice.
32. The Emergency Preparedness and Response Sub -cluster co-coordinated by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - Africa Union Liaison Office (OCHA-AULO) and the Department of Political Affairs (DPA) of African Union Commission (AUC) undertook the following:
(a) Convened two meetings in May 2015 to discuss the humanitarian situation in Burundi and the potential consequences of the crisis on neighboring countries and the region at large. The meeting stressed the need to have a multi - dimensional analysis of the crisis in Burundi and the importance of maintaining holistic view in engagement. Members of the Sub -Cluster highlighted the importance of sharing reports and consolidating analysis, in order to enhance better understanding of the crisis in Burundi.
(b) Briefing by the Humanitarian, Refugees and Displaced Persons Division of the AUC-DPA, on the road map for developing the Common African Position on Humanitarian Effectiveness, which will be presented at the World Humanitarian Summit, in May 2016. The road map involves all -inclusive regional consultations in the five regions (east, west, central, north and south) of the continent. The consultations will facilitate and explore mechanisms for strengthening global and regional governance of humanitarian issues and set out a forward-looking agenda to shape future humanitarian action in the continent.
(c) Organized a panel discussion on Innovative Financing for Humanitarian Action in Africa, on 13 July 2015 in the margins of the Third Financing for Development Conference in Addis Abab a. The meeting brought together high-level development and humanitarian leaders and practitioners.
The event aimed at stressing considerations and commitments for humanitarian financing in the outcomes of the Third International Conference for Financing for Development. Panelists acknowledged the strong linkage between development and humanitarian action. They reviewed some of the challenges in humanitarian operations at local/national, regional and continental levels and considered means to strengthen the African vision for peace, prosperity and equitable development that meets the needs of all Africans.
(d) On 03 July 2015, in collaboration with the AUC, the Sub -Cluster organized a panel discussion on “The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030: The Future of Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience in Africa. The aimed at popularizing the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 and understanding its implications for the advancement of the efforts for disaster risk reduction in Africa. It also deliberated on key follow-up actions to ensure effective implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 across Africa. Furthermore, it tried to reflect on the practical gender roles and the strategic gains for women and girls in the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030.
(e) In commemoration of the World Humanitarian Day (WHD) and the African Humanitarian Week, the Sub-Cluster held an Open Session of the African Union Permanent Representative Committee (PRC) Sub-Committee on Refugees, Returnees and Displaced Persons in Africa from 17 -21 August 2015.
Consistent with the global the of the 2015 WHD, ‘Inspire World’s Humanity’, the open session aimed at inspiring action across the continent and create wider support for humanitarian action. It called for sustained African solidarity in helping people affected by conflict and natural disasters. The weeklong celebration of the African Humanitarian Week also included panel discussions Stakeholder’s Dialogue on Humanitarian Situation in Africa and Tools for humanitarian effectiveness in Africa. The panel discussions focused on humanitarian response by Africans in Africa. A weeklong photo exhibition was also organized highlighting success stories in humanitarian action in Africa.
(f) On 6 October 2015 with the backings of the Emergency Preparedness and Reponses Sub-Cluster, The Life and Peace Institute (LPI) organized a workshop on From ‘Do No Harm’ to ‘Do More Peace’. Focusing on conflict sensitivity, peace building and challenges of working in conflict induced humanitarian crises, the workshop aimed at adding voice on the African Union Common Africa Position in the lead up to the World Humanitarian Summit. It explored the opportunities and challenges in the nexus between peace building and humanitarianism. The meeting highlighted the need to further strengthening existing frameworks for coordinating humanitarian and peace building activities.
(g) Briefing on the Dadaab Camp in Kenya was also held on 03November 2015: The Dadaab camp, which is the world’s largest refugee camp, was opened in 1991 to receive the influx of refugees fleeing the Somali conflict. Members of the Sub-Cluster were briefed about the recent announcement of the Kenyan Government on the eventual closure of the camp.
Members of the Sub-cluster were also informed about briefing of the AU P&SC on the Dadaab refugee situation by HARDP and UNHCR. The briefing recommendation for the observance of international obligation of t he Government of Kenya, voluntary repatriation of refugees and support for strengthening resilience of returnees.
(h) On 20 November 2015, the Sub-Cluster organized for the briefing of the African Union Peace and Security Council (AU P&SC) on the impact of El Niño on Peace and Security in Africa. The Assistant Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency relief Coordinator, H.E. Kyung -
wha Kang addressed the Open Session of the AUPSC on “The Impact of El Nino on Peace, Security and Stability in Africa and Humanitarian Consequences. The briefing stressed the need for building resilience and coping mechanisms and called for concerted action by focusing on disaster risk reduction, resilience building, preparedness and effective response.
33. Environment, population and urbanization cluster addresses the challenges of growing populations and the movement of p eople; rapid growth of towns; environmental degradation and pollution; and the lack of demographic statistics. It is co-chaired by UNFPA and AUC (Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture – DREA). Activities undertaken by the cluster are reported below:
(a) Increasing awareness and advocacy on global and continental issues: African Environment Day and Wangari Maathai Day. The 2015 African Environment and Wangari Maathai Day was celebrated on the 3rd of March 2015 in Nairobi, Kenya, under the theme “Empowering Women for Sustainable Natural Resource Management with the aims to highlight the important role that women play in managing resources in societies across Africa. This took place with the engagement and celebration of the African Union Commission in collaboration with the Cluster 4 of RCM -Africa.
(b) Green economy development: During the reporting period, UNEP with AUC, UNECA, UNDP, ILO, AfDB, NPCA, RECs, WWF, UNIDO and DANIDA have jointly been undertaking assessment reports to identify the opportunities and challenges of a transition to a green economy. In these assessments, there was a review of existing green economy and green economy related policies, plans as well as programmes in the various countries. These reports identified the challenges in the respective countries including financing, capacity building and technology transfer. The green economy scoping studies and assessment studies have been undertaken in several countries including Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Mauritius and Rwanda. In the studies undertaken as well as the various regional workshops undertaken, some of the gaps identified for capacity building include: data collection, economic modelling skills, technology transfer and policy analysis for example fiscal policy to support the countries achieve sustainable development. A green economy development pathway under environment provides numerous benefits including economic, environmental as well as social benefits in the medium term and higher forest cover, increased water supply and lower carbon emissions in the long term.
(c) The International Conference on the Illegal Exploitation and Illegal Trade of African Wildlife and Flora: The 2014 AU Heads of State Summit in Malabo requested AUC and other partners to prepare an African strategy to combat wildlife trafficking and illegal trade of wildlife Flora and Fauna in Africa and to organize an international Conference (African Union Decision on African Wildlife Flora and Fauna conservation and illegal trade in wildlife). In order to implement this, AUC, UNEP, UNDP, FAO and AfDB initiated a series of consultative and bilateral, Technical Committee and Organizing Committee meetings. As a result of such joint consultations, a joint roadmap to the Conference and three Committees have been formed to support the Brazzaville Conference and to develop an African Common Strategy on Combating Illegal Trade in Wild Flora and Fauna: - (i) International Organizing Committee comprises AUC (Chair), Government of Congo, UNEP, and UNDP (new member) –that is coordinating the preparations for conference and provide political guidance(ii) Technical Committee Comprising UNEP (Chair) with AUC, AfDB, UNDP, Cites, Lusaka Agreement, WWF, FAO, and other partners that is coordinating the technical aspects of the conference including drafting the concept note, agenda, draft strategy, (iii) National Committee Congo (Chair) with national partners from the Ministry and whose task is mainly coordination
at the National Level and logistical arrangements. The International Conference on the Illegal Exploitation and Illegal Trade of African Wildlife and Flora was held from 27-30 April 2015 at the Salle des Conférences internationales du Palais des Congrès in Brazzaville, in the Republic of Congo and had three segments (Experts session - two days), Ministerial segment (one day) followed by a high-level segment (one day).
(d) Organization of workshops: The Cluster EPU participated in the workshops “Quest 4 Africa I: from rhetoric to action” and “Quest 4 Africa II: from rhetoric to action” organized by AUC’s Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture and UNESCO, with the participation of UNESCO, UNESCO-IICBA, UNICEF, UNEP, WFP, UNFPA, FAO, UNDP, UN Women, UNOPS, UNECA, and IFAD which took respectively place from the 28-29 May 2015 and 16-17 November 2015. The workshops focused on the theme of climate change, water and biodiversity. This platforms were two the key activities of the 2015 Annual Work Plan (AWP) of the Cluster to be implemented and it also gave the opportunity to open the discussions on the Green Schools initiative (as a starting point for resilience and mitigation), another key activity of the 2015 AWP as well as floating mangroves activity.
The outcome of the workshops has been key recommendations on: wetland and mangroves, biodiversity; climate change resilience; sustainable land management practices; science and technology innovation: policy developmen t and education; women and youth empowerment; environmentally friendly tourism / culturally responsible tourism; better building initiative; waste management; water resources management and capacity augmentation;
immediate practical action to take and pled ges.
34. Advocacy and communication: Promotes greater understanding of NEPAD globally, builds support for NEPAD among Africans and the international community, and promotes the work of the United Nations in support of NEPAD.
35. Industry, trade and market access: Promotes the development of agro- industries and agri-business in Africa.
Key achievements include the following:
C. Coordinated United Nations support at the subregional level
36. The subregional coordination mechanisms are vehicles for United Nations agencies and organizations operating at the subregional level to work with the regional economic communities and intergovernmental organizations with a view to reducing fragmentation in their operations and increasing coherence, coordination and cooperation in their support for the programmes and priorities of the regional economic communities and intergovernmental organizations. In this regard, ECA established four subregional mechanisms in North Africa, West Africa, Central Africa and East and Southern Africa. All four hold annual consultative meetings on the strengthening and coordination of the support provided to the priorities of their respective regional economic communities.
SRCM-ESA
37. The annual meeting Sub-Regional Coordination Mechanism (SRCM) for Eastern and Southern Africa was organised by the Economic Commission for Africa, Sub-Regional Offices for Eastern and Southern Africa (SRO -EA & SA) and hosted by the Southern African Development Community (SADC), in Gaborone, Botswana on the 10th and 11th of December 2015, under the theme:
“Towards Effective Mainstreaming of the SRCM Business Plan into Stakeholders’ Planning Processes and Priority Setting”.
38. The outcomes of the meeting and the status of the implementation of SRCM Flagship Projects are reported below:
(a) A streamlined addendum to the SRCM Business Plan will be developed considering the flagship initiatives as its anchor. It will highlight the roles and responsibilities of chairs and champions of flagship initiatives as part of well-defined institutional arrangements.
(b) The addendum to the Business Plan will take into consideration the SDGs, Agenda 2063 and new REC, IGO and partner strategies.
Additionally, it will provide an opportunity for further alignment between the SRCM for Eastern and Southern Africa and the RCM.
(c) The addendum will also include a revised monitoring and evaluation system, enabling beneficiary RECs and IGOs to report in a regular and consistent fashion.
(d) The SRCM should adopt flagship initiatives under the third intended outcome of the Business Plan on Building Strong Institutions and Social Cohesion.
(e) Given the importance of the Blue Economy to Eastern and Southern Africa, the meeting adopted a flagship initiative on the Blue Economy.
The Indian Ocean Commission will champion the Blue Economy initiative.
Other IGOs such as PMAESA have also expressed an interest in joining.
(f) PMAESA will champion a flagship initiative on Mainstreaming Intelligent Transportation System in Corridor Infrastructure.
(g) The Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) is a collaborative framework with the UN System as partner. Due to the relevance of the TFTA for Africa’s structural transformation agenda, the meeting adopted it as a flagship project under the SRCM.
(h) UN agencies are requested to leverage their expertise in different mandates to support the process of developing a CFTA.
(i) Due to the complexity of the Business Plan and the overly ambitious targets it sets, the focus should be on the flagship initiatives, which can be effectively supported and implemented.
(j) The “Friends of the Tripartite” group could be used as a model to boost coordination and cooperation between the UN and RECs for the further alignment of the SRCM with RECs’ (and also IGOs’) priorities and programmes.
(k) The results of the mapping study will be used to determine which agencies could champion particular flagship projects.
(l) The mapping study will be used to inform the addendum to the Business Plan.
SRCM Central Africa (insert)
SRCM North Africa (insert)
SRCM West Africa (insert)
III. Challenges and Lessons Learned
39. Ownership and leadership by the principal stakeholders in the work of RCM-Africa are essential. Increased ownership and guidance by African Union organs related to the activities of RCM-Africa will definitely result in better performance. The active participation of AUC as co-chair of RCM-Africa has been significant for the effectiveness of its operations. Solid foundations have been laid for fruitful cooperation, in terms of the enthusiasm displayed by many members of the AUC senior management. Disparities between the roles and levels of participation of the various departments within AUC, however, have somewhat affected cluster performance.
40. Challenges faced by the Mechanism are pretty the same fro m year to year. They basically refer to resources constraints, weak information and communication, planning constraints, lack of an effective monitoring and evaluation framework and difficulties to show tangible results and achievements.
41. The lack of resources to support implementation of the programmes of RCM-Africa and its clusters remains a major constraint, as there is no specific budget allocation to support the implementation of planned programmes and activities. Financial and capacity constraints are limiting many agencies from contributing to the work of the clusters and this problem is still waiting to be addressed. The absence of dedicated resources means that many clusters and subclusters are unable to function effectively. It is therefore difficult to encourage joint programming within RCM-Africa and for its members to learn from one another’s experiences.
42. Awareness of RCM-Africa and its achievements is extremely limited in many quarters. There is no mechanism in place to share experiences and good practices and the clusters still work independently, despite the fact that communication should be cross-cutting. Information tends to be confined within the boundaries of each cluster and does not circulate. There is no newsletter or web platform where ideas could be exchanged in real time using contributions from the other clusters and thereby achieve the goal of mainstreaming communication in the entire RCM-Africa.
43. In terms of the planning process, a number of challenges have been observed. First, meetings are not regular. There is also a lack of intra-cluster and intercluster interaction and cooperation hampering the Mechanism to function effectively in a cross-cutting manner. Second, many clusters have encountered difficulties in elaborating joint programmes and drawing on a common funding pool for their activities, possibly due to the fact that their individual governing bodies have different programming and budget cycles. For the most part, key indicators of success and targets to be achieved against each area of activity have not been identified properly. Third, management of the clusters tends to be overly personalized, in that it is assigned to a single staff member in each institution, without proper arrangements to institutionalize the process, creating the risk that institutional memory and continuity are lost as individual staff members relinquish their positions.
IV. Recommendations and the way forward
44. There is general agreement on the part of both the United Nations system and the African regional and subregional institutions that more needs to be done to enhance RCM-Africa in support of the agenda of the African Union and its organs. An enhanced mechanism would lead to better co ordination of United Nations actions, improve coherence and increase cost -effectiveness and impact through the implementation of the activities of the clusters, with a view to
achieving meaningful results. Looking ahead to the future and with a view to improving the mechanism, the following recommendations are put forward.
Sustainable resources
45. To ensure that RCM-Africa effectively plays its role in support of the priorities of the African Union at the regional and subregional levels, the mechanism in general and its secretariat in particular need to be well resourced in ways that enable them to provide more effective substantive support to mechanism-related measures and activities. This requires the provision of resources on a sustainable basis for the mechanism to be effective and credible.
Recommendations are made at two levels, in the short term and in medium-to- long term, as set out below.
46. In the short term, as requested by the General Assembly, all United Nations system organizations are urged to work together, in accordance with the Secretary-General’s “Delivering as one” initiative, by pooling their resources in pursuit of key joint outputs. The resources required for the implementation of cluster activities should be mobilized by the cluster agencie s, primarily from their respective agency programme budgets, which means that the cluster activities would have to be integral to the programme budget of each participating agency. This would require participating cluster members on the United Nations side to ensure that RCM-Africa work is adequately provided for in their regular work programmes and budgets. Their performance within the mechanism should also be taken into account in their performance reviews.
Furthermore, it requires the programming and planning cycles of cluster work to be harmonized with that of the African Union, in order to enable United Nations organizations to identify, incorporate and implement activities in line with their yearly programme implementation plans.
47. In the medium-to-long term, the proposed United Nations-African Union partnership framework should be fully supported from the budget, with a view to strengthening efforts by the United Nations system and African Union organs to work together, in line with the “Delivering as one” initiative, on the priorities of the African Union.
A. Communications strategy
48. The Seventeenth session ofRCM-Africa should endorse the proposed communications strategy for advocacy and resources mobilization to support the various programmes of the African Union and its organs.
49. In order to increase awareness, involvement, ownership and leadership at all levels, regular briefings on RCM-Africa and its activities should be organized for the commissioners and department directors of AUC, the leadership of the NEPAD Agency and those in charge of the regional economic communities. Newsletters and other means of communication should be developed to promote the mechanism. With minimum funding, the advocacy and communications cluster could create a newsletter or web platform on which ideas could be exchanged in real time using contributions from the other clusters and thereby achieve the goal of mainstreaming communication in RCM -Africa.
Communication-related activities should be factored into cluster business plans and provided for in their budgets. Clusters should also designate a member to work with the advocacy and communications cluster.
B. Planning
50. All clusters should prioritize intra-cluster and inter-cluster collaboration, cooperation, partnerships and communication in line with previous decisions of RCM-Africa in order to create coherence and synergy in their work and ensure maximum effectiveness. To this end, all participating members of the Mechanism are encouraged to continue:
(a) Improving the coordination and implementation of joint undertakings and activities among themselves;
(b) Drawing up calendars of events and meetings for each cluster at the beginning of the reporting cycle. For ease of planning, t he RCM-Africa secretariat will maintain and circulate a consolidated calendar of events and meetings to all stakeholders and enhance intercluster collaboration and partnerships;
(c) Holding more frequent regular meetings among coordinators and among members.
51. More importantly, it is becoming an imperative to e nsure that activities by RCM-Africa and its clusters are effectively planned and reflected in the regular work programmes and programme budgets of each member agency and organization. To this end it is suggested that a yearly programme of work be considered and adopted by each annual session of RCM -Africa to be implemented and reported upon by the Mechanism. The yearly programme of work will be prepared and submitted by the AUC and will include expected accomplishments, key indicators of success, the targets to be achieved against each area of activity and resource requirements. Any progress and achievement need to be assessed through the M&E framework already put in place by the RCM-Africa Secretariat. Furthermore, the performance of each member in the Mechanism should be taken into account in the performance reviews carried out by the member’s organization. It is hoped that this new approach will ensure a meaningful impact and contribute to the overall effectiveness of RCM -Africa.
52. Looking forward, it is recommended that the commitment and good leadership that has existed thus far should be maintained. African Union co- chairs should show tangible leadership, ensuring that African Union-desired outcomes are clearly articulated and thereby enabling the clusters to know the areas for their collaboration and provision of support, to ensure greater effectiveness. In addition, they should play an important role in facilitating the engagement of other relevant AUC departments, to ensure that delivering as one is also the AUC approach. The United Nations co-chairs must also demonstrate a higher level of commitment and provide complementary leadership to AUC.
This involves the allocation of both the necessary time and the human and financial resources necessary for the organization of regular meetings, the implementation of the decisions adopted, and the reporting on that implementation in a timely manner.
53. RCM-Africa has proved to be an effective instrument that can contribute to efforts to rebrand Africa as a rising continent. The strategic partnership between the United Nations and the African Union should be further strengthened in support of Africa’s peace and development agendas.
