Delivering as One: UN organizations discuss how to help Africa achieve MDGs
ECA Press Release No. 62/2009
Addis Ababa, 5 November (ECA): The broad effects of climate change and the global financial crisis have overshadowed the impressive economic growth rates brought by prudent macroeconomic policies, improved governance and private sector reforms in many African countries, UN Deputy Secretary -General, Asha-Rose Migiro today in Addis Ababa today.
Opening the 10th session of the regional coordination mechanism (RCM) of UN organizations working in support of the African Union and its NEPAD programme, Ms. Migiro said due to the global crisis, Africa’s growth is projected to fall from an average of 5 percent in recent years to a paltry 1.7 percent increase in 2009.
“The indicators are plain to see: we have already seen dwindling export revenues and reduced remittances. Many people are losing their jobs and falling back into poverty,” the Deputy Secretary-General said.
She said it was gratifying that the African Union had endorsed the recommendations of the eight leading multilateral institutions working in Africa, who were brought together by the UN Secretary-General around a practical plan to accelerate progress towards the MDGs.
According to her, the plan had already resulted in the L’Aquila Initiative, a $20 billion G8 initiative which directly addresses the need to raise agricultural productivity across Africa.
Referring to a set of ten Gleneagles scenarios, Ms. Migiro said considerable analytical work had been done to show what could be achieved if donors followed through on their Gleneagles commitments to more than double aid to Africa. The analyses also
“show that scaling up can be achieved without compromising the macroeconomic stability that so many African countries have fought for,” she said.
ECA’s Executive Secretary and UN Under Secretary-General, Abdoulie Janneh, in a welcoming remark, called on UN organizations and agencies working in Africa in support of the African Union and its NEPAD programme, to redouble their efforts within the RCM, to assist African countries in achieving the MDGs.
He said the RCM had become a veritable tool for coordinating the work of UN agencies and for delivering as one for Africa, noting that while the clusters of the RCM had been better aligned to the priorities of the African Union and NEPAD, they needed to be backed up by an efficient and resourced Secretariat in order to utilize the optimum strength of the clusters.
Mr. Janneh said the ongoing institutional and structural changes within the African Union Commission and NEPAD Secretariat were bound to have implications for the way the United Nations works in support of the AU and NEPAD, especially in the context of the UN Ten-Year Capacity Building Programme for the AU.
The Deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Erastus Mwencha, said major strides had been made by the AU in strengthening its capacity to deliver on its mandates and that the Commission success had been facilitated by the support rendered by various UN agencies and organizations.
Citing various collaborative projects, including the UN-AU Joint Peace and Security mission in Darfur and Somalia, the Assessment of Regional Integration in Africa (ARIA) series, the Economic Report on Africa (ERA) and the African Statistical Report --- all joint publications of the AU and ECA, Mr. Mwencha said UN support had also enabled the AU to strengthen its capacity through the acquisition of equipment and the secondment of personnel.
He said while a decision on a report on the integration of NEPAD into the AU processes and structures would be considered in January 2009 by African Heads of State and that consensus had been reached on the establishment of the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency.
Mr. Mwencha said, however, that there was still the need to capacitate the NEPAD Coordinating Unit in the office of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission.
In his first address to the RCM since becoming the CEO of NEPAD Secretariat in April 2009, Dr. Ibrahim Mayaki said the ongoing institutional changes envisaged would reposition and strengthen NEPAD as a lead player in giving impetus to Africa’s attainment of the MDGs.
He said NEPAD Secretariat had continued to make steady progress in the implementation of all NEPAD priority sectoral
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programmes.
“NEPAD is working relentlessly to achieve the core objectives set out in 2001 and while we have used the formative years to develop sectoral policy framework for the continent in various field, the time is ripe for implementation,” said Mayaki
He said the foundation for success of the new NEPAD entity rests on broad-based inclusiveness of all stakeholders, including the participation of non-state actors in the NEPAD process.
“Our collective effort within the work of this mechanism is critical to strengthening coherence and coordination of UN syetem-wide support to the AU and its NEPAD programme.” Mayaki said.
Issued by the ECA Information and Communication Service P.O. Box 3001
Addis Ababa Ethiopia
Tel: 251 11 5445098 Fax: +251-11-551 03 65 E-mail: ecainfo@uneca.org Web: www.uneca.org
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