UNITED NATIONS
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
Distr,: GENERAL
E/CN,14/779
31 March 1930 Orifinalt ENGLISHECONOMIC: CatilSSION FOR AFRICA ' First meeting of the Technical
Preparatory, Comnittce of the Whole Addis Ababa, 3-3 April
ECONOMIC COT.l'IISSION.FOR AFRICA ;
Fifteenth session/sixth meeting of
the Conference of Ministers
Addis Ababa, 9-12 April 1930 - .
THE ECONOMIC AND -SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS CF RISING REFUGEE POPULATION IK AFRICA t NOTE m THE SECRETARIAT ON THE ROLE OF ECA
1, ECA's concern for the predicament of refugees in Africa has led to its involvenent, since early 1977j in all the preparatory stages of the 1979 Arusha Conference on the situation of refugees in Africa^ which it jointly sponsored
with the OAU and the UNHCR. The preparation of the meeting, the second of its kind in the history of independent Africa, entailed substantive research work and participation in pre—conference seminars, workshops, expert group meetings, etc,.,, which considered refugee problems fron the legal, social, economic, institutional, administrative and financial angles. The conference concluded its examination of these aspects of the refugee problem by putting forward fifteen sets of recommendations for action by specialized organizations including the United Nations,
2, The report and recommendations of the Arusha Conference were endorsed !
(i) by the 1979 Monrovia session of the OAU Council of Ministers (cf.
Resolution CM/727 (XXXIIl)); and
(ii) by the 34th session of the General Assembly (cf. Resolution
3» Of the sets of recommendations included in the attached copy of the Report of the Conference, the secretariat considers the following as requiring action by the Economic Commission for Africa :
Rec. 10 : Rural refugees Rec. 11 ! Urban refugees
Rec. 12. s General recommendations related to rural and urban refugees Rcc. 13 s Employment, education and training of refugees in Africa.
4, In recent months, the secretariat lias been coming under pressure to make effective contributions to the escalating refugee problem within the terms of its mandate (taking full account of the roles of the Organization of African
Unity and of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) and xrithin the
limits of resources available to it«
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E/CN.14/779
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5« The secretariat is fully conscious, not only from contacts with the Office of the Secretary-General in Now York but also with representatives of individual rjovernnentsj of the scale and conplexity of the problems involved and the urgency and concreteness of the solutions required*-
6* The secretariat however is severely hamstrung in taking any effective and substantial action £?iven the constraint on the resources available to it at present*
7. The object of this note is to advise the Conference of the secretariat's dilenna and seek its advice on how this problem nay be overcome.
