ECA, ACBF team up to better serve Africa
ECA Press Release No. 44/2008
Addis Ababa - 9 December 2008 (ECA) - The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) on Saturday 6 December 2008 signed a Memorandum of Understanding aimed at streamlining their mutual assistance to Africa.
Mr. Abdoulie Janneh, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the ECA signed for the ECA while Dr.
Edwin Forlemu, Acting Executive Secretary of the ACBF, signed for his organization.
The MOU was signed at the ECA Headquarters in Addis Ababa and will enable better coordination and coherence in the support the two institutions provide to their member States and Regional Economic Communities in Africa.
In a statement at the signing ceremony, Mr. Janneh complimented Dr. Forlemu for his personal commitment to scale up cooperation between ECA and ABCF.
According to Mr. Janneh, the MOU is a first step toward achieving the common desire of ECA and ACBF to work together across a wide range of programmes and projects, from economic policy analysis and management, regional integration, trade, gender, ICTs, statistics, governance, knowledge management to institution building. He promised that ECA would act promptly to implement the provisions of the MOU.
On his part, Dr. Forlemu expressed delight in the signing of the MOU, but explained that it marked the end of one process and signalled the beginning of another – one of active collaboration between ECA and ACBF across a wide spectrum of programme activities.
He agreed with Mr. Janneh on the need to act speedily to implement the provisions of the MOU and reiterated ACBF’s keen interest in working closely in partnership with the ECA to promote development in Africa.
A team of experts from both institutions will meet early next year to draw up a detail work programme to guide their joint activities in 2009.
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
