ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, March 11, 2016/APO (African Press Organization)/ —
The five-day joint meeting of African Union Commission (AUC)-United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA)-African Development Bank (AfDB) –Pan African Parliament (PAP) –New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) and Regional Economic Communities (RECs) on development of road map for the convergence of Monitoring and Evaluation Systems of RECs was concluded today, Friday, 11 March 2016 outlining clear recommendations that will smoothly drive the convergence process forward.
The meeting highlighted the outcomes of the series of meetings held successively as: initiation of the process of identifying the convergence areas for the first 10 year plan; recognition of need to identify common Policy Guidelines on ME for the first Ten Year Plan; recognition of need to develop an ME Convergence Framework; and leveraging on existing RECs/AUC/ NEPAD ME Systems as we develop the overall systems
The meeting deliberated on the convergence focus such as convergence targets/ indicators, monitoring cycle, formats and ICT platform and their respective processes and issues. Participants further deliberated on the indicators and agreed to select a team that will work to standardize it.
The meeting further elaborated the role of each stakeholder in the ME framework convergence.
The role of each stakeholder in the ME framework convergence was well defined. A clear timetable comprising specific activities that range from selection of core indicators to the presentation of the report to the Executives and Policy Organs was generated. These activities were aligned with respective responsibility, financing and timeframe for each of the activities.
On 10 March 2016, representatives of this joint meeting led by Head of Resource Mobilization of AUC, Jacques Mukwende reported on progress achieved thus far to the Senior Officials Meeting of AU-RECs-UNECA-AfDB-NEPAD-ACBF Joint Coordination that was running from 9-10 March 2016 in Lusaka, Zambia. The meeting commended the Joint ME Framework Team for the efforts made to ensure that the harmonization of the ME Mechanisms is progressing.
The Joint Meeting which was held from 6-11 March 2016 was attended by ME Experts from AUC, UNECA, AfDB, PAP, NEPAD, EAC, IBAR, IGAD, COMESA and JSSO under the auspices of Directorate of Strategic Policy Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation and Resource Mobilization of the AUC.
