ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, April 4, 2016/APO (African Press Organization)/ —
The Expert’s segment of the Conference of Ministers concluded late Sunday with a range of recommendations around priority issues to be tabled on Monday and Tuesday at the Ministerial session. The event took place in the presence of high level officials from the African Union Commission (AUC) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).
The Conference is taking place under the banner of the African Development Week on the theme “Towards an integrated and coherent approach to implementation, monitoring and evaluation of Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals.” Recommendations focused on, among others, monitoring and reporting; financing and; the mechanisms and institutions to support implementation.
On the need for domestication and complementarity between Agenda 2030 and Agenda 2063, the meeting called for the African Union and the Economic Commission for Africa to lead the development of a continent-wide, unified monitoring and evaluation reporting framework. The framework would need to have a harmonized set of goals, indicators and targets for ease of monitoring the implementation of the two agendas.
The meeting recognized the lack of financing as the primary impediment to the implementation of the two agendas and called upon member states to reduce dependence on external financing and formulate strategies to enhance domestic resource mobilization, as called for by the Addis Ababa Action Agenda. Domestic resource mobilization recommendations include: stepping up efforts to combat illicit financial flows, strengthened tax administration and, the adoption of policies to combat corruption in all its forms.
It was also recommended that the mandate of the Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development (ARFSD) be enlarged to include review of progress, challenges and gaps in meeting the commitments outlined in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda.
Addressing the urgent need for Africa to develop responses to the issue of migration, including the lack of national migration strategies, the meeting urged the African Union Commission and the Economic Commission for Africa to foster collaboration and cooperation among member States, regional economic communities and international partners to promote the rights of migrants and facilitate their movement with special consideration for reducing the vulnerability of women and youth migrants.
The Experts requested the African Union and Economic Commission for Africa to establish an institution to address migration in Africa, provide guidance and political support to the development of an African perspective on the issue.
A further request was made to the African Union, in collaboration with the African Capacity Building Foundation, to establish an African Policy Centre for economic research and management. The Centre would serve as a think-tank for critical studies to inform decisions and policies on issues impeding economic and social transformation.
In a similar context, a call was made for the operationalization of the pan African institutions of statistics namely; the African Union institute for statistics in Yamoussoukro and the Nelson Mandela Institute for Statistics in Tunis, to meet the pressing need for statistics in Africa’s efforts toward social and economic transformation.
The Conference of Ministers is a Joint annual meeting of the African Union Specialized Technical Committee of Finance, Monetary Affairs, Economic Planning and Integration and the Economic Commission for Africa Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development
The Ministerial segment will conclude on April 5.
