The African Union Development Agency AUDA-NEPAD plans to establish Centres of Excellence in COMESA Member States. This was disclosed during a visit to the COMESA Secretariat by an AU delegation led by Acting Director for Knowledge Management and Programme Evaluation, Dr Martin Bwalya, on 22 May 2022.
During the ensuing consultations, the AU and COMESA officials agreed to complement each other, given COMESA’s work in knowledge capitalization of the planned Centers of excellence.
Dr Bwalya said the visit was conducted in the spirit of the AU institutional reform process, that demands the establishment of standardized working and coordination modalities with all of Africa’s Regional Economic Communities.
“We would like to ensure that we come up with well-informed decisions on the matters, hence, the need for continuous consultations and coordination towards a shared approach for the effective achievement of regional integration and Agenda 2063,” Dr Bwalya stated.
In July 2018, the AU Assembly mandated AUDA to coordinate and execute priority regional and continental projects to promote regional integration towards accelerated realisation of the AU Agenda 2063. The Assembly also agreed to, among others strengthen capacity of African Union Member States and regional bodies, advance knowledge-based advisory support, undertake the full range of resource mobilisation, and serve as the continent’s technical interface with all of Africa’s development stakeholders and development partners.
COMESA has been involved in the establishment of regional collaboration mechanisms between the AUDA-NEPAD and African Regional Economic Communities Technical Coordination Committee. It also participated in the 1st Africa Regional Technical Reference Group Meeting on Development Effectiveness in preparation for the 3rd High Level Meeting to be held later this year as well as the Technical Consultative Meeting with RECs on Joint Resource Mobilisation, held in April 2022.
Acting Secretary General Dr Dev Haman welcomed the team and pledged COMESA’s commitment and ensure the programme is implemented smoothly.
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