DEPUTY Minister for Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, Ambassador Mbarouk Nassor Mbarouk is leading Tanzania’s delegation to the 43rd Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the African Union (AU) in Nairobi, Kenya.
A statement issued by the Tanzanian Ambassador to Ethiopia and the Permanent Representative of the country to AU, Mr Innocent Shiyo said that the meeting that kicks off today at the United Nations Offices will wind up business tomorrow.
The Executive Council meeting was be preceded by the meeting of the Permanent Representatives Committee, and will be followed by the 5th Mid-Year Coordination Meeting, which is a limited format summit whose main aim is to enhance coordination between the AU and Regional Economic Communities (RECs).
Ambassador Shiyo noted that among other issues the Executive Council is expected to consider some agenda items and its report will be elevated to the 5th Mid-Year Coordination Meeting
The agenda includes the status of the regional integration in Africa, report on the division of labour between the AU, RECs/RMs and member states, AU institutional reform and report on the next ten years’ implementation road map of Agenda 2063.
Others are consideration of the mid-term implementation report of the African Union theme of the year for 2023 on African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) implementation and consideration of the reports of committees of the Executive Council and ad hoc committees
The fifth MYCM of the AU, the RECs, the Regional Mechanisms and the AU member states will be convened under the AU theme of the year 2023 ‘Acceleration of African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Implementation’. 14 heads of state and government, ministers of foreign affairs of the AU member states, high-level dignitaries and other delegates will be participating in the meeting.
The fifth MYCM is a meeting between the heads of state and government who form the Bureau of the AU Assembly (Comoros, Botswana, Burundi, and Senegal), the eight heads of state and government who chair the eight RECs who are Burundi- EAC, Djibouti- IGAD, Zambia- COMESA, DRC- SADC, Guinea Bissau- ECOWAS, Chad- CEN SAD, Libya – UMA, and Gabon- ECCA, the AU Commission and Regional Mechanisms (RMs).
He said that Tanzania is not among the member states that will participate in the fifth MYCM. The MYCM is a principal forum for the AU and RECs to align their work and coordinate the implementation of the continental integration agenda.
He mentioned the expected tasks of the Fifth Mid-Year Coordination Meeting as to review and assess the status of implementation of decisions and legal instruments pertaining to the relations among the Union, RECs and RMs.
Others are to coordinate and harmonize AU and REC policies with a view to accelerating Africa’s integration process; coordinate implementation of a clear division of labour and effective collaboration between the Union, RECs, RMs and member states, in line with the principle of subsidiarity, complementarity and comparative advantage.
The meeting will also assess the status of continental integration and coordinate efforts to accelerate the integration process; identify areas of cooperation and establish mechanisms for regional, continental and global cooperation in each sector or subsector and guide the Union and the RECs in matters pertaining to priority programmes, resources needed for implementation of these programmes and the impact of such programmes in improving the lives of the African people.