Following the UN-Water/Africa model, Agencies to start UN-Energy/Africa

By Yinka Adeyemi, Communication Officer,SDD, ECA
28 May 2004

The Director of the Sustainable Development Division at ECA, Josue Dione, today in Addis Ababa called on UN Agencies and other stakeholders to develop a coherent response in implementing the NEPAD objectives on energy.

Such coherence represents a major challenge to the UN efforts in support of sustainable development in Africa, he told representatives of UN Agencies who met to discuss the modalities for establishing UN-Energy/Africa and operationalize the energy sub-cluster of NEPAD Infrastructure Development Initiative.

"A preliminary review of existing gaps within the United Nations system reveals that no single entity in the UN system has primary responsibility for energy," he said.

ECA is the convenor of the NEPAD Cluster on Infrastructure Development, which includes energy, water and sanitation, transport and information and communication technologies.

UN-Energy/Africa will promote coherence in the UN system''''s response to the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, provide support to the NEPAD energy initiative and enhance collaboration with other major African initiatives, Dione said.

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