Third meeting of the Committee on Human Development and Civil Society

Theme: "Participation and Partnerships for Improving Development and Governance in Africa"

Addis Ababa, 4-6 May 2005

STATEMENT OF THE OUTGOING CHAIRPERSON

Honorable Minister of Labor and Social Affairs of the Democratic Republic of Ethiopia,

Your Excellencies, High Commissioners and Ambassadors,

The Representative of the African Union,

Representatives of United Nations agencies,

Representatives of NGOs and IGOs,

Distinguished Participants,

Members of the Press,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is my honor and privilege as outgoing Chairman of the Committee on Human Development and Civil Society (CHDCS) to welcome you all to this third meeting of the Committee. I would like at the outset to thank the Government and people of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia for their kind hospitality since our arrival in this beautiful city of Addis Ababa, capital of Africa.

As I step down, democratically and with out any attempt to run for a third term, I would like to thank you all for the honor to my country, Zimbabwe, and the trust you placed in me during my tenure as Chairperson. I would like to thank in particular the members of my bureau who are: Mali, as a First Vice-Chair, representing NGOs; Ethiopia, as a Second Vice-Chair, representing the private sector; and Morocco, as a Rapporteur, for their support and assistance to me for the last two years.

Ladies and gentlemen,

To refresh our minds, this Committee was created by the Conference of African Ministers responsible for Economic and Social Development and Planning by Resolution 826 of 8 May 1997. The Committee’s main mission is to help strengthen the civil society and human development in Africa. The Committee enables the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) to draw on your opinion, as experts, in the public and private sectors and civil society in its operations and I am glad to note that these three sectors are ably represented here today. In this respect, the Committee serves as a forum for reviewing specific issues related to human and social development as well as popular participation and the role of civil society in governance and development. It also guides ECA’s work programme. All these aspects will be examined at this meeting.

Distinguished participants,

As most of you know, since the establishment of the Committee in 1997, it has only met twice and the last meeting of the Committee took place here in Addis Ababa from 26 to 27 May 2003, at which time I was elected. According to the Statute of the Committee, we should meet every two years. For one reason or another we have been unable to comply with this and other more important aspects of the Committee’s mandate, which we shall examine during the next three days, and I would like to encourage all of you to give these issues due consideration. Without preempting the contents of some papers to be discussed at this meeting, these issues include, among others, the low level of participation at the meetings and the absence of national structures to follow up on the Committee’s decisions at the country level.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Holding a chairmanship during this period has allowed me to witness and be associated with a number of developments at ECA. Some of the major developments that have taken place during my chairmanship are, among others, the review of ECA’s Work Programme for the biennium 2006-2007, at which the Committee participated in February this year. The Committee looked with particular emphasis at the Work Programme of the Development Policy and Management Division (DPMD) – the Division that has brought us together today. The Committee has also followed very closely the activities of the ongoing studies on monitoring progress toward good governance in Africa, whose results related to the first 28 countries will be published very soon in the inaugural issue of the African Governance Report. The Committee was also actively involved in the different events during the last African Development Forum IV (ADF-IV), particularly in the Pre-Symposium on Civil Society and Governance, which took place on 10 October last year.

In addition to these, during our last meeting, the Committee considered and recognized the importance of all stakeholders’ participation in development processes for Africa’s sustainable development. I am pleased, therefore, to note that the theme of this session is on “Participation and Partnerships for Improving Development and Governance in Africa”.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Allow me to stress the fact that it is the duty of this Committee and our member States to critically assess the operations of ECA in general, and DPMD in particular, and to make appropriate recommendations for their future activities in light of the development priorities and needs of our member States. In this regard, I wish to draw your attention to Agenda Item 9, which deals with Statutory Issues, in order to attentively consider the issues raised by the Secretariat under that agenda item, including the planned activities for the biennium 2006-2007.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would fail in my duties if I did not express my sincere appreciation to the AU and ADB staff, whose presence reflects not only the harmonization and coordination that exists among them and ECA, but also the interest they accord to the activities and development issues of our continent.

With these few remarks, I shall conclude by wishing all of you fruitful deliberations and every success to the next elected Chairperson.

I thank you.