Experts Group Meeting Reviews Coordinating Development in Africa and the United Nations Sub Regional Coordinating Mechanism (SRCM) in Eastern and Southern Africa

The Sub Regional Office for West Africa (SRO-WA) participated in the Experts Group Meeting on Coordinating Development in Africa and the Joint Regional Economic Communities (RECs)/Intergovernmental Organitaions (IGOs)/United Nations (UN) Task Force Meeting on the Operationalization of the SRCM in Eastern and Southern Africa in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 4 to 6 July 2011. Both meetings were organized by the NEPAD Support Section of the Economic Development and NEPAD Division of the Economic Commission for Africa in collaboration with ECA Subregional Offices for Eastern and Southern Africa. The two meetings were attended by high level experts from RECs, IGOs, other UN Agencies, academic and research institutions, the African Development Bank, other cooperating partners and ECA Headquarters Divisions and SROs.

The meeting on coordinating development reviewed and validated the draft report on coordinating development in Africa prepared by ECA. Specifically, the meeting discussed coordination theories and explored their applicability to Africa’s development scene, identified and shared experiences and lessons from existing mechanisms for coordinating the work of different development actors in Africa and recommended for approaches for enhancing the performance of coordination mechanisms in Africa.

The joint RECs/IGOs/UN Task Force Meeting defined and refined the thematic and focus areas for the operationalization of the SRCM in East and Southern Africa; identified flagship programmes and activities for joint implementation within the SRCM framework and assigned roles and responsibilities for programme implementation. The meeting also explored the issues around resource mobilization and recognized the challenges involved in a multi-partner environment where different procedures and financing mechanisms apply and agreed that instruments such as “Joint Financial Arrangements” could be used to harmonise procedures.

In light of the upcoming launch of the SRCM for Central and West Africa in October 2011, the joint SRCM meeting provided SRO-WA with the opportunity to draw lessons from the experience in East and Southern Africa. Key lessons learnt include; the imperative for the process to be lead by RECs and IGOs and the critical importance of priority thematic areas being determined by these stakeholders, the importance of clarity on the roles and responsibilities (including leadership) within the SRCM framework, the need to develop a reporting and monitoring and evaluation mechanism, the need for joint planning and the clear definition of working modalities and the critical need to develop joint resource mobilization strategies.