Consultation Meeting Between The Secretariats of AMCEN, OAU and UNEP with ECA Concerning the Scope of Activities of AMCEN.

Statement by
K. Y. Amoako, Executive Secretary, ECA
23 April 1996
Addis Ababa

H. E. Dr. Daniel-Emery Dede,

Honourable Sephiri E. Motanyane, Minister to the Prime Minister's Office of the Kingdom of Lesotho,

Ms. Maria da Graça de Amorim,

H. E. Ambassador Pascal Gayama,

Colleagues,

It my great pleasure to welcome you to the ECA. I also wish to take this opportunity to thank you for coming to this consultation meeting on an all important issue of the scope of the activities of the Conference of African Ministers responsible for the Environment (AMCEN).

As you know, at the First Session of the Conference of African Ministers responsible for Sustainable Development and the Environment (CAMSDE) which was held here on 8 and 9 March 1996, a resolution was adopted noting that the provisions of ECA resolution 757 (XXVIII) abolishing AMCEN cannot be implemented in view of AMCEN's institutional status as an independent intergovernmental institution. The resolution requested the Executive Secretary of ECA to initiate, as quickly as possible, consultations with the Secretariats of AMCEN, the OAU, and UNEP, in order to reach lasting agreement on the scope of activities of AMCEN and of CAMSDE. The outcome of these consultations will be reported to the Conference of Ministers, at its forthcoming session in May.

We are all familiar with the history of the creation of AMCEN back in 1985. As you will recall, a Ministerial Conference of Environment was held on 16 to 18 December 1985 in Cairo. The Conference was held in response to the environmental problems that were confronting the African countries. The Conference had the objective of strengthening cooperation between African Governments in economic, technical and scientific activities, with a view to halting the degradation of the African environment in order to satisfy the food and energy needs of the people of the continent. One of its results was that the Conference decided to "institutionalize" itself and to meet every two years. It recommended to the Conference of Ministers of ECA and the OAU "to decide to entrust to AMCEN the environmental functions of the Joint Intergovernmental Regional Committee on Human Environment". The Executive Director of UNEP made an offer to provide AMCEN with its permanent Secretariat, in close co-operation with ECA and the OAU. This was the state of affairs until the adoption of ECA resolution 757 (XXVIII) in May 1993.

The Conference of Ministers, acting with the best of intentions and "being conscious of the need to align the intergovernmental machinery to [the] new orientation in order to enable the Commission to address the emerging challenges and priorities of the region effectively", proceeded with the establishment of CAMSDE, which was said to assume the functions of AMCEN and the Intergovernmental Regional Committee on Human Settlements and the Environment. While the Conference of Ministers could legally abolish one of its subsidiary bodies, such as the Intergovernmental Regional Committee on Human Settlements and the Environment, it had no legal capacity to abolish an organ not falling within its ambit.

For me however, the most important issue for our consideration is not the legalities of the purported abolition of AMCEN. What is at the core or the heart of the issue before us, which is the purpose of our consultations today, is the question of the rationalising of our work to serve Africa better. As we are all aware, we are living to day in a world of scarce resources, and of budget cut-backs, a world which calls for harnessing coordination and conservation of scarce resources. We need to respond to the problems and challenges confronting our continent with concerted action and a unified resolve, and should avoid spreading ourselves too thin on the ground. Where we can pool our resources together in order to address a particular issue, it is better to get together and work out how we can avoid duplicating our efforts in the same field. Indeed we are all aware of the often heard cry from several forums about the proliferation of conferences and meetings on the same subject, requiring the presence of ministers and government officials responsible for the same matter.

In this connection, I should like to add that we at ECA are currently engaged at a close and critical re-examination of our institution and our work. The scope of reforms we are undertaking is wide. It covers policy and programme orientation, as well as organizational structure and management practices. The objectives and the principles of reform and renewal at the Commission have been articulated in a document entitled "Serving Africa Better: Strategic Directions for the Economic Commission of Africa". The whole thrust of our reform is to sharpen our focus in our programme work, on what areas we need to reduce the proliferation of meetings and to streamline and rationalize reports. We believe that the success and the very future survival of our continent, lies in the adoption of an integrated approach to all development issues with those relating to the environment.

Coming back to the topic of our consultations, as you are all aware, currently we have already two mechanisms available for the co-operation and coordination of programmes and activities between ECA and UNEP Regional Office for Africa. These are:

(a) Joint AMCEN secretariat composed of UNEP, OAU and ECA, which has been active in the implementation of AMCEN programmes; and

(b) the Inter-agency Task Force of ECA, UNCHS and UNEP. The Task Force which was initiated in early 1994, is now operational; it has met twice already in July 1994 in Addis Ababa and in May 1995 in Nairobi. It has agreed to meet alternately in Addis Ababa and Nairobi every six months. These two mechanisms should be further strengthened to deal with both AMCEN and CAMSDE.

A number of viewpoints were expressed at the last meeting of CAMSDE with regard to the possible treatment that we could give to the problem before us. The views ranged from a suggestion that we should: (i) merge CAMSDE with AMCEN; (ii) strengthen the modalities of collaboration between the two organs; (iii) broaden the mandate of AMCEN to include issues on sustainable development; and (iv) drop the environmental issues from the terms of reference of CAMSDE and focus them on sustainable development only.

Whatever course we recommend, it must provide a framework for coordination, and should not leave openings for duplication of efforts.

I am in your hands, and open the floor for discussion of these issues and hope that we can arrive at a consensus and recommend the most viable solution to the Conference of Ministers that will take place in two weeks time.

Thank you.