ATPC
Board of Governors hold first meeting in Addis Ababa
By
Andrew Allimadi
The Board of Governors of the African Trade Policy Centre (ATPC) of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), held its first annual meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Wednesday 27th April. ECA Executive Secretary, Mr. K.Y. Amoako, and the director of ECA’s Trade and Regional Integration Division (TRID), Mr Hakim Ben Hammouda, attended the meeting along with representatives from partner agencies.
In his address to the board, Mr. Amoako commended ATPC for all the important work done since its inception and said he was proud of the contribution the Centre has made to the trade policies of African countries.
He said the key question for ATPC was how to ensure that its research work influences policy-makers and result in concrete action. He gave the example of ECA’s work on Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), which influenced many African countries to design their own ICT strategies.
He expressed the hope that if one looks back five years from now, it would be possible to say that 15 – 20 African countries have mainstreamed trade in their national development strategies as a result of the work of ATPC.
Hakim Ben Hammouda, the director of TRID, thanked all the board members for attending and said it was important for ATPC to be able to present its proposals for consideration by such a distinguished board.
He said the work of ATPC revolves around three pillars, which are, policy-focussed research; setting the agenda and building consensus among African countries on key policy issues; and building strong collaboration with other actors providing trade-related assistance to African countries.
He hoped that at the board would cement the three C’s that guide ATPC’s work, namely collaboration, coordination, cooperation and complimentarity among all trade-related institutions and programmes in Africa.
The board includes representatives from ECA, the African Union (AU), African Development Bank (AfDB), the African WTO Geneva Group, Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA), Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Canada Fund For Africa, Joint Integrated Technical Assistance Programme (JITAP), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the Centre for Global Development.
The board approved the work programme for 2005 – 2006.