AU appoints UN official as member of new “Panel of Eminent Africans”

Addis Ababa, 04 September 2007 - The current Chairman of the African Union (AU), His Excellency, President John Kufuor of Ghana, has appointed Mr. Hakim Ben Hammouda, the Director of the Trade, Finance and Economic Development Division (TFED) of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) as member of the Panel of Eminent Africans, which has been established to advise on how to improve the African Union.

The prime responsibility of this panel is to conduct an audit of the African Union and assess the overall integration process in Africa within the next three months, as requested by the 9 th session of the Conference of African Heads of States and Government, in July 2007 in Accra.

Mr. Ben Hammouda coordinated the publication of a groundbreaking analytical study on “Assessing Regional integration in Africa” (ARIA) in 2006 as well as the Economic Report on Africa 2007 “Accelerating Africa's development through diversification”, in collaboration with the AU.

Today ECA remains committed to actively promoting the regional integration agenda in Africa. In that context, a repositioning exercise carried out last year under the leadership of the UN-Under Secretary General and Executive Secretary of ECA, Abdoulie Janneh made regional integration one of the pillars of the Commission's new work focus.

The AU Panel of Eminent Africans comprises 13 prominent African personalities in total, including former ECA Executive Secretary, Adebayor Adededji. It is due to submit a report in December this year on how to improve the programmes, activities and institutional architecture of the African Union. A team of consultants and resource persons will assist the members of the panel.