Executive Secretaries Brief Ambassadors on Regional Commissions’ activities.

Addis Ababa , 16 June 2008 (ECA) – The Executive Secretaries of the five United Nations Regional Commissions met with heads of diplomatic missions and United Nations agencies in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Tuesday 17 June 2008, to discuss economic issues pertinent to their respective regions and overall UN coherence. The Executive Secretaries were in Ethiopia as part of a series of regular meetings they hold to discuss coordination of the analytical, normative, advocacy and operational activities of their respective regional commissions.

The session was hosted by UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Mr. Abdoulie Janneh and chaired by the Deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Mr. Erastus Mwencha. In attendance were United Nations Under-Secretaries-General and Executive Secretaries of the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), Mr. Marek Belka; Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), Ms Noeleen Heyzer; Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Mr. Jose Luis Machinea; and Economic and Social Commission for West Asia (ESCWA), Mr. Bader Al-Dafa.

Mr. Janneh informed the gathering that the repositioned ECA had made its priority the pursuit of regional integration on the continent, which is in line the vision of the African Union; and efforts to address Africa’s special needs including the challenge of meeting the millennium development goals. Mr. Janneh also serves as the coordinator of all regional commissions, and spoke about on-going collaboration and peer learning between the institutions and future plans to institutionalize such collaboration.

The Executive-Secretaries all spoke about the importance of having a regional dimension to economic and social development issues. In this regard, Mr. Al-Dafa said the regional commissions “promote inter-and intra regional cooperation (and) link global agendas to national strategies.” Mr. Marek described the work as providing “social public goods” that transcend borders, noting that discussions are otherwise often limited to global or national issues.

Regarding the UN efforts to deliver as one, Mr. Machinea informed the Ambassadors of several ongoing projects that are being jointly undertaken in the ECLAC region with other UN agencies, including United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and World Food Programme (WFP), ona range of issues including natural disaster assessment and preparedness. Ms. Heyzer also referred to the Tokyo International Conference on Africa’s Development (TICAD) as a possible forum where regional commissions could play a useful role.

On behalf of the dean of ambassadors, the ambassador of Burkina Faso to Ethiopia, H.E. Bruno Zidouemba, thanked all the regional commissions for taking part to interact with Ambassadors and commended ECA for its continuing work in service of the African continent.