Addis Ababa, 27 March 2011 (ECA) - The AU Commissioner of Economic Affairs, Maxwell Mkwezalamba and ECA Executive Secretary and UN Under-Secretary General, Abdoulie Janneh co-launched the African Platform for Development Effectiveness on 27 March 2011 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Ambassador John Kayode Shinkaiye, Chief of Staff, Bureau of Chairperson, AU Commission, delivered the keynote address. The ceremony took place during the 4th joint annual meetings of the AU Conference of Ministers of Economy and Finance and ECA Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development.

Endorsed by the 15th African Union Summit of July 2010, APDev is a physical and virtual multi-stakeholder platform and organizing mechanism. It aims at mobilizing African policymakers, practitioners and other development stakeholders toward achieving sustainable development results.

As a much-desired continental initiative, APDev focuses on three interrelated themes - Aid Effectiveness, South-South Cooperation and Capacity Development - as critical and core drivers of development effectiveness.

APDev brings together representatives of Governments, Parliamentarians, Civil Society Organizations, Private Sector, Academia and RECs, among others, to share knowledge and respond to Africa’s development challenges in a dynamic regional and global context, which increasingly require partnerships and policy consensus among development stakeholders.