25 November 2008
Addis Ababa — The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the African Union Commission (AUC) jointly launched the Third Report of "Assessing Regional Integration in Africa" (ARIA III), under the theme: "Towards Monetary and Financial Integration in Africa".
The launching ceremony took place on Friday, at the UN Conference Centre in Addis Ababa, in the presence of the Deputy Executive Secretary of the ECA, Lalla Ben Barka, the Commissioner for Economic Affairs of the AU, Maxwell Mkwezalamba, the Commissioner of Social Affairs of the AU, Advocate Bience Gawanas and the Director, NEPAD and Regional Integration Division of the ECA, Abdalla Hamdock, ECA said.
The Third Report of "Assessing Regional Integration in Africa" was launched within the framework of the Sixth African Development Forum (ADF VI) on "Gender Equality, women's empowerment and ending violence against women in Africa".
Speaking on behalf of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Jean Ping, Commissioner Mkwezalamba commended what he described as excellent collaboration between the AU and ECA for compiling, producing and launching the third edition of the ARIA III publication. According to Commissioner Mkwezalamba, the joint AU-ECA publication demonstrates a high level of commitment by the two institutions to promote the integration of the continent and the implementation of Africa's development agenda.
As part of the solution to meeting the MDGs and achieving integration of the continent, the AU Commissioner for Economic Affairs explained that, the six stages towards an African Economic Community as set out in the Abuja Treaty must be attained and the principles of accelerated integration detailed in the Declaration of September 1999, must continue to be upheld. Meanwhile, the Commissioner acknowledged that some strides have been made in the areas of trade, communications, macro-economy and transport.
Mkwezalamba recalled in his speech that Africa has been making strategic progress in the area of poverty reduction and economic growth in recent years. He said the lack of political and economic stability, insecurity and poor infrastructure are among key issues to be dealt with if Africa has to attain the MDGs by the target date of 2015 as well as achieve sustainable growth and development. He said a number of activities have been set alongside other pan-African institutions, the ECA and the AU Commission. These include: the rationalisation and harmonisation of the RECs and the establishment of the financial institutions as provided in the AU Constitutive Act, notably the African Monetary Fund, the African Investment Bank and the African Central Bank.
Mr. Abdalla Hamdock, ECA's Director of the NEPAD and Regional Integration Division later presented highlights of the Third Report of "Assessing Regional Integration in Africa". He said that the publication falls within the framework of the Abuja Treaty, which calls for the creation of a continent - wide African Economic Community (AEC) and lays out six stages for the implementation of the integration agenda.
The report states that to overcome the enormous difficulties in achieving the desired macroeconomic convergence criteria set by Regional Economic Communities (RECs) African countries could utilize monetary unification and financial integration associated with multiple and non-convertible currencies and with underdeveloped capital and financial markets. It also states that several RECs have adopted common macroeconomic policy frameworks and convergence targets, underpinned by monetary and financial cooperation many others are close to achieving these targets, while others are struggling.
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