Addis Ababa — UK Secretary of State for International Development, Hilary Benn, is to meet with ECA Executive Secretary, K.Y. Amoako, during an official visit to Ethiopia next week.
The meeting will take place in the context of a new partnership agreement between ECA and the UK Department for International Development (DFID), aimed at strengthening ECA/UK Government cooperation and collaboration.
DFID has committed programme budget support to facilitate the strengthening of ECA's overall work. However, the agreement goes beyond a funding relationship to include technical level engagement and collaboration around key thematic areas and initiatives. These include:
- Trade policy and negotiation capacity - Building the capacity of African trade negotiators, provision of advisory services to African governments on issues such as accession to the World Trade Organisation and negotiations on the trade protocol of ACP/EU, and establishment of the Africa Trade Policy Centre in partnership with the Government of Canada;
- The Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance - A high-level analytical, policy engagement and advocacy initiative established by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to examine the structural implications of the pandemic on Africa's development;
- Collaboration with the OECD DAC on mutual accountability - Deepening the dialogue between Africa and its development partners on issues of mutual accountability and policy coherence;
- The African Governance Report - A ground-breaking analysis of governance in Africa based on innovative indicators, multi-country studies and national processes of dialogue and engagement;
- The NEPAD agenda - ECA's work in providing technical and analytical support to the NEPAD process, particularly in the area of economic and corporate governance;
- The PRSP Learning Group - A multi-stakeholder ECA initiative to foster learning on country experiences in engaging with the PRSPs; and
- The Strategic Partnership with Africa - A donor forum in which ECA articulates the perspectives of African countries.
An important aspect of the partnership is the UK government's support for ECA's institutional strengthening programme - involving improvements to budgetary systems, strategic planning and knowledge management.
Underpinning the ECA/UK Government relationship is ECA's Partner's Forum, a gathering of Addis Ababa-based representatives of the Commission's core bilateral funding partners, which meets periodically to share perspectives on key development-related issues, to review progress in ECA's ongoing reforms, and to engage on specific areas of concern requiring priority action. Members of the Partner's Forum are: Canada, Finland, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the UK.
