Addis Ababa — African stakeholders from the CSO spectrum represented by NGOs, women, youth and media organizations; as well as government representatives and the international community met in Addis Ababa to deliberate and propose measures for ensuring an accountability framework for the Post-2015 Development Agenda.
The forum, which took place at the United Nations Conference Centre from 21-23 August, proposed key elements for an accountability framework, which is expected to feed into the Secretary-General's report to the General Assembly in September.
In her opening statement, Ambassador Marjon Kamara, Liberia's Permanent Representative to the UN, who chaired the meeting underscored the importance of statistics in determining an accountability frameworkcalling for"concerted action, genuine commitment, and empowerment of African society, including youth, women, faith-based organisations, as well as the business community".
Dr Anthony Maruping, AU Commissioner for Economic Affairs, said that when it comes to accountability mechanisms, Africa was "not starting from scratch", as the continent had experienced with other regional, sub-regional, national accountability frameworks, such as the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM)".
Furthermore, Abdalla Hamdok, ECA's Deputy Executive Secretary, helped clarify the objective of the consultative meeting, by stating that participants' "wide-encompassing deliberations need to identify key elements to build an accountability architecture for the post-2015 development agenda that is aligned from the global to continental to national levels".
In his opening address, Mr Eugene Owusu, UN Resident Coordinator, UNDP/Ethiopia urged participants to help in "demanding real accountability for one billion people, emphasising participatory mechanisms, in which it is possible for the people to hold their leaders accountable".
Ms Amina Mohammed, Special Advisor to the Secretary-General on Post-2015 Development Planning informed participants that there was a significant momentum for this new agenda, which comes with a high political mandate. Ms Mohammed, stressed the importance of crafting an accountability framework that is "fit for purpose" for the Africa region.
Participants unanimously agreed that an accountability framework for the Post-2015 and the Sustainable Development Goals, which will replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, should be based on a set of core principles, accompanied by bold goals and targets and a plan on the means of implementation. Participants emphasised the need for an accountability framework to be implementable across the broad spectrum of society, namely being "bottom-up and people centered. In addition, participants called for country-level commitments to action skillfully led by a multi-stakeholder partnership represented by public, private, civil society and citizen interests".
Another important element originating from the Forum was the need for a strong culture of reporting, based on accurate and timely data - making a case for evidence-based accountability. This would provide the basis for measuring progress and also mobilize citizens and civil society to hold institutions and partners accountable towards their commitments.
The Forum was organized by the HLC/African Union Commission (AUC) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) with support from the UN Development Group.
