The ECA Through Its Macroeconomic Policy Division Will Be Co-Organizing Three Important Meetings in Algiers From 3 to 8 May 2015

4 May 2015
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United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (Addis Ababa)
press release

A. Expert Group Meeting for the Review of the 2015 report on "Assessing Progress in Africa towards the MDGs"

The MDGs Report for 2015 is the 10th edition in the annual series since 2005 when the African Union Assembly of Heads of State mandated the African Union Commission (AUC), the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) to monitor the progress in Africa toward the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).Afterwards, UNDP also joined the three institutions in the production of the report. This year's report is also the last one before the MDGs expire. For that reason, the thematic section highlights the lessons learnt in the implementation of the various goals by identifying strategies/interventions that have been successful and those that have not.

ECA and its partners, AUC, AfDB and UNDP (RBA) will be organizing and expert group meeting in preparation for the publication of 10 edition of the regional MDG report on Africa. The event will be held in AlgiersAlgeria, from 3 to 5 May 2015and will be attended by MDG focal persons from the 54 African countries as well as representatives from civil society,.The main objectives of the EGMs are to (i) validate the findings of the report; (ii) seek additional information and data from countries for the finalization of the report; and, (iii) review and document country experiences on the implementation of the MDGs to inform implementation of the post 2015 development agenda. This EGM will also provide a platform for discussions on the future of the MDGs report along with the format and focus of subsequent report The report is expected to be launched during the African Union summit of Heads of State and Government in June this year.

B. Expert Group Meeting for theDevelopment of indicators for the Sustainable Developments Indicators (SDGs) proposed by the Open Working Group (OWG)

On 13-17 April the Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) in collaboration with ECA, AUC and AfDB convened a meeting of National Statistics Offices to develop Africa's contribution to the indicators for the Sustainable Development Goals. The meeting was held in Pretoria South Africa and attended by civil society and representatives of national statistical offices from Algeria, Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt, Gabon, Lesotho, Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.

Building on the outcomes of the Pretoria meeting, UN Economic Commission for Africa, the African Union Commission, United Nations Development Programme's Regional Bureau for Africa and the African Development Bank areco-organizing an Expert Group Meeting (EGM) meeting in Algiers, Algeria, from 5 to 8 May 2015 to review and finalize theindicators developed in South Africa. The meeting will bring together heads and technicians from National Statisticians Offices as well as development planning units or departments. Other participants will include Regional Economic Commissions and Civil Society Organizations from Africa. The list of indicators that will be adopted by the EGM will be made available to Africa's negotiators of the post 2015 development agenda and subsequently feed into the global process of developing indicators for the Sustainable Development Goals. This process is being undertaken by the United Nations Statistics Commission (StatCOM). A final set of indicators will be presented to the co-facilitators of the post 2015 development agenda in March 2016.

C. Regional Preparatory mi-term Review meeting of the Istambul Programme of Action (IPoA)

In May 5 2015, ECAin collaboration with UN-OHRLLS will organize an Expert Group Meeting to review implementation of the Istanbul Programme of Action. This event is in preparation for the 2016 mid-term review which will be held in Turkey. Initiated at the Fourth United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries (UN-LDC IV) in Istanbul, Turkey, in May 2011the IPoArepresents a comprehensive set of initiatives aimed at overcoming the structural weaknesses and vulnerabilities of the 48 LDCs around the world, 34 of which are in Africa.The deliberations and outcomes of the meeting will feed into an African LDCs Ministerial Meeting convened by the Government of Italy in Milan in June 2015. The Meeting in Milan seeks to discuss actions and initiatives needed to accelerate the implementation of the IPoA and the fulfilment of LDCs' transformative agenda.The main participants of the regional preparatory meeting of Algiers will be LDCs Focal points as well as country experts attending the EGMs for the MDGs report. ECA organizes this meeting in collaboration with UN-OHRLLS.

This preparatory meeting will be held on 5 May 2015 in the sidelines of the EGMs for the MDGs report and the indicators for the SDGs, with the aim of reviewing the progress made so far on the (IPoA) and lay the foundation for African LDCs to prepare for the Mid-term review of the IPoA next year.

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