Addis Ababa — UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) Executive Secretary, Ms. Vera Songwe, this week received credentials from the new Mauritania Ambassador to Ethiopia, the African Union Commission and the ECA, Sidi Ould El Ghadhy, and his Ghanaian counterpart, Ambassador William Azumah-Awinador Kanyirige, who also recently took office in Addis Ababa.
First to call on the Executive Secretary was Ambassador Sidi Ould El Ghadhy who congratulated Ms. Songwe on her appointment to head the ECA, offering his full support to her during her time in office.
Mr. El Ghadhy said he would like to strengthen relations between his country and the ECA, adding in particular they would want ECA assistance in areas such as enhancing statistical development for good decision-making as well as managing the delivery of basic social services, accountability and transparency; population census and their national accounts.
"First allow me to congratulate you on your appointment to this very important office," said Mr. El Ghadhy. "My office is looking forward to working with you and supporting you throughout your time in office. As Mauritania we look forward to the strengthening of relations between us and the ECA, especially in the area of statistics, population studies and our national accounts."
"Our relationship with ECA is good. I hope we will continue in this direction. The contribution of the commission has always been important in the economic and social transformation of our country."
Ms. Songwe, who worked in Mauritania for three years, exchanged notes with the new Ambassador on how their two offices can work together for the betterment of his country and the continent as a whole.
"ECA offers to deepen its collaboration with Mauritania and stands ready to provide technical and advisory support to help in the areas that you have raised and more so we can tackle the challenges faced by the country and Africa as a whole," she told Mr. El Ghadhy and his team.
"In the areas of mining, statistics, rebasing of your GDP and others," she added
Ms. Songwe added the ECA was more than ready to provide needed support, especially capacity-building initiatives and policy advice in a number of areas as enunciated by the Ambassador.
"We are also conducting an important work in the area of civil registration, which is an important area in Mauritania for social peace and inclusion," she said, adding if possible she would soon make a working visit to Mauritania.
The ECA is also working on a mineralogy mapping of Mauritania. They also discussed Mauritania to join the Economic Community of West African States(ECOWAS).
Ghana
Soon after meeting with Mr. El Ghadhy, the new Ghanaian Ambassador arrived to also present his credentials.
Ambassador Kanyirige also congratulated Ms. Songwe on assuming the office of the ECA Executive Secretary as the first woman ever to do so.
"We are all for women and I would like to congratulate you for being appointed to this strategic position and I hope you will be the trailblazer to ensure that more women will come to this office after you. Women can be our answer to economic emancipation on the continent," he said, adding he was seeking to work closely with the ECA on a number of issues concerning Ghana and Africa as a whole.
Areas of major importance he would want to work with the ECA on include the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Africa's Agenda 2063, creation of a programme to educate the youth on Africa's history which he said is on the wane, the need to support Africa's think tanks, monitoring and evaluation, African Union Commission and ECOWAS reforms, among others.
On youth and history, Mr. Kanyirige said it was sad that most youth on the continent did not seem to know where they are coming from, adding some countries have not been teaching history for a while, raising the need for a programme that can be supported by the ECA to educate the youth on who they are.
Ms. Songwe agreed with Mr. Kanyirige responding the ECA would be happy to work on such a historical programme, though this is not normally in its line of work, adding the Africa Hall, which is being renovated in the ECA compound, will play a crucial role in educating the youth on African history.
"We will then need a champion of African history to lead the cause. Africa's youth need to know their history in order to build a strong future," she said.
On the economic front, Ms. Songwe said this year is the year that Africa has to show that it has the capacity to come together and do something on regional trade and regional integration and do it well.
"The CFTA would be a game changer for the continent and we need to jointly work to make it a reality," she said, adding she would be looking for support from the Ambassador and others to make the CFTA a reality.
For this to happen, said Ms. Songwe, strong political buy-in and leadership is required to unblock bottlenecks in negotiations and to drive domestic reforms that will empower the private sector to also buy into and take advantage of the CFTA opportunities for the betterment of the continent.
She said for Ghana and Africa to unleash their full potential there was an urgent need to strengthen the capacity of the public sector for better performance and service delivery. ECA can provide support in this area.
