Speech by Abdoulie Janneh UN under secretary general and executive secretary of the economic commission for Africa: ACBF-ECA workshop on "the capacity needs of the regional economic communities"

Abstract

UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, Abdoulie Janneh, begin the speech by thanking the African Capacity Building Foundation for inviting him to this very important meeting on addressing the capacity needs of the Regional Economic Communities (RECs). In his speech, he said, the Abuja Treaty has designated the RECs as the lead agents for realizing the dream of an African Economic Community. In addition, the Heads of State of the NEPAD Implementation Committee have also assigned them priority tasks to be carried out to advance the NEPAD agenda. However, in spite of being assigned such important duties, the RECs are still not being provided with resources that commensurate with the tasks they have been assigned. This partly explains why progress towards the ultimate goal of an African Economic Community has been mixed.