As an initial step in the African Civil Society Organizations’ Consultation on AU – EU Joint Strategy for Africa’s Development a conference was held in Accra, Ghana, from 26 – 28 March 2007. It was organised by the African Citizens Directorate (CIDO) of the African Union Commission and attended by 43 participants from African civil society organisations.
The conference agreed on a number of decisions and follow-up processes, including:
- There is a need for civil society organizations to organize independent consultations to feed into this process and that the AU should be invited to such consultations;
- Concerns were expressed about the compressed and hurried time frame of the consultation and urged that the time-frame be extended to ensure effective participation and result-oriented outcome;
- Concern was also expressed about the continuation of multiple processes with timelines that would precede that of the Joint Strategy and would eventually undermine it;
- The Forum also noted that the Cluster on Key Development Issues has been constructed in a manner that would not assist Africa’s development and urged that the basket should be broken down into two or more components to reflect Africa’s priorities;
- A Steering Committee was established to work with CIDO, to ensure effective follow-up on African CSOs consultations on the AU-EU Joint Strategy. CODESRIA was chosen as the lead institution to lead the committee.
Download the
- Report including recommendations and contributions to conference – pdf
Report of the conference – doc
Main conclusions and recommendations – doc
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