Commonwealth and African Union Strengthen Ties

Commonwealth Deputy Secretary-General Florence Mugasha

The Commonwealth Secretariat and the African Union Commission have agreed to revise and update the two organisations' 1993 Agreement in order to tackle the challenges that are facing Africa.

This was among the issues discussed by Commonwealth Deputy Secretary-General Florence Mugasha in high level talks with political leaders and senior officials of the African Union Commission in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 6 to 8 March 2006.

The original agreement between the Organisation of African Unity (the African Union's predecessor) and the Commonwealth Secretariat was first signed in November 1993 to achieve greater co-ordination of the two organisations' efforts in Africa. The process of revising the 1993 Agreement should be completed in a few months' time.

The Deputy Secretary-General described the talks as fruitful and said: "The stage has now been set for the two organisations to move decisively in tackling the challenges that confront Africa. We agreed to develop new collaborative relationships in a number of areas including democracy and governance, trade, human rights, youth, gender and social issues.

"We also agreed that there is a strong potential to build on these areas for the overall development of Africa as a whole and of the 18 Commonwealth African member states in particular."

During her visit Mrs Mugasha also met with Commonwealth Ambassadors in Ethiopia and briefed them on current programmes and mandates as well as the new focus of Commonwealth engagement in Africa.

The Deputy Secretary-General told the envoys that "the Commonwealth is determined to work together with the African Union towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals in Africa."

 

CNIS - Commonwealth News and Information Service, Issue 278, 29 March 2006

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