“From the first and second Africa regional meetings, through the launch of the Africa Platform for Development Effectiveness and also through this third engagement, Africa has articulated its priorities resulting in the African consensus and position in the run up to the upcoming 4th High Level Forum on Aid effectiveness in Busan, South Korea,” said Mayaki.

The overall objective of this third regional meeting is to validate the common African position on development effectiveness with regard to shaping the post-Busan agenda focusing on aid reforms.

In his remarks, Mr. Erastus Mwencha, Deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC) insisted on “the unequivocal inclusion of the regional dimension in the new global partnership for development effectiveness.”

He went on to remind the participants at the meeting that aid should be seen as one source of development finance which should complement our efforts at achieving growth and wealth creation in Africa.

“Development effectiveness framework as an approach to help minimize aid dependence and to priorities the investments that strengthen the national capacities and build on alternative sources of development funding”. Jennifer Kagrbo, Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UN-ECA) called upon participants.

In line with this appeal towards processes at the national level, Dalmas Otieno, Kenya’s Minister of State for Public Service emphasized that development effectiveness, aid effectiveness and any form of effectiveness must begin at the national level in order to ensure buy-in and broader success at the national and continental levels. The UNECA Deputy Executive Secretary added

He also called upon the political leadership of the continent to collectively priorities Africa’s needs and to get behind one vision as in the case of the African position on aid reforms.

“Examine how the support goes towards nurturing and strengthening the capacity of nations to plan long-term while allowing them to respond in the short term in times of crisis”. Eugene Owusu(UNDP) Resident Representative in Ethiopia reminded the gathering

The third Africa regional meeting on development effectiveness is being co-organised by the AUC and the NEPAD Agency in partnership with UN-ECA, UNDP and the African Development Bank with the leadership of African Governments. GIZ, UN Women, Trust Africa, Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa (OSISA) and Oxfam GB are supporting this engagement.