1st Meeting of the Specialized Technical Committee on Communication and Information Technologies (STC-CCICT)

By African Union Commission (AUC)
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ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, August 31, 2015/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- INVITATION TO REPRESENTATIVES OF THE MEDIA

What: Meeting of the Specialized Technical Committee on Communication and Information Technologies (STC-CCICT)

Who: The meeting is organized by the Directorate of Information and Communication and the Department of Infrastructure and Energy of the African Union Commission

When: 31st August – 4th September 2015 divided as follows:

Highlights for media include the official opening of the experts meeting on 31 August 2015 at 09:00; the ministerial meeting on 3 September at 09:00, the Round table discussion on 3 September at 11:00 and the closing ceremony followed by a press conference at 15:30 on 4 September.

Time: 09:00 A.M

Where: African Union Headquarters, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Objectives: The main activities and aims of the CCICT in its areas of concern are:

• Prepare projects and programmes of the Union and submit them to the Executive Council;

• Ensure the supervision, follow-up and evaluation of the implementation of adopted programmes decisions taken by the organs of the Union;

• Ensure the coordination and harmonization of projects and programmes of the Union;

• Submit to the Executive Council either on its own initiative or at the request of the Executive council reports and recommendations on the implementation of the AU programmes;

• Carry out any other functions assigned to it for the purpose of ensuring the implementation of the provisions of the African Union Constitutive Act;

• Establish African Common e-strategies;

• Establish Pan-African TV and Radio Channels;

• Discuss resources mobilization and capacity building for the implementation

• Oversee the promotion, co-ordination and the strengthening of CIT programmes for the accelerated economic growth of Africa;

• Develop mechanisms through which CIT contributes to the establishment of the African information Society;

• Promote public investments on CIT infrastructure services and applications;

• Develop frameworks for the harmonization policies and regulations in the Continent.

Outcome: Ministerial declaration with recommendations drawn from the reports, strategies and action plans for projects and programs implementation

Background: The Specialized Technical Committees (STCs), which constitute an important technical organ of the African Union (AU), were established under Article 25 of the African Economic Community Treaty (the Abuja Treaty). The STCs are expected to work in close collaboration with the various departments of the AU Commission (AUC) so as to provide well-informed inputs in their areas of specialization to the work of the Executive Council. They should also, be involved in monitoring programme development and implementation by the AUC and Regional Economic Communities (RECs) on behalf of the Executive Council.

Therefore, the early operationalization of the STCs becomes imperative, given the overall objective of accelerating continental integration and the importance attached to the effective implementation of programmes and projects of the Union. To this end, the Assembly of the Union adopted The Decision; Assembly/AU/Dec.227 (XII) reconfiguring the existing STCs and created one on Communication and Information Technologies called Committee on Communication and ICT (CCICT);

Media representatives are invited to cover the official opening of the experts meeting on 31 August 2015 at 09:00; the ministerial meeting on 3 September at 09:00, the Round table discussion on 3 September at 11:00 and the closing ceremony followed by a press conference at 15:30 on 4 September.