Inaugural Conference of the AU Specialized Technical Committee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment
INVITATION TO REPRESENTATIVES OF THE MEDIA
When: 5-9th October 2015 Experts Meeting 5-6 October Ministerial Session: 8-9 October
Where: African Union Commission Conference Centre
What: Inaugural Conference of the AU Specialized Technical Committee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment Objectives: The overall objective of the Inaugural Conference of the AU Specialized Technical Committee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment is to review relevant strategic goals, facilitate mutual accountability and Identify synergies, linkages and complementarities in on-going agriculture, rural development, water and environment related initiatives. Further the meeting will review the respective sector activities and their implications on the achievement of the overarching goals of the Africa Accelerated Agricultural Growth and Transformation (3AGT) agenda for attaining food and nutrition security, reduce poverty, boost intra-African trade, and enhance resilience of production systems and livelihoods to Climate Change and related shocks. More specifically, the Inaugural Conference of the AU Specialized Technical Committee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment aims to attain the following objectives: a. To review and adopt the Rules of Procedure of the Specialized Technical Committee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment; b. To facilitate broad-based consultation and dialogue among all relevant stakeholders on mutual accountability, mutual learning and biennial reporting on previous commitments; c. Consideration of various strategic documents related to Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment; d. To identify synergies, linkages and complementarities in on-going agriculture, rural development, water and environment initiatives and agree on areas of follow up actions at various levels; and e. To examine and internalize the strategic and operational modalities for coordination mechanisms between the relevant sector ministries at Member State level, which are also linked to those at REC level.
Background: The African Union Assembly of Heads of State and Government adopted the configuration of the Specialised Technical Committees (STCs) and the modalities of their operationalization (Assembly/AU/Dec.227 (XII) and Decision Assembly/ AU/Dec.365 (XVII) in January 2009 and July 2011, respectively as Organs of the Union in accordance with Article 5 (1) (g) of the Constitutive Act. One of the Specialized Technical Committees recommended for establishment is the Specialized Technical Committee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment. Participants: The Inaugural Conference of the Specialized Technical Committee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment will have a Ministerial segment that will be held on 8th and 9th October 2015, which will be preceded by a two day meeting of Senior Officials/Experts that will take place on 5th and 6th October 2015. Technical and Development partners, representatives from embassies, senior government officials, RECs and Farmer Organisations will attend.
Journalists are invited to cover the official opening ceremony for the Ministerial session on October 8, 2015 at 09:00 a.m. and the opening ceremony for the experts' session on October 5, 2015 at 09:00 a.m.