The Inter Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) is hosting a three-day consultative meeting to discuss the draft regional social protection strategy. The meeting runs from the 9th to the 11th of January 2014 at Le Golf Hotel Tadjourah, Djibouti.
The objective of the meeting is for member states to dialogue on the structure, elements and priority implementation areas of the draft IGAD regional social protection strategy. Over the next 3 days, member states will be sharing lessons learnt and exchanging best practices on national approaches to social protection as they jointly craft a unified approach to addressing cross border social vulnerabilities and regional poverty reduction.
In attendance are delegates from the IGAD Member States of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda. The delegation at the meeting is constituted of senior government officials responsible for policy formulation and programme implementation. Participants have been drawn from line ministries bearing responsibility in social protection and related issues specifically, Women and Children’s Affairs, Agriculture, Social Security and Labour. Also in attendance are representatives of the IGAD Secretariat from the IGAD Regional AIDS Partnership Programme (IRAPP) and IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC). Ms. Fathia Alwan, the Programme Manager, Health & Social Development at IGAD is coordinating this meeting.
Mr. Abdoulmalik Mohamed, District Commissioner of Tadjourah, officially opened the consultative meeting on behalf of the host country. Mr. Elsadig Abdalla, IGAD’s Director of Economic Cooperation and Social Development delivered the opening remarks on behalf of H.E. Amb. (Eng.) Mahboub M. Maalim, Executive Secretary of IGAD.
