H.E Andrea Semadeni, the Swiss Ambassador accredited to Ethiopia, South Sudan, Djibouti, the AU and IGAD had a working visit to the IGAD secretariat on Monday 17th November. The officer in charge, the Legal counsel Yufnalis Okubo on behalf of the executive secretary, received him at the secretariat. H.E the ambassador held briefs with all the divisions in the spirit of cooperation between IGAD and Swiss Confederation.

The IGAD-Swiss Confederation areas of cooperation include Peace and security with funding already secured towards the establishment of the mechanism for advancing federalism and decentralization in IGAD member states. Discussions are underway towards concluding specific agreements in support of the mediation support unit and CEWARN.

12th August 2014, Addis Ababa: IGAD in collaboration with the East and Southern African Regional Office (ESARO) of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)has today convened the second meeting of the East, Southern and Horn of Africa (ESHA) Technical Working Group(TWG) on reproductive health commodity security in Addis Ababa.

Addis Ababa, 29-31st July 2014 - The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia is in the process of formulating its Sustainable Tourism Master Plan (STMP).

The STMP is part of an on-going process of the implementation of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (ISTMP). The IGAD STMP was informed by a regional tourism study done by UNECA SRO-EA in 2010 and the green light for its formulation approved at the 15th meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts (ICE) of SRO-EA that took place in Djibouti, between 21st to 24th February 2011, whose main focus was on tourism under the theme Towards a Sustainable Tourism Industry in Eastern Africa. The IGAD STMP has since been completed and was officially launched at the IGAD Tourism Inter-Ministerial forum held in Nairobi, Kenya by His Excellency Uhuru Kenyatta in December last year. In his opening remarks the President observed that ‘it is sad to note that our continent’s share of the global tourism industry stands at 52.4 million or 5.1% of international arrivals, which translates to 33.6 billion US dollars or 3.1% of international tourism receipts.’ The IGAD STMP, among others, strongly recommends that member states align their respective tourism development instruments to the regional framework.

Between 15th and 19th July 2014, a mission was conducted in Addis Ababa by senior IGAD staff from the Secretariat and IRAPP.

During the five-day program, plans for the first IGAD International Scientific Conference on Health were concretized through meetings with a variety of partners and stakeholders. These included officials of the African Federation of Public Health Associations who are providing technical leadership to the December conference.

An IGAD delegation paid a courtesy visit to the Japanese Embassy in Addis Ababa on Wednesday, 22nd July 2014.

Led by Ms. Fathia Alwan, the Program Manager for Health and Social Development at the IGAD Secretariat, the five-member delegation was received by H. E. Suzuki, the Ambassador of Japan to Ethiopia, at his Residence.