26 February 2019, DJIBOUTI, Djibouti: The Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), H.E. Amb (Eng) Mahboub Maalim, this morning received the accreditation letter from the Ambassador of Germany to Djibouti, H.E. Ms Anke Holstein, that makes her the first German Ambassador ever to be accredited to the regional organisation.

The Executive Secretary noted the extended portfolio of projects and programmes IGAD and Germany have been entertaining from the start. “Your accreditation is more than timely and I am so delighted to see that we will be able to deepen furthermore our working relations”, he said. Amb Maalim described the accreditation as a “historic moment”. He added that Germany also had strong bilateral ties with IGAD Member States.

Ambassador Holstein noted that IGAD assumed “political responsibility for the region” and contributed “significantly to its further peaceful development”. She recalled that, so far, the portfolio of Germany-IGAD bilateral cooperation amounted to 142 Million Euros.

Ambassador Holstein pledged to “continuing the very fruitful cooperation” between Germany and IGAD.

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22-02-2019, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: The Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), H.E. Amb (Eng) Mahboub Maalim this morning received an accreditation letter from the Ambassador of Austria to Ethiopia and Permanent Representative to the African Union; H.E. Amb Roland Hauser at the IGAD Peace and Security Division office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Amb Hauser has served in this capacity since 2018 with prior ambassadorial role in Bulgaria, Kenya, Kuwait, Qatar to mention but a few.

With Amb Hauser’s wealth of experience, Amb Maalim was pleased to receive his credentials and promised to work closely with him especially as co chair of the IGAD Promoting Peace and Security in the Horn of Africa Region (IPPSHAR) Programme Steering Committee.

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 IGAD Executive Secretary, H.E. Amb (Eng) Mahboub Maalim, introduced the matter of the day during a very brief opening session before the Chair welcomed his counterparts to the meeting and officially opened the session.

 The Committee’s members were immediately taken through the management achievements made during 2018 and the activities planned for 2019 within the framework of the IGAD Operational Plan by the Director of Administration & Finance, Mr Josephat Onyari. The Director also presented the planned budget for the year that just started.

 The Committee then embarked on a questions and answers session during which the budget and the operational plan were thoroughly looked into. Notably, the Committee called on IGAD Secretariat to allocate funds to the Mediation Support Unit so as to allow the deployment of the members of the IGAD Roster of Mediators, when necessary and in a timely manner.

 Following frank and open discussions, the IGAD budget and operational plan 2019 were endorsed by the Committee of Ambassadors.

 Furthermore, the members of the Committee expressed the need for the organisation to hold an Ordinary Council of Ministers the soonest in such a manner pending institutional matters, such the draft IGAD Treaty and the new organisational structure which they did endorse in the past, were brought forward to the IGAD Ministers of Foreign Affairs for consideration among other thing things.

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12 February 2019, DJIBOUTI, Djibouti: The Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), H.E. Amb (Eng) Mahboub Maalim, today received the accreditation letter from the Ambassador of Japan to Ethiopia and IGAD, H.E. Mr Daisuke Matsunaga, at the Secretariat of the regional organisation in Djibouti.

The Executive Secretary expressed his satisfaction for the financial support provided by Japan to the peace process in South Sudan and called for extended work relations with Japan in areas such resilience building in the IGAD region, climate related programmes, health, preventing and countering violent extremism and others

 Similarly, the Ambassador of Egypt to Djibouti and IGAD, H.E Mr Ahmed Adel, presented his accreditation letter to the Executive Secretary yesterday. Amb Maalim congratulated Egypt for its election as Chair of the AU during the 32^nd Summit of the African Union (AU). They discussed about the collaboration between IGAD and Egypt in different priority intervention areas of IGAD notably Agriculture and Environment, capacity building of IGAD institutions and particularly the IGAD Centre in Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism.

 During the same day of yesterday, the Executive Secretary received the credentials to IGAD from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) representative based in Djibouti, Mr Dademanao Pissang Tchangai. The parties reiterated commitment to the long standing cooperation between the two organisations.

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06 February 2019, DJIBOUTI (Djibouti): The Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), H.E. Amb. (Eng) Mahboub Maalim, and the Ambassador of Sweden to Ethiopia and IGAD, H.E. Ambassador Torbjörn Pettersson, today co-chaired a consultative meeting during which representatives from embassies of Sweden to capital cities in the region discussed the IGAD drought resilience agenda with a team of IGAD senior staff and experts.

 This one-day meeting was convened in follow up to Sweden’s expressed commitment to support the IGAD Drought Disaster and Resilience Sustainability Initiative (IDDRSI) within the framework of Sweden’s strategy for regional development cooperation and on-going support to IGAD in leading and coordinating the implementation of IDDRSI

 The Executive Secretary recalled the Summit of the IGAD Heads of State and Government  that was held in Nairobi in September 2011, during which leaders committed themselves to the collective objective of ensuring that droughts in the region ‘would never again turn into famine and other humanitarian emergencies’.  He recounted the efforts that have since been engaged to address the effects of drought on populations of the region and reported that there have been achievements by the IGAD Secretariat in the coordinating efforts among Member States in their commitment to the regional goal of ending drought emergencies.

 Ambassador Pettersson noted the importance of cross-border cooperation and coordination in the fight against drought effects. He expressed Sweden’s readiness to contribute to the efforts aimed at achieving the goal of ending drought disasters in the IGAD region. A Concept Note prepared by IGAD describing key activities related to its capacity and role in coordinating the implementation of IDDRSI, which was recently submitted to the Government of Sweden for consideration and support, was presented at the meeting.  

The concept proposed several areas of focus, seeking to optimize the implementation of IDDRSI, including scaling resilience-enhancing technologies and innovations in cross-border areas; improving the capacity and partnership needed to achieve the objectives of IDDRSI; enhancing resilience to environmental and socio-economic shocks; and complementing other resilience-building projects, being funded by other partners, notably African Development Bank, World Bank, European Union and Germany.

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04 Jan. 2018, DJIBOUTI, Djibouti: The Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), H.E. Amb (Eng) Mahboub Maalim, this morning received in his office Mr. Jason Kapkirwok, Chief of Party for the USAID-funded Regional Intergovernmental Organisation (RIGO) System Strengthening Project to officially launch the activity for his organisation. Directors of IGAD Divisions, of IGAD Specialised Institutions from across the region, and senior staff members attended the meeting.

 The RIGO is a five-year activity which was designed with active participation by IGAD, as well as the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the East Africa Community (EAC) and is meant for capacity building and institutional strengthening of the three regional organisations.

 While the final IGAD priority areas for organisational strengthening support will be determined in a consultative process led by the recipient, the project is focused on the following core areas:

• Financial management;
• Performance management;
• Strategic planning; and
• Donor coordination of organisational strengthening activities.

 The Executive Secretary noted that this was not the first capacity support package IGAD was getting from partners. He highlighted that IGAD already had a team of staff members endowed with extensive experience in matters of implementation of the institutional strengthening activities.

 “This is additional support to IGAD which will assist us in filling in some gaps”, Amb Maalim said.

 “The RIGO System Strengthening Project is designed to be a resource-lean, rigorous, and facilitative vehicle aimed at driving transformational change in organisational efficiency and effectiveness”, Mr. Kapkirwok said.

 The implementation of RIGO System Strengthening activity was awarded to a consortium of firms led by The Kaizen Company.

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