Nairobi, 06-09-2014: The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) held a workshop on the formulation of the IGAD Regional Strategy and Medium-Term Implementation Plan for 2016-2020 under the chairmanship of Mr. Yegnanew Mingist Belay, IGAD Partnership Officer-First Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia, and in the presence of Mr. Elsadig Abdalla, Director of IGAD Economic Cooperation Division, in Nairobi on September 05-06, 2014.
This workshop was the first of its kind as it was bringing together essentially forty two national consultants from IGAD member states for the purpose of conducting in-depth analytical reviews of the status of IGAD priority intervention areas (sectors) in their respective countries as a baseline for the IGAD Regional Strategy 2016-2020. The primary objective of IGAD in undertaking this task is to lay the groundwork for the formulation of a result-oriented IGAD Regional Strategy with a medium-term Implementation Plan 2016-2020, focusing on IGAD’s priority areas of intervention, and taking into account new and emerging development challenges and opportunities facing the region.
During the opening ceremony, Mr. Elsadig, sitting for the Executive Secretary of IGAD, welcomed the participants to the workshop and also thanked the government of Kenya for hosting it. He added that the workshop will help the national experts “come to get an in-depth knowledge of IGAD as a regional organization from knowledgeable staff members”. “Dear consultants from members states, you have been invited to this workshop so you get a very clear idea of what is expected from you in our exercise for our IGAD Regional Strategy and Medium-Term Implementation Plan-2016-2020, and also in order for you all to connect, network, and exchange,” he said.
Mr. Yegnanew, speaking on behalf of the Chair of IGAD, highlighted how important this workshop was for member states, as the outcomes are directly going to contribute to deciding what areas IGAD is to concentrate on for the next five-year cycle. “This workshop is also important, as the approach is different from the IGAD traditional way of strategy development. This time around, we will be engaging with you, national level experts, by sector, in order to develop the state of sector reports at member states level, which will lead to the IGAD State of the Sectors”, he said. In his remarks, he showed confidence that the objectives set will be met before declaring the workshop officially open.
The task of the strategy formulation would entail all activities that are essential for the successful completion of the strategy documents in time and within the available resources. The documents would include a set of baseline studies on IGAD priority areas, meeting/workshop reports, the Regional Strategy and its medium-term Implementation Plan 2016-2020.
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