29-05-2017, Djibouti (Djibouti): The Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), H.E. Amb (Eng) Mahboub Maalim, yesterday received a joint delegation from the Horn Economic & Social Policy Institute (HESPI) and the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) in his office at the IGAD Secretariat in Djibouti.
The delegation from the Addis Ababa based HESPI was made up of Dr Ali Issa Abdi, Managing Director of HESPI, and Dr Haile Tye, Senior Researcher-HESP, while ACBF was represented by Dr Siaka Coulibaly, Senior Program Officer.
The delegation came to visit IGAD within the framework of the partnership agreement between IGAD and HESPI to support capacity building for evidence–based policy making under the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) funding.
The overall objective was to discuss the status of implementation of the activities that HESPI is currently undertaking under its partnership with IGAD.
The joint delegation was received by the Executive Secretary and a team from the Economic Cooperation Division of IGAD who did brief them on the progress made so far in the areas of the modalities for negotiations to join the tripartite Free Trade Agreement (FTA), the formation of the truck-owners association, the implementation of the tourism master plan, the public private partnership under the IGAD Business Forum, and trade and investment status in the IGAD region.
The HESPI team also updated their counterparts on the development of the regional econometric model and the where-house receipt system and other tasks that they have been contracted for.
HESPI is an implementing partner of IGAD working on the Grant received from ACBF for regional integration.
