The first series of regional consultation meetings were held in 1999 in the five regions, each chaired by the Deputy Secretary-General, creating a mechanism for regular consultations among organizations of the United Nations system on their contribution to regional development. The subsequent regional consultation meetings were convened by the respective executive secretaries of the five regional commissions .
The subregional coordination mechanisms (SRCMs), which were established in the context of the African Economic Community, were conceived as an extension of the arrangements made by United Nations agencies to coordinate their activities at the subregional level. Thus, the mechanisms add a new dimension to coordinated and joint activities at subregional level that are promoted by the regional economic communities and intergovernmental organizations, with technical and financial support from United Nations agencies and other development partners.
The main objective of the second triennial review is to assess the extent to which the outcome and recommendations of the first triennial review have helped meet the objectives of enhancing and strengthening the capacity of the AU Commission, NPCA and RECs to act as effective UN partners in meeting the challenges of human security and development in Africa.
RCM-Africa Clusters
Resolutions 57/2 and 57/7 of 16 September and 4 November 2002 of the United Nations General Assembly adopted the position that the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) should be the framework within which the international community, including the United Nations system should concentrate its efforts for Africa's development. In a nutshell, NEPAD has therefore become the fulcrum for United Nations System support to the continent.
I. Context
Addis Ababa, 23 April 2015 (ECA) – If Africa’s natural resources are to benefit its people, petroleum and mining contract negotiations can no longer be limited to technical experts but must be broadened to include specialists such as lawyers, tax specialists, economists, environmentalists, sociologists, or political scientists.
The Expert Group Meeting (EGM) for the Review of the “Declaration on Enhancing UN-AU Cooperation: Frame work for the Ten-Year Capacity Building Programme for the African Union (TYCBP-AU) was held at the United Nations Conference Centre (UNCC) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 2 and 3 November 2010. The meeting was organized by the NEPAD Support Section of the Economic Development and NEPAD Division (EDND) of ECA, in collaboration with the AU Commission (AUC), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Office to the African Union (UNO‐AU).
The 10th session of the Regional Coordination Mechanism (RCM-Africa) held on 5-6 November 2009 underlined that “UN system organizations need to work more closely with the different Departments within the AUC. This would enable the AUC/NEPAD to tap more effectively into the expertise and resources available from the RCM and its Clusters”.