I. Context
The United Nations General Assembly, through its resolutions 57/2, 57/7 and 61/296- enshrined the New Partnership for the Development of Africa (NEPAD) as the action and support framework for the development of the continent, and asked organizations and institutions of the United Nations System (UN System) to support the implementation process of programs related to this initiative1, mainly through the elaboration of common projects at the regional level. The regional coordination mechanism was established for that purpose, and articulated in nine sub- thematic groups, in line with the development priorities of the African States, as outlined in the NEPAD agenda: (i) Development of water, energy, transport and ICT infrastructures, (ii) governance, (iii) environment, population and urbanization, (iv) science and technology, (v) peace and security, (vi) agriculture, food security and rural development (vii) human resources development, employment and HIV/AIDS, (viii) industry, trade and access to market, (ix) awareness raising and communication.

II. Objectives of the meeting
The main objective of the meeting is to strengthen consultation and collaboration between UN System agencies in the framework of the “Delivering as One” initiative, and the other institutions such as AFDB and IDB who support the AMU and its Member States in the framework of the RCM-Africa. As stated in the aforementioned GA resolutions, the goal is mainly to promote a greater synergy and efficiency of actions, through the implementation -as much as possible- of the common or joint programmes, to support the existing intergovernmental organizations in North Africa, mainly AMU.

The specific objectives are:
- Sharing ideas on the changes occurring since 2011 and their impact on development policies and strategies of the States;
- Reviewing the current action fields of the UN agencies and other partners and analyzing their relevance to the expectations of the States and the AMU;
- Identifying priority fields of cooperation for the period 2014-2015, given the socio-political changes in North Africa;
- Identifying the methods and means to strengthen coordination and ensure synergy of the activities of partners at the sub-regional level.