The twentieth session of the Regional Coordination Mechanism for Africa and the third joint meeting of Regional Coordination Mechanism for Africa and the Africa regional United Nations Sustainable Development Group will take place on 23 and 24 March 2019 on the margins of the fifty-second session of the Economic Commission for Africa Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, to be convened at Le Palais des Congrès de la Palmeraie de Marrakech, Morocco. It will be held on the theme of “United Nations system support for the African Union in commemorating 2019 as the Year of Refugees, Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons: towards durable solutions to forced displacement in Africa”.

The objectives of the meeting are twofold. The first is to provide a platform for high-level panel discussions on issues pertinent to the theme with a view to promoting interactions and generating solutions that will contribute to efforts aimed at addressing the challenge of refugees and internally displaced persons in Africa. Second, it aims to deliberate on the functioning of the mechanism and the Africa Regional United Nations Sustainable Development Group platforms, and to assess achievements, challenges and the way forward in strengthening the coherent and efficient delivery of support to the African Union and its organs in the context of African Union and United Nations reforms.

Considering the range of important issues being addressed by the Regional Coordination Mechanism for Africa and the Africa Regional United Nations Sustainable Development Group in support of the African Union development agenda and priorities, the session will present an opportunity for meaningful interactions among stakeholders of the mechanisms and their partners with regard to strengthening that support. It will also bring together the different strands of the various African Union-United Nations cooperation frameworks in a coherent manner, taking into account the ongoing reforms.

The session is expected to result in the following:

        i.            Enhanced understanding, and appreciation of the refugee and Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) situation in Africa in the context of Agenda 2063 and the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development;

      ii.            Agreed action-oriented recommendations on United Nations system support to the African Union, its organs and member States on addressing the challenge of refugees, returnees and IDPs;

    iii.            Consensus on strengthening the functioning of the Mechanism and its SRCMs in the context of the AU and UN reforms;

    iv.            Consensus on aligning the work of the Mechanism and the Regional UNSDG teams to the Joint AU-UN Framework for an Enhanced Partnership in Peace and Security and the Framework for the integrated Implementation of Agenda 2063 and 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development;

      v.            Adopt RCM-Africa work plan informed by the AU and UN reforms and the AU strategic priorities.

The meeting will be attended by Senior Officials of both the African Union Commission, and the United Nations, as well as Africa regional economic communities, and development banks and other development partners.  The timing of the session also provides an opportunity for these officials to engage the Ministers of Finance and Economic Planning to ensure full support for the implementation of the global, regional, subregional, and national goals including the Agenda 2063, and the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development.

The session aide memoire, provisional agenda, annotated agenda, provisional work programme, issues paper for the panel discussions on its theme, information note and registration form, relevant reports and other electronic resources, will be posted on the Regional Coordination Mechanism for Africa (RCM-Africa) website (https://www.uneca.org/rcm).

All participants are expected to register online using this link and to ensure to fulfil all visa requirements.  For more information please contact Zewditu Befekadu (befekaduz@un.org) and copied to Nozipho Freya Simelane (simelane@un.org) and Hellen Atieno Oketch-Dwumfour (HellenD@africa-union.org).