ECA to celebrate golden jubilee

By Simegnish Yekoye

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) is to kick off a year long commemoration of its 50th year anniversary during the ministerial meeting of finance, planning and economic development organized jointly by African Union (AU) and UNECA.

Over the past 50 years ECA, the first specialized organization on the African continent, established five years before the Organization of African Union (OAU) in 1963, has played a leading role in African development, including the creation of African and regional institutions like African Development Bank (ADB), Economic Community of West African States ( ECOWAS), Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), among many others.

According to Mrs. Lalla Aicha Ben Barka, UNECA deputy Executive Secretary, UNECA started the program of the United Nations Development Advisers Team (UNDAT), to directly service member states. She said these outfits were later transformed into Multinational Programming and Operational Centers (MULPOCs) and later became Sub Regional Development Centers (SRDCs) which are now known as Sub Regional Offices (SROs).
When the Executive Secretary Abdoulie Janneh repositioned ECA in 2006 the aim then was to focus on specific programs in which ECA had established itself and had comparative advantage on.

Congratulating the UN Under-Secretary General and ECA Executive Secretary, Abdoulie Janneh, on behalf of the chairperson of the African Union commission commissioner for economic affairs at the African Union Dr. Maxwell M. Mkwezalamba said ECA has made remarkable and significant contribution to the social and economic development of Africa during its fifty years of existence on the continent.
"It is our expectation that the ECA will continue to support the African Union and its NEPAD program, as enshrined in its framework of repositioning under the able and dynamic leadership of Mr. Janneh," he said.