By John Okeke
The Speaker of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Honorable Sidie Mohamed Tunis has joined colleagues at the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) to grace the 11th Conference of Speakers of National and Regional Parliaments held from the 1st and 2nd September 2022, Gallagher Convention Centre, Midrand, Johannesburg, Republic of South Africa.
The conference comes on the margins of the ongoing August Sittings of the Permanent Committees of the Six Pan-African Parliament and it is guided by the African Union (AU) theme for 2022: “Building resilience in nutrition on the African continent: Accelerate the human capital, social and economic development.”
“The objective of the Conference of Speakers is to promote coordination and harmonisation of parliamentary action and advocacy in relation to the national and regional implementation of the African Union theme of the Year 2022, ratification of African Union treaties, particularly the PAP Malabo Protocol and sustainable responses to the socio-economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic,” a PAP Media Advisory stated.
The Speakers’ Conference comes after the 4th Meeting of the Association of Secretaries-General of African Parliaments held on 30th and 31st August, 2022. Over the last decade, the PAP has institutionalized the Annual Conference of Speakers of African National Parliaments and Clerks of National Parliaments as a two-sided platform for the promotion of ratification, domestication and implementation of African Union legal and policy instruments relating to African Union shared values, which includes human rights, democracy, peace and security, good governance, constitutionalism and the rule of law.
Also, the Annual Conference of Speakers of African National Parliaments and Clerks of National Parliaments constitutes also an important platform for coordination and harmonisation amongst National and Regional Parliaments of African Union legal and policy frameworks and sharing of best parliamentary practices which supports and advances African economic integration and development, which constitute the raison d’être of the PAP. The Tenth Conference of Speakers and the Third Meeting of the Association of Secretaries-General of African Parliaments (ASGAP) held on 5th – 7th August 2019 under the African Union theme of the year 2019, with a glance at the theme for 2020 as well, reflected on the dialectical link between the challenge of forced migrations in Africa and the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area. It is focused on addressing the challenges of migration of vulnerable groups, with a view to promoting measures that guarantee their rights and their adaptation, and to formulate relevant recommendations embedded on the role of National and Regional Parliaments, for lasting solutions to the situation of refugees, returnees and internally displaced persons in Africa, the silencing of the guns in Africa, and the realization of the African Continental Free Trade Area.
Building on the Tenth Annual Conference of Speakers of African National Parliaments and Third Meeting of Clerks of National Parliaments, the Eleventh Annual Conference of Speakers of African Parliaments and the Fourth Meeting of the ASGAP assembled Speakers of national and regional parliaments, on the one side, and Secretaries-General of National and Regional Parliaments to reflect and proffer parliamentary solutions to contemporary challenges facing the African continent. These include the issue of food and nutrition insecurity, as borne by the African Union theme for the Year 2022, which is exacerbated by the socio-economic consequences of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, a problem which calls for a harmonised and coordinated parliamentary responses and approaches, with support from a more strengthened Pan-African Parliament.
Hon. Tunis and colleagues for the next two days are expected to dissect in an plenary session the post COVID-19 recovery strategies, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) as a vehicle for continental integration and economic development, update on agenda 2063 special project and the role of the PAP in the achievement of agenda 2063, African Governance Architecture (AGA), status of the ratification of the Malabo Protocol and other AU legal instruments, reflections on the effectiveness of the PAP , status of PAP MPs and concludes with the presentation and adoption of the conference’s final communique.
