Press Release Nº 232/2013

Consultations on Development Cooperation between the African Union and the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 20 November, 2013: The AU Commissioner for Human Resources, Science and Technology (HRST), Dr. Martial De-Paul Ikounga, on behalf of the Deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commission, H.E. Mr. Erastus Mwencha, signed a Memorandum of Understanding together with Mr. Christoph Rauh, Head of Division of Regional Development Cooperation with Africa in the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and the head of the Delegation, together with the German Chargé d’affaires, Mr. Thomas Terstegen.

The Consultations are follow up to a continued political dialogue between the AU and the German Government.

The Commissioner Dr. Martial De-Paul Ikounga opened the ceremony by welcoming the Delegation and expressing his satisfaction with the work that has been done during the three-day consultations.
Dr. Martial De-Paul Ikounga also spoke about the priority areas of cooperation between the AU and Germany and highly commended the cooperation.

Mr. Christoph Rauh gave a brief about the German cooperation with Africa. Half of funds are to go to Africa for development and cooperation as Mr. Rauh said. The total volume of funding for technical and financial cooperation projects and programmes thus totals 45 million Euro. Hence the total volume of bilateral commitments in 2013 is 173 million Euro.

Mr. Christoph Rauh commended the African Union Commission efforts in coming with AUC Strategic Plan (2014-2017) to achieve a high level of Excellence and new ways of financing activities of the AU and sheds light on African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) and African Peace Facility (APF).

The German side took note of the AUC-HRST proposals regarding education, science and technology, biodiversity and youth programme. Both sides agreed to consider whether they could fit into the Pan African University (PAU) cooperation or under one of the pillars of the cooperation.

The next negotiations on development cooperation between the African union Commission and the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany are scheduled to take place in Addis Ababa, November 2014

/GAAK