And here are the experts: TOP LEFT: Dr Acha Leke, a senior partner with global consultancy firm, McKinsey & Co; Cristina Duarte, the former Minister of Finance of Cabo Verde; Dr Donald Kaberuka, the former president of the African Development Bank; Dr Carlos Lopes, former Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa; Mariam Mahamat Nour, the Minister of Economy, Planning, and International Cooperation, Chad; Nigeria's Minister of Environment, Amina J. Mohammed; Strive Masiyiwa, a London-based Zimbabwean businessman; Tito Mboweni, former Governor of the South African Reserve Bank; and Vera Songwe, Regional Director for West and Central Africa, International Finance Corporation.
Dear all,
What great news! Our
leaders are finally getting it. Please, let's keep on working with them as long
as they are doing the right thing for our people and for our African continent.
:-)
Kagame picks nine
experts to work with on AU reforms. Could there have been a better choice? 4 women and
5 men!
PLAD Salutes brother
Kagame and his ADVISORS for this effort.
Please read article
below.
AUSC President congratulates Prof.Mammo Muchie, for his
efforts being put in the African Young Generations for becoming more patriotic
to this our beautiful continent of AFRICA.
Congratulations.
...............................................................................................................................................................
Kagame picks nine experts to work with on AU reforms
By: FELLY KIMENYI
PUBLISHED: October 22, 2016
President Paul Kagame has named a team of nine eminent Africans to
work with on the task of reforming the African Union.
Kagame was tasked to preside over the process to reform the
continental organisation during the 27th African Union Summit that was held in
Kigali in July.
The goal is to transform the AU into a more effective and
self-reliant institution.
Kagame’s AU reforms team comprises five men and four women with
diverse expertise in both private and public sectors.
According to a statement from the Office of the President, the
nine include Dr Donald Kaberuka, the former president of the African
Development Bank (AfDB) and Finance minister of Rwanda, who is currently the
High Representative for the African Union Peace Fund, among other duties;
former Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for
Africa, Dr Carlos Lopes, from Guinea-Bissau; and Strive Masiyiwa, a
London-based Zimbabwean businessman, entrepreneur, and philanthropist, who
founded and leads diversified international telecommunications group Econet
Wireless.
President Kagame also named Cristina Duarte, the former Minister
of Finance of Cabo Verde (Cape Verde), who sits on the boards of governors for
both the African Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund; and Dr
Acha Leke, a Senior Partner with global consultancy firm McKinsey & Co, on
his AU team.
The President also picked Tito Mboweni, the former Governor of the
South African Reserve Bank, the first black man to hold the post in post-Apartheid
South Africa, with Nigeria’s Minister of Environment, Amina J. Mohammed also
joining the team. Mohammed worked as Special Adviser of the UN Secretary
General on Post- 2015 Millennium Development Goals.
Other members of the AU reforms team are Mariam Mahamat Nour, the
Minister of Economy, Planning, and International Cooperation, Republic of Chad;
and Vera Songwe, Regional Director for West and Central Africa, International
Finance Corporation, a World Bank affiliated entity.
Almost all the members worked in economic and policy development
fields.
The team has already started consultations with member states on
the envisaged reforms and is scheduled to convene in Kigali next week,
according to the statement.
“President Paul Kagame has initiated a wide-ranging process of
consultations with Member States in advance of his report to the 28th AU Summit
in January 2017,” reads part of the statement.
Speaking at the Kigali AU Summit in July, the current Chairperson
of the bloc, President Idriss Déby of Chad, said the choice of Kagame to
spearhead the assignment was premised on his record.
“I am convinced that President Kagame has well understood the
heavy task of proposing to us an extensive reform of the Union; his work will
have his mark of know-how,” Déby said.
The key task for the team is to ensure the AU weans itself off
foreign aid, thereby making the organisation more efficient and economically
independent.
At the Kigali summit, a new funding model was adopted that seeks
to make AU operations exclusively funded by contributions from member
states.
Under the new model, member states are expected to contribute 0.2
per cent of proceeds from levy on eligible imports to fund operations of the
organisation.
Considered AU’s most ambitious undertaking in recent years, the
organisation hopes to raise approximately $1.2 billion, annually, beginning
next year through this new funding model.
