6th AU Mid-Year Coordination Meeting comes off Saturday in Accra

The African Union (AU) will convene the 6th Mid-Year Coordination Meeting that brings together the AU, the Regional Economic Communities (RECs), the Regional Mechanisms (RMs), and the AU Member States on July 21, 2024, in Accra, Ghana.Scheduled to take place at the Grand Arena, Accra International Conference Centre, the meeting would be convened under the AU theme of the year 2024 on Education: 'Educate and Skill Africa for the 21st Century'.The meeting would be preceded by the 45th Ordinary Session of the Executive Council, which would take place from July 18 to 19, 2024.The Mid-Year Coordination Meeting was conceptualised in 2017 as the principal forum for the AU and the RECs to align their work and coordinate the implementation of the continental integration agenda, replacing the June/ July summits.It is a meeting between the Bureau of the AU Assembly and RECs, with the participation of the Chairpersons of RECs, the AU Commission and RMs.It will also see the participation of the Deputy Chairperso n and Commissioners of the AU Commission, Chief Executives of RECs and RMs, and the Chief Executive Officer of the African Union Development Agency-New Partnership for Development (AUDA-NEPAD).The Mid-Year Coordination Meeting is intended to assess the status of continental integration and coordinate efforts to accelerate the integration process.It intends to coordinate the implementation of a clear division of labour and effective collaboration between the Union, RECs, RMs and Member States, in line with the principle of subsidiarity, complementarity and comparative advantage.The meeting also seeks to coordinate and harmonise AU and REC policies with a view to accelerating Africa's integration process.It intends to identify areas of cooperation and establish mechanisms for regional, continental and global cooperation in each sector or subsector.The meeting is to guide the Union and the RECs in matters pertaining to priority programmes, resources needed for implementation of these programmes and the impact of such programmes in improving the lives of the African people.It also offers the platform to review and assess the status of implementation of decisions and legal instruments pertaining to the relations among the Union, RECs and RMs.A Declaration is adopted at the conclusion of each Mid-Year Coordination Meeting.The 5th Mid-Year Coordination Meeting took place on July 16, 2023, in Nairobi Kenya, under the AU theme of the year 2023: 'Acceleration of African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Implementation'.