President Museveni pledges support to African Union Development Agency

President Yoweri Museveni yesterday afternoon participated in the virtual meeting of 40th Session of the African Union Development Agency (AUDA) with other Heads- of -State and Government from Africa. The Summit was chaired by the President of Rwanda, H.E Paul Kagame, who is the outgoing Chairperson of the Authority.

President Museveni congratulated H.E Kagame for completing his term of office and thanked the Executive Director of AUDA for making a big report about African Union (AU) development.

President Museveni expressed the need to support AUDA in order for it to achieve its goals.

“This Agency should be funded because it plays a big role in Africa like giving African Countries technical advice on crucial issues, coordinating the implementation of some of the selected crucial regional projects,” the President emphasised.

He said that the mandate of AUDA is good because it helps to pr

omote regional strategic security among African countries. 

“I will instruct the people of Uganda to make sure you are funded.” 

President Museveni said that AUDA has helped to promote and cement brotherhood among African countries like it was the case in the colonial era.

“This donor funding alone is not enough, and it should not be relied upon. I can tell you my country gets more revenue from regional trade than it gets from anywhere else,” he said.

At the 31st Ordinary Session of the Assembly of African Union Heads of State and Government in Nouakchott, Mauritania, June 2018, a decision was taken to transform the NEPAD Planning and Coordination Agency into the African Union Development Agency-NEPAD (AUDA-NEPAD). The establishment of AUDA-NEPAD is part of the global reforms geared at improving the Union’s impact and operational efficiency.

The mandate of AUDA-NEPAD is to: a) Coordinate and Execute priority regional and continental projects to promote regional integration towards the accelerated realisation of Agenda 2063; and b) Strengthen capacity of African Union Member States and regional bodies, advance knowledge-based advisory support, undertake the full range of resource mobilisation and serve as the continent’s technical interface with all Africa’s development stakeholders and development partners.

The new AUDA-NEPAD mandate gives the organisation a wider role in terms of providing knowledge-based advisory support to AU Member States in the pursuit of their national development priorities