July 9, 2009 – The Steering Committee of ICPAT convened its 7th meeting at the Hilton Hotel in Addis Ababa today.

It was opened by Engineer Mahboub Maalim, the Executive Secretary of IGAD who spoke of the challenges facing the IGAD region, necessitating the revitalization of the organization. Noting that ICPAT had done very well in the past three years of its existence, he stressed the importance of greater ownership of the Program by member states and stronger national implementation of its initiatives.

 The Guest Speaker at the meeting, Dr. Philip Nying’uro, the Head of the Political Science Department at Nairobi University spoke of the various dimensions of security – state security, national security and human security. He said that it was essential that more be done to assure human security and felt that too much emphasis had been given to state security. He spoke at some length on the dysfunctions seen in political systems in the IGAD region and proposed a number of forums and mechanisms through which greater regional cooperation could be fostered.

The Head of ICPAT presented the activity and financial report of the past six months and observed that some 80% of work planned had been completed, but that some initiatives had been delayed by scheduling reasons and slow delivery of research products. He stressed that what is required now is to implement recommendations and proposals nationally.

 

The Heads of various components then briefed participants on the issues of implementation in the legislative and border management areas as well as in the work covering training and interdepartmental cooperation. The meeting participants raised some issues regarding implementation and offered suggestions to help in making ICPAT more effective.

 

The Steering Committee also exchanged views on the future of ICPAT considering the fact that the Program as presently constituted would come to an end on June 30, 2010. Committee members gave strong endorsements to the value of the Program and stressed the importance of it continuing although IGAD would have to decide the modalities of this. The representative of the ISS expressed the readiness of the Institute to support the work of IGAD as a whole as well as in the deliberations related to the future of ICPAT.

 

Participants welcomed the United States as a new partner of ICPAT due to its committing funds for the implementation of the Program.

 As the meeting drew to a close, the participants welcomed the proposal of Uganda to host the next meeting of the Steering Committee in December 2009. (ICPAT news)

   

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