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Zvamaida Murwira in Midrand, South Africa
Pan African Parliament has started working on priority programmes for next year aimed at attaining the objectives of African Union Agenda 2063 that seeks to enhance regional integration for the continent.
The continental legislative assembly comprising the bureau and chairpersons of committes gathered in Pretoria for a two-day planning workshop aimed at identifying priority areas in various sectors such as agriculture, trade, international cooperation among other areas.
Addressing the meeting, PAP president, Chief Fortune Charumbira said the objective of the workshop is to identify priority areas for next year that will help the continent achieve its primary objective of Agenda 2063.
“Whatever we do must be driven by the desire to produce results,” he said.
“It is a result based management, this is a Parliament that was deliberately created by Heads of State and Government. It is protocol that is binding to all member state. So we need a unified approach. We are here to present our priorities for 2025.”
The two week Fourth Ordinary Session of the Sixth Pan African Parliament ended last Friday following intense debate on various issues affecting the continent.
In his closing remarks, Chief Charumbira said the continental body should have greater role to play in the African Union governance architecture for it to effectively represent the people of Africa.
He said there was need for PAP to have greater function in continental politics particularly in issues to do with peace, security and formulation of budget of the AU.
“Going forward, we need to leverage on the AU institutional reform to strengthen the role of PAP in the continental governance matrix, including but not limited to oversight of the AU organs and agencies in the implementation of AU programmes, policies and priorities including Agenda 2063’s flagship projects like African Continental Free Trade Area, oversight on the budget of the AU, mobilising funding for committee oversight and fact finding mission and pushing for a more active role in promoting peace and security on the continent through Parliamentary diplomacy,” he said.
He said PAP should have a role in conflict resolution in troubled spots such as Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger among other countries.
Reflecting on the PAP’s just ended work, Chief Charumbira described the session as successful saying they had registered a lot of milestones.
The milestones, he said, included adoption of PAP strategic plan for 2024-2028, election of PAP first Vice President among other issues.
Online Reporter