The African Union (AU) has announced that its 48th Ordinary Session of the Executive Council (ExC) will take place on February 11 and 12 at the organisation’s headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The Executive Council is one of the AU’s key policy-making bodies and is made up of Foreign Affairs Ministers and other designated ministers from member states.
In a statement published on its website on Wednesday, the AU explained that the Council is tasked with coordinating and adopting policies on issues of shared interest among member states. It also prepares agenda items for consideration by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government, in line with the goals of the AU Agenda 2063.
During the upcoming session, the Council is expected to review the report of the 51st Ordinary Session of the Permanent Representatives’ Committee (PRC) and deliberate on the AU’s participation in the G20.
The meeting will also feature elections and appointments into various AU organs and institutions, an assessment of the implementation of previous Executive Council decisions on the Skills Audit and Competency Assessment (SACA) process, as well as discussions on draft legal instruments and institutional governance issues.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the SACA initiative is a major institutional reform designed to align staff competencies with the AU’s new organisational structure, promoting efficiency through merit-based placement.