Joint Press Release The African Risk Capacity Heading for its Fourteenth Session of the Conference of the Parties

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The African Risk Capacity, jointly with the Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment (DARBE), the coordinating Department within the African Union (AU) Commission for ARC Agency matters, are preparing for the 14th session of the Conference of the Parties (CoP 14). The session, which will run from 22 – 23 April 2024 at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, will convene Senior Government Officials on the first day and a Ministerial Session on the second day.

The CoP, which is the supreme decision-making body of ARC Agency, has the responsibility to provide the final approvals on critical strategic matters that define the ARC Group’s work after Board reviews and endorsements. It is attended by all the countries that have signed or ratified/acceded to the ARC Treaty pursuant to the decisions of the Tenth and Thirteenth Conferences of the Parties in April 2021 and April 2023 respectively.

CoP 14 comes at a time when the ARC Group is working to scale up its operations towards increasing its reach and impact across the African continent. This is also a critical time for the African continent, one of the hardest-hit by the climate crisis and disease outbreaks. Owing to multiple climate-induced disaster events such as droughts, floods, cyclones etc., the continent is facing extreme food insecurity and costly destruction of property and infrastructure, severely impacting lives and livelihoods and eroding development gains already made.

ARC Agency was established under the Agreement for the Establishment of the ARC Agency (ARC Treaty) as a Specialized Agency of the AU with a mandate to help Member States improve their capacities to better plan, prepare and respond to weather-induced events and disease outbreaks. The ARC Treaty was adopted by Plenipotentiaries of AU Member States on 23 November 2012. To date, the ARC Treaty has been signed by 38 Member States and ratified by 13. It definitively entered into force on 15 April 2020 following the deposit of the 10th instrument of ratification with the Chairperson of the AU Commission by Niger, in accordance with Article 26 (3) of the ARC Treaty.

Unless decided otherwise, the Fourteenth Session is an open session and non-signatory countries and partners will participate, without the right to vote. Amongst other things, CoP 14 will, inter alia, consider and take decisions regarding (i) activities of the ARC Group (ARC Agency and ARC Ltd) since the thirteenth session of the CoP; (ii) report of the ARC Group Board; (iii) appointment of the ARC Group Director General; (iv) selection of ARC Group Board Members; (v) ARC Agency’s 2024 Programme of Work and Budget; (vi) report on implementation of Governance Reform; (vii) sustainability of ARC Agency; and (viii) ARC Treaty signature and ratification.

As the ARC Group strives for continuous improvement, the organisation looks forward to outcomes from the CoP 14 to shape and grow this African organisation.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Union (AU).