| Overview : The African Union has the mandate of providing leadership in the rapid integration and sustainable development of Africa through unity, cohesion and solidarity and cooperation among African countries as well as well as developing strategic partnerships worldwide. In pursuing this mandate the African Union, amongst others, has established a number of strategic bilateral, multilateral partnerships as well as partnerships with regional groupings, institutions and organizations. It is imperative that the African Union effectively and efficiently coordinates and manages these partnerships if it is to maximize its benefits and value addition towards its industrial, technological and human development.
Within this context and in response to a request from the African Union Commission, the United Nations Development Programme initiated and started providing assistance to the Commission to strengthen the management and coordination capacity of the African Union. This was through a team of consultants, including a Strategic Partnerships Adviser, a partnerships Coordination consultant, a partnership Strategy Consultant, and a Partnership Management Information system firm working under the guidance of the Chief of Staff in the Office of the Chairperson of the AU Commission. The assistance focused on institutional development, development of strategies and policies, systems and other tools that can support and facilitate the partnership agenda of the African Union to maximize benefits from the partnerships. The objective of the assignment is to train various categories of professional staff of the Partnership Management and Coordination Division, partnership focal persons in the Departments and Divisions of the African Union Commission in identified training needs and areas in partnership coordination and management. The ultimate objective is to have an effective and efficient partnership management and coordination mechanism that can be fully operational so that Africa can derive maximum benefit and added value from its strategic partnerships |
