The Director-General of UNESCO recently named the new external members of the UNESCO Committee for NEPAD. They are: Mohamed Ahmed Sherif, Secretary-General of the World Islamic Call Society (WICS), Libya, who will head the Committee; Messan Adimado Aduayom, Minister of Higher Education and Research, Togo; Anthony Benjamin Ebeigbe, Executive Director of the Global Educational Initiative for Nigeria ; Wilfried Inotira Emluva, Permanent Representative of Namibia to the African Union; Joseph Owona, former Minister of Education, Cameroon; Filippe Savadogo, Minister of Culture, Tourism and Communication, Burkina Faso; Nomasonto Maria Sibanda-Thusi, South Africa’s Ambassador to France; André Sonko, Minister-Advisor to the President of the Republic of Senegal; Bakary Tio-Touré, former Permanent Delegate to UNESCO, Cote d’Ivoire; and Sahle-Work Zewde, Permanent Representative of Ethiopia to the African Union and the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).

Meeting shortly after the 9th Summit of the African Union Heads of State, devoted to the “Grand Debate” on the Union Government (Accra, 1-3 July 2007), the committee will focus notably on presenting information on recent developments in the African Union/NEPAD Programme and examining proposals for concrete initiatives in UNESCO’s different fields of competence. Regarding education, measures will be specified for UNESCO’s support of the Second Decade for Education in Africa (2006-2015). In the sciences, UNESCO will make proposals in response to Africa’s Consolidated Science and Technology Plan of Action. In the sphere of culture, the emphasis will be on following up the decisions of the African Union Summit in Khartoum. Lastly, for communication and information, the committee will focus on the follow-up to the World Summit on the Information Society as well as contributions to the Regional Action Plan on the Knowledge Economy (ARAPKE).