CCCPA held a board meeting for the projects funded by the Government of Japan on 3 November 2021. The meeting was attended by Amb. Masaki Noke, Ambassador of Japan to the Arab Republic of Egypt; Amb. Lamiaa Mekhemar, Director of the International Cooperation for Development Department, Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and Mr. Sylvain Merlen, Deputy Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Egypt; and presided over by Amb. Ahmed Abdel-Latif, Director-General of CCCPA.
Amb. Abdel-Latif provided an overview of CCCPA’s major activities and achievements since 2019 under the project “Enhancing Peace, Security and Stability in Africa”, which seeks to accelerate the paradigm shift to resilience and the development-peace nexus. He also highlighted the Center’s newest project “Addressing Systemic Risks to Development, Peace and Security in Africa”, which tackles persistent, new and emerging threats and risks to peace, security and sustainable development in Africa, and aims to strengthen the Aswan Forum Secretariat – a role assumed by CCCPA. He thanked the Government of Japan for its long-standing partnership with CCCPA since 2008, which he stated “has been instrumental to the development of the Center’s activities over the past years, including the convening of the Aswan Forum for Sustainable Peace and Development,” noting that Japan is the first strategic partner of the third edition of the Forum. Amb. Abdel-Latif also expressed his appreciation for the strong cooperation with UNDP in ensuring the effective implementation of activities in line with project targets and requirements. In addition, he emphasized that the Center will continue to ensure the relevance and impact of its work--which is ultimately the expression of Egypt’s commitment to promote peace and stability in its regional environment.
Amb. Noke applauded the Center’s work, indicating that it is aligned with Japan's policy towards promoting peace and stability in Africa, which is the New Approach for Peace and Stability in Africa (NAPSA)--as announced on the occasion of the Seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD 7) in 2019. He added that Japan looks forward to strengthening synergies between the Forum and TICAD 8, which will be held in Tunisia next year.
Amb. Mekhemar stressed the need to exploit the opportunities provided by the South-South cooperation and the importance of making use of its tools to enable more synergies between developing countries, including knowledge sharing and dissemination on leading international best practices in the field of development and peacebuilding.
Mr. Merlen highlighted that CCCPA has become a leading platform and training center that is responsive to the changing landscape in which it operates, as reflected in the development of a new program on climate, security and development. He also noted that the 2019 Aswan Forum Conclusions on Sustainable Peace and Development in Africa are acknowledged in the 2020 UN Secretary-General’s Report on Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace and the 2020 Peacebuilding Architecture Review, as a good example of member states and regional organizations’ efforts to promote conflict prevention and advance integrated solutions. He added that UNDP would continue to work closely with the Center by mobilizing its extensive global knowledge and expertise in support of CCCPA’s activities.
The meeting concluded with the unveiling of a plaque that recognizes Japan and UNDP’s contributions to the renovation of CCCPA’s premises, which is hosted in a building of the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A ceremony was also held to bid farewell to Amb. Noke and thank him for his support of the Center’s work during his tenure in Egypt.
