The meeting was attended by ministers and their delegations from the Republic of Congo, Senegal, South Africa, The Gambia, Uganda, and Zambia, while other countries were represented by senior officials: Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, and Tanzania. Some governments sent their regrets about being unable to attend at ministerial level or send representatives: Angola, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi and Nigeria. This high-level representation was a clear indication of African governments’ continued commitment to EDCTP. The European Commission as well as the African Union Commission of Social Affairs, the New African Partnership for Economic Development (NEPAD) and the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa (WHO-AFRO) had high-level representation. The EDCTP General Assembly was represented by the Chair, the representative of Denmark and the High Representative.

In summary, at the meeting South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Senegal indicated that they would prefer to join EDCTP as individual countries, while others favoured regional and sub-regional representation. As not all 48 African countries can send a representative to the EDCTP General Assembly, the challenge was recognised of devising a way of representing the interests of those countries which would not directly participate in de deliberations of the General Assembly. National and sub-regional representations were not considered to be mutually exclusive concepts. Accountability and adequate feedback must be part of the system eventually agreed. While there were different views on the mechanism of representation, the strong willingness of African countries to be represented in some way on the EDCTP General Assembly was abundantly clear.

Background

The meeting followed on the High-Level Conference to consult African and international stakeholders on the second EDCTP programme in Cape Town, South Africa on 5 November 2012. The High-Level Meetings on the second EDCTP programme (EDCTP2) are part of the preparations for the renewal of the European Union’s financial participation in EDCTP which is expected to begin in 2014 as part of Horizon 2020, the European Union’s funding programme for research and innovation for the period 2014–2020. Currently, the EDCTP2 programme is in the final stages of the co-decision procedure of the European Union.