ICA Members' Meeting - September 2009 - Outcome Statement

30 September 2009

ICA Members' Meeting
10-11 September 2009
Tunis, Tunisia

Outcome Statement

On September 10th and 11th, 2009, the African Development Bank (AfDB) hosted a meeting of ICA members in Tunis to discuss the ICA Strategic Business Plan (SBP) and ICA Communications Strategy elaborated by the ICA Secretariat for the period 2010-2012.

Mr. Bobby J. Pittman, Vice President Infrastructure, Private sector and Regional Integration, AfDB opened the meeting and chaired the first two sessions. In his opening remarks, Mr. Pittman emphasized the key role that ICA can play by using its convening power to assist in closing the infrastructure gap in Africa. He went on to propose some priority areas for the Consortium to consider in its work programme going forward. This includes knowledge sharing, increased coordination among stakeholders and outreach to other development players, including the private sector.

Following a presentation of the highlights of the SBP by the ICA Secretariat, members deliberated on the four pillars of the SBP: (a) effective coordination; (b) advocacy and brokering; (c) knowledge and information sharing; and (d) communication. The final session of the meeting dealt with the implementation of the SBP including the ICA Operating Procedures, the ICA Secretariat budget and staffing, and members’ support to SBP activities.

Key outcomes

• broad endorsement of the SBP and the communications strategy with agreement on a few amendments to be made;
• members agreed to retain the initial “light touch” approach, with the ICA serving as a platform for enhanced collaboration;
• focus on regional infrastructure across all four pillars of the SBP in response to Africa’s needs;
• members agreed to continue sharing relevant data on existing infrastructure stock, commitments and project pipelines. The role of the Secretariat will be to facilitate the dissemination of such data and to identify knowledge gaps. Dissemination will be done through various means including periodic reports and the ICA website;
• it was agreed that the ICA platform should be as inclusive as possible to allow a better mapping of the infrastructure institutional landscape and consolidate financing from a wide range of sources ;
• members agreed to revisit the ICA’s operating procedures to adapt them to the needs of the SBP including more regular oversight meetings in a given year; and
• there was strong support for the development of a three-year ICA programme which will allow better medium-term planning and predictability in financing and staffing (see Pledges in Annex 2).

Read the complete outcome statement in pdf.