Acting Clerk Of PAP Yusupha Jobe Calls On Civil Societies To Create Opportunities For Engagement With PAP

Yusupha Jobe,  PAP Acting Clerk

The Acting Clerk of the Pan African Parliament (PAP), Mr. Yusupha Jobe has stressed the need for civil society organizations to create opportunities for engagement with the Pan African Parliament.

Mr. Jobe made the call in a welcome address he presented at a civil society forum organized in collaboration with the Centre for Human Rights of the University of Pretoria on the sidelines of the Second Ordinary Session of the Fifth Parliament of the Pan African Parliament with the theme “Effective Engagement with the Pan African Parliament”

He stated that the event “provided an opportunity for the civil society actors to reflect and exchange on opportunities for engagement and foster a closer collaboration on issues concerning PAP and find ways and means to operationalize and foster a closer collaboration on issues pertaining to PAP on the one hand and between CSOs and the PAP on the other hand, with a view to giving full effect to the mandate of the continental parliament, which is to ensure the full participation of African people in the development and economic integration of the continent.

:”Fifteen years after its inauguration, the Pan African Parliament continues to chart its way towards operationalizing formal and informal mechanisms for meaningful engagement with the African peoples and civil society. The mandate of the Pan African Parliament as a representative of the people of Africa, cannot be implemented without the need for civil society involvement in the activities of the PAP.

“While attempts have been made in the past to establish formal and sustainable mechanisms to this effect, the MOU and collaboration with the Centre for Human Rights of the University of Pretoria has now provided an opportunity to establish a space for the meaningful and sustained engagement of civil society organizations with the PAP.

“It is therefore timely that this meeting is taking place now under this very important theme. It will empower all of us to adequately understand untapped opportunities for civil societies at the PAP and how civil societies and the PAP can mutually reinforce their work for the realization of “The Africa that We Want”.

“I am confident that this meeting, which brings together, eminent scholars and practitioners, will not only allow for sharing of knowledge, but also and most importantly exchange of experience and best practices on how to achieve an effective, and fruitful civil society engagement with the PAP” he concluded.

The presentations and discussions at the event focused on topics which enabled the participants: Gain more understanding on the workings of the PAP including the potential avenues for engagement with PAP;  Promote more civil society programming on issues pertaining to PAP; Enable sharing of best practices on effective civil society advocacy, lobbying, lobbying the PAP; Identify gaps and challenges relating to meaningful civil society engagement with the PAP and device common strategies for addressing them; and to establish a PAP Civil Society Forum as a space for sustained civil society engagement .

The one-day event, had in attendance, the First Vice President of the Pan African Parliament, His Excellency, Hon, Julius Masele.