PAP Permanent Committees to meet from August 22

The Permanent Committees of the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) are set to meet in Midrand from 22 August to 02 September 2022. The meetings will be held under the theme “Building resilience in nutrition on the African continent:Accelerate the human capital, social and economic development” which is the African Union theme for 2022.

According to the draft program, a two-day Capacity Building Workshop for all members of the Parliament will take place on Monday 22 and Tuesday 23 August with the theme “Reviving, Renewing, Repositioning and Reinvigorating the Pan African Parliament”.

President of the Pan-African Parliament, H. E. Senator Chief Fortune Charumbira explains that the workshop amongst other things, “aims at engendering a clear understanding of the vision behind the creation of the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) by the founding fathers of the African Union. It will interrogate whether the PAP is on course in fulfilling its mandate and responding to the expectations of the African citizenry on what the PAP should do with in the continental governance matrix. During discussions, parliamentarians will critically analyze the achievements, opportunities and challenges the Parliament is facing in advancing the objectives of the Union and how it can turn the challenges into opportunities to improve its performance”.

On Wednesday, there will be a joint workshop on the AU theme for 2022 by all the Permanent Committees.

Thereafter, the various Permanent Committees will break into their various thematic areas. For example, the Committee on Cooperation, International Relations and Conflicts Resolution is expected to present an Update on the proposed model Law on Nationality while the Committees on Trade, Customs and Immigration Matters and Committee on Monetary and Financial Affairs will on Friday receive a Presentation by the AfCFTA Secretariat on the status of implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the role of the Pan-African Parliament in the achievement of its objectives on Friday.

The Committee on Audit and Public Accounts is expected to Review the Internal Audit Reports of the Parliament while the Committee on Monetary and Financial Affairs will consider PAP 2022 and 2023 Budgets and review PAP Budget Execution for 2021 and Mid-year 2022 as well as PAP Financial Statements for 2021.

On  Monday August 29, the Committees on Trade, Customs and Immigration Matters; Transport, Communication, Energy, Science and Technology; Justice and Human Rights; Rules, Discipline and Privileges; Health, Labour and Social Affairs; Gender, Family, Youth and People with Disability will hold a Joint Seminar on “Addressing gaps in women and men migrant workers’ protection in Africa through advocacy for the use of legal instruments: the role of Pan African Parliament and the AfricanUnion Labour Migration Advisor Committee”.