Experts from the national planning and statistics institutions of Cameroon, Benin, Egypt, Kenya, Zambia, the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and other international organizations convened in Addis Ababa on 30 January a two-day inter-governmental meeting on development planning.The five nations are pilot countries for the 10th UN Development Account project on “Strengthening the Capacities of African Governments for Integration of Accountability in National Development Planning,” UNECA said in a statement on Wednesday.

ECA’s principal regional advisor Sylvain Boko stated – in his opening remarks – that the Commission’s collaboration with the five pilot countries has been going on for over two years, and that he was “happy we’ve reached this point where we gather to evaluate the different products we have worked hard to achieve.”

Thus far, two technical studies have been done in each pilot country to evaluate and asses the status of their planning and statistics systems; and a national strategy for integrating accountability in national development planning has been developed in collaboration with each country, based on the findings of the technical studies.