Lands minister Judith Nabakooba has said moving the African Union (AU) Specialised Technical Committee on Public Service, Local Government, Urban Development and Decentralisation (AU-STC 8) to another level is high on her list of priorities as its new chairperson. 

She listed new priorities while speaking at the handover ceremony that was held at Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala on Tuesday. 

The minister said she would love to challenge herself as the new chair on the implementation of the work plan for the 2022-2024 period with special emphasis on some specific key issues. 

“I would like to thank you, especially those who were at Cairo during the fourth ordinary session of the AU-STC 8 last year for the trust you put in Uganda to run the chairmanship of the Bureau as the first vice president, in the absence of a substantive chair from North Africa. We do promise not to let you down,” she said. 

Among the issues, Nabakooba highlighted the encouragement of member states to accede to the African Charter on values and principles of public service and administration. 

“We will also encourage member states to volunteer and take on any of the sub-committee's flagship programmes, follow up member states to make adequate budgetary provisions for the implementation of the sub-committee's programme at the country level and urgently forge ahead for the establishment of the African Urban Forum as agreed at Cairo meeting last year,” she said. 

Nabakooba also said Uganda as a country has a very vibrant urban fora, especially in the cities and municipalities and they can ably host the inaugural African Urban Forum so as to feed into the World Urban Forum of 2024. 

“We need to find mechanisms for member countries to share reports on the New Urban Agenda (NUA), share experiences and best practices because working in silos is no longer sustainable. We need to strategise and have a common voice at the upcoming UN-Habitat General Assembly at Nairobi at the beginning of June 2023.” 

The new chair challenged and called upon the new members of the bureau to spare no effort for the effective continuity of the activities of the STC 8. 

Nabakooba said she is aware that African economies faced all kinds of difficulties, especially the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and are just recovering from it but urged them to take the challenges as lessons and a springboard from which they address the key fundamental challenges on the African continent 

The minister commended the secretariat and experts for their hard work in the last two days they were able to generate the minutes and other documents for the handover. 

She also appreciated Sentje Lebona of Lethoso (in absentia) and congratulated her for ably steering the 3rd Bureau of the AU-STC 8 and for the progress so far made. 

Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Judith Nabakooba addressing the media on quack engineers after officially receiving instruments of power at Imperial Royale Hotel

According to the new chair, Lebona’s able leadership and dedication have been so important in smoothening the committee’s functioning especially during the hard times of the Covid-19 pandemic and for the effective implementation of the Bureau’s programs, during the past two years of her mandate. 

“I would like to more especially thank and congratulate Hon Lebona for the development of the regional harmonized framework of the New Urban Agenda, localisation of the New Urban Agenda and ratification of the two African charters, respectively on the Public Service and Decentralization,” she said. 

In his remarks, Prof. Sejanamane Mafa Mosothoane, ambassador and permanent representative of Lesotho to the African Union, thanked the Ugandan government for the warm hospitality accorded to them as they sought to make the transition. 

He shared that the willingness of the different member states and the unwavering efforts of the secretariat and experts have enabled the bureau to register a number of great achievements. He called upon the incoming chair to work closely with these to ease her work. 

Dorcas Okalany, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Lands, shared that the success of the AU-STC 8 rests on the hardworking people which is the foundation of the bureau’s success. 

She thanked the committee for giving Uganda a mandate to steer the bureau, pledging support for the new chair to do her best with guidance from the bureau. 

The handover ceremony was also attended by Kabelo Lethunya, a housing and urban development expert, African Union Commission, Patience Chiradza, the director of governance and conflict prevention, AU Commission, experts and the AU-STC secretariat.