CONCEPT NOTE

1. OVERVIEW OF THE 4th ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

The idea of ​​creating the Association of African Anti-Corruption Authorities (AAACA) has been raised in June 2011 in Bujumbura, the Republic of Burundi at the Conference of Heads of African Agencies in charge of fighting corruption in order to strengthen the international collaboration in the fight against corruption in accordance with the African Union Convention on the Prevention and Combating of Corruption (AUCAC) and the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC). During this conference, an Ad Hoc Committee was set up to draft the constitution of the Association, the Code of Conduct and a five-year strategic plan of the Association.

The second conference of Heads of African Anti-Corruption agencies held in Accra, Republic of Ghana in September 2013, in which more than 136 participants has responded to the invitation. They were coming from 36 countries and partners such as the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC), African Advisory Board on Corruption (AU -ABC), World Bank, African Development Bank( ADB), Media as well as National than international.

During this meeting, the AAACA was born and the different delegations recognized the importance of combining their efforts to fight corruption on the African Continent. They also adopted the laws of the Association and elected an Executive Committee whose mission was to develop a strategic plan to guide the operationalization of the Association.

The AAACA's Fourth Annual General Meeting is being held in a special context because AAACA is about to celebrate its 6^th Anniversary. Based on different activities carried out, the AAACA has already shown that it is truly a continental platform in the fight against corruption and the promotion of good governance across the continent by promoting international cooperation in the fight against corruption and related offenses.

Even if the beginning has not been easy, the Association is moving more and more towards adolescence. Led by women and men who are minded to promote the Association, AAACA is gradually achieving its goals with the support of some governments notably:

- Burundi, which has provided premises, equipment and staff to run the Secretariat with the limited resources available;

- Congo, which supported more than 70% of the budget of the 2nd Annual General Meeting in April 2017;

- Senegal, which has also followed in 2018 during the 3^rdAnnual General Meeting;

- The Egyptian Government, in its mission to strengthen cooperation between the anti-corruption agencies and in its  sustained interest  to promote good governance on the continent, has already sponsored the organization of  two meetings of the Executive Committee in December 2017 and November 2018 and has supported in full the organization of the AAACA’s  4^th Annual General Meeting , which will be coupled with the 1^st African Anti-Corruption Forum where more than 200 delegations from all over the Continent are expected to Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt , from June 12 to 15, 2019 under the auspices  of His Excellency Mr ABDEL FATTAH AL-SISSI, President of the Republic Arab of Egypt.

This political will really expressed by the Egyptian Government shows how much our association is supported by the highest authorities of our continent as well as by privileged partners such as the African Development Bank (AfDB), the African  Union Advisory Board  on Corruption  (AU-ABC), the United Nations Office against Corruption (UNODC) and members of the Association who, through their annual contributions, allow the association to implement a number of recommendations from its Annual General Meetings.

It is also necessary to congratulate the Secretariat staff who have enabled the Association to have an updated and functional website with information on the objectives of the Association, members, seminar programs, meetings and is regularly visited with an average of 170 visits per week.

Despite the dynamism of its Executive Committee and the staff of its Secretariat, challenges remain to operationalize the Association and allow the effective functioning of the Secretariat.

Indeed, the AAACA’s Secretariat is housed provisionally in the premises of the Special Brigade Anti-Corruption of Burundi, with a volunteer staff since the six years of its existence.

 Another challenge is the absence of a General Secretary of the Association who must manage the affairs of the Association on a daily basis as recommended by the members of the Association at the 3^rdAnnual General Meeting in Dakar, Republic of Senegal in May 2018.

This 4th AAACA Annual General Assembly, whose theme is : PROMOTING AND PRESERVING AFRICA'S DEVELOPMENT THROUGH A CONCERTED AND UNANIMOUS FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION, A KEY TO A RADIOUS FUTURE OF THE AFRICAN PEOPLE, is timely because it will allow to find out a sustainable solution of the problems that the association is facing, especially :

- Adoption of the Executive Committee report;

- Accreditation of the Association to regional institutions such as the African Union, the African Development Bank, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the Commonwealth Africa Anti-Corruption Centre, the African Advisory Board on Corruption as well as International institutions such as the World Bank, Interpol, GIZ, OLAF, the United Nations Office on Crime and Drugs; etc.

- Analysis and adoption of the 2019-2023 strategic plan ;

- The analysis and adoption of the statutes;

- The search for financing mechanisms for the operationalization of the Association and the effective functioning of the Secretariat;

- The establishment of a strategy of cooperation on asset recovery between the Anti-Corruption Agencies.

Although the annual subscriptions do not yet meet the expectations of the Association, we nevertheless note that this year, a desire of members to support the Association has been increased, and this thanks to the dynamism of the staff of the Secretariat.

2. Participants

2.1. Member institutions

About 100 delegates are expected at the 4^th AAACA’s Annual General Meeting represented as follows:

• The heads and representatives of the member institutions including a head of delegation and a representative (s);
• Members of the Executive Committee;
• Staff of the Secretariat of the Association in Bujumbura

2.2. Partners

One of the programme areas of the Strategic Plan of the Association relates to building and sustaining concrete alliances and partnerships with relevant regional and international bodies including the AU Advisory Board on Corruption (AU ABC), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the African Development Bank (AfDB), the United Nations Commission for Africa (UNECA), the East African Association of Anti- Corruption Authorities (EAAACA), the African Parliament Network Against Corruption (APNAC),GIZ, Commonwealth Anti-Corruption centre (CACC), World Bank, International and Local Media, Representatives of Diplomatic and Consular Missions are expected to attend .

Apart from building alliances, the nature and format of the Meeting and Conference require technical support and assistance for the organization of the workshops of the Conference to share experience on the Theme of the Conference. It is expected that partners would make available expertise to support the workshops and the Conference and Meeting in general.

2.3. Interpreter

The diversity of the languages ​​of the Association requires that at least three means of translation be used at the AGM. There will be interpreters from French to English and from English to French, from English to Arabic, and from Arabic to English; from French to Arabic and from Arabic to French.

3. Documentation

A rich documentation on the organization of the conference will be distributed during the General Assembly. However, in order to allow to have enough time to the documentation, the Secretariat intends to send the documents via e-mail to all delegations at least two weeks before the AGM. Some of these documents will even be available on the AAACA website: www.aaaca-africa.org

4. The Organizing Committee

The Organizing Committee will be composed by AAACA Secretariat, ACA Egypt Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.