Heba Press
The Parliamentary Working Committee at the initiative of His Majesty King Mohammed VI aimed at facilitating the access of the Sahel countries to the Atlantic Ocean held its third meeting with the participation of the parliamentary advisor, Hanaa Benkheir, within the framework of the meetings of the permanent committees and the accompanying meetings of the African Parliament, held from September 13 to 20 at the headquarters of the African Parliament in Midrand – South Africa.
A statement to the Council of Advisors said that during this meeting, work continued to develop a continental parliamentary action plan to keep pace with this historic initiative, noting that this committee is composed of African parliamentarians representing the Republic of Cape Verde, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Sao Tome and Principe, Namibia and Comoros, in addition to Morocco.
The communication indicates that in addition to this meeting, Ms. Benkheir, a member of the National Parliamentary Division of the House of Councilors, participated in the meetings of the standing committees and the accompanying meetings of the African Parliament, devoted to the examination of a number of current issues, including the situation of peace and security in Africa and ways to promote the rights and protection of children within the framework of the objectives of the African Union’s Agenda 2063, the governance of natural resources in Africa and ways to increase the resilience of African health systems to future epidemics.
The Parliamentary Advisor also participated in a workshop on results-based management, organised for the benefit of all parliamentarians, as well as in the examination of a number of draft conventions and model laws.
During her participation in the work of the Trade, Customs and Immigration Committee, Ms. Benkheir highlighted the great development that Morocco is witnessing in terms of business climate, infrastructure and communications, and gave a presentation of internal news on the great work that the Kingdom is doing to successfully host the 2025 African Cup of Nations and the 2030 World Cup, where “through most of the participants, they expressed their pride and support for Morocco’s efforts in this area.”
This session will be held under the African Union theme for the year 2024: “African Education Fit for the 21st Century: Building Flexible Education Systems to Improve Access to Quality and Appropriate Lifelong Learning in Africa”, which is the theme that frames all the work of the African Parliament for the current year, with the aim of identifying the deficiencies that negatively affect the quality of education systems in Africa and urging African parliamentarians to contribute effectively, from their legislative position, to the improvement of education on the continent.
It should be noted that the African Parliament was established in accordance with Article 5 of the founding charter of the Union and officially began its work in 2004. The legal mandate of this body is to ensure the full participation of the African peoples in the development of the continent and its economic integration, and it currently enjoys an advisory and budgetary oversight capacity within the African Union.
The Pan-African Parliament comprises 11 standing committees covering a wide range of areas and their meetings are held regularly twice a year.
