Secretariat of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS)

The Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS)

The Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), formerly known as the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States, is an organisation created by the Georgetown Agreement in 1975. It is composed of 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific states, with all of them, save Cuba, signatories to the Cotonou Agreement, also known as the "ACP-EC Partnership Agreement" which binds them to the European Union. There are 48 countries from Sub-Saharan Africa, 16 from the Caribbean and 15 from the Pacific.

Objectives

The main objectives of the OACPS are:

sustainable development of its Member-States and their gradual integration into the global economy, which entails making poverty reduction a matter of priority and establishing a new, fairer, and more equitable world order;
coordination of the activities of the OACPS in the framework of the implementation of ACP-EC Partnership Agreements;
consolidation of unity and solidarity among Members of the OACPS, as well as understanding among their peoples;
establishment and consolidation of peace and stability in a free and democratic society.

Member States of the OACPS:

Angola - Antigua and Barbuda - Belize - Cape Verde - Comoros - Bahamas - Barbados - Benin - Botswana - Burkina Faso - Burundi - Cameroon - Central African Republic - Chad - Congo (Brazzaville) - Congo (Kinshasa) - Cook Islands - C ôte d’Ivoire - Cuba - Djibouti - Dominica - Dominican Republic - Eritrea - Eswatini - Ethiopia - Fiji - Gabon - Gambia - Ghana - Grenada - Republic of Guinea - Guinea-Bissau - Equatorial Guinea - Guyana - Haiti - Jamaica - Kenya - Kiribati - Lesotho - Liberia - Madagascar - Malawi - Mali - Marshall Islands - Mauritania - Mauritius - Micronesia - Mozambique - Namibia - Nauru - Niger - Nigeria - Niue - Palau - Papua New Guinea - Rwanda - St. Kitts and Nevis - St. Lucia - St. Vincent and the Grenadines - Solomon Islands - Samoa - São Tomé and Príncipe - Senegal - Seychelles - Sierra Leone - Somalia - South Africa - Sudan - Suriname - Tanzania - Timor Leste - Togo - Tonga - Trinidad and Tobago - Tuvalu - Uganda - Vanuatu - Zambia - Zimbabwe.

The Secretariat of the OACPS

Headquarters Agreement [2]

The Secretariat is responsible for the administrative management of the OACPS. It assists the Organisation's decision-making and advisory organs in carrying out their work.

The headquarters of the OACPS Secretariat is located in Brussels, Belgium. It is headed by an Executive Secretary-General who is responsible for implementing the OACPS' international policy, as well as directing and coordinating its cooperation policy. The Secretariat, under the direction of the policy-making organs of the OACPS (Summit of OACPS Heads of State and Government, Council of Ministers, Committee of Ambassadors), is responsible for:

carrying out the tasks assigned it by the Summit of OACPS Heads of State and Government, Council of Ministers, Committee of Ambassadors and the ACP Parliamentary Assembly;
contributing to the implementation of the decisions of these organs;
monitoring the implementation of the ACP-EU Partnership Agreement;
assisting the organs and joint institutions of the OACPS created in the framework of the ACP-EU Partnership Agreements;
acting on proposals from the Committee of Ambassadors, the Council of Ministers determines the structure of the Secretariat of the OACPS and lays down its Staff Regulations.

The Secretary-General is responsible for recruiting staff for the Secretariat of the OACPS, an exercise which is based solely on the competence of the candidates. Nevertheless, the Secretary-General ensures, as much as possible, that a balance is maintained among the different regions of the OACPS, as reflected in the recruitment statistics.

The Council of Ministers determines the financial regulations of the Secretariat of the OACPS and approves its budget. Each Member of the OACPS contributes to financing the budget in conformity with the provisions laid down by the Council of Ministers.

THE SECRETARY-GENERAL [3]

Roles and Duties :

The Council of Ministers appoints the Secretary-General (SG) as the principal authority at the Secretariat of the OACPS, on the basis of merit, competence and integrity. The SG is appointed for a five-year term and is the Secretariat's designated representative.

The Secretary-General is responsible for:

ensuring the quality of the technical and administrative support and services provided by the Secretariat to the members and organs of the OACPS;
managing staff, projects and programmes;
implementing the Organisation's international policy, as well as directing and coordinating its cooperation policy.