Regional Multi-disciplinary Centre of Excellence to become fully operational

The Government of Mauritius and the Regional Multi-disciplinary Centre of Excellence (RMCE) signed yesterday in Port Louis a host agreement that would allow the RMCE to become fully operational by setting up its quarters in Mauritius and be in a position to directly manage all resources that development partners would put at its disposal.

The RMCE will serve as a platform to provide a regional response to identified common needs for capacity building in the Sub-Saharan African region as concerns designing, formulating and implementing economic development strategies and policies to transform the region into an effective Free Trade Area and eventually a common market.

The agreement specifies the obligations of both Mauritius as the host country and the RMCE, a non-profit company registered under the Companies Act. The RMCE, which has been set up in line with the Government's objective to transform Mauritius into a knowledge hub, is governed by a board of directors comprising representatives of the three founding members, that is Mauritius, the Indian Ocean Commission and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), as well as other stakeholders.

Development partners are providing financial assistance for the RMCE's operations. The European Union which is a long-standing supporter of COMESA is making available a grant of € 5. 4 million to cover the major part of the activities of the RMCE over the next five years and also to hire consultants to help set up the institution. The African Development Bank (ADB) is providing for a grant to hire consultants to define and market programmes while the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) is providing technical assistance for mounting courses on public finance. Mauritius is providing Rs 12 million annually to meet office as well as local staff costs.

It will be recalled that the idea of setting up the RMCE emanated from a proposal made in 2005 in Mauritius during the International Conference on Small Island Developing States. The RMCE started its operations in 2008. It has so far hosted six regional events with the support of COMESA, ADB, the World Bank, the Commonwealth Secretariat and the AFD. Through the networking among the various development partners, the RMCE will also serve as a vehicle for Governments of the region to build capacity in the public sector to allow for more peer to peer learning.