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hope this 12th session will support the implementation of the workprogramme including on meeting related resource requirements.Our annual meeting also provides an opportunity to renew RCM activitiesover the past one year by asking ourselves some frank questions.For instance: are we supporting joint actions rather than individualactivities? Are we responding to the needs of our partnersbased on their mandates and priorities? The answers to these questionsshould help us determine how best to strengthen RCM-Africa.One area in which progress is undeniable is that the African UnionCommission, NEPAD Planning and Coordination Agency and the RegionalEconomic Communities (RECs) have taken increasing ownershipof RCM-Africa and its various Clusters. This would in turn requirethat the UN side takes steps to reciprocate by acting as one tostrengthen the RCM-Africa secretariat.Various UN processes and previous RCM meetings recognized theneed to establish Sub-regional Coordination Mechanisms (SRCMs)develop a framework for coordinating UN programmes and activitiesat the sub-regional level. In this regard, I am pleased to reportthat the SRCM for Eastern and Southern Africa has been established,while the process of establishing that of Central and Western Africahas also been initiated.Permit me to recall in conclusion that it was at this forum last yearthat we began to think about supporting Africa’s participation at nextyear’s Rio+20 conference by focussing our meeting on the ‘GreenEconomy’. Following that start, we organized a discussion aroundthe topic at the AU/ECA Conference of Ministers of Finance, Planningand Economic Development and African Preparatory Meetingfor Rio+20 which has the ‘Green Economy’ as one of its two themestook place here just last month. I hope that this meeting will alsolook at some the outcomes emanating from these processes so as toprovide additional insights to our member States in the run-up to theConference proper.178 Part Three