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During the 45th Session of the African Union Executive Council in Accra, Ghana, Uganda was chosen to host the African Humanitarian Agency, beating Kenya, Nigeria, and Equatorial Guinea. Uganda’s bid scored 85.66%, the highest among the contenders.

During the 45th Session of its Executive Session, the African Union Executive Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, the second highest decision-making Body of the African Union, selected Uganda as host of the African Humanitarian Agency. The decision was reached during the African Union 45th Session in Accra, Ghana from 18th – 19th July 2024.

The African Humanitarian Agency is a Specialized Technical Agency of the African Union charged with the responsibility to coordinate and provide Humanitarian responses in coordination with affected Member States.

During this session, the African Union Commission presented the outcome of its Independent Technical Evaluation Report on the hosting of the African Humanitarian Agency.

This was a process that started in May 2023 with a call for countries to express interest to Host the African Humanitarian Agency and submit their bid proposals for the same. Four Countries (Uganda, Kenya, Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria) expressed interest and submitted their proposals.

The Independent Evaluation Team from the African Union Commission was set up, with the mandate to conduct an Assessment Mission to the four countries to assess their proposals and suitability to host the African Humanitarian Agency. This exercise was conducted in May 2024. In Uganda it was conducted from 23rd -27th May 2024.

The outcome of this evaluation exercise resulted in the four countries scoring as follows:

KENYA: 76.13%;

NIGERIA: 74.50%;

UGANDA: 85.66%;

EQUATORIAL GUINEA: 76.70%.

The Executive Council welcomed the report and the results from the assessment exercise and congratulated Uganda on winning the rights to Host the Africa Humanitarian Agency.

Permanent Representative to the African Union, Amb. Rebecca Otengo expressed excitement at the win. “This is the first African Union Agency hosted by Uganda since joining the Union when it was first called the Organisation of African Union (OAU)”, she said.

Speaking from Kampala, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gen. Odongo Jeje Abubakhar said “Uganda being the largest refugee hosting country on the African Continent with established legal and institutional frameworks on forcibly displaced persons and impeccable experience in dealing with humanitarian action made her an acceptable candidate to many African Union Members. Attributing the success to a formidable team at the Mission, he added “This is doubled by the goodwill enjoyed by the Ambassador and members of Ugandan Embassy among other African Union Member states in Addis Ababa”

The process for the operationalization of the Agency in Uganda has already begun with the approval of the budget to recruit the top management staff of the Agency during Financial Year 2025/2026.

In other news, during the 45th Executive Council session the Embassy of Uganda in Addis Ababa also secured the election of Justice Duncan Gaswaga to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights for a period of 6 years, by an overwhelming majority of 46 member states, of those present and able to vote at the session.

The delegation of Uganda to this 45th Executive Council session included Amb. Rebecca Amuge Otengo, Permanent Representative of Uganda to the AU, Justice Duncan Gaswaga, Justice of the High Court of Uganda, Lira, Mr. Michael Wamai, Counsellor and Ms. Daphine Teddy Nyanduri, First Secretary, Uganda Embassy in Addis Ababa.