Cairo, Egypt - CCCPA hosted the annual meeting of the Executive Board of the project “Enhancing Capacities of Local Actors in Efforts to Improve Peace and Stability in North Africa, the Sahel and Great Lakes Regions” on 16 March 2015. The project is funded by the Government of Japan through the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Egypt.
 
Attending the meeting were several high-level representatives from the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including Ambassador Sherif Refaat, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs and Director of International and Regional Cooperation; Ambassador Amgad Abd El Gaffar, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs and Director of the African Organizations and Communities Division; and Ambassador Hazem Fahmy, Director of the Egyptian Agency for Partnership for Development. Also in attendance were Ambassador Takehiro Kagawa of the Embassy of Japan in Cairo; Ambassador Richard Laus Angwalia of the Ugandan Embassy in Cairo; and Mr. Ignacio Artaza, Country Director of the UNDP in Egypt. There were also several representatives from the Egyptian Ministries of Defense and Interior, as well as representatives from African countries that benefit from the Center’s activities. Counselor Ashraf Swelam, Director of CCCPA, chaired the meeting and facilitated the discussions. 
 
The Board took note of the various training courses and workshops organized by the Center in 2014-15 (26 activities attended by representatives from 31 countries). The activities covered issues of border management, peacekeeping, peacebuilding, conflict resolution and crisis management. The Board also took note of the pre-deployment trainings for Egyptian peacekeepers being deployed to UN missions in Mali, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo; the trainings were conducted by CCCPA in cooperation with the Egyptian Ministry of Defense.  
 
Furthermore, the Board commended the strategic vision of CCCPA’s management and the steps taken to achieve it. According to Ambassador Amgad Abdel Ghaffar, this vision has allowed the Center to “become a credible voice in important global debates”. Members of the Board praised the hosting of a number of prominent events and trainings - most notably (i) the Cairo International Workshop on “Regional Aspects of Peacebuilding”- jointly organized by the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the United Nations Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO); (ii) the African Union Senior Mission Leaders training course; (iii) the first ever “Forum of Libyan Tribal Leaders”; and most recently (iv) the MENA Consultations of the High Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations – jointly organized by the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Secretariat of the Panel. 

The Board also praised the Center’s efforts to expand its global and regional network of partners, including collaboration with various UN and international agencies, such as the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). 

At the end of the meeting, Director Ashraf Swelam announced the following: