The Namibian Parliament is hosting a meeting of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) Africa region’s budget committee in the capital. The event commenced yesterday, and ends on Friday. The committee is in charge of organising, facilitating and formulating recommendations of the association’s financial investments. In a statement issued to the media, National Assembly spokesperson Rapheal Hangula reiterated Namibia’s CPA Africa membership, which consists of 63 national and sub-national legislatures.
“The CPA is an international community of Commonwealth Parliaments and Legislatures, which is aimed at promoting the advancement of parliamentary democracy by enhancing knowledge and understanding of democratic governance for which it seeks to build an informed parliamentary community and further co-operation among its parliaments and legislatures. The CPA consists of 52 member states and is divided into nine regions, of which CPA Africa is the biggest region,” he said in a statement issued yesterday. National Council chairperson Lukas Sinimbo Muha will formally open the meeting on Thursday. At the moment, he serves as the CPA Africa executive committee’s vice-chairperson.
The committee meeting will bring together delegates from five member states, including the Speakers of South Africa’s Gauteng Provincial Legislature Ntombi Mkegwe and the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature’s Nontemba Nontembeko Boyce, respectively.
Other delegates who are members of parliament expected to attend the meetings will be from Botswana, Mauritius, Nigeria and Tanzania. The Parliament of Tanzania is currently hosting the secretariat of the CPA Africa region. The CPA Africa region aims to promote and protect the interests and perspectives of CPA Africa regional parliaments and countries in the Commonwealth and beyond.
In addition, it promotes gender equality, the emancipation of women and respect for human rights, freedoms, democracy and good governance. CPA Africa is divided into four regions, namely Central Africa (Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia), East Africa (Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Tanzania and Uganda as well as one sub-national branch of Zanzibar), Southern Africa (Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Eswatini and the nine provincial legislatures from South Africa (sub-national branches) and West Africa (Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone and 34 state legislatures (sub-national branches) from Nigeria.