ORU and ARDCI Presidents sign the “Call of Abidjan”

In 2015, an ORU Fogar Executive Bureau was already held in Abidjan. On that occasion, the regionalist meeting in Côte d'Ivoire, ratified the incorporation a few months earlier of ARDCI, the Assembly of Regions and Districts of Côte d'Ivoire, together with the Ivorian regions of Bélier and Sud Comoé, to ORU Fogar. The second Bureau in Abidjan, last April 25, was very different from the first one. ORU Fogar now has many more members among the Ivorian regions and a consolidated work in the country. The Bureau served, however, to relaunch this strategic relationship and for the signature of the “Abidjan Call” between the presidents of ARDCI, Eugène Aka Aouelé and the president of ORU Fogar, Rachid el Abdi.

Prior to the ORU Fogar Bureau meeting, the agenda was already very dense. ORU Fogar members started the day by visiting the Abidjan District headquarters, which allowed them to evaluate a joint work plan. The most politically charged meeting, however, was with the Minister of the Interior and Security, General Diomande Vagonto, who is also responsible for territorial development. The Minister was fully in favor of decentralization, stating that the participation of the country's regions in a network such as ORU Fogar is very positive because “mutual examples are inspiring”. He explained to ORU Fogar members, led by President El Abdi, that the Ivorian government would continue to devolve competencies to the regions, “because the state cannot do everything”. And he said to “share” a same vision with ORU Fogar.

The Bureau itself evaluated the work done in the last months, valuing very positively the multiple TAIEX technical exchanges, as well as the approval of the first projects to be financed by the Subnational Climate Fund, the green fund that continues a work started some years ago by R-20 and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The meeting also prepared the participation of ORU Fogar and its members in upcoming Global Agenda events. The July HLPF was discussed, but more importantly the September Summit of the Future. And beyond the United Nations events, special attention was given to the VI Summit of Regions Zero Hunger that ORU Fogar will organize in Barcelona with the Generalitat de Catalunya as host.

From the meeting will remain, however, the “Call of Abidjan” in which ARDCI and ORU Fogar commit themselves to “continue working together to deepen the development of the regions of Côte d'Ivoire”. A proposal that bets in favor of “all the regions of Côte d'Ivoire to join ORU Fogar” and to create “the maximum synergies between the two organizations”. President Rachid el Abdi expressed his satisfaction with the manifesto and affirmed: “All these lines of work are part of the will to turn the regions of Côte d'Ivoire into leaders and referents of regionalism in Sub-Saharan Africa”.

With this in mind, the presidents Aka Oauelé and El Abdi held a meeting with representatives of all the Ivorian regions. ORU Fogar's Secretary General, Carles Llorens, also held meetings with the regions of Bélier, Sud Comoé, San Pédro and Grands Ponts to assess the evolution of different cooperation projects.

Here the “Call of Abidjan"