Brussels, 02/12/2014 (Agence Europe) - Three candidates are in the running for the post of secretary general of the ACP (Africa, Caribbean, Pacific) Group - who will take over the reins from Alhaji Muhammad Mumuni in March 2015 (see EUROPE 11105). The ACP Group brings together 79 states from Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific.
The Caribbean region, which will fill the post due to the principle of rotation between the six regions of the group (West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, Southern Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific), has designated the three candidates. These are Patricia R. Francis (Jamaica), chair of Jamaica's committee for transforming and modernising the public sector; Hamid A. Ghany (Trinidad and Tobago), lecturer in public administration and head of the non-profit making organisation Principles of Fairness; and Patrick I. Gomes (Guyana), Guyana's ambassador to the EU and Belgium, and his country's representative to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
The new secretary general will be formally appointed at the 100th session of the ACP Council of Ministers, which will take place in Brussels on 9-12 December. The five year mandate of the secretary general will come to an end in March 2020, when the Cotonou Agreement expires. (AN)