The ACP Group

The African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) is an organisation created by the Georgetown Agreement in 1975. It is composed of 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific states, with all of them, save Cuba, signatories to the Cotonou Agreement, also known as the "ACP-EC Partnership Agreement" which binds them to the European Union. There are 48 countries from Sub-Saharan Africa, 16 from the Caribbean and 15 from the Pacific.

Objectives

The ACP Group´s main objectives are :

• sustainable development of its Member-States and their gradual integration into the global economy, which entails making poverty reduction a matter of priority and establishing a new, fairer, and more equitable world order ;

• coordination of the activities of the ACP Group in the framework of the implementation of ACP-EC Partnership Agreements;

• consolidation of unity and solidarity among ACP States, as well as understanding among their peoples ;

• establishment and consolidation of peace and stability in a free and democratic society.

Read more about the history of the ACP Group

List of ACP Countries

Angola - Antigua and Barbuda - Belize - Cape Verde - Comoros - Bahamas - Barbados - Benin - Botswana - Burkina Faso - Burundi - Cameroon - Central African Republic - Chad - Congo (Brazzaville) - Congo (Kinshasa) - Cook Islands - Cte d'Ivoire - Cuba - Djibouti - Dominica - Dominican Republic - Eritrea - Ethiopia - Fiji - Gabon - Gambia - Ghana - Grenada - Republic of Guinea - Guinea-Bissau - Equatorial Guinea - Guyana - Haiti - Jamaica - Kenya - Kiribati - Lesotho - Liberia - Madagascar - Malawi - Mali - Marshall Islands - Mauritania - Mauritius - Micronesia - Mozambique - Namibia - Nauru - Niger - Nigeria - Niue - Palau - Papua New Guinea - Rwanda - St. Kitts and Nevis - St. Lucia - St. Vincent and the Grenadines - Solomon Islands - Samoa - Sao Tome and Principe - Senegal - Seychelles - Sierra Leone - Somalia - South Africa - Sudan - Suriname - Swaziland - Tanzania - Timor Leste - Togo - Tonga - Trinidad and Tobago - Tuvalu - Uganda - Vanuatu - Zambia - Zimbabwe

The ACP Secretariat

Headquarters Agreement

The Secretariat is responsible for the administrative management of the ACP Group. It assists the Group's decision-making and advisory organs in carrying out their work.

The ACP Secretariat's headquarters is located in Brussels (Belgium). It is headed by an Executive Secretary-General who is responsible for implementing the Group's international policy, as well as directing and coordinating its cooperation policy. The Secretariat, under the direction of the ACP Group's policy-making organs (Summit of ACP Heads of State and Government, Council of Ministers, Committee of Ambassadors), is responsible for:

• carrying out the tasks assigned it by the Summit of ACP Heads of State and Government, Council of Ministers, Committee of Ambassadors and the ACP Parliamentary Assembly;

• contributing to the implementation of the decisions of these organs;

• monitoring the implementation of the ACP-EU Partnership Agreement;

• assisting the ACP organs and joint institutions created in the framework of the ACP-EU Partnership Agreements.

• acting on proposals from the Committee of Ambassadors, the Council of Ministers determines the structure of the ACP Secretariat and lays down its Staff Regulations.

The Secretary-General is responsible for recruiting staff for the ACP Secretariat, an exercise which is based solely on the competence of the candidates. Nevertheless, the Secretary-General ensures, as much as possible, that a balance is maintained among the different ACP regions, as reflected in the recruitment statistics.

The Council of Ministers determines the ACP Secretariat's financial regulations and approves its budget. Each ACP State contributes to financing the budget in conformity with the provisions laid down by the Council of Ministers.

THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

Roles and Duties :

The Council of Ministers appoints the Secretary-General as the principal authority at the ACP Secretariat, on the basis of merit, competence and integrity. He is appointed for a five-year term and is the Secretariat's designated representative.

The Secretary-General is responsible for: 

• ensuring the quality of the technical and administrative support and services provided by the Secretariat to the members and organs of the ACP Group ;

• managing staff, projects and programmes ;

• implementing the Group's international policy, as well as directing and coordinating its cooperation policy.

DECISIONS AND RESOLUTIONS

• DECISIONS AND RESOLUTIONS  OF THE 71^st SESSION OF THE ACP COUNCIL OF MINISTERS HELD  FROM 20 TO 21 JUNE 2000 IN COTONOU, BENIN