Addis Ababa, 31 January 2009 - The United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping operations Alain Le Roy, along with the AU-UN Joint Special Representative Rodolphe Adada, paid a visit to the Joint Support Coordination Mechanism (JSCM) office in Addis Ababa to acquaint himself with its operational experience since it was established in November 2008.

Underlining the importance that the United Nations attached to a close relationship with the African Union (AU) he disclosed that the United Nations was determined to strengthen AU capacities to mount peace keeping operations across Africa successfully at a time when the world body was in the process of innovating new responses to different challenges.

The JSCM was an important tool in the UN-Au partnership for effective communication, coordination and information-sharing, he said, in a meeting with staff who took the opportunity to express their views on the significance of the new office.

The JSCM was conceived at the first ever working level meeting on the conceptualization of UNAMID in Addis Ababa on 23 January 2007. Subsequently the Joint Report of the United Nations Secretary-General and the Chairperson of the African Union Commission of June 2007 spelt out that the JSCM would be established in Addis Ababa with a dedicated staff capacity to facilitate empowered liaison between the Department of Peace keeping Operations of the United Nations and the Department of Peace and Security of the AU Commission on matters related to deployment operations of UNAMID.