Assembly/AU/Dec.563(XXIV) Page 2 8. NOTING the Decision Assembly/AU/2(XXIII) which re-affirmed support for the Abuja Declaration on Agribusiness and Agro-Industries in Africa, ALSO WELCOMES the Women in Agribusiness Platform convened by the NPCA in Durban, South Africa in October 2014 and URGES the NPCA to support the continued sharing of experiences and the capacity building efforts amongst African women agricultural entrepreneurs. 9. In implementing the Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa (STISA): 2014-2024, COMMENDS the programmatic efforts of the NPCA to increase technical support for health research as means of addressing the continent’s health challenges and help in translating the political commitments made by African Leaders into transformative approaches for effective healthcare delivery. 10. ACCORDINGLY REQUESTS the NPCA in partnership with the African Academy of Sciences to establish and operationalize the Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA) as a platform to stimulate breakthrough innovations in health to improve the livelihoods of marginalized and stigmatized communities. CALLS UPON Member States, regional and global partners as well as private foundations to support the Alliance in order to strengthen health research and innovation in Africa. 11. NOTES the contributions of the NPCA to combating the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in collaboration with the AUC and DIRECTS the NPCA to support the acceleration of the evaluation of promising treatment options and vaccine candidates against EVD based on the African Medicines Regulatory Harmonization (AMRH) Initiative as a platform for establishing Regional Expert Working Groups on Clinical Trials using Ebola vaccines and other therapies as pathfinder for scaling up regulatory oversight capacity to cover the current and future public health threats. 12. COMMENDS the efforts of the RECs, NPCA and AUC in partnership with UNDP, UNECA and ACBF under the AU Multi-agency Capacity Development Programme for RECs (M-CDP) to advance coherence and coordination in enhancing results-oriented capacities of RECs towards accelerating regional integration in Africa. 13. WELCOMES AND ENDORSES the AU RECs Capacity Development Implementation Plan: 2015-2025 based on the NEPAD Capacity Development Strategic Framework (CDSF) resulting from the scoping and capacity needs assessment exercise in the eight (8) AU RECs. REAFFIRMS the important alignment of the Implementation Plan with the RECs Medium Term Strategic Plans, Agenda 2063 and the Common African Position on the Post-2015 Development Agenda. MANDATES the NPCA, AUC and the RECs in conjunction with the UNDP, UNECA, ACBF and potential M-CDP partners to roll-out the Implementation Plan to realize the institutional effectiveness of RECs and the prompt coherent delivery of regional programmes and projects.