Delegates reconvened on Saturday, October 22 2011, for the Expert Segment of the Africa Regional Preparatory meeting for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, being held in conjunction with the Seventh Session of the Committee on Food Security and Sustainable Development (CFSSD-7).

In the morning, delegates met to continue deliberations among the sub-regional groups on the draft Africa Consensus Statement to Rio+20 as well as hear presentations on the means of implementation for sustainable development commitments made since the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Rio Earth Summit. During the discussion, delegates noted: increased commitments for promoting the strategic role of science and technology; progress on the reduction of trade tariffs; joint infrastructure projects; various cooperation agreements and fora; and capacity development initiatives. Delegates also noted obstacles to implementing sustainable development commitments such as differing capabilities between countries and access to funding mechanisms.

In the afternoon, delegates convened to discuss the draft Africa Consensus Statement to Rio+20.  A number of countries called for the resumption of the open-ended drafting group to continue discussions in parallel to the plenary debate. The Secretariat said that the open-ended drafting group can continue its work until the end of the meeting on Tuesday, 25 October 2011. The Expert Segment will reconvene on Sunday, 23 October 2011, to adopt the report of the meeting, while negotiations on the draft statement continue.