The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has received a $57 million budget approval from the UN General Assembly to facelift its permanent headquarters in a bid to modernise the historical building and revamp its heritage.
The Africa Hall building, situated in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, was constructed in 1961 by then Emperor Haile Selassie, and is mostly popular for being the founding venue for the Organization for African Unity (OAU), African Union’s predecessor, in 1963.
It was donated by Emperor Selassie “to mark the role of emerging African countries in the UN and to be the first building in the continent for international conferences or high level meetings,” said ECA’s Civil Engineer Getachew Kassa.
