While the integration of NEPAD into the structures and processes of the African Union was the main theme of 2009 and continues to take up a lot of planning and coordination time, the Secretariat has continued to offer intellectual leadership and technical and policy support in the priority programme areas for which it was set up. There were significant milestones in the areas of agriculture and food security, good governance, capacity development, gender, infrastructure development, education and health, science and technology, trade and markets access; environment and climate change , which NEPAD was at the centre of.