Toward Agenda 2063: what progress has been made?

What are the key policy and development decisions that could bring the continent in line with the AU's Agenda 2063, and closer to the Africa we want?

Pretoria, South Africa – The African Union’s Agenda 2063 lies at the heart of the vision for a future integrated Africa that is prosperous and at peace with itself. Earlier this week, at a seminar themed Toward Agenda 2063 – the Africa we want, participants were updated on progress made following the recent African Union (AU) summit in Addis Ababa.

Since the launch of Agenda 2063 significant progress has been made, and the AU summit adopted a framework document and a summarised ‘popular version’. Leaders also requested the AU Commission to finalise the first 10-year plan to be adopted at the June 2015 summit in Johannesburg after additional consultations with experts.

Other important developments is a decision to restructure the Commission to accommodate Agenda 2063 and integrate the Blue Economy within the Agenda 2063 Framework, along with a decision to host a preparatory retreat of the Executive Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs.

The seminar was co-hosted by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), which informs long-term policymaking through its African Futures work. The other hosts were the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) Planning and Coordination Agency, which serves as the AU’s development agency and implementing arm of Agenda 2063, and the Japan International Development Agency (JICA). In 2013, the government of Japan announced approximately US$32 billion in aid to Africa in five years from then, with an emphasis on infrastructure and human resource development based on African ownership and international partnership.

Various scenarios for Africa’s future were presented at the seminar. Issues discussed included Japan’s experience in the 1950s in formulating an ambitious national development plan for doubling national income, as well as the importance of a bottom-up approach through multi-stakeholder consultations with African people.

The results of the seminar will feed into the Tokyo International Conference for African Development (TICAD). The next TICAD summit, in 2016, is the first to be held in Africa and will be co-organised with the AU Commission, the World Bank and the United Nations.

The presentations from the event are available on the websites of the ISS (www.issafrica.org/events/toward-agenda-2063-the-africa-we-want), JICA (www.jica.go.jp/english/) and NEPAD (www.nepad.org).

For additional details, contact:

  • Abiola Ajayi, Officer in Charge of Communications, NEPAD Agency, [email protected], +27 76 746 1272
  • Kei Yoshizawa, Advisor to the Director General, Africa Department, JICA +81 3 5226 8257
  • Jakkie Cilliers, Executive Director, ISS, [email protected], +27 83 644 6883
Development partners
The ISS is grateful for support from the following members of the ISS Partnership Forum: the Hanns Seidel Foundation and the governments of Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the USA.
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