Ministerial Retreat On African Union Agenda 2063

2 to 5 October 2023. Ministerial Retreat On African Union Agenda 2063

• Concept Note
• Agenda - English

The African Union Executive Council is convening a retreat to discuss the second decade of Agenda 2063. As Africa positions herself for the next decade, a clear direction and guidelines on devising best ways and means for accelerating the implementation of Agenda 2063 and the domestication of the Second Ten Year Implementation Plan (STYIP) is needed.

Notable progress was registered in some areas like improved road networks, electrification, access to ICT, gender equity and women representation in policy and decision making processes, and the establishment of the AfCFTA to facilitate intra-Africa trade. On the other hand, the continent is yet to make significant progress on specific development parameters such as poverty reduction, addressing inequality, hunger, and job creation among others. T

The retreat of the Executive Council aimed to achieve:

• Engage and seek strategic guidance from the Executive Council’s on the outcomes of the Special Project on Agenda 2063.
• Political guidance and commitment on categorization of the Flagship projects and resource mobilization:
• Seek political commitment to jointly implement and report on the African Union Agenda 2063 and United Nations Agenda 2030.

Panel Discussion 1 Reflections on the Second Ten Year Implementation Plan (STYIP) 

The evaluation of the FTYIP provided valuable lessons critical to the design of the STYIP. The participatory process that guided the formulation of the FTYIP was a critical ingredient for its relevance and ownership by most of AU Member States hence this continued effort to maintain member state participation to give strategic direction for STYIP.

Panel Discussion 2: Financing of Agenda 2063 and its Flagship Projects 

The FTYIP was not costed, and this posed a challenge in assessing the magnitude of the resource gap. The challenge notwithstanding, an analysis of the Union’s budget(2014 - 2021) revealed glaring inadequacies of financial resources for realizing the expected results of the FTYIP. A huge bulk (76%) of the Union’s budget over several years was allocated to Peace and Security Operations, focusing on Aspiration 4 and thereby leaving the remaining six aspirations 5 with only 24% to share. As an example, Member States contribution to Agenda 2063 budget is 16% and 3.7 % for the financial years 2023 and 2024 respectively.

Panel Discussion 3: Leveraging implementation arrangements of National Development Plans in the implementation of Agenda 2063 

Second Ten Year Implementation Plan: Domestication, Ownership, Popularization and Communication AU continental-level institutions supported domestication processes in 82% of AU Member States. This comprised of structured awareness raising sessions largely at national level and drawing participation of mainly senior government officials. There was no evidence of systematic efforts to deepen domestication to non-state actors let alone to subnational and community levels. Furthermore, there was a dearth of technical guidance in mainstreaming the continental development agenda into national and sub- national planning and budgeting processes.

Panel Discussion 4: Agenda 2063 Flagship Projects 

Notable progress was registered in the implementation of some projects, such as the AfCFTA, and SAATM (a Single African Air-Transport Market) . These projects have greater impact on integration are interconnected and re-enforce each other and therefore their implementation should be prioritized concurrently. Limited progress was registered on some flagships such as financial institutions, Annual Africa Economic Platform. Most of these projects are critical in creating an enabling environment for other aspects of this Africa that we want, their failure to start, low progress in the FTYIP means the STYIP is starting with a deficit.

1. Category 1: Short-term, High priority projects (STHPP) 
2. Establishment of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) ▪ Silencing the Guns Project ▪ The Grand Inga Dam Project ▪ Establishment of the African Financial Institutions ▪ The African Passport and Free Movement of People 
3. Category 2: Medium-Term priority projects (MTPP) 
4. ▪ Integrated High-Speed Train Network: ▪ Africa Outer Space Program. ▪ Establishment of a Single African Air-Transport Market (SAATM): ▪ Great Museum of Africa (GMA). ▪ Establishment of an Annual African Economic Forum 
5. Category 3 - Low & long-term priority projects (LLPP): ▪ An African Virtual and E-University ▪ The Pan-African e-Network ▪ Cyber Security ▪ Encyclopedia Africana ▪ Formulation of an African Commodities Strategy

Panel Discussion 5: Coordination, alignment and Capacity Building at all levels.

The findings show that overall, oversight and coordination of Agenda 2063 at country level was very weak, especially when compared with efforts in other frameworks such as SDGs. The institutions responsible for facilitating oversight and championing coordination of Africa’s development agenda at national level placed more weight on national and global development agendas than to the continental agenda.